custom textures in HL2DM

[WAR_Nuker]

ok so i searched the forums and found a bunch of tuts on how to use custom textures in CSS, but didnt find any thats shows you how to do it for HL2DM. Can anyone link me to a tut or a thread where this question was answered....or just plain old show me how to do it?

 

[GonzoBabbleshit]

it's the same method. the vtf's and vmt's need to be in the materials folder in the hl2dm folder instead

 

[WAR_Nuker]

it says one of the folders is cstrike_sample_content....that folder doesnt even exist on my comp....do i just make a hl2mp_sample_content folder and just continue with the corresponding instructions? Btw the tutorial i am using is @ http://www.gamedesign.net/node/780 . I think that tutorial is messed up....or maybe im just messed up.

 

[Raeven0]

I don't have any idea WHY all these tutorial writers insist on using the ridiculously superfluous sample_content folders. Just make a new materialsrc folder in the root mod directory and use that, for crying out loud!

 

[WAR_Nuker]

Testify!

 

[Phisionary]

that's a crappy tutorial. it confused me.

 

[WAR_Nuker]

ok so despite the tutorial it still wont work. heres what i did. i made a materialsrc folder in steam\steamapps\XXXX\sourcesdk\. then in that folder i created a folder called concrete. I saved my concrete007.tga file in there. i got the texture from the photorealistic texture pack that was posted. i used photoshop 7 to open the texture and save it to that folder. i copied the concrete folder containing my texture and pasted it in sourcesdk\materials. Note that i had to create that materials folder because there was no such folder there already. next, i dragged my concrete007.tga over the vtex.exe program, a little black dialog box came up and i pressed the space bar after the empty .txt file was created. then i put a new text document in sourcesdk\materials\concrete and named it concrete007.vmt. i opened the newly created file and pasted in:

"LightmappedGeneric"
{
"$basetexture" "concrete\concrete007"
}

saved the file. next, i copied my sourcesdk\materials\concrete folder and pasted it in half-life 2 deathmatch\hl2mp\materials. note that this folder WAS there when i got there, and that there were a few other folders contained in it. Yeah. This is what I did. It didnt work. Why?

 

[Raeven0]

No, no, no, materials go in the mod's materials folder (in a subdirectory thereof), not the sourcesdk's.

 

[WAR_Nuker]

hmmm....you guys sure its the sourcesdk folder and not the sourcesdk_content folder?

edit: wait whoa whoa whoa are you sayin that i dont fool around with the sourcesdk folder whatsoever? cause thats what the tut claims i should do. well....ill try it both ways.

 

[Raeven0]

Tutorial's wrong. Source images go in the mod's materialsrc, finished images go in a subdirectory of the mod's materials.

 

[WAR_Nuker]

this is really pissing me off....it still will not work....though i will say that now i am getting a .vmf file this time around. is there a tutorial around that....perhaps....isnt wrong?

 

[Raeven0]

You're also supposed to use a forward slash /, not a backslash \.

 

[WAR_Nuker]

.....lol

 

[WAR_Nuker]

still nothin....im going to bed

 

[Flippage]

Raeven0 - perhaps you could write a REALLY snazzy tutorial for us n00bs, cause I just can't manage to get it working either. And you're super smart :thumbs:

I just couldnt follow that other crappy tutorial either. 1 really g00d one would be, well... good.

 

[GonzoBabbleshit]

the vtf's and vmt's need to go in '...Steam\SteamApps\<username>\half-life 2 deathmatch\hl2mp\materials'

 

[Raeven0]

the vtf's and vmt's need to go in '...Steam\SteamApps\<username>\half-life 2 deathmatch\hl2mp\materials'

And, furthermore, a subdirectory thereof. HL2 doesn't like pulling materials from the root materials directory.

There's already a VTEX GUI or two floating around, but my deploringly ancient MS-DOS prompt tutorial [editlife.net] is still available.

 

[WAR_Nuker]

OK. I think I figured out what the problem is. When i made the .vmt file...it stayed a .txt file. it was just named concrete007.vmt. the full name would be concrete007.vmt.txt . im very sure that is the problem...since all the other .vmt files ive come across in the steam folder did not look like that (and consequently, werent even .txt files). Now to figure out how to fix it....

 

[Phisionary]

In your Windows Explorer, go to: Tools > Folder Options. Select the View tab. Uncheck 'Hide extensions on known file types'

That might be the problem. This is WinXP btw, I've forgotten if it's any different under Win9x.

Also, some text editors automatically append '.txt' to a file, no matter what you manually enter the extension as. Sometimes this can be disabled...

 

[WAR_Nuker]

WOOT!!!! OMFG i did it....anywho....yes i was right about the .txt thing. before now, .vmt files didnt open with notepad on my comp. So heres what i did to fix it. I found 8 working .vmt files under half-life 2 deathmatch/hl2mp/materials/vgui/logos/ui . At this point, .vmt files didnt open with any program on my comp (you can tell by the icon). i right clicked one of the files, and selected open. it gave me a list of programs that i could use to open the .vmt file with. i chose notepad. After I did that, all .vmt files on my comp used notepad by default to open with. After that, I copied one of the 8 .vmt files that were there (doesnt matter which one) and pasted it to the materials folder (along with my .vtf file). I renamed it to conrete007, opened it, and put in the appropriate information. i copied both the .vmt and .vtf file and put it in a subdirectory in the materials folder. My subdirectory is called custom, but I guess you can call it whatever you wish. After that I opened hammer, clicked browse, and found my file! Thats all folks. However, I've one last question. My file shows up twice on my texture browser. One texture is located in the materials folder and the other is located in my subdirectory folder (i named mine custom). Now I suspect using one of those files will give me troubles while the other will not. Which one should I use?

Edit: I am using Windows XP Home Edition

 

[Ti133700N]

The one in the materials/custom/ folder