Textures

[Sudano]

I am trying to make custom textures for HL2. I see they have to be powers of two. How do I re size them correctly with photoshop? PS is unfamiliar to me since I am new to it. I see how to change the size of the image, but can't figure out how to make them 1024x1024. or 2048x2048. If I type that in one box it automatically changes the other. So how do I do this?

Also, I want to keep the quality of the picture with the re size. Is this possible?

EDIT: I finally got the texture just to be seen in Hammer, but it's pink and black squares. I got the path right, now I must have done something wrong with the image. Anyone good at this here?

 

[Shinobi]

uncheck "constrain proportions" if you want to only change one dimension of the image

as for the materials, did you set up the vmt correctly? it sounds like you have a bad path pointing to the vtf.

 

[Sudano]

I'm pretty sure it is set up correct. I copied the path right from windows explorer and just added the name at the end of the texture. Same exact name that is too. I have three images so far and I figured out the right folder so I can see them all in Hammer, but only pink and black. Anything else? I used the plug-in for photoshop so save a file as .vtf. I have that and the .vmf all in the same folder with the same exact names, but I cannot see the texture in Hammer as I said. hmm..

 

[tschumann]

I thought you only needed to put in the realtive path e.g. materials\... not C:\Program Files\Steam\...

 

[Sudano]

So leave out the c\ programs bla bla stuff? Only start from materials?

What folder does the "Materials" and "matericalscr" go in?

HL2dm? or the source_content hl2dm? or somewhere else? I'm trying it in different locations now, I just got the textures from black and pink to become all grey. That's a start I guess, but what's the reason for this now? Did I leave something unchecked, or didn't check something in when I made the texture in vtfedit?

Now I can't see the images in Hammer so I am going to put them back. I guess I put them in the wrong folder now. Still very confused though. I'm trying..

 

[tschumann]

I just checked and it looks like the material path should not have materials in it, but the folder in materials e.g. for materials\console\mainmenu1.vtf the .vmt would say "$basetexture" "console/mainmenu1"
And if you're mapping for Half-Life 2 Deathmatch you should put your materials in steamapps\<user>\half-life 2 deathmatch\hl2mp\materials\

 

[Sudano]

Tschumann, Would you mind sending me a sample vtf. and vmf. just so I can check I'm doing this all right? I just changed the script to say materials\ "xxx\xxx.vtf. " In Hammer it's still pink and black. They are in the right folder too. What the hell?

If you don't feel like sending files screen shots would be very nice if you wouldn't mind.

This is the vmf. for one of my textures.

"LightmappedGeneric"
{
"$basetexture" "MyTextures\Marble512x512.vtf"
"$surfaceprop" "Tile"
"%keywords" "marble"
"$translucent" 1
}


Does the vmf. belong in the same folder as the vtf.?

I have the vtf. and vmf. in "Half-Life 2 Deathmatch\hl2mp\materials\mytextures"

 

[tschumann]

I think you're meant to omit the .vtf extension, so it should be:
"$basetexture" "MyTextures\Marble512x512"
And I'm not sure, but it looks like the .vmt is meant to be in the same folder as the .vtf (it's probably easier to do it that way anyway).

 

[Sudano]

Oh, so get rid of the .vtf at the end of the path in the vmt. script? Let me try that.

 

[Sudano]

It worked! The only problem was that I had the .vtf at the end of the path in the .vmf!

Thank you so much man, I really appreciate the help.