[TUTORIAL] Menu Photos

AWESOME-O

L10: Glamorous Member
Mar 20, 2008
779
132
Good tutorial but its pretty long winded. Photoshop can make VTF's with a simple plug in so there is no need for a 3rd party application. Also all the folder swapping is unnecessary. It makes it appear more complex than it really is.

photoshop is a 3rd party application also.... :\
And not everyone gots photoshop
 
Aug 19, 2008
1,011
1,158
ARGHS; GETTING CRAZY (ONCE AGAIN)

tried to update my menu_photos for pl_cashworks to pack them into the bsp

i´m working with ps cs3 and the vtf plugin, and somehow i dont get it right, cant see the menushots neither ingame, nor in the tex-browser

the vmt is ok...

can someone plz tell me which exact options i have to chose in the photoshop´s vmf-save window?
 

l3eeron

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Jan 4, 2008
593
88
thank you... used it
 

GrimGriz

L10: Glamorous Member
Jan 2, 2009
774
133
These appear fine when I 'create server' locally, but when I upload to an actual server I have a problem. I reopen the .bsp with pakrat and there they are...and I even uploaded them to the servers vgui/maps directory as well...no dice. Anyone have any ideas?
 

Mokagogo

L1: Registered
Jun 21, 2009
32
1
I measured the on-screen space that my framed images take in Photoshop, and compared it to in-game, and in-game the images are being stretched by about 0.75cm. It happens to all images -- including valve's own framed map images -- and there doesn't seem to be a good solution to this. The result is that my images look lower-quality and rather grainy. I tried the various mipmap/no mipmap etc settings, but you'll note, if you open Valve's own VTF files for objectives-page images in VTFEdit, that they actually include mipmaps; so this doesn't seem to be a genuine factor.

I also tried making a 1024px image, in the hope that downsizing from that would look better. However, because the new size isn't exactly half the size of 1024 (since 512 had to size up, remember) it isn't any cleaner either; presumably the game is taking the 1024px image and scaling it down using the 512px mipmap as a rough sampling base. It doesn't look great either.

I also tried ensuring that the frames+images took up the entire height of the 512px image. I thought that maybe the game was taking the non-transparent part of the image and scaling it up to 512px high. But doing that made no difference -- the image still was scaled up somewhat, reducing the quality.

It's possible, of course, that I was on the right track and it was the _width_ of the frames that needed to be increased slightly. I don't know -- haven't tried that.

Also, it's worth noting that in Valve's images, the frames are halfway along the image, not on the very left-hand-side. Putting them halfway in makes the screen look better and gives the objectives text more room to breathe.

If anyone has further info on this, suggestions, or comments, please write here.
 

Mokagogo

L1: Registered
Jun 21, 2009
32
1
I tried my normal res, 1024x768, and then up to 1280x1024, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

In case anyone's interested, I measured it and it looks like a 512px image becomes roughly 584px tall when scaled for that page.
 

clanabout

L1: Registered
Apr 28, 2009
3
0
Download links doesnt work. Can anyone upload again ?

Download Menu Photo's Tutorial
Download Menu Photo's Template PSD's
 

l3eeron

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Jan 4, 2008
593
88
I have the .psd templates at home... will upload when I get off of work.
 

Haggis

L2: Junior Member
Jan 19, 2009
86
1
Cut and past your "menu_photos_mapname.vtf" and "menu_photos_mapname.vmt" in following directory:
C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\<player_name>\team fortress 2\tf\materials\vgui\maps

How do you do this as there is no \tf\materials\vgui\maps it is one of the cached folders,do i just make up these folders.

Its ok i have done it.
 
Last edited:

MrDonde

L1: Registered
May 20, 2010
22
0
"Copy and paste your "menu_photos_mapname.tga" in following directory:
C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\<player_name>\team fortress 2\tf\materialsrc"

I look in my steam folder and what I have is:

C:\Steam\steamapps\username\team fortress 2\tf\materials

Where should I put the file if I don't have a "materialsrc" folder?

Second issue, when I went to edit the target of the vtex.exe shortcut I wasn't sure what was ment by:

"Add the following 2 parameters behind the Target:"

Where is behind the target?
 

megawac

L4: Comfortable Member
Oct 2, 2009
180
29
Make the materialsrc folder in your team fortress 2/tf folder. Place all tga files you want to convert in it.

The target is refering to the propeties of the shortcut.

Example:
directory.JPG


Dont have sdk on this computer so just showing dropbox with the proper directory to vtex.
 

MrDonde

L1: Registered
May 20, 2010
22
0
Awesome sauce, thanks megawac!

I will give it a try on my lunch break.
 

[O]

L3: Member
Mar 21, 2009
121
27
I've tried it over and over.

The vmt works fine but i think im having problems with the vtf because i keep getting a checkered pink texture where the photos should be,

I have no problem converting the targa to vtf with the vtex.exe so i think im not editing the alpha correctly.

I've used 2fort psd template and placed my screenshots in a layer below the frames but above the black background.

I go to "channels" and have no idea how to:
* edit the Alpha channel to make it hide the black background and show the pictures only

I tried deleting the black area didnt work. Turning off certain layer or channels before saving as targa also didnt work.

would appreciate any help on this.