Custom Textures

Jun 19, 2009
812
814
Hello all,

I'm new to custom textures, and I wanted to make a custom textured map. Now I need help with a few things, but here are the things I know.

I know how to use VTFedit. I know that you need a Vtf and a vmt for custom textures.

The parts that I don't know. Once I have the vtf made, where does this go? How do I make a correct vmt file? How do I make the purple checkerboard go away? Finally, how do I use pakrat?

Thanks,
Frogger

P.S. I know this is a lot to ask, but I really need help. So Thanks in advance.
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
1,590
410
Once you have a VMT+VTF made, put it somewhere like "materials/YourMapName/custombrick.vtf/vmt". Then you use an app like "pakrat" or "bspzip" that will embed the file data into your .bsp. In a loose sense, the .bsp is acting like a type of .zip or .rar archive which can contain a folders of stuff, so you're not just putting "c:\stuff\x.vtf "into the bsp, but you're putting it in a place in the .bsp, like ending up inside as "materials/foo/x.vtf"

My advice is to experiment with bspzip instead. While it is a command-line tool (and has no fancy GUI) it (A) comes with the source SDK and (B) it's a lot simpler in terms of what it does: On the simplest level, you run the command once telling it what .bsp and other file to combine, and where to put the combined .bsp. Repeat as necessary.

Then go over to pakrat once you need auto-scanning and stuff like that.

The purple checkerboard is a sign that a texture is missing. If it's a shiny checkerboard, that means your envmaps are missing, which are a bunch of tiny sides-of-a-cube snapshots that are used as a way to do quick-and-dirty reflections. To fix those, use "buildcubemaps" in console, which will generate the required images and auto-magically overwrite your .bsp with one that contains those new images. (There are some other details like turning off shininess during the buildcubemaps process.)
 
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Jun 19, 2009
812
814
Wow, Thanks.

I got a lot of my custom textures to work. Now I pose another question. How do I make a texture that is "reflectable"? (ie, such as the checker floor or glass?) Is this just a photoshop trick? Or does it have to do with the vmt file?

Thanks again,
Frogger

P.S. I might have another question in a bit... But Thanks for the first post, it was 100% helpful.
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
1,590
410
For reflective textures, the key words you want are "envmap" and "specular". (Most everything seems to be a "materials trick" rather than a "photoshop trick".)

You can use $envmap in your VMT to make your material evenly reflective across the entire texture. There are additional options that are very interesting too. For example, $envmapmask allows you to have only parts of your texture be shiny. For example, you might have a shiny metal texture with patches of rust, and the rust shouldn't reflect while everything else should, etc.
 
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