I can't see sprites in Hammer

Empyre

L6: Sharp Member
Feb 8, 2011
309
187
In Hammer, I try to browse sprites to select a sprite for the env_sprite entity, but none appear in the resulting dialog box. How can I see what sprites are available so I can choose one? I remember a sprite viewer tool for HL1. Could that one work for HL2 engine sprites?

I searched the forums before I posted, but couldn't find the answer. I'm surprised nobody asked this before. Maybe the answer is too obvious.
 
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grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
aa
Mar 4, 2008
5,441
3,814
I read this as "i can't see spirits in Hammer". Was gonna say, Hammer isn't usually haunted :p

Sprites got black listed from the texture browser among other less useful textures a couple months back.

There is a way to reverse this by editing otu a couple lines from a config/text file (that blacklist them), though i can't remember which one exactly, i'm sure someone else will say, but just letting you know there is a way to fix this so you don't stress in the mean time.
 

Empyre

L6: Sharp Member
Feb 8, 2011
309
187
Well, I wouldn't want sprites appearing when I'm looking for textures, but when I'm looking for sprites, they should be there. Is this another problem like the textures for models being mixed in with textures for world geometry?
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
aa
Mar 4, 2008
5,441
3,814
Basically when those model textures got black listed in the texture browser they black listed a whole bunch of other textures as well. They probably thought they were being clever by black listing a bunch of stuff that wasn't complained/mentioned in the level design community because it was rarely used and ended up being a nuisance instead.

Pretty much the only way to find good sprites is to grab them from existing valve maps by either the decompiled vmf's or available SDK vmf releases. Other than editing your Hammer config, of course.

Perhaps it's actually the FGD i'm thinking of and not some config file...
 

KingOfSandvich

L1: Registered
Jan 18, 2011
26
12
It's TF2's .fgd file that excludes them. Simply modifying it won't work, since it's overwritten every time you open the Source SDK. What I did was to copy/paste the .fgd, change the copy (the exclusion is one of the first few lines, so just comment out/delete it), and change the TF2 configuration to use the copy of the .fgd file.