While Hammer is broken, DO NOT use the SFM Hammer

tyler

tyler

aa
Sep 11, 2013
5,102
4,621
UPDATE: Hammer now (currently, as of this edit) works perfectly fine. However, this thread will remain as a reminder.

Just a public service announcement--you may be tempted to use the Hammer bundled with Source Filmmaker to work on your TF2 maps, but DO NOT DO IT BECAUSE IT WILL RUIN EVERYTHING

  • The VMF format that SFM uses is different from the basic SDK Hammer's.
    So when old Hammer starts working again and you decide to go back to old Hammer, opening your file will just make everything crash. And you will need to go back to old Hammer, because...

  • The BSP version that SFM compiles is too high for TF2 to read.
    It compiles BSP version 21, and TF2 currently doesn't read higher than version 20, making your map totally unplayable and unusable for anything but, well, SFM. Now, you could just use VBCT to compile, but...

  • You'd have to copy all the custom content you're using or change the game directory set up
    Which is doable, but a chore. But when you finally have everything in place, and are willing to do all the workarounds, you'll begin to notice that...

  • While it has cool new features (multiple cordons! multiblend!) it also breaks some old ones, like most of what handles displacements
    Last I checked sewing and blending alpha on displacements is totally broken. Likewise, when I have used SFM's Hammer, it has felt somehow less stable.
So basically... the SFM Hammer makes your map and files unusable. It's like a poison. So beautiful, so deadly. Don't use it.

You're welcome!
 
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Ravidge

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
Don't do it!
 
U

Untouch

L4: Comfortable Member
Jan 25, 2010
187
48
Yeah, changing the map version doesn't do anything.
Would there be a way to revert it back to 2007's format?

If not I can still fix my map, it'd just be easier.
 
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X

xzzy

aa
Jan 30, 2010
815
531
I did some limited testing when SFM came out, brush work is okay. If you do nothing but brushes in SFM Hammer and load the vmf into TF2 Hammer, it'll be fine.

It's entities that break it, and I never put effort into figuring out which ones were doing it. The only entities I did test were lights, which imported fine. func_detail worked okay too if I remember right.. I made a post about it somewhere but I'm not sure where it ended up.
 
U

Untouch

L4: Comfortable Member
Jan 25, 2010
187
48
Odd because the entities are in the same format.
It's brush based entities, even point entities are fine.

It appears to jumble up the positioning of the keyvalues, I don't know why that would crash it, but that seems to be it.
 
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Youhadabadday

Youhadabadday

aa
Aug 14, 2018
13
0
Oops. If I knew this thread existed I wouldn't have attempted an SFM map. Now my 3D viewport only displays the missing texture image. How do I fix this?
 
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