For every texture you need a vtf (the texture bit) and the vmt (the textfile that tells the game everything it needs to know about the material)
Once you've made the vmt with the photoshop plugin or vtfedit and put it in the materials folder open up notepat/wordpad/texteditor of your choice and write this -
Code:
"LightmappedGeneric"
{
"$basetexture" custom\<filename of vtf (without .vtf at the end)>
"$surfaceprop" gravel
}
The lightmapped generic bit tells the engine how to render lighting on the texture, for almost anything that isnt a prop you want this. The $basetexture line tells the game(and hammer) where the vtf is located relative to the materials folder, I put my files in map named folders so mine would look like this - "$basetexture pl_hoodoo\patch_001"
The $surfaceprop line tells the game what type of decal, sound and effect it should use when you shoot it. you can use others like 'metal', 'dirt', 'wood' or 'glass' depending on what your texture actually is.
once you've got that in the text editor use 'save as' and then save it as a .vmt rather than .txt
If you've done everything right the texture should now appear in hammer.
Some optional lines you could add:
Code:
"$decal" 1
"$decalscale" .25
"$translucent" 1
(after $basetexture and before the } ) These will make transparency work with your texture so you can make posters and other overlays
This is a good one for searching, if you choose not to put this in you will have to remove the keyword from the bottom of the hammer textuer browser before you will see your texture.