Blender Questions

Aug 23, 2008
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So I'm running up against some brush limits and I need to convert some skybox brushes into props. Fairly basic stuff, similar to the building models from well, basic rectangles with TF2 textures for the UV. I'm teaching myself blender, but I have very little interest in just scaling manually (given how much of a pain it is to get textured props into hammer), so I was trying to import some of the geometry/props I'm already using but google doesn't seem to have a quick answer sooo:

1) Is it possible to import brush geometry from hammer into blender? If so how? Propper appears to no longer work ( :( ) due to steampipe update.

2) Is it possible to import a prop from source to blender? I know this is possible (link) but the above method doesn't appear to work as I can't seem to get *account name* to return even after installing the older version of the SDK

3) Any other easy method for ensuring scale correctness between hammer and blender? Some setting, plugin, or other system for ensuring I don't end up with something huge or something that doesn't fit to the grid?

ETC THNAKZ U
 

Beetle

L9: Fashionable Member
Aug 17, 2008
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Hammer units and Blender units should be the same (and have been in my experience)
 

Fruity Snacks

Creator of blackholes & memes. Destroyer of forums
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Sep 5, 2010
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This is going to be mega-off-the wall...

Doesn't the CSGO editor have an import to blender or maya tool? If you're a student you might be able to get Maya for free (or if you still have a .edu address) and could move said brushes into the CSGO editor and push them to Maya. Just a suggestion that might be a work-around if nothing else works.

I haven't reinstalled these thing yet since my HDD wipe a month or 2 ago, so I can't confirm atm.
 
Aug 23, 2008
404
380
This is going to be mega-off-the wall...

Doesn't the CSGO editor have an import to blender or maya tool? If you're a student you might be able to get Maya for free (or if you still have a .edu address) and could move said brushes into the CSGO editor and push them to Maya. Just a suggestion that might be a work-around if nothing else works.

I haven't reinstalled these thing yet since my HDD wipe a month or 2 ago, so I can't confirm atm.

This sounds like a reasonable way to go about it, but I'd need some more specifics. I have the CS:GO sdk installed, but I couldn't find the method for getting brushes into blender/maya.
 

fubarFX

The "raw" in "nodraw"
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Jun 1, 2009
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1) the fastest way to export geometry from hammer is always the hammer dxf export (which no one uses for some reason). I'm not sure blender supports that format natively but surely you can find a plugin for that or something

(note: uv data doesn't get exported tho, have fun learning to uv)

2) gotta decompile the models which is kinda painful. probably don't want to mess with that if you're only having problems with brush limits.

3) if you export from hammer and import back in, scale should not be a problem. otherwise you'll have to figure out the the unit conversion from source to blender. I know it's 1:1 from maya/3dsmax.
now if it will fit the grid correctly or not depends on where the model's origin is. have everything nice and centered and you'll be fine.
 
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Aug 23, 2008
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Unfortunately, exporting to DXF and then importing into blender appears to shit the bed. Missing verts, lines going every which way. I'd spend more time trying to figure out how to fix it than actually working on the model. Luckily, it does give me a good sense of scale, and blender's vertex data appears to be 1/1 with hammer, so just recreating the basic shapes shouldn't be super hard. The UV is going to be a pain in the butt to learn I suspect, but I was mostly just planning to copy/paste valve textures to get the job done, so we'll see how things go.

THXUUUUEXTC
 

Beetle

L9: Fashionable Member
Aug 17, 2008
627
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I can't imagine just recreating the brush into a model in Blender would be any more of a hassle than you've already faced. Are the brushes you wish to convert really that complicated for a modeling program?
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
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Nov 14, 2009
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Unfortunately, wanting the UV mapping to have the texel-to-unit precision you get out of Hammer's texture tool is one of the major reasons one would want to export from Hammer instead of just building the thing in Blender in the first place. At least, it's the reason I did.

Doesn't the CSGO editor have an import to blender or maya tool? If you're a student you might be able to get Maya for free (or if you still have a .edu address) and could move said brushes into the CSGO editor and push them to Maya. Just a suggestion that might be a work-around if nothing else works.
I wound up using 3DS Max's student edition (which doesn't require a .edu address, but you are bound to a non-commercial license) with Wall Worm's VMF importer. It was refreshingly simple. As an added bonus, Max has a much easier interface than Blender, at least last time I checked.
 
Aug 23, 2008
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380
I can't imagine just recreating the brush into a model in Blender would be any more of a hassle than you've already faced. Are the brushes you wish to convert really that complicated for a modeling program?

No, they are very basic rectangles, very few polys, but In order to get the windows and other such textures to line up, I needed way more brushes in hammer than I can have. Yah, just recreating them in blender is proving way easier, and should work fine.

Its also entirely possible I'm using DXF wrong, or importing incorrectly, but just learning blender's interface and making do is proving quite a bit easier after a bit of thought.
 
Aug 23, 2008
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Okay, round 2.

I'm trying to use a blender script to export .smd so that I can set it up for TF2, but I'm having trouble getting textures to be attached to the model and to generate the QC's. I think I can handle the textures, but the QC generation and export is a bit of a bother.

whatdo.jpg


Now that everything is Steampiped up, what file to I put for the SDK path?
 
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Beetle

L9: Fashionable Member
Aug 17, 2008
627
178
the sdk path is irrelevant. as long as you make the texture path names the same as the final texture path names, you'll be fine.
 

fubarFX

The "raw" in "nodraw"
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Jun 1, 2009
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QCs are a pain, I'd advise checking the vdc and making your own. that way you don't get bad surprises when you compile. It's also easier to debug things when you know what's going on. Luckily for you, you don't have to deal with collision meshes for 3d skybox stuff, so it should be pretty straight forward.

if you're having trouble with the texture, you can just fix your smd by hand with a text editor (or at least make sure it's correct but that's usually the issue for me). just mass replace the name of whatever texture the file is referencing to the texture of your choosing. (or your $cdmaterials is wrong, or your vmt $basetexture is wrong)

edit: btw make sure your vmt is vertexlitgeneric and yeah... I think that's it
 
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Aug 23, 2008
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Okay, that sounds reasonable. I've actually managed to get the prop into hammer with very little problems, I just need to get the texture figured out and I'll be SOMEWHAT prepared.
 
Aug 23, 2008
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Round 3. Trying to create some textures in addition (or maybe to replace) the skybox props. I wanted to combine together the textures I was using for the buildings to create a much simplified brush geometry (single brush instead of like 12). I was able to extract the relevant vtf with GCFscape, but unfortunately when I try to find the VMT's they aren't visible in GCFScape.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3492731/whatttt.jpg

Any ideas why that is? I've reinstalled and updated and what have, and still they don't show up.