Custom Asset Help

WombatSauce

L3: Member
Dec 22, 2015
115
5
Hi, I want to download the vehicles pack and use it for my map, cp_urban_legend, but I'm not sure where to put the file. Can someone tell me? Thanks.
 

sil-

L1: Registered
Dec 15, 2014
20
37
program files > steam > steamapps > common > team fortress 2 > tf > materials
 

Vel0city

func_fish
aa
Dec 6, 2014
1,947
1,589
Actually, don't do that.

When you download the zip, unzip it and put the entire folder in tf/custom. Don't mess about with manually extracting the materials and models folder.
 
Mar 23, 2013
1,013
347
Actually, don't do that.

Actually, do that

Manually extract them to the tf folder, not tf/custom. If you use VIDE for packing then auto pack doesnt work for everything in the custom folder. Also your client mods aren't at the same place as your map assets and it also helps to understand how the paths for models and materials work.

Mind that the model files are at tf/models and the textures for the models at tf/materials/models
 

EArkham

Necromancer
aa
Aug 14, 2009
1,625
2,773
It gets extremely difficult to keep track of custom assets if you put them all in /tf/. This is especially important if you intend to put your map on the workshop and need to assign authorship. And it may be more apparent to long time mappers since we have years and years of custom assets laying about.

In addition, VIDE and Pakrat have never been 100% accurate when using autopack options (they often miss things like secondary model skins). Regardless of where you put your assets, I would not rely on autopack.

If you're correctly organizing things in /tf/custom/, then manually packing is not a problem since you know everything you used is in a particular folder. Plus you get the benefits of being able to quickly and accurately move, delete, or change assets as you see fit, as well as having the option of keeping assets sorted discretely by map.

Ultimately it comes down to preference, but in either case you will need to learn how the game directory structure works (eg, materials/models/somemodelname/modeltexture.vtf, etc).
 

seth

aa
May 31, 2013
1,019
851
This is obviously pretty opinion based as you can see above, but I do it a different way than everyone else it seems. I like keeping my tf/custom folder clean for HUDs, hitsounds, my medigun and texture improvement pack vpk etc. Just custom stuff used by the actual game, not Hammer. I keep the root tf folder clean as well since some files are kept loose in there when you install the game. I don't want to contaminate that because, again, it becomes difficult to see what's custom and what's not.

What I have done is made another tf folder, called tf_dev. I have it follow the same folder heirarchy as tf, but everything in there is custom and doesn't get referenced by the game. This is also helpful when you have custom content and you're checking to see if you packed correctly. When you put your custom content in the tf or tf/custom folders, the game will see it and pull it up even if your map didn't actually get it packed. If it's in tf_dev, you can setup Hammer to see it but the game won't.

If you're interested in doing it like this, just let me know and I can show you how it works.