Glowing Outline For Things Other Than Payloads And Flags

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Digaag Wa Riz

I have a question for someone or everyone. I understand that there can be an outline for the intelligence cases and payload carts that highlight where they are in a map even through walls. I want to ask if I can apply this glowing outline to other things.

Specifically, I am creating a CTF map in which BLU and RED must get the intel from the opposing team's base, and then ride a gondola back to their base. I would like the gondolas to have this glowing outline on each of them. What I would prefer is that they don't have this outline but are lit dynamically as they move from the interior of each base (which is in a not-so-bright room) to outside (which is bright). My main problem is that each gondola is shaded as it is spawned and will not be shaded as it is hit by lights of varying intensities and directions.
 

GPuzzle

L9: Fashionable Member
Feb 27, 2012
638
414
I may know a way, give me a sec to mess about on hammer.

Rules for messing in Hammer:

Rule 1: Do not divide by zero.
Rule 2: Do NOT divide by zero.
Rule 3: If something goes extremely wrong, it's Source being Source.
Rule 4: Rule 7 is a lie.
Rule 5: Do not carve.
Rule 6: Don't put hard-coded buildings in your map.
Rule 7: Rule 4 is a lie. And now I've broke Rule 1 and Rule 2.
 
D

Digaag Wa Riz

Rules for messing in Hammer:

Rule 1: Do not divide by zero.
Rule 2: Do NOT divide by zero.
Rule 3: If something goes extremely wrong, it's Source being Source.
Rule 4: Rule 7 is a lie.
Rule 5: Do not carve.
Rule 6: Don't put hard-coded buildings in your map.
Rule 7: Rule 4 is a lie. And now I've broke Rule 1 and Rule 2.

Proud breaker of Rule 5.
 

Untouch

L4: Comfortable Member
Jan 25, 2010
187
48
In .vmt files there is a proxy called "$selfillum", putting it to one ("$selfillum" 1) should work.
 
T

The Asylum

If you're looking to be able to see objects from behind walls, try adding this to a custom texture's vmt:

"UnlitGeneric"
{
"$baseTexture" "your/texture"
"$alpha" 1
"$translucent" 1
"$vertexalpha" "1"
"$ignorez" "1"
"$no_fullbright" "1"
"$vertextcolor" "1"
"%keywords" "tf"
}

That'll come out looking like this:

spaceballa30002.jpg


The VTF I used has a slight transparency, so it doesn't clash with what the player is percieving

Create the outline via brushwork, and then parent that to the gondola.
 
D

Digaag Wa Riz

If you're looking to be able to see objects from behind walls, try adding this to a custom texture's vmt:

"UnlitGeneric"
{
"$baseTexture" "your/texture"
"$alpha" 1
"$translucent" 1
"$vertexalpha" "1"
"$ignorez" "1"
"$no_fullbright" "1"
"$vertextcolor" "1"
"%keywords" "tf"
}

I don't know how to do any of this. I'm sorry if my ignorance is making anyone impatient. Please tell me how to do this since I'm pretty sure these these things can't be changed in Hammer.
 
T

The Asylum

a custom texture needs two things to function: A VMT file and a VTF file. In simple terms, the VTF file is the texture itself, while the VMT file tells the game how that texture should behave.

Creating a texture is easy. You could just drag and drop a 256x256 image into vtex.exe (or a 512x512, 1028x1028, etc), and that'll spit out a VTF file of your image. I reccommend you download VTFEdit, though- I find it much better and easier to use than vtex.

Creating a VMT is easier. All you need to do is copypaste some parameters into a text file, and then rename the extention .vmt (ie: mytexture.txt --> mytexture.vmt)

This is a great thread to get you started making your own custom textures. You really should read it.
 

Seba

DR. BIG FUCKER, PHD
aa
Jun 9, 2009
2,364
2,728
What Asylum wrote is a .vmt. A .vmt, short for Valve Material Texture (or something like that, who actually knows), determines the properties of the texture whose actual image is given by its .vtf, the file you reference in $basetexture. Each line starting with $ is a different property.

To actually create one of these, open up notepad, paste Asylum's .vmt (starting from "UnlitGeneric" and ending with }) into a new file. Save the file to tf/materials/[usually your map's name] and make its extension .vmt instead of .txt. Then, create a .vtf file. In this case it would most likely be a single color, 16x16px. Make that in Paint or something, save it, then drag it onto or import it with VTFEdit. Save it as a .vtf in the same place you saved the .vmt; and finally, edit the $basetexture of the .vmt to read "$bastexture" "tf/materials/foldername/vtfname" and save. Boom, your texture is ready to be used in Hammer!

EDIT: I need to type faster, Asylum ninja'd me.
 
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Digaag Wa Riz

Sorry, this post has been changed because I didn't know what the heck I was talking about when I wrote it. NEW POST: How do I make the outline glow? I made the custom texture and it works in game but it's so dull...It doesn't have the pizzazz of the payload glow.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Seba

DR. BIG FUCKER, PHD
aa
Jun 9, 2009
2,364
2,728
I'm guessing, from Asylum's screenshot, that he used a yellow texture as the base. In your case it would probably be best to make bright red and bright blue textures and assign them to the appropriate boat.
 

WolfKit

L3: Member
Jun 26, 2012
128
83
Doesn't hammer have a function to turn brushwork into a prop? If you did that could you use Untouch's way?