I've decided to create this guide because I can't find a functioning guide on how to use Propper after the Steampipe update which broke the pre-2013 versions of propper, and the wiki doesn't seem to properly explain how to set this new updated version up for most games (I've only seen one or two people who actually seem to know how to get it to work with TF2). Required tools: *Source SDK Base 2013 Multiplayer (download this from your library -> tools section on steam) *GCFscape *VTFedit is good to have but not necessary (just helpful for VMT editing) Installing Propper: Once the Source SDK Base 2013 Multiplayer is installed, download Propper from this link. Simply drag the .exe and the .fgd from the .zip into your /common/Source SDK Base 2013 Multiplayer/bin/ folder. Do not drag it into your TF2 bin folder or the compile will fail! After this, open TF2's hammer and go to Tools -> Options -> Configurations and select the propper.fgd from your Source SDK /bin folder (It likely doesn't need to be in there, the FGD can probably also sit in the TF2 /bin/ folder, but what matters is the .exe is in the source SDK /bin folder.) Simply restart hammer now, and the setup of propper is done for now Creating your propper_model: Now that you've set propper up, select the group of brushes which you'd like to be a model and hit ctrl+t, making them a propper_model. Other propper_ entities are things that you'll want to set up seperately to achieve certain effects with your model, the wiki goes more into depth on this. Set up your paths correctly, make sure that the material and model paths are set up as so: The models/propper_test/ makes it so that the materials will be put in tf/materials/models/propper_test/. Don't add the additional component found at the end of your modelname value, as that is not a folder - it is simply the name of the model that you wish to be created. You may also want to name the propper_model if you wish to set up other things such as particles with the model. Compiling your model: Now your model is set up and propper is installed properly, it is time to compile the model. Go to File -> Run Map -> Expert and press 'Edit' in the top center of the box. You'll want to then press 'New' to create a new configuration, and call this something such as 'Propper'. Now select your newly created configuration from the dropdown menu, and press 'New' to create a new and empty compile commands box. On the command section, press the 'Cmds' button and choose 'Executable'. Navigate to the propper.exe found within /Source SDK Base 2013 Multiplayer/bin/ and select it. Next in the Parameters box, put this: -game $gamedir $path$file If you get an error while compiling relating to not being able to find a VMF, change '$path\$file' to the full directory of your VMF + the VMF's name (such as C:\Maps\test.vmf) although you'll likely not have this issue. If set up properly your Expert Compile window should now look like this: Now simply press 'Go!' and the model should compile. Fixing materials: At this point, you'll have probably noticed that your model has no materials. This can be easily, fixed, simply write down a small list of what materials your brushwork uses in hammer, then open tf2_misc_dir.vpk with GCFscape. Search for the name of the material, and copy the resulting VMT into your materials directory that was set within the propper_model. In this case, I'd put my VMT(s) into /tf/materials/models/propper_test/. Now open the VMT(s) in notepad or VTFedit, and at the top of the file change "LightmappedGeneric" to "VertexLitGeneric" (LightmappedGeneric is usually used with brushes, while VertexLitGeneric is intended for models). Don't rename the VMT(s), the name is fine as is. Restart hammer, or open the model in HLMV, and the material should be working now. EDIT: Material scale and rotation may be messed up, please tell me if this is an issue Hopefully this guide is useful. If you have any additional questions, things that I forgot to cover or clarification on anything needed, please let me know.
Ok, First of all - I love you for doing this! Secondly - I love you for doing this! Now, I just have to get it working. I've done the bin thing, I'm not sure how you have the material/model path set up right - I didn't understand the sentence with the screenshot provided - how to do? and where does everything else go? - the file structure i.e. C:\Maps\test.vmf and /tf/materials/models/propper_test/. and lastly vtfedit, I downloaded it, put it into my programfiles(x86) and ran it in Win7 - Crashed with a back to back configuration error message < any ideas on this one? Thanks - and really appreciate this work done by you!
The material path is relative to your tf2's /Team Fortress 2/tf/materials/ folder. That means anything you put in that box will be done relative (eg if you put models/props_farm/ your material path will be set as <tf2 directory>/tf/materials/models/props_farm/). Your model keyvalue is the same, except relative to the /tf/models/ folder - this means if you put props_farm, your model will be put in <tf2 directory>/tf/models/props_farm. Additionally, that last component of the model keyvalue is the *name* of the model, meaning if I want my prop to be called 'spawnroombeams01' and in the /tf/models/props_farm folder, I'd put props_farm/spawnroombeams.
nothing happens when I press go, this is the compile log Code: ** Executing... ** Command: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Source SDK Base 2013 Multiplayer\bin\propper.exe ** Parameters: -game "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf" -C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\sourcesdk_content\tf\mapsrc\harbour_crane01.vmf Propper 0.32. Originally written by Carl Foust, fixed and compiled for SDK Base 2013 by tuxxi. Adapted from vbsp.exe by Valve Software. (May 25 2016) Propper: Unknown option "-C:\Program" Command line: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Source SDK Base 2013 Multiplayer\bin\propper.exe" "-game" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf" "-C:\Program" "Files" "(x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team" "Fortress" "2\sourcesdk_content\tf\mapsrc\harbour_crane01.vmf" usage : propper [options...] mapfile example: propper -game "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\username\half-life 2\hl2 c:\maps\test.vmf Common options (use -v to see all options): -v (or -verbose): Turn on verbose output (also shows more command line options). -low : Run as an idle-priority process. -vproject <directory> : Override the VPROJECT environment variable. -game <directory> : Same as -vproject. -logging : enable .log file. -nomaterials : Makes propper skip conversion of material files. -nocompile : Makes propper skip running studiomdl to compile props.
In your path, you've got Code: -C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\sourcesdk_content\tf\mapsrc\harbour_crane01.vmf . If it were to work, it should be Code: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\sourcesdk_content\tf\mapsrc\harbour_crane01.vmf" (as the filepath has spaces).
Hey! awesome guide, I managed to get it all working, except the texture scale seem to be all wrong, however the rotation seems to be good, have you figured out a solution to this? Thanks
Getting materials to work is a bit frustrating, the only way I managed to get it working with tf2 materials was to set up a community hammer that sits in the same folder as the propper.exe and so requires the full setup of materials to work with that. Perhaps try texturing it with tf2 textures, then replacing X tf2 texture with Y hl2 texture. Once you compile, modify the VMTs to point to those tf2 textures instead of the hl2 textures. I'll need to do some more testing on this as it's seemingly related to materials that the propper.exe can't find, which will break the scale and rotation of them on the model.
Ok, I have the model being produced but am having problems with the textures Propper_model - entity model name = AntiMatter/AntimatterModel material path = tf/materials/models/antimatter/ file structure for the model C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\models\Antimatter for the material C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\materials\models\antimatter getting this output: Spoiler ** Executing... ** Command: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Source SDK Base 2013 Multiplayer\bin\propper.exe ** Parameters: -game "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf" c:\maps\propper_setup_test.vmf Propper 0.32. Originally written by Carl Foust, fixed and compiled for SDK Base 2013 by tuxxi. Adapted from vbsp.exe by Valve Software. (May 25 2016) 8 threads materialPath: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\materials Loading c:\maps\propper_setup_test.vmf material "/blueandgrey" not found. Material not found!: /BLUEANDGREY ConVarRef mat_reduceparticles doesn't point to an existing ConVar Could not locate GameData file tf.fgd =============================== Creating model: "AntiMatter/AntimatterModel" =============================== Building mesh... Material: /blueandgrey - "___error" - "materials/error.vtf": cached version doesn't exist "___error" - "materials/error.vtf": cached version doesn't exist "___error" - "materials/error.vtf": cached version doesn't exist "___error" - "materials/error.vtf": cached version doesn't exist "___error" - "materials/error.vtf": cached version doesn't exist "___error" - "materials/error.vtf": cached version doesn't exist Writing c:\propsource\AntiMatter/AntimatterModel_ref.smd 12 triangles written. ------------------------ Writing c:\propsource\AntiMatter/AntimatterModel.qc Done. Compiling the model: studiomdl.exe -fullcollide -game "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf" "c:\propsource\AntiMatter/AntimatterModel.qc" ---Please Wait--- Studiomdl complete! 0 seconds elapsed CMaterialDict::Shutdown m_MissingList count: 1 What am I doing wrong? Thanks
Does the model actually compile correctly, aside from the missing materials? If so, that's what the 'fixing materials' section of the guide is for. EDIT: Spud is probably correct
It looks like your materials path is wrong, this should just be "models/antimatter" as the path is already relative to your tf/materials folder.
A note to others : If you get this message on compile "Too many polies in mesh. 10922 max" you've gone too far - scale back the complexity of your model I am having an interesting issue though - on my first test item, it worked great after spud's entry - when I do the 2nd it's only recognizing some of the textures even though the textures are in the same folder as the working test folder. "models/antimatter" and they are all "VertexLitGeneric".
As far as i can tell I am getting the same issue Kill_the_Bug was having, I can get the texture scaling working seamlessly without any fix for hl2 textures, but when I try a tf2 texture, it get this compile log ** Executing... ** Command: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Source SDK Base 2013 Multiplayer\bin\propper.exe ** Parameters: -game "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\sourcesdk_content\tf\mapsrc\woodwall_debris_03.vmf" Propper 0.32. Originally written by Carl Foust, fixed and compiled for SDK Base 2013 by tuxxi. Adapted from vbsp.exe by Valve Software. (May 25 2016) 8 threads materialPath: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\materials Loading C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\sourcesdk_content\tf\mapsrc\woodwall_debris_03.vmf material "wood/wood_floor002" not found. Material not found!: WOOD/WOOD_FLOOR002 ConVarRef mat_reduceparticles doesn't point to an existing ConVar Could not locate GameData file tf.fgd =============================== Creating model: "props/propper_metalbeam03" =============================== Building mesh... Material: wood/wood_floor002 - "___error" - "materials/error.vtf": cached version doesn't exist "___error" - "materials/error.vtf": cached version doesn't exist "___error" - "materials/error.vtf": cached version doesn't exist "___error" - "materials/error.vtf": cached version doesn't exist Writing c:\propsource\props/propper_metalbeam03_ref.smd 272 triangles written. ------------------------ Writing c:\propsource\props/propper_metalbeam03.qc Done. Compiling the model: studiomdl.exe -fullcollide -game "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf" "c:\propsource\props/propper_metalbeam03.qc" ---Please Wait--- Studiomdl complete! 1 second elapsed CMaterialDict::Shutdown m_MissingList count: 1 ((I removed some of the lines ("___error" - "materials/error.vtf": cached version doesn't exist) that repeated themselves for the sake of brevity.) Am I missing something, I tried changing the materials path like Spud suggested, but It doesn't appear to help, I feel like I'm probably just making a basic mistake here, and sorry if I am. But after a few hours of meddling with this I could use some help. Thanks.
Ok, this is driving me crazy, it makes my models but only recognizes 2 of the 8 textures on it, my test model in the setup worked and everything was set up the same way Also, I need a props_physics_overide - do you know the set up for that? Is it the concave collisions option to "shrink wrap it'?
