Non-TF2 textures

[trainRiderJ]

In Hammer there are quite a bit of textures from halflife2. Are you able to use them in a TF2 map? I realize many of them wouldn't fit stylistically anyways, I'm just wondering if they would cause an error.

 

[dirtyminuth]

Long story short: HL2 textures will not cause errors. However, if you do use any, you'll have to embed them into the bsp. Here's why: People who have purchased TF2 standalone do not have HL2 textures.

 

[YM]

Also, if you do use HL2 textures, there will be many of us here that will frown upon it. If the texture fits the style of TF2 - use it. If it doesnt - don't touch it with a barge pole

You can filter out all the non-tf2 textures by puting "tf" in the keywords box at the very bottom of the texture browser

 

[trainRiderJ]

Thanks guys. I went ahead and replaced the couple non-tf2 textures I was using with a similar tf2 texture. I figured out that keyword trick a few hours into my map making endeavor, it's definitely nice to use.

 

[YM]

You've got to know when to remove the tf thing from the keywords though, there are a few (note: only a few) textures that havent got the tf keyword in them, for example: the calendar overlays that are in each spawn room on stock maps.
I think now would be a good time for me to find a list of all the textures without tf as a keyword....

 

[Snipergen]

and nodraw and clip etc

 

[phatal]

I think now would be a good time for me to find a list of all the textures without tf as a keyword....

Why yes it would. I'd touch that with a "barge pole".

and nodraw and clip etc

I believe all the tool textures are in a different package other than tf.

 

[YM]

That they are, all the tool textures are in a special gcf that comes with the source SDK or any steam game (not sure which seeing as they both come together)

 

[Shmitz]

I feel silly having to repeat this as often as I do, but, when you open Hammer with the launcher set to "Team Fortress 2", the material browser will display the following:

1) Any material in the TF2 GCFs.
2) Any material in any of the shared Source GCFs.
3) Any material in "<steamid>/team fortress 2/tf/materials" and subdirectories thereof.

The material browser will not display materials found in HL2 specific, CSS specific, Portal specific, or other game specific GCFs. In short, if you can see it in the material browser, other players will see it in the map even if they only bought TF2.


This is just a technicality, however. In general practice, it's almost always better to use a TF2 material instead of a non-TF2 material.

 

[Vander]

while we are on the topic of filtering out HL2 junk, how do I do the same for the models? If I select TF from the dropdown menu it displays nothing. I have to select all mods and then I have to fish thru the HL2 ones as well. Not so bad once it is sorted, but it would be nice to get rid of all the categories and simply have TF2 models to cruise through.

 

[YM]

You can sort them by 'mod' so you've got all the TF2 ones at the top, then the HL2 ones after that. Its not much of a problem once you've done this.
In the box at the bottom you can narrow it down further by putting "light" or "pole" or "fence" or "frog".... then it shows only models with that in its name.

 

[Shmitz]

while we are on the topic of filtering out HL2 junk, how do I do the same for the models? If I select TF from the dropdown menu it displays nothing. I have to select all mods and then I have to fish thru the HL2 ones as well. Not so bad once it is sorted, but it would be nice to get rid of all the categories and simply have TF2 models to cruise through.

The easiest way is to sort by mod in the model list. Just click the header for that column and it'll automatically sort by "tf" or "hl2", instead of strictly by path.

Edit: How do you keep doing that, Youme? =P

 

[YM]

Edit: How do you keep doing that, Youme? =P

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