VIDE - a how-to

[Idolon]

December 10, 2018 Edit: There's a tool called CompilePal that I recommend for packing custom files into your map. You should probably use it instead of VIDE unless CompilePal somehow doesn't work for you. You can read about it and download it here.



VIDE is super cool, but sometimes a bit hard to understand. Here's a guide on how to pack with VIDE.

Automatically Packing Files

1a. Get VIDE.

1b. Open VIDE.

2. Open the Pakfile Lump Editor.

3. Find your BSP. VIDE has trouble with remembering file paths, so it's handy to have a a window open of where your map is so you can copy/paste the filepath.

4. Click Pakfile Options > Scan.

5. For Game Directory, choose your Team Fortress 2/tf folder.

6. Click Scan. This will find any files that need to be added.

7. Click Auto. This will automatically mark any non-default files.

8. Click Apply. This adds the previous list of files into the list that VIDE will to add to your BSP.

9. If you've got any content that you have in your \custom folder, you will need to go back to step 4 and do everything again, except you will need to select whatever folder inside of \custom you have stuff inside in step 5.

10. Click Save. If you aren't sure if everything worked as you wanted, you may want to save as a different filename. Overwriting works fine, however.

Manually Packing Files

VIDE wont always detect all of the files that you want to pack, so you might have to manually add some files.

1. Go through steps 1-3 of the above tutorial.

4. Click Pakfile Options > Add.

5. Choose the file(s) you want to add.

6. VIDE will show you a menu of directories like this. Click Cancel.

7. VIDE will show you a file path to the file(s) you selected. Delete "tf", as well as everything before it.

8. Click Save. If you aren't sure if everything worked as you wanted, you may want to save as a different filename. Overwriting works fine, however.

 

[obsidiian]

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you

 

[Shanghai]

Yeah thanks for this
I spent a long time figuring this out when I was trying to pack my map

 

[henke37]

But how do you automate this so that it is a part of the normal map build process?

 

[Beetle]

Thanks for this. As someone who has never messed with VIDE, how is it better than the other packing programs (other than that they currently don't work correctly )?

 

[Crash]

It still doesn't seem to be finding my custom content.

I have a feeling it's because it converted all over and put it in the download folder. I actually got Pakrat working by making a mess out of my tf folder, but, doesn't matter; packed map.

 

[Idolon]

If you'd like to give getting VIDE to work a shot, try setting the Game Directory (step 5) to your /downloads. I've honestly never used the downloads folder, but it might work.

 

[Crash]

Oh yeah, that seemed to do the trick. And it found some stuff I missed on the first attempt with Pakrat. Thanks.

I don't know why it put everything there when we converted to Steampipe, it's been a huge pain in the ass.

 

[fubarFX]

Thanks for this. As someone who has never messed with VIDE, how is it better than the other packing programs (other than that they currently don't work correctly )?

the nice thing about vide is that it does a whole lot more than just paking.
it's gcfscape, vtfedit and entspy all in the same package and it does even more! (it even unleashes the ancient powers of the logical view)

now you have to document all the features idolon

 

[Beetle]

How do I add stuff manually? I click Add and nothing seems to happen.

It seems to find everything, but only packs the textures of some of my models. Some are fine, some are missing, and there seems to be no method to the madness.

edit: I got it to work. I'm not sure how, but I did.

 

[wareya]

VIDE is not detecting any files when I go to hit scan, not even ones that are part of the game. I am referring it to the right game folder and I've tried variations. I haven't done anything silly like extract my VPKs over my game folder or point it directly to my custom content in my custom folder, and that should be totally unnecessary, or else what's the point? I have VIDE 0.45b. Can I get any help?

 

[Idolon]

Unfortunately, you'll need to point it to your individual custom folders because VIDE hasn't been updated since custom folders started being a thing (Steampipe). A pain in the ass, I'll agree. I've sent the programmer a message about fixing it, but I wouldn't expect an update for a while.

However, I hear Compile Pal is a compiling program that also features packing capabilities. I haven't tried it out for myself (I don't know if it even works for TF2), but it's definitely worth investigating.

 

[Crash]

I direct mine to my Team Fortress 2/tf/ folder and it picks up everything except for the stuff in my /Custom/ folder and odds and ends like particle related stuff. Then I manually add in anything t hat happens to still be in in my Custom folder (which has been less and less due to the extra step in VIDE.)

Granted I'm pretty messy and keeping it all in the custom folder is neater. But... eh.

 

[Pocket]

I just put my custom assets directly in the /materials/ and /models/ folders because that's an easy way to keep them separate from client-side mods. Turns out VIDE also appreciates it. It's a win-win, really, since nothing else is ever going to put stuff in the raw folders.

 

[takabuschik]

Unless you want to keep track of your files.
Or unless you want to be able to easily backup files when you reinstall tf2

 

[seth]

I have all my custom content stored in Dropbox and use scripts to push and pull the content I need for a particular map into their respective folders. Keeps everything nice and clean.

 

[Idolon]

Added another section to this tutorial that describes how to manually add files that don't get picked in VIDE's automatic scan.

 

[Kill_the_Bug]

Is it possible to add on a 'how to edit your entites using vide' section - sometimes you realize that you've forgotten to do something to/with an entity - something simple but you don't want to recompile the map all over again when a simple entity edit would do the trick.

I've tired doing it a couple of times already but not sure if I'm doing it right. i.e. my entity edits don't seem to be working - don't know if it's me not doing it right or if the program isn't saving my changes right.

Thanks

 

[Idolon]

I've never done that with VIDE, though it might be worth exploring. However, you can do it from Hammer - just select Ents Only for VBSP, and No for VVIS and VRAD. It'll recompile only the entities of your map. Moving brushes or lights around might cause it to throw up, so be careful.

 

[Kill_the_Bug]

So if I have a fully compiled map (rad and vis) and I just rerun the entities then I keep the previous vis and rad stuff already done?