Hammer doesn't like my model

Well I am having a very frustrating problem with Hammer. I made a
custom model of a birthday cake and whenever I make a prop_phys entity
and assign it my cake model, the editor crashes. What am I doing wrong
here? Heres the error:



It looks like its asking about a VMF. Now I don't have any VMF's for it
all I have is a VMT for it in my hl2/materials/model folder.

Could we see your vmf code please?

And maybe the qc file could help too.

---

Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

Heres my qc file. I'm not sure if its set up right, it was kinda a copy and paste deal from a tutorial:

$modelname "models/cake.mdl"

$scale 1.0

$cd "."

$body "Body" cake_ref.smd

$cdmaterials "materials/models" //This must be the location of
your VMT texture file relevant to the materials folder as before

// 1 sequence

$sequence idle "cake_idle" fps 5 ACT_IDLE 1

$surfaceprop "flesh"

$keyvalues { "prop_data" {"base" "flesh.small" }

$collisionmodel "cake_phys.smd" {

// Mass in kilograms

$concave

$mass 5.0

}

As for the the VMF, I don't have a VMF for the model, just a VMT file and here is all that is in that file:

"VertexLitGeneric"

{

"$basetexture" "models/cakeSkintest1"

"$bumpmap" "models/cakeSkintest1_normal"

}

Hope this helps.

Hmm, well, first off I think you're referring to a .vtf instead of a .vmf, which would be the file Hammer reads for compiling maps. Besides, any & every texture in Source needs to have a .vtf along with it. Just take the .tga you're using to UV map your model and drag it over vtex.exe. It'll automatically create for you your .vtf file.

The error is asking about the .vmf but that's because Hammer is crashing, so doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong with your map.

Now for the .qc file...

For $modelname, if your model is under the model's folder, then you shouldn't need to list "model/cake.mdl" just "cake.mdl" unless your .mdl is within a subfolder named "model" that is under the original folder named "model" under the hl2 folder. Then you would list the subfolder.

For $cdmaterials, same concept, you shouldn't need to list the "materials" folder. However, you DO need to list the "models" folder because it is a subfolder under materials.

I don't know if that will have an effect or not, cause I've had past problems with .qc files, and stuff like that sometimes would help.

I would try opening it first in Modelviewer instead of Hammer, after all, that's what it's for! See if any issues come up there.

---

Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

[size=13]I see what your saying about the .vmf, I got confused. But I do have a
.vtf for the model. I actually have 2. One for the regular texture and
one for a normal map.

They are in my half-life2/hl2/materials/models folder. Screenshot:



My .qc file is in my sourcesdk_content/hl2/modelsrc folder. Screenshot:

For $modelname, if your model is under the model's folder, then you
shouldn't need to list "model/cake.mdl" just "cake.mdl" unless your
.mdl is within a subfolder named "model" that is under the original
folder named "model" under the hl2 folder. Then you would list the
subfolder.

It is in a subfolder called models in the models folder. So it looks like this:

half-life2/hl2/models/models/cake.mdl

<span style="color: red;">I'll change the $cdmaterials line in the .qc to see if that helps. <br style="color: white;">
<br style="color: white;">
Also I can see my model in HLMV. So I don't know. It just seems like Hammer can't see my model. Thanks for the help man!</span>[/size]

Does this line: $cd "." need to be there? Try removing it.

---

Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

the %keyvalues line looks a bit odd, with only having the one closing bracket. i would have expected the model compile to fail because of that.

---

i eat paint

I did what you guys told me to do, but it didn't fix it. I'm kinda lost
now lol. Not sure what the problem could be because HLMV can see the
model, but not Hammer.

Could you upload the model for us to try? Unless you have a problem with that or something.

---

Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

Lol, not at all. Its nothing special so I could definitly upload it. What all do you need?

.vtf's

.mdl

.qc

.vmt

Anything else?

Perhaps also the VTX files, the VVD files and the PHYs files that go along with it? And perhaps even the .smd files incase it may be a problem with the way the model was constructed? Of course that would be treading into having problems with the modeling suite, not Hammer; so those are at your own discretion. May I ask what modeling program you used?

---

Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

Sorry was out of town, I used the XSI modelling tool. Oh and where can I host these files so I can upload them?