empty vmf :/

Lo there...

I had a pc crash and when i rebooted and opend the map file i was working on it turned out to be completly empty :/

google told me that i had to rename the .VMX file to VMF, i did that but then hammer give a error : line 18258 unexpected end of file

mmmkay... google also said that i had to open the .VMX with notepad but what it shows is something i dont understand :sad:

my question is , what can i do to get the map back? :sad:

i got the .BSP btw, but there`s no bsp --> vmf thing right?

Sounds to me like you have lost your map, and don't have a way of getting it back. The only thing that you can do, is in the future make multiple copies of the map along the way, so if something like this happens, you can jsut load a previous version of the map and quickly fix whatever youchanged.

Sorry, unless someone else has a way to restore it.

Mmekay heres what to do,

Fire up Notepad and check for any strange lines in the VMF file or any lines with unclosed brackets {.......

So be prepared for a long day of digging through notepad

---

OR

If all else fails, and you have compiled your my recently you can decompile the BSP into a fully functional VMF. Aside from a few messed up entities and lose of lightmap assignements, defaults back to 16, its a real life saver :smile: .

-Hope that helps-

CLs

oh damn, sorry I misread the post. I thought he said he couldn't get the .bsp. Nm, go with CLs.

Theres a HL2 map decompiler somewhere around here. Seems to do a
pretty good job. At the very least you'll have to do a little bit
of fixing, but better than losing it all.

google told me that i had to rename the .VMX file to VMF, i did that
but then hammer give a error : line 18258 unexpected end of file

Dunno if this will work but give it a try.

Open up a folder, anyone will do. Then click Tools -> Folder
Options... -> View -> then scroll down the list and untick the
"Hide extensions for known file types".

Now, try again to change the extension of the .vmx file.

forget notepad editing.

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quote:</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>i got the .BSP btw, but there`s no bsp --> vmf thing right?</DIV></DIV>

Yes, there IS a bsp --> vmf thing. IT is called VMEX. The latest version is .095. Here is a link to that program. All you need to do is open up that bsp with this small <100k program and decompile it. It comes with a very easy interface OR you can just run the decompiler through a command line. There is a readme file included that you probably won't need to read unless the program doesn't work.

If the program doesn't work, it is probably because you don't have Java 5 installed. you can get Java 5 HERE.

Your VMF will be back on your system in no time. It is true though, that these decompilers aren't 100% accurate and you may have to go back and re align a few things but the basic structure will be all back for ya :smile:

Hope this helps and happy mapping :smile:

as harsh as this is gonna sound.. if you did not create multiple backup's, you deserve it to be missing.

consider it a learning experience.. even if you salvage the situation i bet you will now create multiple backups.

chose for yourself exactly how many, but i create a new one after each new addition, this way you only lose one if anything but a total hard drive crash happens.

good luck :/

I gave up on the notepad thingy every time a new line with an error arf..

gonna try the decompiler, tnx guys !! ( i didnt knew such a program was there)

btw orpheus offcourse i made some backups but the last one was from 3 days ago and the file that is broken now was the file i spend a whole day working on and offcourse i didnt backupped that one :sad:

just my bad luck ...

Hench said:
I gave up on the notepad thingy every time a new line with an error arf..

gonna try the decompiler, tnx guys !! ( i didnt knew such a program was there)

btw orpheus offcourse i made some backups but the last one was from 3 days ago and the file that is broken now was the file i spend a whole day working on and offcourse i didnt backupped that one :sad:

just my bad luck ...

wanna bet, you remember now :razz:

i, and i assume many others, had to learn the hard way as well.
i just automatically save a new version after a smallish time frame.

Nitpick: Java 1.5 and Java 2 are the same thing, but there's no Java 5 :smile:

Also: for backup software, I use and like
Back2zip. It allows you to
vary the compression on your backups, while backing up as frequently as
you like and keeping old copies as long as you like. And it's
free!

Heh...it's the height of paranoia ;-) you COULD set it to backup files every 20 minutes and keep a backup a day for two weeks...

CLs said:
If all else fails, and you have compiled your my recently you can decompile the BSP into a fully functional VMF. Aside from a few messed up entities and lose of lightmap assignements, defaults back to 16, its a real life saver :smile: .

Fully functional is a matter of opinion, if you want paper thin brushes sure, I would never think of re-compiling a decompiled map, mainly because everythings messed up. I dont know about the new version of the decompiler, but from my experience it doesnt do a good job of making the original brushes, it just makes planes with the texture on one side and the the invisable texture on the other :sad: ????? Well good luck finding your map, Ill just say that making back-ups is better than decompiling the bsp.

New versions of the decompiler (after v0.80) can recover 95-99%
of the original map brushes, if you use it in "brushes and planes" mode.

Old versions did the same "wafer-thin brush for each face" trick that
HL1 decompilers did. But later, I realised that HL2 BSPs contain almost
all of the original brush data, and the newer versions use that instead.

That said, there are still inevitable problems due to rounding errors,
etc. Certainly I'd try fixing the .vmx file before resorting to
decompiling. OTOH, the .vmf file format can be tricky to repair if you
don't know it.

Yeah VMF editing in notepad can be quite a consuming process, I gave up after an hour or so and went with the decompiling route, worked great for me, only spent 15 minutes fixing brushes and ents on a medium sized map and it compiled perfectely. Thanks to Rof for this great tool :smile:

CLs

Added your decompiler to the files section here Rof :smile:

I guess im using a way old version, does it work on displacements yet?

I used notepad when i did somethign like this, only i knew what i screwed up so it was easy to find.

BTW it must be so hard to map with notepad.

Yes, VMEX 095 does displacements.