How do I make textures

Hello everyone

Ive looked on the net and found a few tutorials on custom sprays and textures for HL2 but Im having some problems. when I tried to do what was directed at http://www.hl2world.com/wiki/index.php/Texture_Introduction#Requirements_for_creating_a_VTF
I got an error that what I was entering was an invalid file path. So I found another place that allowed me to download vtex that had tga2vtf in it and that worked. The problem is that it was meant for sprays and the VMT has some text about sprays. Does anyone know of a texturing tutorial for dummys like myself or have the patience to help me out?

My AOL IM is youth frisbee

thanks

Well I've also tried making my own textures with varied success. I have successfully created the VTF and VMT files from the TGA's using the VTEX program located in the SourceSDK bin folder. The problem I have encountered is that while I can add them into Hammer through the materials section, the textures themselves will not appear in the texture/material browser.

I am not sure if this is a temporary problem that will be fixed in the full SDK, but at the moment I've had no luck getting the custom textures to work.

Try the following tutorials/FAQ:

http://www.valve-erc.com/srcsdk/Materials/materials_creation.html

[size=13]Ugh...I hope they find an easier way of getting your own textures into Hammer...

I FOUND a solution to getting your own stuff in, though. I am currently
just placing my TGA files into
cstrike_sample_content/materialsrc/skybox. I open another explorer
window and drag the TGAs onto the VTEX.exe file. This creates the VTF
(NOT VTX) files into the cstrike_sample_content/materials folder. From
there, YOU need to create a VMT file, that dictates how the texture
gets rendered in Source. My example is right here:

"UnlitGeneric"

{

"$basetexture" "skybox/sky_vasdn"

"%keywords" "cstrike"

}

"UnlitGeneric" is a shader, meaning it will NOT get lightmaps applied
to it. The basetexture line dictates the base texture you are using,
sans FX. I'm not sure if the "cstrike" keyword is needed, but I tossed
it in there anyways. A VMT file needs to be made for EVERY texture you
create, alongside the VTF files. Both go into the same folder,
"materials". Be sure NOT to place them in the "materialsrc" folder. The
Material section for texture import in Hammer is actually a Material
EXCLUSION list, so DON'T put your texture directory there!.

Here is a show from Hammer, showing my custom skybox textures in the window:



Unfortuneatly though, the skybox doesn't work in-game. I get a no-draw
effect on the entire sky, and I get a purple/black checkerboard texture
when I apply these textures to a brush.

Seems Vavle has a few things to fix for us modders :wink: [/size]

There is an extra command you can use when running VTEX to make your textures visible in Hammer, probably something like -UnlitGeneric, but unfortunately I've forgotten it :smile:

vassago: before you compile the skymap you need to type in the txt files: $skybox should work... havent tested yet tho :biggrin:

By saying compiling the "skymap", I'm assuming you mean the map? Or when I create the VTF files with VTEX?

In the text files (the ones needed to compile VTFs) I used the $skybox command. That was the only line I added to the text file.

Yeah that is what I meant...but that wasnt it ... but fear not! :biggrin:

You have to put your skymap into seteamapps/username/counter-strike
source/cstrike/materials and not as the guide says in the sourcesdk
folder.

Now in the materials folder you need to make a folder called skybox, so
that the game will actually find the skybox... nothing else will work.

And remember to edit the vmt files so that in the basetexture it looks something like this:

"$baseTexture" "skybox/warmbk"

in this case my skybox is called warm and it's the back side ... but you propably knew that :biggrin:

that should do it! :biggrin:

Oh and for the surfaceprop(how it reacts to shoots etc.) i assigned it to:

"$surfaceprop" "default_silent"

But don't know if that is really a good thing, since atm my sky is flickering at random times... very strange :biggrin:

THANK YOU! Vassago5kft you are my hero! The trick to getting the textures to show in cs is to paste them into the cs materials folder. It might be different for you because of the sky texture stuff but i changed my lighting command and all my textures are working now.

Thanks again!

notnorm

ok i think i must be stupid... i compiled my tga into a vtf and into the ttm i put the following

{
"$baseTexture" "skybox/star"
"$skybox"
"$surfaceprop" "default_silent"
}

they are in the hl2mp/materials/skybox folder but are not showing in hammer what am i missing?

Do what vassago5kft did. But theres one step he left out. You need to embedd the textures for that skybox into your bsp. You can use bspzip to insert anything that is custom: Sounds, textures, even models.

Heres the valve tutorial:
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Bspzip

I think theres a typo under the "embedding files" section, which had me utterly confused. (-addlist should say -addfile at one point)

I Havn't had any luck with individual textures yet, but my 2d skybox and music work just fine.

good luck!

carcase, have a wee look at the date on the post before yours, and then the date on the post before that........

---

i eat paint

yar