Black Models in Hammer

After a lot of fruitless searching around various forums (SnarkPit, VERC, etc), I'm going to have to resort to begging: please help!

Any model that I try to place in Hammer, be it an info_player_start, an npc, or even point-based entities (i.e point camera) all appear black in Hammer, sometimes with a montage of blue. Here's an example:

http://www.m0px.net/users/anthony/blackgman.JPG

This looks like a skin loading problem to me, but I've no idea why it's doing that. HLMV shows the models perfectly. This problem is the same for all games (HL2, HL2DM and CS:S). Hammer has been setup correctly for each of these games as well. If you need more info, request it.

In the other thread I posted in the wrong forum, Orpheus suggests I post my GFX card specs.

nVidia GeForce4 MX440 8AGP 64Megs running the latest driver

Could my crappy card be doing it? If so, why does the skin show in HLMV as well as HL2 itself?

Just letting you know I deleted the topic from the HL editing section.
I'm afraid I've never heard of this problem before so I can't help you
out :sad: Its possibly to do with not having enough video memory to load
in the skins, and hammer prioritises textures instead or something.

I have the same problem, but I see no reason to bother fixing it. After all, if I want to see the model's skin I can just use HLMV.

I have the same problem also. If I were to play the .bmp, would the models look fine? If so, I dont see a problem with it seeing as I know what they are.

I do though...
It's very annoying having to go through HLMV to check out the skins. I want to see it in Hammer so I can see how textures and skins blend and clash. Secondly, it's a lot harder to determine the shape of the model sometimes because there's nothing to define it.

i still say its driver related, but i suggest that each of you with this issue post the cards you have, and the drivers you are using.. look for commonalities.

perhaps, its a bug yet to be addressed. shrugs

reminds snarkpit members

remember all the video issues i had with the taboo version? they sorted themselves out with the next driver version.

Perhaps a combination of a Hammer/driver bug? Why would HLMV show the skins and not Hammer? HL2 and the rest all run fine...

Just a note: I'm running nVidia's drivers for Windows XP, version 66.93 as well as DirectX 9c.

heres a thought, runs msconfig, turn everything off.. everything.

reboot and then reload the editor, perhaps something is using the driver and causing a conflict.

also, did you try the drivers at omega

one last thing to consider.. if your card cannot handle direct X 9.0c, the newest version, it may be borking.. problem is, you cannot uninstall direct X drivers, so you are stuck with them.. tough luck guys.

a 440 is a very old card.

I'll check out the Omega drivers.

I actually just upgraded DirectX from b to c. Seems to be fine.
I hope to upgrade soon to the Radeon9800 Pro 256MB. Should do the trick! :wink:

Could it be there is no lighting in the level? I know when I occasionally use CryEngine Sandbox, if objects have no lighting they appear black.

I have a Geforce4 MX4000 card, and HL2 sent me to some site for the latest driver for my card before I could play, so I did that. I still have DirectX 9b though.

I thought about the lighting thing too, but I am still kinda teh suck with Hammer, so I probably screwed it up. I will have to try again.

Nah, I tried adding some lighting. Doesn't work.

I'll check out the Omega drivers.

I actually just upgraded DirectX from b to c. Seems to be fine.
I hope to upgrade soon to the Radeon9800 Pro 256MB. Should do the trick! :wink:

I suggest just going for the 128MB version. The only difference you'll
see is a heftier wallet by going with the 128. Just be sure it's
256-bit.

Well I checked out the Omega drivers and they didn't change the problem. I think the problem is the GFX card itself. So far, I've seen it affect only nVidia's cards (particularly the GeForce 4 MX440 etc) with the possible inclusion of older Ati cards.

There is no solution to this problem apart from updating your GFX card (that, or remain hopeful that VALVe will release a patch to fix it :wink: ).

The actual card I'll be getting soon is a 9800SE not a Pro. I think this, in the combination with all the other upgrades should run HL2 at a very comfortable level. I won't be able to purchase the Pro (too expensive) so don't try and make me. :wink:
Here's a list of the parts if your extremly bored and very interested: http://www.m0px.net/users/anthony/PC%20Shopping%20List.doc

Anywho, thanks for your help everyone with this problem. If anyone has a similar problem, post your GFX card specs here please.

Actually, I managed to get a solution to it, and it was infact lights. In Hammer, all of the models are black, but once I finally put a light in my map and compiled, I could see all models and such like they were normal.

It worked for me atleast.

I had this same problem and, for me at least, it was something to do
with a corrupt cache file. Try identifying your .gcf that is
responsible for those textures/models and redownloading. Also, make
sure your games are on autoupdate as this sometimes causes caches to
grow "stale" from not being the latest version and you get cache probs.

EDIT:

As for my gfx card I'm using a GEForce 4 4600 128MB. Not an ultra or anything but a decent card. :smile:

Has anyone though to look at the "Model Render Distance" found in 3D View tab of the Hammer Configuration window?

That's got nothing to do with the problem.

I think it just has to do with nVidia cards becuase i noticed the 3
people are having this problem (including myself) becuase if i add alot
of props to geather i cant tell whats going on becuase everything will
be all black!!!

i get the same problem on my bad computer but when i run the map on me
good one the map looks fine i think it is to do with the graphix card
or the drivers on my bad comp i run a radeon 7000 and on the good one a
9500. but i noticed when i compiled the map i get a bit of colour
sometimes asin my hands go green, blue or red. so it could be something
else.

coldbladed: Sorry, that isn't the answer. It's a bug with the lower-end nVidia cards.

Ok i just bought the ATI Radeon 9250 video card, and everything in
hammer works fine visualy! I just think its the cards that got 125MB's
in it