Forum | Thinking With Portals

#11 · May 28, 2012, 10:25 am

Quote from josepezdj on May 28, 2012, 10:25 am
Hey MWP, now that you bumped this thread up, I'll try to help you out with this:

1. All skybox files should be located into your portal2/portal2/materials/skybox folder in order to work out for Portal2 (many skyboxes are located into the pak01_dir.vpk file though; you can open it with GCFScape). You should usually have 6 pairs of files (the 6 sides of a cube), a .vmt and a .vtf for each side.

2. In order to edit the .vmt files you can use whatever text editor including the simple notepad.

3. For the CSS's militia skybox, if textures are not in materials/skybox you could usually find it into the following file:
steamappscounter-strike source shared.gcf

that you can also open it with GCFScape and it'll look like this:

[spoiler][/spoiler]
Now go into the cstrike folder:

[spoiler][/spoiler]
Navigate to materials/skybox and find the militia skybox textures in there (remember you'll need the 6 .vmt files + 6 .vtf files). Then click the right button of your mouse and select "Extract", then select whatever location into your computer.

I don't really know which .vtf version will these textures be, but Portal2 needs at least 7.4 in order to work, better 7.5. This can be easily changed by editting the .vtf with a HEX editor, but this is what I'd suggest instead in order to have a seamless sky (if you check the image that the OP posted, there are some white lines where the 6 sides textures meet, the following aboids that):

1. Open each of the .vtf files with VTFEdit and export them as .tga files for example. Try to preserve the names as each texture has a UP file, DN (down), RT (right), LF (left), FT (front) and BK (back).

2. Open each of the .tga files with Paint.Net (you can do this with Photoshop as well though). And save them as .vtf files (for this you will need a this plugin; or this one if you use Photoshop) with this important settings (the following tabs are Paint.Net's):

- General tab = Template: leave it empty / Image Format: ABGR8888 or DXT5 (Common)
- Flags tab = Tick "Clamp T", "Clamp S", "Hint DTX5", "Anisotropic" and "Eight bit Alpha"
- Advanced tab = Version: 7.5

(leave the rest tabs as they are)

3. Now edit each .vmt file and make sure each has got the following inside:

Code: Select all

"UnlitGeneric" "$basetexture" "skybox/[name of each .vtf file] "$nofog" "1" "$ignorez" "1" }

4. Please all files (total 12) into Portal2/Portal2/materials/skybox folder.

5. Now go to Hammer, open your map > map properties > skybox > [skybox name]. This is important: if your files names are for example militia_up, militia_dn, etc. you should put in skybox name "militia_". If the name is something like militiaup, militiadn, etc. just put "militia".

That's all! . You should make it to work with all that information.

If not, PLEASE post the error you have or the image so we can see what's happening.

Good luck.

Hey MWP, now that you bumped this thread up, I'll try to help you out with this:

1. All skybox files should be located into your portal2/portal2/materials/skybox folder in order to work out for Portal2 (many skyboxes are located into the pak01_dir.vpk file though; you can open it with GCFScape). You should usually have 6 pairs of files (the 6 sides of a cube), a .vmt and a .vtf for each side.

2. In order to edit the .vmt files you can use whatever text editor including the simple notepad.

3. For the CSS's militia skybox, if textures are not in materials/skybox you could usually find it into the following file:
steamappscounter-strike source shared.gcf

that you can also open it with GCFScape and it'll look like this:

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

Now go into the cstrike folder:

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

Navigate to materials/skybox and find the militia skybox textures in there (remember you'll need the 6 .vmt files + 6 .vtf files). Then click the right button of your mouse and select "Extract", then select whatever location into your computer.

I don't really know which .vtf version will these textures be, but Portal2 needs at least 7.4 in order to work, better 7.5. This can be easily changed by editting the .vtf with a HEX editor, but this is what I'd suggest instead in order to have a seamless sky (if you check the image that the OP posted, there are some white lines where the 6 sides textures meet, the following aboids that):

1. Open each of the .vtf files with VTFEdit and export them as .tga files for example. Try to preserve the names as each texture has a UP file, DN (down), RT (right), LF (left), FT (front) and BK (back).

2. Open each of the .tga files with Paint.Net (you can do this with Photoshop as well though). And save them as .vtf files (for this you will need a this plugin; or this one if you use Photoshop) with this important settings (the following tabs are Paint.Net's):

- General tab = Template: leave it empty / Image Format: ABGR8888 or DXT5 (Common)
- Flags tab = Tick "Clamp T", "Clamp S", "Hint DTX5", "Anisotropic" and "Eight bit Alpha"
- Advanced tab = Version: 7.5

(leave the rest tabs as they are)

3. Now edit each .vmt file and make sure each has got the following inside:

Code: Select all: "UnlitGeneric" "$basetexture" "skybox/[name of each .vtf file] "$nofog" "1" "$ignorez" "1" }

4. Please all files (total 12) into Portal2/Portal2/materials/skybox folder.

5. Now go to Hammer, open your map > map properties > skybox > [skybox name]. This is important: if your files names are for example militia_up, militia_dn, etc. you should put in skybox name "militia_". If the name is something like militiaup, militiadn, etc. just put "militia".

That's all! . You should make it to work with all that information.

If not, PLEASE post the error you have or the image so we can see what's happening.

Good luck.

useful tools and stuff here on TWP :thumbup:

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

#12 · May 28, 2012, 12:25 pm

Thank you very much for that excellent detailed description!
I got to the point of conferting the .vtf's to .tga's. (It says paint .NET Image after installing paint net) But in paint net the textures are white and grey checker boards... (they looked good in VTFEdit..)

Is that right?..

Thanks again for all your help! <3
MWP

EDIT: And the - General tab, Flags tab and Advanced tab are in paint.NET?
EDIT 2: Found the tabs in VTFEdit!..
EDIT 3: I can't click the eight ball alpva in VTFEdit, and i see you said in piant.NET...

#13 · May 28, 2012, 12:38 pm

1. About the image file, well, you can export to whatever other image format, such as .jpg, .bmp, etc. It's not normal the grey/white checkerboards.

2. The tabs I'm mentioning appear in Paint.Net when you start "saving as... vtf". Not ealier! Be sure you downloaded and installed the .vtf plugin for Paint.Net I mentioned, ok?

useful tools and stuff here on TWP :thumbup:

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

#14 · May 28, 2012, 12:41 pm

Ah.. I thought that those where for photoshop use...
Thanks again!

#15 · May 28, 2012, 12:57 pm

I did the .vtf addon for paint .NET but I still only see checkerboards..
I will install paint .NET + addons again, hopefully it fixes the problem.

#16 · May 28, 2012, 1:13 pm

Checkerboards should mean that your VMT file has the wrong path to the VTF file.

List of Maps, Models, Textures, Instances.

#17 · May 28, 2012, 2:42 pm

MWP wrote:

I did the .vtf addon for paint .NET but I still only see checkerboards..

I will install paint .NET + addons again, hopefully it fixes the problem.

OK, step by step:

1. First open each file with VTFEdit, and then export each image to .jpg for example.

2. Now download the Paint.Net's vtf plugin and place each of the 3 files into Paint.NETFileTypes folder

3. Now just open each .jpg file with Paint.Net. You should be able to watch them clearly like this example:
sky_day01_07bk.jpg

Spoiler

Sorry, only logged-in users can see spoilers.

4. And now you should save each of those .jpg as .vtf files (here is where the plugin is needed)

5. Follow the instructions into each tab as I mentioned above.

Skotty wrote:

Checkerboards should mean that your VMT file has the wrong path to the VTF file.

Well, as long as he didn't mean in hammer, the .vmt has nothing to do with this. I bet more for an alpha channel transparency image in which those grey/white checker boards are typical for the backgrounds.

MWP, if you still don't seem to get it, post your .vtf files and I'll make it for you.

useful tools and stuff here on TWP :thumbup:

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

#18 · May 28, 2012, 2:51 pm

Got it!!

The militia skybox texture has 12 .vtf files, there are hdr types too... If I had chosen a different skybox texrure (one without hdr) i've gotten it my first try but it took me some time to figure it out...

For these hdr skybox textures the vmt should be:

Code: Select all: "UnlitGeneric" { "$hdrbaseTexture" "skybox/militia_hdrbk" "$baseTexture" "skybox/militiaBK" "$nofog" 1 }

Thank you josepezdj! :notworthy: You've been great help. I really appreciate it! I let you know when the map is finishd..

#19 · May 28, 2012, 3:19 pm

Good to hear that!... Sorry that I didn't know about that specific skybox :oops: to tell you about the other files! Looking forward to see your map!

useful tools and stuff here on TWP :thumbup:

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

#20 · May 28, 2012, 6:37 pm

No problem man. If it wasn't for you my sky didn't look like this now.
http://s1251.photobucket.com/albums/hh5 ... rld_01.jpg

Thanks again!
:cube:

Skybox Problems