Problems with Hammer

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gooball
13 Posts
#62981
Posted Jan 16, 2012
I just downloaded P2 authoring tools and I can't get Hammer to work right. When I push new map, 4 black boxes come up. I can't make a brush or anything. And I do have experience with Quake III arena mapping as well. I checked the guides, wiki, and still couldnt get anything. Im running on Win XP. Any ideas?
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Lpfreaky90
2,842 Posts
#62982
Posted Jan 16, 2012
Replied 18 minutes later
Portal 2 authoring tools don't work on windows xp =(
Either fix windows 7 (rather expensive), or use the alien swarm sdk a nice tutorial is found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LGePWEF_Zo

Hope that helped :smile:

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ChickenMobile
2,460 Posts
#62997
Posted Jan 16, 2012
Replied 3 hours later

lpfreaky90 wrote:
Portal 2 authoring tools don't work on windows xp =(

That is silly. shakes fist at Valve for having awesome computers

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gooball
13 Posts
#63016
Posted Jan 17, 2012
Replied 11 hours later
Ok I watched the video and got everything set up, but when I click new map, and error says: "!!!!!Using invalid shader combo!!!!! Consult a programmer and tell them to build debug materialsystem.dll and stdshader*.dll. Run with "mat_bufferprimitives 0" and look for CMaterial in the call stack and see what m_pDebugName is. YOu are likely using a shader combo that has been skipped." and then the program crashes. help
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Spam Nugget
492 Posts
#63017
Posted Jan 17, 2012
Replied 24 minutes later
Well, what are you waiting for? Go consult a programmer!

(sorrry, couldnt help myself)

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wrathofmobius
216 Posts
#63024
Posted Jan 17, 2012
Replied 4 hours later

lpfreaky90 wrote:
Portal 2 authoring tools don't work on windows xp =(

Yeah, they do. I use WinXP for all of my mapping and it works perfectly. I think I'm running SP2.

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gooball
13 Posts
#63032
Posted Jan 17, 2012
Replied 3 hours later
Ok this isn't helping guys.
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Lpfreaky90
2,842 Posts
#63046
Posted Jan 17, 2012
Replied 1 hour later

wrathofmobius wrote:
lpfreaky90 wrote:

Portal 2 authoring tools don't work on windows xp =(

Yeah, they do. I use WinXP for all of my mapping and it works perfectly. I think I'm running SP2.

Correction: it didn't work on windows xp, it has been fixed since:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/s ... ?t=1883472

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wrathofmobius
216 Posts
#63062
Posted Jan 17, 2012
Replied 5 hours later

gooball wrote:
Ok this isn't helping guys.

I disagree. We've removed one possibility, now to narrow down the rest.
Screenshots would help. In the top-left viewport, is there something that says "camera"? If so, click it and select a 2d view. Then click it again and go to 3d textured. If this doesn't fix it, please post screenshots. I remember having a similar problem but this fixed it.
If all else fails, try verifying Portal 2's cache files and/or reinstalling.
EDIT: Wait, derp. I didn't realize you were using Alien Swarm's SDK. If you want to give this a try in the P2AT, let me know how it works.

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ChickenMobile
2,460 Posts
#63065
Posted Jan 17, 2012
Replied 17 minutes later
Gooball, I would suggest uninstalling the portal 2 authoring tools and then redownloading them again. If you followed a video in order to 'get the grid back' you might have entered invalid path for the texture packs for portal 2 (as you might have put the hl2 directory etc.).

This is what your Hammer options should look like:
img

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gooball
13 Posts
#63068
Posted Jan 18, 2012
Replied 7 hours later
Sorry guys about that post up there. P2AT works and so does hammer but the grid lines don't show up. Same with Alien Swarm SDK. I'll try your ideas.
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Lpfreaky90
2,842 Posts
#63069
Posted Jan 18, 2012
Replied 51 minutes later

gooball wrote:
Sorry guys about that post up there. P2AT works and so does hammer but the grid lines don't show up. Same with Alien Swarm SDK. I'll try your ideas.

have you tried this button yet:
img

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ChickenMobile
2,460 Posts
#63072
Posted Jan 18, 2012
Replied 7 hours later

lpfreaky90 wrote:
gooball wrote:

Sorry guys about that post up there. P2AT works and so does hammer but the grid lines don't show up. Same with Alien Swarm SDK. I'll try your ideas.

have you tried this button yet:
img

Good chances that isn't the problem. The grid not showing up is a common error within SourceSDK, usually created by the wrong config in SourceSDK/bin/ep1(or orangebox)/bin/GameConfig.txt OR by using the incorrect engine. e.g. you use 2006 for a 2007 engine game.

Since this is happening in Alien Swarm SDK and Portal 2 Authoring Tools the directory would be \Steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\bin\GameConfig.txt OR Steam\steamapps\common\alien swarm\bin\GameConfig.txt. Make sure that your paths are correct.

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Spam Nugget
492 Posts
#63073
Posted Jan 18, 2012
Replied 33 minutes later
shift-r toggles grid lines, though i suspect that your problem is a bit more complicated.
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gooball
13 Posts
#63074
Posted Jan 18, 2012
Replied 2 minutes later
I think I found the problem. I have 2 computers. I is a mac, the one I play Portal 2 on. The windows XP is the one with P2AT. I installed P2 on the XP and when I try playing it, I see the same thing I see with Hammer, black. Same with the Model Viewer. So, basically, nothing on the XP that has to do with P2 doesn't work. I have a Vista, but it has a virus and I haven't turned the thing on in months.
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ChickenMobile
2,460 Posts
#63087
Posted Jan 19, 2012
Replied 8 hours later
Do you have any other source games (like hl2 or tf2) installed? Try opening SourceSDK and running Hammer for another game to see if it is a compatibility issue.
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gooball
13 Posts
#63101
Posted Jan 19, 2012
Replied 6 hours later
Nope, the only SDK's I have are Portal 2 and Alien Swarm.
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wrathofmobius
216 Posts
#63147
Posted Jan 19, 2012
Replied 15 hours later
Try downloading TF2 (it's free) and seeing if the Source SDK works then.
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gooball
13 Posts
#63228
Posted Jan 20, 2012
Replied 1 day later
I did. Nothing.
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wrathofmobius
216 Posts
#63238
Posted Jan 20, 2012
Replied 1 hour later

I found this: http://forums.blackmesasource.com/showthread.php?t=5706

King_Kaddo wrote:
finally found a fix for Hammer Editor showing no grid and displaying every entity with a black box. I searched a lot in the internet but couldn't find a good way so I tried it by myself.

Just copy and overwrite all the .dll files from
C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps*username\sourcesdk\bin\ora ngebox\bin
into
[Source Engine 2007]
C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps*username\sourcesd\bin\sour ce2007\bin
or
[Source Engine 2006]
C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps*username*\sourcesdk\bin\ep1 \bin

You don't need to copy all of the dlls. Only a few are responsible for the bug but it is easier just to copy all the dlls.

hammer_dll
MaterialSystem
shaderapidx9
stdshader_dx9
tier0
vguimatsurface
...

have to get replaced
Otherwise Hammer doesn't start properly.
Have fun.

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