[SOLVED] Packing Custom Content

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wrathofmobius
216 Posts
Posted Aug 26, 2012
I'm having a lot of difficulty packing custom content for a map on the Workshop. I open Pakrat, open the BSP, hit "Add", select the containing folders for the custom materials, and then hit Save. Then, I use p2map_publish to upload to the Workshop. However, when a friend tries the map, the custom materials show up as blank white and the cubemaps are broken. Did I do anything wrong while packing?

EDIT: Turns out the person downloading it from the Workshop wasn't redownloading every iteration. I tried it with someone else and it worked.

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ChickenMobile
2,460 Posts
Posted Aug 26, 2012
Replied 1 hour later
I would use the auto button first and then add in any other files manually that didn't appear through the auto.

You might have missed the texture - therefore ask for a screenshot from your friend to where missing textures are.

EDIT: also always make sure to say yes when it asks to fix up the name.

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Skotty
671 Posts
Posted Aug 27, 2012
Replied 7 hours later
Just for completeness: Textfiles (Soundscapes, LevelSound scripts) don't get a correct path fixup. Besides this I had a problem with custom level sounds in Portal 2, they weren't load by the game if packed into the map.
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Robdon
204 Posts
Posted Aug 27, 2012
Replied 5 minutes later
Also, you cant pack .BIK video files into maps either, it just doesnt seem to work at all :sad:
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FourthReaper
356 Posts
Posted Aug 27, 2012
Replied 3 hours later
I know this isn't what your problem is, but when you add a custom vscript (.nut) it won't ask you to change the fixup path either, so you have to manually do that. I learnt that the hard way. :wink:

As for the cubemaps, did you save the bsp with a different name, perhaps? That might be a problem, so you have to rebuild cubemaps. I'd just save over the non-packed one though, as you can only break the bsp (which you can easily rebuild), and it does make a back-up bsp file.

ChickenMobile wrote:
I would use the auto button first and then add in any other files manually that didn't appear through the auto.

Strange, that never works for me it seems. I always add my files in manually.

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HalfPortalLife3
20 Posts
Posted Aug 27, 2012
Replied 8 hours later
Quick question, what happens if you don't pack something that has a custom model, custom animation, and custom particles? Specifically what I'm asking is what happens if you don't pack HEPs in a BEEmod map and someone plays it without installing the BEE.
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Skotty
671 Posts
Posted Aug 27, 2012
Replied 45 minutes later
If someone doesnt has the content, it just doesnt load.
For models a big red ERROR appears.
For sounds, nothing happens.
For textures, ugly visibility bugs can happen if they are on brushes. On models they just get replaced by a default texture.
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FelixGriffin
2,680 Posts
Posted Aug 27, 2012
Replied 27 minutes later
Actually, Portal 2 changed some of those. The ugly ERROR is blue, missing sounds are replaced by some guy saying "Aw, fiddlesticks, what now?!", and particles become a huge spray of red X's.
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Skotty
671 Posts
Posted Aug 27, 2012
Replied 9 minutes later

FelixGriffin wrote:
Actually, Portal 2 changed some of those. The ugly ERROR is blue, missing sounds are replaced by some guy saying "Aw, fiddlesticks, what now?!", and particles become a huge spray of red X's.

Some guy? That's Dr. Isaac Kleiner!

Yes, it's still red for all old school mappers :razz:

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ChickenMobile
2,460 Posts
Posted Aug 27, 2012
Replied 20 minutes later
The only thing that doesn't auto add for me is scripts, materials for models and materials that aren't "lightmappedgeneric" - however all of them ask to fix up the path name.
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josepezdj
2,386 Posts
Posted Sep 05, 2012
Replied 8 days later

ChickenMobile wrote:
and materials that aren't "lightmappedgeneric"

Well, it packs "UnlitGeneric" ones too, the skybox's...

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Skotty
671 Posts
Posted Sep 05, 2012
Replied 55 minutes later
Normally it packs everything it can find, but sometimes packrat has some issues. For some of my custom models it doesn't pack in the materials. Maybe there is a little bug somewhere in Packrat.
But besides this, it should work with all things that were known when the last Packrat version came out.
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josepezdj
2,386 Posts
Posted Sep 05, 2012
Replied 34 minutes later
Skotty, it doesn't pack any of my custom models' textures, I had to do it manually.

But related to this, it happened one thing to me that I'd like to clarify: you know the models I made were created using Propper from brushes, well, I used 2 custom textures I had in my materials folder (into josepezdj folder); after creating the props and their vertex textures were created, I simply placed these textures in their right place into materials/models/props/etc. and I can see them perfect in hammer and in game... but I embedded into the bsp with pakrat, and to my surprise, one of the 2 textures of 1 custom model was missing. It took me some time but I finally found that the model was using, not only its vertex texture, but also that custom one I have into materials/josepezdj (which wasn't included into the bsp because I only used it for these models... not anywhere else in the map)... is this normal? maybe something related more to Propper than other?

Thanks in advance dude :thumbup:

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Skotty
671 Posts
Posted Sep 05, 2012
Replied 2 hours later
Propper just creates new VMT files, using the originals and just changing the shader of "LightmappedGeneric" to "VertexLitGeneric". The VTF can be anywhere, but you need this new VMT that uses a model shader.
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josepezdj
2,386 Posts
Posted Sep 05, 2012
Replied 19 minutes later
Yeah I guessed that: the vertex texture I mentioned was that .vmt... and I now know it's normal it uses the .vtf texture. Thanks for clarifying.