Repair Textures to Fix Hats and Make Them Paintable in SFM

First off, I want to thank R234 for inspiring me to create these videos and make this guide. I credit him in my Part 5 video. Other people I want to thank are Raptorn, Zappy and PalmliX. They are all great advisors to the community and from what I've seen in the discussion group, have provided an answer or guidance to almost EVERY question posted.

Believe it or not, 2 days ago I had no idea on how to edit Layers, the process I used was to create a jpg and try to edit that into the material. This is a MUCH simpler method and uses the actual material VTF files. No Exporting required.

This is a six part series on how to repair materials in the Robotic Boogaloo Hats and Misc Items, the Heavy's ToughGuy Toque and the VooDoo JuJu to fix them from being black or glowing and display there proper colours. The fixes also allow you to apply paint to colour your hats and misc items to suit your personal tastes. For now, I am just posting links to my video tutorials on my YouTube channel. If needed, I'll post step by steps later, but I think you'll find that the videos are pretty straight forward. I don't edit them all, but the process to fix the ones I miss is pretty much the same.

The process I demonstrate here uses GIMP with the VTF plug in to access the layed material files associated with paintable items, repair them, then apply the layers and save them back to the TF folders in SFM. I also demonstrate using Notepad++ to edit the material VMT files and what needs to be changed within them to paint the items using RGB colour values.

As for the image editing program, you can use any editor that allows you to apply a masing layer to a material image. GIMP, Photoshop, and a program called Paint.net have plugins available so that you can work with the VTF directly, (you don't have to export the material using VTFEdit to work with it). I am not sure if the plugin for Photoshop works with the Photoshop Essentials version or not, I haven't tried it yet, so if someone out there does try it, please leave a comment here on whether it works or not.

The videos here are geared to the novice user. So yes, they may seem long, but that is the way I create my tutorials, so that the novice understand the process and sees it repeated a few times and he can work along with it.

For Those Who Can Learn Quickly

For those who can learn quickly and don't need a lot of explanation here's the process in a GIF image.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1339679582

Here is a link to the entire Robo Boogaloo package that has been repaired by Sync.

For those who do not want to go through the agony of repairing the items themselves, Sync. has repaired all the items and posted a workshop download below.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=239911131
All credit goes to Sync. for his effort.
(Beautiful Poster Sync. and the Community thanks you)

Now for Those Who Want to Learn... Samples of Before and After!!

Hats using their original Materials

A link to a collection of the textures and materials that I have fixed and posted to the workshop

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=543263005


Hats After their materials were edited


ToughGuy Toque and VooDoo JuJu Before

ToughGuy Toque and VooDoo JuJu After

Programs required for the process (and a couple of other vids)

This video discusses the various programs that will be required to fix the material VTF files and edit the VMT files.


https://youtu.be/PqpeZO2WzOw

How to get the Boogaloo items into SFM

https://youtu.be/WjLOiJfyhjo

Where to find the New TF2 VPK (Game Cache) files and how to extract them and get into SFM.

https://youtu.be/__e0hZV0dp4

Fixing the Robotic Boogaloo Medic's Archimedes

How to fix the Black Robo Archimedes and make it Paintable

https://youtu.be/GX1HIfLRDxI

Repairing the Heavy Bot's Tungsten Toque

How to fix the Tungsten Toque and a little secret on how to change the colour of the light on top.

This model appears translucient in SFM, even after applying the fix. I believe it has something to do with the ambient occulsion setting added to the model when it was compiled by the author. I'm still working on figuring out how to fix that, BUT, it does look alright in renders.

https://youtu.be/67ChqAAqbbQ

Repairing the Pyro Bot's Figment Filament

Hmmm, Your light bulb a little Glowy? Can't change the colour from White to anything else?
Want to change this


into this


or make it Red like this


This one is an easy fix, no need for a lengthy video!!! (Yeaaaaahhhh!!!!)

Here's the fix:

1. Go to folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SourceFilmmaker\game\tf\materials\models\workshop\player\items\pyro\robo_pyro_figment_filament and find the robo_pyro_figment_filament_1.vmt file

2. Open it in a text editor and find the line "$selfillum" "1"

3. change "$selfillum" "1" to "$selfillum" "0"

4. Save the file and over write the original

5. MAKE A BACK UP of the changed file.

Open SFM and load the Figment Filament and you'll find it clear, no glow.

Now to colour it simply change the RGB colours found in the "$colortint_base" "{ 100 87 76 }" line. To make it red like in the picture, the command would be "$colortint_base" "{ 255 0 0 }"

and that's it, you now have a functioning red Figment Filament.

Time lapse - Repairing the Robotic Boogaloo Gibus, Capotain, Demo Fro, Texastingallon, Last Watt and Baker Boy hats

This is a time lapse of me fixing the rest of the hats I had in the picture.

https://youtu.be/OjQ3jz1m9ZY

The process was pretty much the same as the first 2 I demonstrated.

• Search for the VTFs associated for the item being repaired,
  
• open them up in the image editor,
  
• inspect the base material to determine if it needs to be changed, if yes, initiate the mask layer,
  
• select the areas you don't want to change,
  
• then invert the selection,
  
• copy the selection,
  
• switch to the base material and make it the active edit,
  
• paste the selection,
  
• commit the floating layer,
  
• switch back to the mask layer,
  
• select the items you don't want to change,
  
• invert the selection then
  
• colour the selection pure white,
  
• apply the mask
  
• then export as a vtf back into the folder the original came from
  
• Overwrite the old file.

Repairing the Heavy's ToughGuy Toque

The ToughGuy Toque is a good example of selecting Items in a mixed colour environment. It demonstrates how to use a different selection tool and to combine the selections and get them pasted onto the base material.

https://youtu.be/euP5NuH0bzQ

Fixing the VooDoo JuJu - No material fixes require, just an edit to the VMT.

Now the JuJu has mystified a lot of us. It is nothing more than a white blob when imported into SFM. This is an example of a model and texture file that are perfectly fine. The actual problem lays in a setting used in the material's vmt file. A simple value fix in the vmt is all that is required.

https://youtu.be/i4WCaghXQ1E

Repairing the Magical Mercenary

http://youtu.be/s5-JdSMhZhY

Making the Hat with No Name Paintable

http://youtu.be/mkP3uuO8JOQ

Repairing the Cool Cat Cardigan

http://youtu.be/CEo9JfMGeOs

Material Fix Resource

Also here is a library of material fixes compiled by Sync. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=182880961
Fixes include dem Jujus, Filament and others. Go and have a look at it !

Nearly All The Material Fixes In 1 Pack !

All the Material Fixes, You Can Download it Here:

Note by PteJack about this material pack

I have downloaded this fix pack and have found that with changes to SFM since it was put together, a lot of the fixes just don't work. Models will go invisible or remain unpaintable. As such I have removed the link from this guide


https://www.dropbox.com/s/vuf9ovx1a5qlx62/Sfmmaterialsfixespack.rar

*Place The "Materials" Folder In Usermode OR Tf2 Folders, Copy and replace
Made By Doud!

Doud's Fix for Weapon Sheens and KillStreak Eyes

A Guide That i made for a Tricky Way on How To Make The sheens ?

Check This Guide:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=251231034

Need The Killstreaker Effects ?

R234 & Cmp™ Made This Easy Guide

Check the Guide:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=261359148

For Any Questions, Comment down below.

[TreekoGamer]

Indeeded.

[Pte Jack]

Never minded

[TreekoGamer]

nvm i fixed it.

[TreekoGamer]

One thing i noticed is some cosmetics like the Corona Australis or Byted Beak have grey eye textures that dont change color. If you have a way to fix this dm me.

[𝗣𝗨𝗗𝗗𝗜𝗡]

He never answer you.

Big F.

[Warrior Jar]

One more quick question, (Everything is working now luckily) to change the colour of the filamental, the guide says to enter its RGB, but doing it in SFM doesnt change much, does it mean change the RGB numbers in the script where you changed the selfillum 1 to 0?

[Warrior Jar]

Forgot to mention I'm going to try to verify my game files on both SFM and TF2, looking to see if that fixes it

[Warrior Jar]

Sorry for the late response, but I have no clue, Ill try to triple check everything and locate the file listed, but as of now it just isn't listed (unless I'm just being stupid)

[Pte Jack]

How can you not have the file listed, (unless they made an all-class one but I doubt it. Those are the files from the game.

[Warrior Jar]

I dont have the right filamental file that's listed in the fix, any suggestions?