Where can I find models besides source filmmaker workshop?

[Pepe in a black hood]

What are some good sites besides here where I could find some more source filmmaker models? Like mei from overwatch which I've seen people using. Sites that are safe and aren't sketchy and would not require signing in

[EmperorFaiz.wav]

Firstly, SFMLab.com for more assets. It's pretty much the second most popular SFM repository site after the workshop. Plus, signing up gives you access to their "special" assets.

Secondly, Gmod workshop if you already have Gmod. Use Gmad extractor to extract the source files before importing.

[Marco Skoll]

If you want to get the most out of SFMLab, you will have to sign up.

A lot of the best models over there, while they do come with clothes and can therefore be used in family safe scenes, will also go nude and thus don't show on the search or browsing pages unless you're logged in with NSFW content enabled.

[Pepe in a black hood]

And once I download SFMlab files do I need to do anything convoluted to get it to work? Or will it just automatically be usable in source filmmaker

[Marco Skoll]

Originally posted by That festive guy in a black hood:

And once I download SFMlab files do I need to do anything convoluted to get it to work?

Correctly installing custom content to SFM is more complex than lazily installing it, but it's a good idea to do it properly, as it can save you a lot of trouble in the long run.

Lots of people will tell you to install to usermod, but this is a bad idea for several reasons you probably won't want to hear all the details of, so I'll just suffice to say it can cause a lot of problems, either immediately or in the long run.

~~~~~

Right-click Source FilmMaker in your Steam library (in the "Installed" or "Software" tab), and choose "Properties" > "Local Files" > "Browse Local Files...". A File Explorer window should now open inside of Source FilmMaker's installation directory.

Now navigate into the "game" folder, and make a new folder. You can call it whatever you want, although being descriptive and well organised is a good idea. For example - "Bioshock", "Tomb Raider", "Overwatch", "Warhammer", etc.
(Obviously, you don't need to make a new folder every time, but the general rule is to not install to any of SFM's default folders except if specifically updating content extracted from the game the folder is for).

In this example, we'll assume that "customstuff" is the new folder's name.

Now you've got a "customstuff" folder, unzip your download (you will need a program like 7zip to unzip .rar or .7z files) and navigate through it until you have a collection of folders called things like "maps", "models", "materials", "sounds", "scripts" and the like. (Not all of these folders will be in all downloads).

Now copy those folders into your -/SourceFilmmaker/game/customstuff/ folder.

If the folder you've installed to is a new one, you'll need to right-click Source FilmMaker in your Steam library, choose "Launch SDK", click "Edit Search Paths For Selected Mod", and tick the box for "customstuff" on the list.

[TheoSki]

Originally posted by Marco Skoll:

Originally posted by That festive guy in a black hood:

And once I download SFMlab files do I need to do anything convoluted to get it to work?

Correctly installing custom content to SFM is more complex than lazily installing it, but it's a good idea to do it properly, as it can save you a lot of trouble in the long run.

Lots of people will tell you to install to usermod, but this is a bad idea for several reasons you probably won't want to hear all the details of, so I'll just suffice to say it can cause a lot of problems, either immediately or in the long run.

~~~~~

Right-click Source FilmMaker in your Steam library (in the "Installed" or "Software" tab), and choose "Properties" > "Local Files" > "Browse Local Files...". A File Explorer window should now open inside of Source FilmMaker's installation directory.

Now navigate into the "game" folder, and make a new folder. You can call it whatever you want, although being descriptive and well organised is a good idea. For example - "Bioshock", "Tomb Raider", "Overwatch", "Warhammer", etc.
(Obviously, you don't need to make a new folder every time, but the general rule is to not install to any of SFM's default folders except if specifically updating content extracted from the game the folder is for).

In this example, we'll assume that "customstuff" is the new folder's name.

Now you've got a "customstuff" folder, unzip your download (you will need a program like 7zip to unzip .rar or .7z files) and navigate through it until you have a collection of folders called things like "maps", "models", "materials", "sounds", "scripts" and the like. (Not all of these folders will be in all downloads).

Now copy those folders into your -/SourceFilmmaker/game/customstuff/ folder.

If the folder you've installed to is a new one, you'll need to right-click Source FilmMaker in your Steam library, choose "Launch SDK", click "Edit Search Paths For Selected Mod", and tick the box for "customstuff" on the list.

Interesting point on the usermod folder. Could you elaborate for me? All I've been doing is throwing stuff in usermod

Edit: Never mind, read your other post!

[Marco Skoll]

Originally posted by OhIDunnoRick:

Interesting point on the usermod folder. Could you elaborate for me? All I've been doing is throwing stuff in usermod

The three serious issues are:

1) It's a critical folder. Installing the wrong thing in here can overwrite important SFM files.

2) It's the master folder (and cannot be reorganised in the search paths). Putting things in here can override important SFM files (particularly if the files are from other Source games, which should *definitely* be put in their own mod).

3) Indexing overflows. SFM only has so large an index to use. If it tries to index too much content (as your installation naturally grows), it will crash with an CUtIRBTree error. It needs to be resolved by disabling content folders that aren't currently being used for a project using the SDK*, but if everything is just in usermod, there is no way to resolve this error - a) it's the master folder and cannot be disabled in the index and b) the content will be so poorly organised you can't disable specific parts of it anyway.

(e.g. If I know I'm not using Overwatch models because this is a Warhammer animation, I can just turn off the Overwatch folder and SFM won't try to index or load them).

And a smaller one:

4) You can't use the mod filter in the SFM search to anything like the same degree. If I know a specific model is in my "Mass Effect" folder, I can automatically filter out anything else in the Search, which means that SFM won't try and cache it to preview it in the model window, saving on memory usage.

[Pepe in a black hood]

Well that's a lot to take in! It sounds like a pain so I think I'll wait to see if any of the models I want get uploaded here 1st before I try getting them elsewhere and having to do all this complicated stuff

[Marco Skoll]

It's not a pain. Putting aside the explanation the why you do it, the how is a process of "Make a folder, put stuff in that folder, tell SFM to load that folder" (and once you've got a folder suitable for given content, the process just becomes "put stuff in that folder").

Once you're familiar with the process, it takes less than a minute to do. (And the "tell SFM to load that folder" part is a process you've already had to do to get the workshop to work).

In any case, anything on SFMLab that's not already uploaded to the SFM workshop is unlikely to get uploaded here.

[gamer1912]

I found it difficult to execute a model, so I found a great freelancer to do the render for me here https://t.co/ho2fkjD4aS