Need helping making animated sprite texture for particle editor

[Catzzy :3]

I'm trying to make this image a sprite sheet with VTFEdit but it never works when i load the vmt in the particle editor (it's never animated)

[Zappy]

Originally posted by Proud to be American:

-Link-

That seems correct (especially as it plays within VTFEdit). Try saving that as a VTF file on your desktop or something, then close VTFEdit, re-open VTFEdit, open that VTF file, and click the "Play" button again. Is it still animated after rebooting VTFEdit?

[Catzzy :3]

It still does play after rebooting.

[Zappy]

Originally posted by Proud to be American:

It still does play after rebooting.

In that case, close VTFEdit, "cut" that VTF file, and then "paste" it in place of the old VTF file in Source Filmmaker's installation followed by rebooting Source Filmmaker. ("Cutting" and then "pasting" a file is equivalent to "moving" a file.)

[Catzzy :3]

I'm actually doing the particles in garry's mod, GMod feels easier for me anyways, I don't know why. I'm using these particles for SFM and GMod.

[Zappy]

Originally posted by Proud to be American:

I'm actually doing the particles in garry's mod, -

Regardless of that, your new VTF file is animated while your old one wasn't, so you should replace the old one with the new one.

[Catzzy :3]

I tested it out in the particle editor already and it's still not animated.

VMT Contents:

"UnlitGeneric"
{
"$baseTexture" "ultra_instinct"
"$surfaceprop" "Default"
"Proxies" 
{ 
"AnimatedTexture" 
{ 
"animatedTextureVar" "$basetexture" 
"animatedTextureFrameNumVar" "$frame" 
"animatedTextureFrameRate" "30" 
}
}
}

[Zappy]

Originally posted by Proud to be American:

I tested it out in the particle editor already and it's still not animated. VMT Contents: -Snipped-

The VMT's contents still appear correct. So... As a test, what happens if you change $BaseTexture's value to "effects/tiledfire/fireLayeredSlowTiled512"?

[Catzzy :3]

Nevermind I got it to work, but I have two issues, one is the black background is in the way (its visible), and two the particle is very small in width and very tall in height; https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1561910485

How do I fix this?
(I can probably just remove the black background in photoshop but that would take waaay to long)

[Zappy]

Originally posted by Proud to be American:

- the black background is in the way (its visible), -

Depending on what kind of result you're after, you may want to add $Additive to the VMT and set it to 1. (Make sure to do this between the first opening curly bracket and the "Proxies" part, such as between $BaseTexture and $SurfaceProp.)
This will make it so that the material adds brightness to what's behind it rather than overriding it, which will also make black parts of textures invisible.
(Depending on the particle, you may want to combine this with setting $Color to 0.5 or 0.2 or such, to make it not super-duper-bright.)

Originally posted by Proud to be American:

- two the particle is very small in width and very tall in height; -

I'm afraid that this is because that the texture is twice as wide as it is tall, requiring you to cut off 25% of the left and right of the texture(s).
You might be able to get away with adding the following to the VMT instead of that, though:

$BaseTextureTransform "Center .5 .5 Scale 1 .5 Rotate 0 Translate 0 0"

(Again, it should be between the first opening curly bracket and the "Proxies" part.)

[Catzzy :3]

Where would I add

 $BaseTextureTransform "Center .5 .5 Scale 1 .5 Rotate 0 Translate 0 0" 

though?

[Zappy]

Originally posted by Proud to be American:

Where would I add -Snip- though?

Basically the same place as $Additive 1. See my previous comment again, as I have edited it.

[Catzzy :3]

Originally posted by Zappy:

Originally posted by Proud to be American:

Where would I add -Snip- though?

Basically the same place as $Additive 1. See my previous comment again, as I have edited it.

Still don't really get it.

Current VMT contents:

"UnlitGeneric"
{
	"$baseTexture" "testlol"
	"$surfaceprop" "Default"
	"$additive" 1
 	$BaseTextureTransform "Center .5 .5 Scale 1 .5 Rotate 0 Translate 0 0"  
"Proxies" 
{ 
"AnimatedTexture" 
{ 
	"animatedTextureVar" "$basetexture" 
	"animatedTextureFrameNumVar" "$frame" 
	"animatedTextureFrameRate" "30" 
}
}
}

[Zappy]

Originally posted by Proud to be American:

Still don't really get it. Current VMT contents: -Snipped to keep the quote short-

It looks correct, though I'll admit that I'm unsure of if $BaseTextureTransform works for particles.

[Catzzy :3]

Originally posted by Zappy:

Originally posted by Proud to be American:

Still don't really get it. Current VMT contents: -Snipped to keep the quote short-

It looks correct, though I'll admit that I'm unsure of if $BaseTextureTransform works for particles.

Tried it but it doesn't do anything.

[Catzzy :3]

I also used this to but that doesn't work either.

"UnlitGeneric"
{
	"$baseTexture" "testlol"
	"$surfaceprop" "Default"
	"$additive" 1
"Proxies" 
{ 
"AnimatedTexture" 
{ 
	"animatedTextureVar" "$basetexture" 
	"animatedTextureFrameNumVar" "$frame" 
	"animatedTextureFrameRate" "30" 
 	$BaseTextureTransform "Center .5 .5 Scale 1 .5 Rotate 0 Translate 0 0"  
}
}
}