Mixing Game Assets

[Jimmy Lander]

I would like to work with both Half-Life 2 and CS:S assets in the hammer, but how do I do that? So far I've only worked with the contents of one game. I want to use both games' stuff in a single map so I gotta find a way to do it. If anybody knows please help, I'd be very thankful!

[Peter Brev]

First, you'll need GCFScape[nemesis.thewavelength.net]. You'll need to extract the content from the .vpk that are inside each game's folder respectively. So, if you want to extract HL2's content, you'd go to X:\...\Steam\steamapps\common\Half-Life 2\hl2 and open the .vpk (the one called hl2_pak_dir.vpk) and extract the files.

Once done, simply go your game's folder (the game you are mapping for), and inside it, you will have a custom folder, create a folder called my_custom_stuff in it and paste your materials, models, sound, and any other folders inside.

[Moltard]

Css got all hl2 content. So you should just use css hammer ;)

[StealthMode℠™©®]

What Moltard said. Use css option in hammer, you have all the hl2 mats in cs:source under hammer.

[Jimmy Lander]

Originally posted by StealthMode:

What Moltard said. Use css option in hammer, you have all the hl2 mats in cs:source under hammer.

CS:S has all of HL2's episodic contents too? Hmm, I'll try it although I have my doubts :D thanks, I'll post results as soon as possible ^_^

[Moltard]

Originally posted by Jimmy Lander:

Originally posted by StealthMode:

What Moltard said. Use css option in hammer, you have all the hl2 mats in cs:source under hammer.

CS:S has all of HL2's episodic contents too? Hmm, I'll try it although I have my doubts :D thanks, I'll post results as soon as possible ^_^

it doesnt have the episodic. Only the original HL2.

You can probably edit some gameinfo.txt so it load the vpks.

Edit hl2 gameinfo, make it load css vpk, so you can use hl2 hammer that will load HL2,Ep1,Ep2 and CS:S content

[Jimmy Lander]

Alright I'll have to look this up later and see if I can pull it off. >.< thanks

[Jimmy Lander]

Originally posted by speedvoltage:

First, you'll need GCFScape[nemesis.thewavelength.net]. You'll need to extract the content from the .vpk that are inside each game's folder respectively. So, if you want to extract HL2's content, you'd go to X:\...\Steam\steamapps\common\Half-Life 2\hl2 and open the .vpk (the one called hl2_pak_dir.vpk) and extract the files.

Once done, simply go your game's folder (the game you are mapping for), and inside it, you will have a custom folder, create a folder called my_custom_stuff in it and paste your materials, models, sound, and any other folders inside.

Only the "hl2_pak_dir.vpk"? Because there's a lot of VPKs in there. And where is this "Custom" folder supposed to be? :o (note: aiming to do this with CS:GO as of now)

[Peter Brev]

Originally posted by Jimmy Lander:

Originally posted by speedvoltage:

First, you'll need GCFScape[nemesis.thewavelength.net]. You'll need to extract the content from the .vpk that are inside each game's folder respectively. So, if you want to extract HL2's content, you'd go to X:\...\Steam\steamapps\common\Half-Life 2\hl2 and open the .vpk (the one called hl2_pak_dir.vpk) and extract the files.

Once done, simply go your game's folder (the game you are mapping for), and inside it, you will have a custom folder, create a folder called my_custom_stuff in it and paste your materials, models, sound, and any other folders inside.

Only the "hl2_pak_dir.vpk"? Because there's a lot of VPKs in there. And where is this "Custom" folder supposed to be? :o (note: aiming to do this with CS:GO as of now)

With vpks, you only need to put your attention on those with _dir. Those with numbers are not important for what you are doing.

If you want to import custom content to CSGO, easiest way to do it is to paste your materials, models, sound folders (or w/e folders you have) into X:\...\SteamApps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive.
However, in my experience, CSGO is quite annoying when dealing with custom content as it causes all sorts of problems when playing on official servers. So just make a back up of your pure game folders before pasting new content in them, so that you can revert back in case you want to play a game.

[Snoopy]

If you don't want to mess up your game folder(s) with additional resources for mapping do this...

Create a new /DEV folder on your drive and recreate the .../common/{game}... folder structure within it. Extract the needed resources from the VPKs into your new working environment.
Edit the Hammer Options to use the resources in the new location.

Now you can create your map, pak the resources in it and test it in your real game.
With this method you will keep your dev stuff entirely separate from your playable game.

[Jimmy Lander]

So to sum it up: If I want to add CS:GO content to Hl2 ep1 so I can use both their assets in a single map I have to download GFCScape, extract every .vpk that has "dir" in it from CS:GO and then put it all to X:\...\SteamApps\common\Half-Life 2\episodic [aka ep1's folder], but I have to make sure I copy the original structure of the folder elsewhere in case something goes wrong. The folders will merge and everything should (?) be working. If anything I said is stupid/incorrect pls be patient with me >.< Thanks all!

[Snoopy]

You can have your map making resources anywhere as long as the folder structure you see in the gcfs/vpks remains intact. for example:

c:\mydevfolder\ would be your working mapping folder and should contain the sub folders:
\materials
\models
\sound
\scripts
etc..

In Hammer options edit the 'Game Directory' to: c:\mydevfolder
(this is where Hammer will look for the resources)

Extract the resources from the gcfs/vpks you want to use into c:\mydevfolder

mydevfolder can be on any drive and named anything you want just be sure the drive and folder name are entered into the hammer 'game directory' correctly.

[Jimmy Lander]

I know this isn't supposed to be hard but I keep mixing up here: http://prntscr.com/ekroif. I've created a new configuration for this, and the cs:go vpk is extracted in a seperate folder with the Half-Life2\[...] structure. So far I only got missing textures and content (from cs:go) so I guess I just suck at filling up those boxes >.<

[Snoopy]

The bottom 3 entries...

Game Executable Directory (ex: c:\Half-Life):
- You Have: $SteamUserDir\Half-Life 2
- Should Have: $SteamUserDir\{game you're mapping for, leave as is if your map is to be played in Half-Life 2}

Explanation of this entry: This points to the location of the game executable of the game you are mapping for. Hammer uses this location to launch the game for map testing purposes. Ideally you should set it to the location appropriate for the game you're mapping for, if your map is intended to be played in HL2 then leave it as is. HOWEVER, you should not rely on Hammer to launch the game and load your map for testing, do it manually by copying your compiled map (BSP) into the maps folder of the game, start the game and load the map.



Game Directory (where Gameinfo.txt is, ex: c:\Half-Life\cstrike):
- You Have: $SteamUserDir\Half-Life 2\ep2
- Should Have: (path to the 'working' folder you placed your resources in, ie: c:\mydevfolder)

Explanation of this entry: This is where Hammer will look for the resources (Materials, Models, etc..)



Hammer VMF Directory (ex: C:\Half-Life\maps):
- You Have: $SteamUserDir\Half-Life 2\sourcesdk_content\ep2\...?
- Should Have: (path where you want to 'save' your VMFs)

Explanation of this entry: When you use File, Open menu in Hammer this is the default location it will open. Hammer will always save your BSP in the same folder as the VMF. If you create a maps folder in your 'working' folder you can use it, then your creations will be kept separate from any/all Steam files. I would never rely on putting my stuff anywhere within the Steam folder system, keep it in a different folder somewhere else on your drive or an another drive, this is what I call my 'working' folder and where I put all the resources (Materials, Models etc.) so they are completely separate from Steam and not susceptible to automatic updates of games etc which could potentially overwrite anything you may have customized.



When you 'Run Map' to compile your BSP I suggest you use 'Expert' mode and only check $bsp_exe, $vis_exe and $light_exe, UNCheck the 'Copy File' and $game_exe options. After compiling, and verifying the compile log shows NO errors, manually copy the BSP to your games maps folder, then start the game and load the map.