A texture compiling utility that many people may find handy has been relased by http://www.electrofiction.com/
"We have decided to release a beta version of vmtCREATE, our internal texture compiling tool for use with the Half-Life 2 SDK.
You can download the application from our downloads section.
If you have comments, questions or suggestions regarding this application please stop by the forums and share your thoughts."
You can also find the tool in the Downloads section of this site.