Interlopers.net - Half-Life 2 News & Tutorials

by **Epifire** on Sun Jun 16, 2013 5:59 am

plagueofburia wrote:I have a question Blender has 2 shading modes smooth and flat does this matter when I export the model?

I am not sure when I need to create the QC file?

Damn, I wish Stormy were here to answer that Blender question. I'm not sure if it carries over issues into Source but I would assume smooth will preserve smoothing groups on the mesh for export (this is a good idea to have carried over). I can't say for sure since I'm not a Blender user but that is what I would generalize. -Needs Stormy's Input here-

plagueofburia wrote:Is the next step to create the collision mesh? how simple should the collision mesh be for the handrails and the other objects including the loose parts?

Collision mesh doesn't need to be that fancy and it's a good idea to keep it as simple as you can. If you have cylinder shaped objects you want to have a basic cylinder just about covers the whole thing. If you have the collision mesh too big it ends up having objects collide a noticeable distance from the prop when running it in the game. If the collision mesh is submerged under the prop you can get the opposite effect. With your railing a simple set of cylinders or even cubes shrouding all of the geometry should suffice. Do note that Source gets pissed about a collision model if you have multiple pieces of floating geometry intersecting each other. So in other words space things out just a slight bit.

Source also uses the collision mesh for determining the object's shadow that it casts, so bare that in mind when building it. Also if you do end up having to space multiple pieces out, keeping them really close together will make sure that you wont see any separation in the shadow. Source's lighting passes aren't extremely precise in that way, so just keeping a tight collision mesh will do the trick.

Now about the QC. This just takes time to get the hang of but you learn a lot more by manually working with one yourself then letting a compiler tool do it for you. I suggest giving these pages a good read so you can get an idea of how this goes...

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/QC

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$surfaceprop

Typos can really mess with the QC so more often then not if you get any sort of compile error the first place to check is your QC. Your going in the right order though. You just wanna complete your model and texture, build the collision mesh when the primary model is finished and then compile it when it's all done.

Feel free to add me on Steam, cause I can walk you through more of this and try to answer questions when the time comes... http://steamcommunity.com/id/Epifire/

by **plagueofburia** on Sun Jun 16, 2013 9:46 pm

Can someone shed some light as to Why in blender the meshes keep partially disappearing and reappearing? I have to keep on re-adjusting the view it is very annoying. Sometimes the whole mesh disappears and then I have to find the mesh.

And also now for some reason rotating and scaling any object can only be done in edit mode, it will not rotate/scale an object any more in object mode.

would anyone know why this is happening?

One can see the far side handrail is disappearing

Collision mesh- Complete

I used a basic diamond/square type mesh for all the cylinders including the handrails

Collision mesh loose parts

I wonder how would someone with more experience have done these collision meshes. I had to re-build the whole model again from scratch, it is time consuming. I never noticed this as much with the previous gate created.

Is this a common practice? How does one feel about the taken to create a collision mesh?

Again can I ask about the shading smooth or flat? When the time arrives I am going to export the model with smooth shading I hope there will be no problems.

How would one attempt to export all these parts? Most of the parts share the same textures. Does every single object need a separate QC file? I have over 20 models as these handrails are part of a set.

Thanks Epifire I would like to add you on steam.

by **plagueofburia** on Tue Jun 18, 2013 12:39 am

Specular question?

This is suppose to be a specular map, I thought it would be neat if the handrails could be slightly shiny. will this be an okay specular map for the handrails. Read a few tutorials white will be shiny and black will not be shiny when light reflects off the texture.

I have a question

I created it in the channels tab in PS if something is not visible it does not get exported. yet in the video tutorial below he exports( a targa 32bit file)with the alpha channel layer invisible and it works, does anyone know the reason why he is able to do that?

http://youtu.be/-X5QGx2TP_8

This is my specular map for one side

by **plagueofburia** on Thu Jun 20, 2013 11:43 pm

Can anyone help with this qc.file. for some reason I have an error in blender. It says error complie of QC.qc failed check the console for details.

where can I check the details?

I then used GUIStudio, when it complies it gives more feedback it seems that my qc file has this error.

Working on "LLhandrail1A.qc"
ERROR: f:\windows\own_hl2_props_blender\blender bridge handrails\blender exports\LLhandrail1A.qc(3): - could not load file 'LLhandrail1A_ref.smd'
ERROR: Aborted Processing on 'buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\LLhandrail1A.mdl'
WARNING: Leaking 1 elements

Does anyone know what this means? Why can't it load the ref.smd.

This is the handrail QC file.

Code: Select all: $modelname "buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\LLhandrail1A.mdl" $scale 1 $body "Body" "LLhandrail1A_ref.smd" $cdmaterials "buriamodeltextures\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\_LLhandrail1A" $surfaceprop "metal" $sequence idle "LLhandrail1A_ref.smd" $collisionmodel "LLhandrail1A_phys.smd" { $Mass 1000 $concave }

I more or less copied from the previous qc file gate that worked which was this.

Code: Select all: $modelname "buriamodels\ch1area1\canalgate1\canalgate1.mdl" $scale 1 $body "Body" "canalgate1_ref.smd" $cdmaterials "buriamodeltextures\ch1area1\canalgate1" $surfaceprop "metal" $sequence idle "canalgate1_ref.smd" $collisionmodel "canalgate1_phys.smd" { $Mass 1000 $concave }

Can any one help please.

by **kraid** on Fri Jun 21, 2013 3:10 am

check if your smd files were exported and that there are no mistakes in path and filenames.
the compiler tells you that there is no LLhandrail1A_ref.smd at the place you specified.

your .qc looks ok, except of the missing $staticprop command, since i'd say it's going to be prop_static ingame.

by **plagueofburia** on Fri Jun 21, 2013 8:53 am

Okay I placed my Qc.file the phys.smd and the ref.smd at

C:\\models\buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A

Does the Phys mesh in blender need a material. When I export the phys and ref smd from blender it says 0 errors but 1 warnings LLhandrail1A_phys did not have a texture or material assigned.

I again used GUIstudioMDL it has changed a little it now says

Code: Select all: GUIStudioMDL 2.2/Source - © 2007 Neil 'Jed' Jedrzejewski - http://www.wunderboy.org/ Loaded QC file - "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2 episode two\ep2\models\buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\LLhandrail1A.qc" Created command line: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\sourcesdk\bin\orangebox\bin\studiomdl.exe" -game "c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2\hl2" -nop4 -nox360 "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2 episode two\ep2\models\buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\LLhandrail1A.qc" qdir: "c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2 episode two\ep2\models\buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1a\" gamedir: "c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2\hl2\" g_path: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2 episode two\ep2\models\buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\LLhandrail1A.qc" Building binary model files... Working on "LLhandrail1A.qc" SMD MODEL LLhandrail1A_ref.smd SMD MODEL LLhandrail1A_phys.smd WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!! WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!! WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!! WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!! WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!! WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!! WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!! WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!! WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!! WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!! WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!! WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!! WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!! WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!! WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!! WARNI9*£}Y@NG: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!!

Repeats many times then ends

Code: Select all: WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional9*£}Y@ geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!! WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!! WARNING: COSTLY COLLISION MODEL!!!! (526 parts - 40 allowed) WARNING: Error with convex elements of LLhandrail1A_phys.smd, building single convex!!!! Model has 1 convex sub-parts Collision model completed. --------------------- writing c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2\hl2\models/buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\LLhandrail1A.mdl: bones 964 bytes (1) animations 112 bytes (1 anims) (1 frames) [0:00] sequences 220 bytes (1 seq) ik/pose 164 bytes eyeballs 0 bytes (0 eyeballs) flexes 0 bytes (0 flexes) textures 72 bytes keyvalues 0 bytes bone transforms 0 bytes Collision model volume 249445.22 in^3 collision 0 bytes total 1848 --------------------- writing c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2\hl2\models/buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\LLhandrail1A.vvd: vertices 192192 bytes (4004 vertices) tangents 64064 bytes (4004 vertices) total 256320 bytes --------------------- Generating optimized mesh "c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2\hl2\models/buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\LLhandrail1A.sw.vtx": body parts: 8 bytes models: 20 bytes model LODs: 12 bytes meshes: 9 bytes strip groups: 25 bytes strips: 27 bytes verts: 36036 bytes indices: 27180 bytes bone changes: 16 bytes everything: 63357 bytes --------------------- Generating optimized mesh "c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2\hl2\models/buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\LLhandrail1A.dx80.vtx": body parts: 8 bytes models: 20 bytes model LODs: 12 bytes meshes: 9 bytes strip groups: 25 bytes strips: 27 bytes verts: 36036 bytes indices: 27180 bytes bone changes: 16 bytes everything: 63357 bytes --------------------- Generating optimized mesh "c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2\hl2\models/buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\LLhandrail1A.dx90.vtx": body parts: 8 bytes models: 20 bytes model LODs: 12 bytes meshes: 9 bytes strip groups: 25 bytes strips: 27 bytes verts: 36036 bytes indices: 27180 bytes bone changes: 16 bytes everything: 63357 bytes Completed "LLhandrail1A.qc"

B_Stormy mentions convex is not good what is convex in this mesh? Blender did not let me know these errors when I compiled where is the console in Blender?

Okay, I think I see one error the collision mesh is too complex, B_Stormy did also mention that it should be simple. I will delete all the handles and just have the handrails as the collision mesh. But there seems to be other errors.

I hope people understand I am trying my best to get this complete

by **Sathor** on Fri Jun 21, 2013 9:15 am

Collision mesh:

It looks like you tried to rebuild the curving parts of the handrails with one mesh as a collision model. This makes them concave. Basically,

http://d1jqu7g1y74ds1.cloudfront.net/wp ... convex.gif

If you can draw a line between two vertexes of the mesh similar to this, as will happen on a concave curvage, you are doing it wrong.

This looks a lot like concave stuff!

And much too complex.

Specular map:

I created it in the channels tab in PS if something is not visible it does not get exported. yet in the video tutorial below he exports( a targa 32bit file)with the alpha channel layer invisible and it works, does anyone know the reason why he is able to do that?

Did you check the "save alpha channel" option in the save options? It should not be necessary to have it visible!

The specular map looks nice. Try to get the areas which should not reflect much dark, and the highlights white - quite simple. In theory, full white would be "1" and full black would be "0" in terms of reflectivity in Source. But you can easily adjust the values in the VMT of the material, for example with the contrast and envmaptint values. Or you can readjust by brightness and contrast values. The good thing about it is you can change the vmt values while you are in the game and just reload the material.

by **plagueofburia** on Sun Jun 23, 2013 11:46 pm

Thanks, Sathor and kraid, kraid is a metroid boss, cool boss difficult on nes, sorry side track.

I was reading up at, https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Collision_mesh
It says build the collision mesh up of Convex meshes. A solid cube is convex. So I used that as a guide. I thought this would work.

Here is a picture of the new collision, it is built out of cubes.

blender will not compile the model. And blender gives me no feedback

This is from the GUIstudio GUIstudio will not compile my model.

Perhaps GUIstudio creates the ref smd and phys smd only.

Code: Select all: Loaded QC file - "F:\WINDOWS\Own_HL2_props_blender\Blender bridge handrails\blender exports\LLhandrail1A.qc" Created command line: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\sourcesdk\bin\orangebox\bin\studiomdl.exe" -game "c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2\hl2" -nop4 -nox360 "F:\WINDOWS\Own_HL2_props_blender\Blender bridge handrails\blender exports\LLhandrail1A.qc" qdir: "f:\windows\own_hl2_props_blender\blender bridge handrails\blender exports\" gamedir: "c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2\hl2\" g_path: "F:\WINDOWS\Own_HL2_props_blender\Blender bridge handrails\blender exports\LLhandrail1A.qc" Building binary model files... Working on "LLhandrail1A.qc" SMD MODEL LLhandrail1A_ref.smd SMD MODEL LLhandrail1A_phys.smd Model has 15 convex sub-parts Collision model completed. --------------------- writing c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2\hl2\models/buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\LLhandrail1A.mdl: bones 964 bytes (1) animations 112 bytes (1 anims) (1 frames) [0:00] sequences 220 bytes (1 seq) ik/pose 164 bytes eyeballs 0 bytes (0 eyeballs) flexes 0 bytes (0 flexes) textures 72 bytes keyvalues 0 bytes bone transforms 0 bytes Collision model volume 156323.83 in^3 collision 0 bytes total 1848 --------------------- writing c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2\hl2\models/buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\LLhandrail1A.vvd: vertices 192192 bytes (4004 vertices) tangents 64064 bytes (4004 vertices) total 256320 bytes --------------------- Generating optimized mesh "c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2\hl2\models/buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\LLhandrail1A.sw.vtx": body parts: 8 bytes models: 20 bytes model LODs: 12 bytes meshes: 9 bytes strip groups: 25 bytes strips: 27 bytes verts: 36036 bytes indices: 27180 bytes bone changes: 16 bytes everything: 63357 bytes --------------------- Generating optimized mesh "c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2\hl2\models/buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\LLhandrail1A.dx80.vtx": body parts: 8 bytes models: 20 bytes model LODs: 12 bytes meshes: 9 bytes strip groups: 25 bytes strips: 27 bytes verts: 36036 bytes indices: 27180 bytes bone changes: 16 bytes everything: 63357 bytes --------------------- Generating optimized mesh "c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\plagueofburia\half-life 2\hl2\models/buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\LLhandrail1A.dx90.vtx": body parts: 8 bytes models: 20 bytes model LODs: 12 bytes meshes: 9 bytes strip groups: 25 bytes strips: 27 bytes verts: 36036 bytes indices: 27180 bytes bone changes: 16 bytes everything: 63357 bytes Completed "LLhandrail1A.qc"

When I go to the folder there are no files created.

how would one simplify the collision mesh any further, as this new one is made of only cubes. The only thing I can see is it says Model has 15 convex sub-parts I joined all the parts, I also used smooth shading. Should it be only one mesh for a collision mesh. I am at a loss as to what to do.

-----------

I thought I was going to give up for a while but I attempted this one more time. A few minutes later I decided to use studiomdl.exe with my QC file it worked :-)

but the texture is not there. I have named it LLhandrail1A_ver1_Wspec B_Stormy talks about correcting this but I still can't get this to work. error model attempted to load one or more VMTs it can't find.

Do I need to assign in blender, a material to the handrails named LLhandrail1A_ver1_Wspec. I have done this but I am wondering do I need to do this. Does this material need to have a texture, this seems so over complicated than the gate I previously done. I can't seem to find the problem what would one suggest I know Black_Stormy talks about this but still I am not sure what to do.

The smd ref has the texture- LLhandrail1A_ver1_Wspec.
Blender texture is- LLhandrail1A_ver1_Wspec( this is a targa)
The VMT file is

Code: Select all: "VertexlitGeneric" { "$basetexture" "buriamodeltextures/ch1Area1/bridge_stair/handrail1A/LLhandrail1A_ver1_Wspec" "$surfaceprop" "Metal" }

The QC file

Code: Select all: $modelname "buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\LLhandrail1A.mdl" $scale 1 $body "Body" "LLhandrail1A_ref.smd" $staticprop $cdmaterials "buriamodeltextures\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\_LLhandrail1A_ver1_Wspec.vmt" $surfaceprop "metal" $sequence idle "LLhandrail1A_ref.smd" $collisionmodel "LLhandrail1A_phys.smd" { $Mass 1000 $concave }

is the name too long I might give that a try. I am running out of ways to get this to work.

Why is this happening?I am sorry I am getting frustrated it compiles with studiomdl.exe but NOT in blender. I don't know why I can't compile the model in Blender. And now the issue with the texture. What could I be missing?

I feel someone with a higher power is playing a joke on me :-)

.

by **Stormy** on Mon Jun 24, 2013 8:52 am

plagueofburia wrote:I have a question Blender has 2 shading modes smooth and flat does this matter when I export the model?

I am not sure when I need to create the QC file?

The smooth and solid shading in blender is carried over, yes. If it is set to smooth shading in blender it will compile with those faces smoothed. Same for solid.

plagueofburia wrote:Can someone shed some light as to Why in blender the meshes keep partially disappearing and reappearing? I have to keep on re-adjusting the view it is very annoying. Sometimes the whole mesh disappears and then I have to find the mesh.

This is due to blenders FOV and view range. There is probably a setting somewhere to increase the render range but I just scale my model down when I have this problem. If you scale it in object mode you can then hit alt+s to clear scale, and return it to its original scale (unless you hit ctrl+a and apply the objects scale). Either way you can scale it back up for export, or adjust the scale in the .qc.

And also now for some reason rotating and scaling any object can only be done in edit mode, it will not rotate/scale an object any more in object mode.

You have "transform object centers only" toggled on. Down next to the pivot point dropdown box is a button that has three dots and a double sided arrow. Untoggle that. This may seem like a shitty feature, but it has its uses.

Don't include the rail supports in the phys mesh, it is far too complex and since this will be mounted on a wall I highly doubt it will matter for bullet collision. Even if it wasn't, that is not a large enough feature of the mesh to validate wasting resources to calculate collision. Also remember that all of your phys mesh must be made up of separate convex blocks. You have curved cylinders there which will not work, as they are concave. Make them up from different blocks. Also source requires that your phys mesh is unwrapped, has a material assigned, and is shaded smooth - or it will throw a 2 dimensional geometry error.

Yes you will need a separate .qc for each model. I have been trying to make a .bat file that will compile directories but so far no luck. A batch compiler would be great for sets like this.

When compiling via the blender plugin, if you get an error you have to look in the log to see it. To show the log, go to Window>Toggle System Console.

The old blender exporter used to chop off the end of long material names, I'm not sure if it still does but it might. To check what materialname your model will look for, open the .smd in a text editor. In between each vertice co-ordinate block you will see the name of the material that will be compiled into the model. You can change it here as long as you change ALL the instances of that material name (since it is assigning that material to the following vertice).

If you open your compiled .mdl file in a text editor it will tell you the path and the name of the material your model is looking for as well,it's down the bottom of the file. I did a video about this I think, I explain all of this in there.

Blender uses the studiomdl.exe that you tell it to, you might be using an older version of the engine to compile in blender, but a different studiomdl.exe. Change it in the 'target engine' box in the plugin panel. I think I leave it on source 2009.

I feel someone with a higher power is playing a joke on me

Aaaaaaaaand welcome to source.

by **plagueofburia** on Fri Jul 05, 2013 4:57 pm

Sorry, things have been unstable at the moment for me. That is why things have been very slow.

The handles are complete for the bridge. It is a model set of over 20 models created in blender. :smt023

I have a question, in hammer the models look okay but at certain angles and certain distances these white lines appear on the seams and at close up they disappear does anyone know what this is called and how can I get rid of them?

What should I do in the future to prevent this from happening?

Seam problems

model set

Thanks Epifire, Sathor and extra thanks Black Stormy, the console window in Blender has helped me in compiling the models,you are all awesome. Without help I could not have created the models, I would like to give these models to the community at some point (I doubt anyone wants them, lol) as without the help of the community assisting, I could not have created them.

This is due to blenders FOV and view range. There is probably a setting somewhere to increase the render range but I just scale my model down when I have this problem. If you scale it in object mode you can then hit alt+s to clear scale, and return it to its original scale (unless you hit ctrl+a and apply the objects scale). Either way you can scale it back up for export, or adjust the scale in the .qc.

I never tried scaling down objects I will have to try this next time.

The smooth and solid shading in blender is carried over, yes. If it is set to smooth shading in blender it will compile with those faces smoothed. Same for solid.

Thanks that is excellent, I used smooth on the meshes and even on the phys meshes when I exported the SMDs

You have "transform object centers only" toggled on. Down next to the pivot point dropdown box is a button that has three dots and a double sided arrow. Untoggle that. This may seem like a shitty feature, but it has its uses.

This was again very helpful and finally I was able to rotate objects in object mode

Don't include the rail supports in the phys mesh, it is far too complex and since this will be mounted on a wall I highly doubt it will matter for bullet collision. Even if it wasn't, that is not a large enough feature of the mesh to validate wasting resources to calculate collision. Also remember that all of your phys mesh must be made up of separate convex blocks. You have curved cylinders there which will not work, as they are concave. Make them up from different blocks. Also source requires that your phys mesh is unwrapped, has a material assigned, and is shaded smooth - or it will throw a 2 dimensional geometry error.

Thank you again this was all great information. I redone all the phys meshes and kept them as simple as I could.

Yes you will need a separate .qc for each model. I have been trying to make a .bat file that will compile directories but so far no luck. A batch compiler would be great for sets like this.

I created one QC file and just changed the names around when needed
Example:

Code: Select all: $modelname "buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\broken\hrbrokenB5.mdl" $scale 1 $body "Body" "hrbrokenB5_ref.smd" $staticprop $cdmaterials "buriamodeltextures\ch1area1\bridge_stair\broken" $surfaceprop "metal" $sequence idle "hrbrokenB5_ref.smd" $collisionmodel "hrbrokenB5_phys.smd" { $Mass 1000 $concave }

When compiling via the blender plugin, if you get an error you have to look in the log to see it. To show the log, go to Window>Toggle System Console.

I thanked you before but I will thank you again

Aaaaaaaaand welcome to source.

It does seems overly complicated to create a few props.Though slowly I am getting use to all these extra things one needs to do.

I would like that if source could somehow incorporate model making into the map editor and make the QC more visual, a QC that used a graphical interface. It would have saved me sometime.

-------

Some notes on the modelling process, I have made.

1-keeping names of the models as simple as one can.

2-After a time I started to be careful of how I name things, such as object names/materials/folders when creating the QC file.

3-I noticed that creating too many sub-directories where the model will be placed. Created a few problems when trying to compile due to the name directory being too lengthy. From what I can tell, I had over 60 characters for the sub- directory name of where the model would be and it would not compile the model.
Thanks to the console window in blender letting me know this.

Regarding Blender 2.66 there is a bug/error with the SDK export tools. I can export the ref and phys meshes with the QC file but if I tried to compile straight after it would not. I have to close Blender and restart Blender. In most cases I can then compile the model.

Blender questions

Q- Does the materials and texture parameters, like the intensity of diffuse and specular parameters, adding colours in blender effect the texture on the model/object when exported?

I never got specular to work on the models.
Sorry no specular on any of the models I have made.

by **kraid** on Sat Jul 06, 2013 4:24 pm

Not sure how it's handled by the automatic blender export, but usually you have to edit the .vmt in order to get effects like specularity working.

You also might want to have a specularity mask (grayscale texture which is usually put into the alphachannel of the bumpmap, or, in case that there's no bumpmap, inverted and put in the alphachannel of the diffuse).

Read up the article on the VDC wiki about this:
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$envmap (ignore the part about the custom cubemap creation)
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$envmapmask

by **Stormy** on Fri Jul 12, 2013 1:53 am

If you put your specular map into the alpha channel of your normal map, you have to declare $phong 1 in your .vmt, as well as $phongboost 1 and $phongfresnelranges. Look all those up on the VDC to get a good understanding of the difference between cubemap and phong.

by **kraid** on Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:53 am

@stormy: nah, you don't have to use Phong. It's the other way arround, Phong only works if there's a normalmap assigned to the model.
You can have cubemap reflections on your normalmapped model just fine without phong.
Phong modifies how the prop reacts to light (e.g. size and brightness of the highlight)

by **Stormy** on Fri Jul 12, 2013 5:19 am

Yeah I wasn't too clear about that was I. I assumed you were talking about phong when you mentioned the alpha channel. If you want to use envmap with the alpha channel of your normal map you need to declare $normalmapalphaenvmapmask 1 in the vmt.

God this sounds so confusing, just read the vdc.

by **plagueofburia** on Thu Jul 18, 2013 11:15 pm

I first have to get the handrails finished before thinking of specular I had them finished but I deleted some of the models because of the seams now I can't get them back.

Blender won't compile my model now because of the sdk update change. Any help would be great.

Does the QC files still work the place the models and materials will be?

$modelname "buriamodels\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A\RLhandrail1A.mdl"

$cdmaterials "buriamodeltextures\ch1area1\bridge_stair\handrail1A"

Or do I have to change the qc

I was scoring/arranging a Beethoven symphony so I have not been working on my handrails.

Interlopers.net - Half-Life 2 News & Tutorials

Site Navigation

WIP_Bridge_Handrails_(full bridge)

Re: WIP_Bridge_Handrails_

Re: WIP_Bridge_Handrails_

Re: WIP_Bridge_Handrails_

Re: WIP_Bridge_Handrails_

Re: WIP_Bridge_Handrails_

Re: WIP_Bridge_Handrails_

Re: WIP_Bridge_Handrails_

Re: WIP_Bridge_Handrails_

Re: WIP_Bridge_Handrails_

Re: WIP_Bridge_Handrails_

Re: WIP_Bridge_Handrails_

Re: WIP_Bridge_Handrails_

Re: WIP_Bridge_Handrails_

Re: WIP_Bridge_Handrails_

Re: WIP_Bridge_Handrails_

Who is online