Modding For Beginners

[flynia]

I thought this might be usefull for people starting out at modding and for those who already do mod but cant remember links and forget to bookmark them... like myself LOL Now i know its not completely related to HL Source so just bear with me as im only trying to help everyone out ok

Cheers flynia

PROGRAMS

Milkshape 3D - Model Editing and Compile/Decompile.
http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/

GCF Scape - Allows you to open and extract from GCF files.
http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/index.php?c=76

Cannon Fodders Tools - Several useful tools, though not all designed for Source engine games.
http://www.chaosincarnate.net/cannonfodder/cftools.htm

GIMP - Free Image Manipulation Program.  Like Photoshop and Paintshop Pro but Open Source.
http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/

Normal Map Plugin For GIMP - Thanks Frraksurred
http://nifelheim.dyndns.org/%7ecocidius/normalmap/

Height2normal.exe - Valve's own normal map maker.  Found in your "C:\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\username\sourcesdk\bin" folder.
Submitted by JoshuaC.
Info here http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Height2Normal

VTF Plugin For Adobe Photoshop
http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/index.php?p=39

VTF Tool - Can convert .VTF to .TGA and back to .VTF, very usefull for skining.
Submitted by Baracuda.
http://www.wunderboy.org/download.php?file=VTFTool_0.5b.zip&s=1

VTF Explorer - Allows you to view and export to VTF.
Submitted by Romka.
http://www.hl2source.com/?content=projects&id=vtftool

NSIS - Nullsoft Scriptable Install System. Free open source installer. Very easy to use, very well supported.
Submitted by Frraksurred.
http://nsis.sourceforge.net/

NSIS Installer User Manual - Program comes with documentation, but this contains a lot more.
http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Docs/

Freeware Hex Editor XVI32
Submitted by flynia
http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32.htm

Windows XP / 2000 VTF Shell Extensions - VTF Thumbnail & Info support
Submitted by flynia
http://www.wunderboy.org/download.php?file=vtf_shell_extensions_installer_v1.2.zip&s=1

TUTORIALS

Alpha Channels - Guide On Creating Alpha Channels in Adobe Photoshop
Submitted by flynia.
http://www.hl2world.com/wiki/index.php/Alpha_Channel_Textures

3D Buzz - While there are a ton of tutorials to be found on the Internet, this website is known for having one of the largest databases for all things 3D related.
Submitted by Frraksurred.
http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/sv_home.php

Leak-Free: Game Modeling - This thread on the Leak-Free Forums contains a wealth of information and links.  Definitely worth checking out.
Submitted by Frraksurred.
http://forum.leak-free.org/viewtopic.php?t=65&sid=686e91022b7eca8a980c717102b7ad88

Normal Map enhancement. - This tutorial shows you how to edit textures so normal map generators will more accuratly reproduce the height map.
Submitted by Frraksurred.
http://www.quake3bits.com/htm/tutorials/creating_bumpmaps_from_images.htm


TIPS

VMT Commands

English
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Shader_Types_and_Parameters - English Version
Submitted by j0nathanbs23

Russian
http://inside.hl2.ru/vmt - Russian Version
Submitted by flynia

V, W and P Models and what they do
v_model - This is the model players will see themselves holding in first person.
w_model - This is the model players will see on the ground that they can pick up.
p_model - This is the model you will see other players holding, or that the player will see themselves holding in third person.

[Barnz]

I need a bump map creator.

[JoshuaC]

I recently Found out that valves height2normal program makes some awesome normal maps way better than the Nvidia or ati normalmappers.

Info here http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Height2Normal

MOD: Added, thank you.

[Frraksurred]

NSIS - Nullsoft Scriptable Install System.  Free open source installer.  Very easy to use, very well supported.
http://nsis.sourceforge.net/

NSIS Installer User Manual.  Program comes with documentation, but this contains a lot more.
http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Docs/

MOD: Added.

[baracuda]

VTF Tool, can convert .VTF to .TGA and back to .VTF,, very usefull for skining
http://www.wunderboy.org/download.php?file=VTFTool_0.5b.zip&s=1

MOD: Added, thank you.

[Romka™]

VTF explorer to view and export easily the VTFs

EDIT: So you don't need the GCF scape, if you use this .


MOD: Added, thank you.

[flynia]

While browsing www.svencoop.com i found the following on replacing models

http://www.svencoop.com/modelreplace.php

I also found descriptions of how v,w and p models work

v_model - This is the model players will see themselves holding in first person.
w_model - This is the model players will see on the ground that they can pick up.
p_model - This is the model other players will see the player holding or that the player will see themselves holding in third person.

Cheers flynia

[Romka™]

Not necessarily related to the topic but this explains what each model is usefull for:

v_model - This is the model players will see themselves holding in first person.
w_model - This is the model players will see on the ground that they can pick up.
p_model - This is the model other players will see the player holding or that the player will see themselves holding in third person.

Cheers flynia

We all know it since latest 2000, L0L .

[flynia]

Not me bud... only figured it out recently... besides this area is for people who know very little about modding and wanna start to learn

It's more a library for information and documentation relating to modding for HL and Source. I know all this info probably seems "old news" to us but we have to bear in mind that their are people out their just starting out with modding.

This section aims for them ... not uber modding gods lol

Cheers flynia

[Sephiroth]

Not me bud... only figured it out recently... besides this area is for people who know very little about modding and wanna start to learn

It's more a library for information and documentation relating to modding for HL and Source. I know all this info probably seems "old news" to us but we have to bear in mind that their are people out their just starting out with modding.

This section aims for them ... not uber modding gods lol

Cheers flynia

I dont mod and I know what a v_, p_, and w_ model are for. How does that apply to modding?

[James]

So you know which models you're making and what they'll be used for?

[Sephiroth]

So you know which models you're making and what they'll be used for?

Well you have a point, especially if the mod has new weapons, I guess that would be useful knowledge 

[Frraksurred]

In a thread aimed at helping the less experienced, I'd say any constructive information is useful.  Let's not critisize an attempt to be informative, just because it may be old info to us.  There was a point and time when I didn't know what the difference between a "v_weapon" and a "p_weapon" was, but learned it from a helpful thread like this one.

Let's stay on topic so I don't have to "offend" people by pruning their posts.  Thank you. 


Btw, first post has been updated with the added links.  Thanks for contributing!

[halflifedave]

will you guys be explaining the actual steps editing for Source models in another thread  (I can easily do stuff with regular halflife, but with source it leaves me all in fetal position  :'( ......except sounds of course  )

[Frraksurred]

will you guys be explaining the actual steps editing for Source models in another thread  (I can easily do stuff with regular halflife, but with source it leaves me all in fetal position  :'( ......except sounds of course  )

After the official release of 2.0 I had planned on releasing a video tutorial on converting to Source based on all I've learned through out this experience.  I'm sure I will not be the only one.

As far as others, we had thought about linking related tutorials to some of the programs listed above.  Does that answer your question?