A CS:GO Editing Thread

    Like my previous I decided to collect my questions in this single thread, instead of flooding the forums with separate topics. Hopefully this will not only help me but the community as well.


    I've been playing with Source for a couple of weeks and the question are piling up so here we go:


    • I've been decompiling maps to see how they are made. According to this page I should use GFCScape. If I follow the instructions to the letter I'm not finding a map directory inside pak01_dir.vpk. However, I can browse to the map directory using Windows and simply use BSPSource to decompile what I want. Is it the previous link outdated or am I missing something?
    • I did the above primarily to see how the environments outside the gameplay area are made. For instance the buildings and bridge that FMPONE uses in Museum or the reactor in Cache. Anyway, doesn't matter which map I decompile (vanilla or custom) all of them have this issue: I select a building and immediately most of the map turns red because it selects a whole lot of stuff. What is this? Why can't I select a single building? Are these models? How do I apply these techniques myself? I would love to do a Google but I have no idea what keywords to use. In short, what are we talking about here?
    • Besides being new, I'm used to GTKRadiant. In that editor, you load a map and you can have a nice overview of all the textures it uses. By using the shaderlist I could access each map's textures through the texture window. How does this work in Hammer? I have a hard time finding things. Let's say I would like to use the reflective windows from CS_Office. How would I know which ones are used? Must I decompile each map and look it up in the editor?


    Ok, that's it for now. I would appreciate help even though the above will most likely be very simple. If anyone else has other CSGO specific editing questions feel free to use this thread.


    Using GCFScape allows you to open Valve's files. You then need to decompile the map itself by taking the .bsp file of the map you want from the maps folder and then decompiling that file. You can do so with http://ata4.info/bspsrc/downloads.html


    As for where to find textures, that's a bit more basic, you simply select a face with the face selection tool and then select a texture from the option to find textures. (this is hard to explain with text, I would look up a youtube tutorial for that)

    To answer your second question; if you make a selection and a lot of things become shaded or highlighted, it's likely that they are brushes/primitives tied to a single entity (probably a func_detail). When you select models in Hammer, they don't become shaded/highlighted but instead just display their bounding box in yellow, whereas brush selection is shaded in red. You can get some more information about what you have selected by looking at the bottom of the editor window, near the grid snap display, where by default it says 'no selection'.

    Another trick for identifying textures is to display only the used textures in the texture browser; click the 'browse' button on the texture panel on the right toolbar (unless you rearranged your panel layout) then at the bottom left of the browser window, tick 'only used textures' to filter by what is being used in the map you have open.


    Welcome to the world of Hammer, a cold world with bugs and frustrating moments, but once conquered, the end result will put a nice grin on your face when you see your finished level come to life


    1- As FMPONE said, use bspsrc to decompile bsp maps into vmf files. I bet you are aware of this issue but always keep decompiling others' maps for educational purposes and personal use. If you intend to modify or edit the map, you need to ask the original author's permission first


    2- It is very common in Source to group several detail brushes into one func-detail entity like Spence mentioned. If you come across this scenario and want to select individual brushes then you can always select "ignore groups" (top toolbar) or "select groups/objects" (right tolbar) to temporarily disable grouping thus allowing you to select individual brushes regardless of their initial group and without altering the state of the group.


    3- As Spence said, you can open the texture browser and select "only used" to filter textures that were only used in the map currently loaded. You can also use keywords to filter textures: typing "office" or door" in the texture browser will filter textures from cs_office (or city 17 office) and doors respectively.


    Hope this helps and good luck in your exciting endeavor.

    If you feel adventurous, you could take a look at using 3ds Max as your level editor. It's what I use for CS:GO now. Here are some screen shots of a level I've been working on for way too long in 3ds Max for CS:GO (started for CSS). The images at the top are early on, those at the bottom later. I know most people use Hammer for Source and there are a lot of resources to learn it; at the same time, Max is just more exciting and unleashed.


    With Max, just as one example from your questions... no need to track down all materials by decompiling a level. Just open the material editor and make your own new material. Simple as that. (Well simple as that once you master the material editor... )


    Etc.

    Quote from spence

    To answer your second question; if you make a selection and a lot of things become shaded or highlighted, it's likely that they are brushes/primitives tied to a single entity (probably a func_detail). When you select models in Hammer, they don't become shaded/highlighted but instead just display their bounding box in yellow, whereas brush selection is shaded in red. You can get some more information about what you have selected by looking at the bottom of the editor window, near the grid snap display, where by default it says 'no selection'.

    Another trick for identifying textures is to display only the used textures in the texture browser; click the 'browse' button on the texture panel on the right toolbar (unless you rearranged your panel layout) then at the bottom left of the browser window, tick 'only used textures' to filter by what is being used in the map you have open.


    This is exactly what I was looking for regarding texturing. Also, good info on the selection stuff. Thanks!



    This certainly helps a lot. Good info right here. I think I didn't explained myself too well regarding the first question. After a talk on Steam with GeneralVivi I've learned that I'm referring to instances. So now I know what I'm talking about. Haven't gotten a chance to look in the editor yet but with all this new information it should be easy to find out what's used in those instances.


    Quote from shawnolson

    If you feel adventurous, you could take a look at using 3ds Max as your level editor.


    I like adventure but I'm going to take this one step at a time

    Does anyone know a resource that explains the required entities for a Demolition map? I wanted to make a small Demolition map but have no source files and haven't found any tutorials.

    Haven't found it either, but since Arms Race is set up server-side, my guess is that it applies to Demolition too (with a func_bomb_target in the map off course).


    From VDC:


    Quote

    Enabling the gamemode Arms Race is a server-side setting toggled by setting the "game_type" command to 1. To properly test your Arms Race map, include "+game_type=1" in the launch options before compiling and running the map.

    Quote from Squad

    Haven't found it either, but since Arms Race is set up server-side, my guess is that it applies to Demolition too (with a func_bomb_target in the map off course).


    From VDC:

    Alright so I figured out how to get demolition mode running. The server must set game_type to 1 AND set game_mode to 1. I did some digging in the gamemodes.txt and figured it out.

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