.VMT and .VMF Help Thread

Your title is a bit wrong; I believe you meant VMT and VTF thread (not VMF) (VTF is the texture format while VMF is the map source file format)

Your answers lie in the Valve Developer Community wiki

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

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

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

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

My advice to you is to open stock textures of Valve in VTFEdit and see what they ticked; for exmaple if you are creating a cobblestone texture with bumpmap then open up some cobble roads textures from de_cbble in CSS or CSGO and check the options and try to mimick them in yours (like anisotropic, no mipmap, clampS, clampT, normal map and so on)

Hope this helps

normal maps are pretty straightforward in source.

Once you prepare the normal map vtf, make sure to tick the "normal map" checkbox.

The vmt declaration is very simple especially for a brush-based texture

example vmt:

"LightmappedGeneric"
{
"$basetexture" "folder_name/texture_name"
"$surfaceprop" "rock"
"$bumpmap" "folder_name/texture_name_n"
}

You can name your bumpmap anything but to keep things tidy, just add _n or_normal to the diffuse texture name.

here is a sample vmt's to make things clearer (stock texture from office):

LightmappedGeneric
{
"$basetexture" "plasteroffwllb"
"$surfaceprop" "plaster"
"$bumpmap" "plaster/offwllb_normal"
"$envmap" "env_cubemap"
"$envmapcontrast" "1"
"$normalmapalphaenvmapmask" "1"
}

To test your normal maps in-game, open the console and type mat_normalmaps 1; all your textures with normal maps will turn to the blue normal map. If a certain diffuse texture that you are sure you made a normal map for it does not turn into the blue normal map then you know something is wrong either in the vtf or the vmt switches.

To test spec maps in-game, open the console and type mat_specular 0 to temporarily turn off specularity and reflections (so you can check which textures are changing)

These are boolean command so 0 to toggle off and 1 to toggle on.

Yes, unfortunately Valve locked the 2 cmds in CSGO (mat_specular and mat_bumpmap), despite being very helpful in quickly checking spec and normal maps in-game.

For normal maps in CSGO, my earlier post clarified the new method to check them in-game (mat_normalmaps); you can also try mat_fastnobump 1/0 to quickly enable/disable bumpmapping.

For specular maps, first type r_showenvcubemap 1 to turn your glove and pistol model to a reflective texture. Run around the map and you should see that the reflection is changing depending on the cubemap in that particular area. If your cubemaps are not loaded correctly, then the texture will reflect only the skybox or not reflect at all. This is to ensure that your reflections are enabled and correct.

Now for your particular texture, I guess you can inspect it visually to check reflectivity. Make sure all video settings are on high in CSGO (low settings disable reflections by default), then wander near your texture and you should easily see that it is reflecting light. If in doubt create a small test map in CSS and use this particular texture then you can use mat_specular to toggle reflectivity and check the texture closely.

Hope this helps

$normalmap is a unique command for the water shader only; for everything else, use $bumpmap.

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Water_%28…ader_parameters

Maybe I should create a new thread, but this one should actually fit.

I'm having some trouble seeing bumpmaps in csgo. I've followed tutorials on the net (like TophatWaffle's one) and carefully traced the different steps.

-Create vtf of base texture

-Create normalmap and make vtf aswell (checking the flag "normal map")

-Creating a .vmt with the following:

"LightmappedGeneric" { "$basetexture" "custom/de_samba/broken_brick_plaster_bottom" "$bumpmap" "custom/de_samba/broken_brick_plaster_bottom_bump" "$surfaceprop" "Brick" "$surfaceprop2" "Default" }

Then I applied the texture to a brush in Hammer and compiled the whole map (is a full compile necessary?)

When I go in the game and look at the texture, I see no difference at all. When I check with " mat_normalmaps 1", I see no blue textures or whatever.

Can someone help me with my problem?

Thanks in advance.

Check your in-game console, it might be yelling at you to build cubemaps for the bump to show up.

Quote from tomm

12 hours ago, tomm said: Check your in-game console, it might be yelling at you to build cubemaps for the bump to show up.

Nothing strange in the console, just some normal errors of things about bots and GUI elements of the main menu and something about the chickens.

and then this:

No pure server whitelist. sv_pure = 0 PutClientInServer: no info_player_start on level ๖ۜTom@to | ße | connected. Ethan connected. Orin connected. Adam connected. Greg connected. Nate connected. Colin connected. Wyatt connected. Josh connected. Martin connected. ] sv_cheats 1 ] noclip noclip ON ] noclip noclip OFF ] mat_normalmaps 1

Which looks all normal whenever I start the map

Edit: I didn't thought building cubemaps was necessary for bumpmaps. NEver saw that in one of the tutorials. Or is it changed for GO?

this line "$bumpmap" "custom/de_samba/broken_brick_plaster_bottom_bump" should be _normal not _bump

Quote from taz-ed

8 hours ago, taz-ed said: this line "$bumpmap" "custom/de_samba/broken_brick_plaster_bottom_bump" should be _normal not _bump

Does the name really matter?

The file is a normal map (created with CrazyBump) and i saw many tutorials where everyone used a different _name at the end.

But I will try and let you know.

you can use _ssbump with $bumpmap maybe that what your thinking about ??

No, the name of the file doesn't matter. Bumpmaps were the precursor to normal mapping, but the name "bumpmap" stuck. I think the reason you're not seeing it is simply because normal maps are hard to see without really hard lighting, or baked shadows via ssbump. You can also make them more visible with specular, but since your material is brick/plaster that's not really called for.

Edit: Sorry, didn't read your post fully, if they're not appearing with mat_normalmaps then what I said doesn't apply at all.

So if the name doesn't matter and the VMT seems correct to me, what's the problem those maps don't show up ingame?

Does it need to be in a certain format? I noticed that Valve mentioned something about BGR8888 format but DXT1 should be okay to in the newer versions (under Conversion > vtfEdit)

DXT should be ok if you don't mind some compression artifacts. Maybe post the files so one of us can have a look, if you're still having trouble. Nothing looks out of place in the VMT.