Source VMT Editor

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Overview

The Material Editor is an engine tool available in Source 2007 and later. This tool allows you to edit VMT properties while in-game with via a simplified interface that is both user friendly and real time. This heavily simplifies the material editing process as well. Previously users would have to edit the vmt outside of the engine, then go back in-game and reload all materials, or the current vmt. To use it, run your game or mod with -tools -nop4 on the command line and select 'Material Editor' from the Tools menu. This tool is used to edit the material properties with the added advantage of a preview.

Todo:  Find out if material editor supports custom shaders?

Note: Make sure that sv_lan is set to 1 in the console located in the lower-left corner (sv_lan 1) if your game is MP based.

Warning:you need to use the command: "toolload vmt" in console for Alien Swarm to load

Interface

The first viewport on the left is the vmt properties that you could set. The lower right viewport is the vmt preview, and bove that is the engine viewport. When you are editing, the vmt properties viewport will identify all of the avalable parameters as well as what type of data that could be inputted.

To Create a new material

click file -> new , then begin editing

see Material for editing information

Selecting Shaders

go to "shader" from the properties list and click

the Select Shader window will appear

select from the list or type in the name of the shader in the filter box

see List of Shaders

Ideally, you should pick one of these three.

• LightmappedGeneric -> for world texturing

• VertexLitGeneric -> for model texturing

• UnlitGeneric -> for UI texturing

After your shader type is selected, the list of avalable parameters, for the selected shader, will update.

Selecting textures

go to the $basetexture parameter and click .

the select VTF window will appear

select the desired texture to be used in the material

Selecting Colors

go to the $color parameter and click

the Select Color window will appear

adjust the settings to get the desired color

the color box will change to the selected color

see List of Shader Parameters for more details

Data types

Todo: add more information

• bool "short for boolean" in which 0 = false and 1 = true
• string "file path" (ex. brick\brickfloor001a.vtf) "name" (ex. VertexLitGeneric)
• color <color255 + int> (ex. 97 11 255 255)
• float "floating point" a decimal between 0 and 1 (ex. 0.75)
• int "short for integer" (ex. 56)
• matrix "written in binary" ( 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 )

Todo: Finish Tutorial

Loading a material

Bug:Complex material designs can crash the editor when loading  [todo tested in ?]

Warning:Do not load material vmts outside of the loaded mod or game directory, the associated vtf files may not load as a result

click file -> Open..., find the file located in the mod or game directory loaded

Saving a material

Bug:Somtimes settings may not stick, keep a text editor open to copy your settings over  [todo tested in ?]

Warning:Do not save material vmts outside of the loaded mod or game directory, the material will not load as a result

click file -> save as..., give the material a name, and save in the mod or game directory loaded

See Also

• Material
• Valve Texture Format
• Engine tools