Moving Mod And Source Files

The Source SDK sets up a mod that to be worked on the machine that the wizard ran on. This setup includes creating configuration setups for the SDK Tool, Hammer, and in Visual Studio Solution files. For any reason you need to move from one to computer to another, it becomes an issue to continue working. This includes situations of just moving from one machine to the next (such as moving from an academic lab computer to a computer at home) as well as any source control situation.

The Goal of this document is to explain each part that needs to move and how to reset the configuration settings to continue working.

Set your Mod Game Directory

The folder that is created under ...\Steam\steamapps\SourceMods for your mod is called the Game Directory. This is the directory that is shared with other users whom will play your mod.

VS will copy the finished client and server DLL's to the following directory. ...Steam\steamapps\SourceMods\<YOUR MOD NAME>\bin

The folder to where map bsp files will be copied to will be the following directory. ...Steam\steamapps\SourceMods\<YOUR MOD NAME>\maps

Fix file copying in Visual Studio Solution

Right-click > Properties on the Server and Client projects. You will need to do this for both the Release and the Debug configuration; four times in all.

1. Navigate to Configuration Properties > Custom Build Step.
2. Click on Command Line, then click on the ... button that appears on the right.
3. Replace the contents of the new dialogue with the first code block below.
4. Click on Outputs and paste in the second code block below.

Warning:Remember to change "client" to "server" in the code blocks below when appropriate, and, of course, to fill in the actual target destination.

Note:The "<YOUR MOD PATH>" is the path of your "..steamapps\SourceMods\<Your Mod>" directory, and not the directory of your Visual Studio Project.

Command Line

if exist "<YOUR MOD PATH>\bin\client.dll" attrib -r "<YOUR MOD PATH>\bin\client.dll"
copy "$(TargetDir)"client.dll "<YOUR MOD PATH>\bin\"
if exist "<YOUR MOD PATH>\bin\client.pdb" attrib -r "<YOUR MOD PATH>\bin\client.pdb"
if exist "$(TargetDir)"client.pdb copy "$(TargetDir)"client.pdb "<YOUR MOD PATH>\bin\"

Outputs

<YOUR MOD PATH>\bin\client.dll;<YOUR MOD PATH>\bin\client.pdb

If errors persist is possible that you have a corrupted bin file instead a bin folder at you steam mod path, delete it and recompile or create your mod project again.