Material

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• Source materials are defined in VMT files.
• Source 2 materials are defined in VMAT files.

GoldSrc does not use materials; instead, textures are used directly, and flagged either via name in a WAD or by metadata in an MDL or SPR.

Creating materials with XBLAH's Modding Tool

XBLAH's Modding Tool can be used to create some types of materials.

Where to find it
This can be accessed within the tool through Materials > Material Editor.

How to use it
When you are creating the material, the tool will create all the necessary files after the user selects the desired source images, either from a local bitmap resource or from a mounted vtf.

See more in Material.

Selecting the Shader

Currently, the following shaders are supported:

• UnlitGeneric
• LightmappedGeneric
• VertexLitGeneric

If the mod runs on Mapbase branch, when saving the material, it will automatically add sdk_ to the shader name.

Selecting textures

When creating a new material, you can use existing textures, or use directly image files, without any prior conversion. Once you save the material, the tool will automatically compile the materials to the required format. To load a texture, right click the image preview of the desired texture, and click Open Texture to select an existing texture, or Import to load an image file. You can also export the current texture to an image format by right clicking the image preview, and clicking Export.

Generating Normal Maps

If the base texture has a bland color and dark and bright spots represent bevels, you can use the Generate Normal Map button to automatically create a normal map. This works for most cases.