VTEX (Valve Texture Tool)

Overview

Vtex, or Valve Texture Tool, is the standard application used to convert targa (.tga) image files into Valve Texture Files (.vtf) for use in the Source engine.

Basic Usage

1. Start Steam.
2. If necessary, start Source SDK and set/verify the game that you are converting the texture for in the Current Game drop-down list located at the bottom of the Source SDK menu.
3. Place the targa image to be converted in the SteamApps/username/sourcesdk_content/gamefolder/materialsrc/ folder, where gamefolder is the game folder of the current game (cstrike/dod/hl2/hl2mp).
4. The Vtex executable (Vtex.exe) is located in the /Steam/SteamApps/username/sourcesdk/bin/ folder. (Steam must run while it is executed.)
5. Vtex can be executed in one of two ways: Through the "drag-and-drop" method in Windows (described below), or through the command line interface.
6. The resulting Valve Texture File (.vtf) will be compiled to the materials/ folder of the current game by default. For instance, if your username would be GordonFreeman, and the current game would be Half-Life 2, the texture file would be compiled to the SteamApps/GordonFreeman/half-life 2/hl2/materials/ folder.

The drag-and-drop method

The drag-and-drop method is the easy way to use Vtex. Just drag the targa image to be converted from its materialsrc/ on top of Vtex.exe and let go, and that's it.

Todo: More detail? The process is apparently currently described in Creating Materials, but should be moved here.

See also

• Vtex CLI use
• Vtex troubleshooting
• Creating Materials
• Shader Types and Parameters