VMAP
VMAP stands for Valve Map, and it is the main map file extension used by Source 2's Hammer. The file itself is just a dmx file under binary encoding version 4, however Hammer can export an ASCII-encoded vmap by clicking "Save Copy As Text".
Some key differences from Source:
| Source | Source 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Geometry uncompiled | Brushes in Valve Map Format | Meshes in half-edge format |
| Geometry partitioning | Node and leaf lump / BSP | .vwnod_c file / Octree |
| Geometry compiled | Face lump | Objects are formed and autocombined into .vmdl_c files |
| Visibility compiled | Visibility lump | .vvis_c file |
| Physics compiled | Physics lump | .vphys_c file |
| Entities compiled | Entity lump | .vents_c file |
Valve Map Compiled
VMAP_C stands for Valve Map Compiled, and is the main map file extension used to load maps in Source 2. The .vmap_c file is used to refer to various map dependencies (including vwrld, vwnod, vvis, vphys, vents, vtex, vmdl, vrman) residing in maps/<mapname>/ as well as other external assets used in the map. Its usefulness to the engine seems questionable as <mapname>/world.vrman_c also refers to all the same vital dependencies.?
This file along with its main dependencies usually get bundled together into a single .vpk file, serving similarily to a .bsp. Compared to the source BSP format, you can see that lumps are now separate files, and so the Pakfile lump idea was extended to also hold all these lumps as files inside maps/<mapname>/. This makes post-compile addons much more convenient (see Patching EP1 levels vs. HL:A Map Extensions).