This article's documentation is for Source 2. Click here for more information.

VMAP

From Valve Developer Community
Jump to: navigation, search

English (en)
Edit

Stub

This article or section is a stub. You can help by adding to it.


VMAP stands for Valve Map, and it is the main map file extension used by Source 2 Source 2 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 with preceding formats:

Source Source Source 2 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 .vmdl_c files
Visibility compiled Visibility lump .vvis_c file
Physics compiled Physics lump .vphys_c file
Entities compiled Entity lump .vents_c file

Compiled VMAP

VMAP_C stands for Valve Map Compiled, and is the main map file extension used to load maps in Source 2 Source 2. The .vmap_c file is used to refer to various map dependencies (including vwrld, vwnod, vvis, vphys, vents, vtex, vmdl, vrman; usually residing in maps/<mapname>/) as well as other external assets used in the map.

This file along with its main dependencies usually get bundled together into a single VPK file, the latter of which serves similarly to the .bsp. Since lumps are separate files, they get packed and live next to other assets in the VPK. This makes post-compile addons much more convenient than in Source Source (see Patching EP1 levels vs. HL:A Map Extensions).