Menu Background

GoldSrc

Creating a background manually

GoldSrc background images are split into TGA tiles.

Creating the tiles

The tile files are indexed by .resource/BackgroundLayout.txt and .resource/BackgroundLoadingLayout.txt. The files should usually have the same content, although there are some cases you could use different backgrounds. See Condition Zero Deleted Scenes for example vanilla usage.

Note:Since the Half-Life 25th Aniversary Update, the engine uses the files resource/HD_BackgroundLayout.txt and resource/HD_BackgroundLoadingLayout.txt if liblist.gam has hd_background "1".

Specifications

• Dimensions: 256x256px
• Origin: Bottom-left
• RTE Compression: Supported for 24-bit images.

Note:This reduces the file size.

Creating the layout file

Example:BackgroundLayout.txt

resolution	800	600

resource/background/test_1_a_loading.tga	fit	0	0
resource/background/test_1_b_loading.tga	fit	256	0
resource/background/test_1_c_loading.tga	fit	512	0
resource/background/test_1_d_loading.tga	fit	768	0

resource/background/test_2_a_loading.tga	fit	0	256
resource/background/test_2_b_loading.tga	fit	256	256
resource/background/test_2_c_loading.tga	fit	512	256
resource/background/test_2_d_loading.tga	fit	768	256

resource/background/test_3_a_loading.tga	fit	0	512
resource/background/test_3_b_loading.tga	fit	256	512
resource/background/test_3_c_loading.tga	fit	512	512
resource/background/test_3_d_loading.tga	fit	768	512

Utilities

XBLAH's Modding Tool - Game Menu Editor

XBLAH's Modding Tool

Creating a background for a GoldSrc mod requires spliting the image into multiple TGAs by hand and indexing them in a layout file. This process is streamlined in XBLAH's Modding Tool using an intuitive interface, that creates all the required files based on the background image you import. The tool also allows you to merge all the tiles and export an existing background into a single image See more.