Missing content

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An example of a missing textures checkerboard.

Same example as above, but in CS:GO, and for missing models.

When distributing a map or mod, care must be taken to ensure that any custom content (sounds, materials, textures, models, etc.) is also distributed, or else players will have an unintended experience.

• Missing materials/textures show up as a black-and-magenta checkerboard (in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, simply display as black, Counter-Strike 2, shows up as a flashing black-and-red checkerboard, Half-Life: Alyx shows up as red wireframe that flashes, in Hammer shows up as white texture or the black-and-magenta checkerboard, in it's Texture Browser shows up as black texture with the text "No Image", or as the black-and-magenta checkerboard).
  • If the cubemaps are not built, it will fallback to generic textures (a desert with orange sunset sky), or show the current map skybox textures (without the world geometry/buildings/etc.), or shown as missing textures (black-and-magenta checkerboard), or simply display as black (which is the same as reflections being disabled using mat_specular 0).
  • Missing skyboxes in-game show up as the black-and-magenta checkerboard, or as a void where the backbuffer will not be cleared with black, that causes the HoM effect to appear, the pixels where nothing is drawn the next frame will contain what was drawn to them in the past. The Hall of mirrors effect void also appears when the map has leaks. In Hammer++ it shows up as a gray void.
• Missing models show up as flashing red 3D text saying "Error" (in Portal 2 the 3D Error text is a light blue, in CS:GO since new updates shows up as big red box with ERROR text textured on it, Source 2 and Strata Source games shows the text in orange color, with Source 2 games being in a slightly different font, and Cry of Fear shows up as red text saying "Error cant find model")
  

  Red "Errors" appear behind the camera on the Team Fortress 2 map "background01.bsp".
• Missing sounds are absent (in Portal 2, a missing sound is indicated by Dr. Kleiner saying "Oh, fiddlesticks. What now?".)
• Missing particles (at least in Portal 2 and Team Fortress 2) appear as a spray of red X's.
• Missing animations appear as A-Pose, T-Pose, or any other standard pose the model has.
• Missing entities in the FGD(s) that are placed on a map in Hammer will appear as the Obsolete sprite, missing entity icons appear as white squares, and missing entity models appear as white, yellow, blue or pink cubes.

If the missing contents shipped with the Source SDK, and are not custom creations, it is likely a problem with your game configuration. See Reset the Source SDK Game Configuration for more information.

Common Problems

One very common problem is when users see a black-and-magenta checkerboard/black textured "sheen" or reflection on surfaces. This is caused by a missing texture, generally due to missing cubemaps, which must be "built" in-game prior to distributing the map.