Map Load Screen Tutorial

[Doughnut-4|4-]

I didn't see a tutorial on Load Screen VGUI so I'm going take a swing at it while I discover how to do it myself. I'm still updating this cause I'm learning as I go, but its a start...

1) Download a VTF extraction program and associate VMF & VTF files with this program.:
http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/index.php?c=178

2) Open this folder:
FortressForever\materials\vgui\loadingscreens

3) Use photoshop or some picture editing program to create your graphic. I'm not sure on resolution. I made my picture 1024x768 and I made the VTF format 1024x1024 because textures can only be specific intervals.

4) Convert your picture into VTF with that program, and toss it back in the folder.

5) Open your VTF program and make a new file. This will be your VMF text file. Save the file after your map name "ff_map" or whatever. Inside the file paste the following info, replacing "ff_map" with the name of your map:

"UnlitGeneric"
{
"%keywords" "FF"
"$basetexture" "vgui/loadingscreens/ff_map"
}

[watch]

You can also find the fonts in FortressForever\resource

I think a template .psd was going to be released at some point so others could make similar loading screens

http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/index.php?c=154#p154 is also useful for photoshop users

[stino]

and apart from that, what do i else have to do, becouse this doesn't work, i also like to know how to compile the vtf, compressed/uncompressed mipmaps/no mipmaps, ...

[GambiT]

Originally Posted by watch

You can also find the fonts in FortressForever\resource

I think a template .psd was going to be released at some point so others could make similar loading screens

http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/index.php?c=154#p154 is also useful for photoshop users

also works with Paint Shop Pro 10.03

[GambiT]

Originally Posted by stino

and apart from that, what do i else have to do, becouse this doesn't work, i also like to know how to compile the vtf, compressed/uncompressed mipmaps/no mipmaps, ...

when using VTEX to convert TGA's to VTF's you can create a text file with the same name as your texture and add lines in it such as:

"bumpscale"
TODO: Something to do with heightmaps, and possibly normal maps.

"clamps", "clampt"
Do not allow the texture to wrap in the S or T coordinate space, respectively. This is most often used for sprites that are not tiled.

"dxt5"
Use DXT5 compression instead of full compression.

"nocompress"
Do not use compression on this texture. Useful for textures with fine gradation (like light halos).

"nolod"
Do not use lower quality versions of this texture in lower DirectX versions. Used for non-world graphics such as HUD art.

"nomip"
Do not make mip-levels for this texture. Used for materials like skyboxes and menu backgrounds.

"nonice"
Do not use NICE filtering on this texture’s lower mip-levels.

"normal"
TODO: Possibly something to do with heightmaps and normal maps.

"skybox"
Used for compiling skyboxes. This assures the edges match between each facet.

"startframe (integer)", "endframe (integer)"
Used for animated textures. Textures must be named as texture000, texture001, texture002, etc. The startframe defines the beginning frame and the endframe defines the ending frame.

Those were taken from valve developer. also note in most cases your going to drag the text file onto vtex NOT the texture.

[stino]

i use the vtf lib for photoshop, i saved it like i whould save an ordinary texture for a wall or something, and it doesn't show up in game

[Donny]

Tutorial to make everything match up with FF's ones could be more useful. Down to colors fonts, picture border sizes etc.

[GambiT]

Originally Posted by stino

i use the vtf lib for photoshop, i saved it like i whould save an ordinary texture for a wall or something, and it doesn't show up in game

Stino are you creating VMT's for the texture?

[Doughnut-4|4-]

I'm not digging for fonts on this tutorial because I want to keep it short and sweet. I like the designs done by the FF Team, but I want to go with a different style for my maps while borrowing from them.

If someone wants to post the fonts and borders I'd appreciate it. And I'd probably tag it to the bottom of the original post with credits.

[stino]

ok, i'm stupid, i referenced to ff_badlands.vtf in a file called ff_badlands_beta5.vmt

wich isn't wrong, unless i named ff_badlands.vtf as ff_badlands_beta5.vtf

so that's fixed now, and as soon i get home this evening, i'll upload my psd file and make a little tutorial on it, it looks almost the same as the ones from the dev team