Is it me? Or is it hard to make textures for Goldsource? Created 6 years ago2018-08-06 22:11:43 UTC by savvaisnotagirl

[rant]

I've been fumbling around both engines, making some maps and all. There comes a time where I need to make or import a texture for a map so it works well into the map. In Source engine, its very easy as you just convert the image file into a .vtf and make a quick .vmt file and then boom! You got a texture for your map. Then quickly use VIDE to package everything together and the map should work as intended.

In Goldsource, I'm lost. The wally image editor confuses me as I'm not an expert in making wads. I make my image then drag it over in the wally image editor, then it loads for a bit (idk why), then I try my best not confusing export to save as I need to save as a .wad file, then I have to open up hammer editor and import the .wad into the texture, then who knows if the texture is even right. Once I'm finished with everything, I don't know how to even pack the whole map! I assume you just put the textures in the correct folders and then post it online, but what about people who download it through the game?

It feels such a hassle compared to the Source engine, though don't get me started with that engine. I wish there was an easier or faster process for this. I don't like individually creating wads as it causes the map to bug out but I hate going through the process just to group up all the textures, taking such a long time. It's processes like these that encourage me to use hl and cs wads instead so I don't over complicate things and cause me to drop out of the project.

[/rant]

Goldsource .wads can be compiled inside the .bsp or sent to other players by having a .res file on the server

I feel quite the opposite, to me Source looks like more troublesome to get textures right.

Here's the basic gist of it:
Make sure your texture sizes are a power of 2 (16, 32, 64...) up to 512px.
Open wally, create a new wad and drag all the textures to it, to make it easier create the wad directly in your mods folder.
If you don't want to mess with res files (lets face it who does?) use -nowadtextures or -wadinclude compile options to include your textures in the bsp directly.

There's something about the texture color too, but I don't know off the top of my head now.

Here's my GoldSrc texture workflow:

I make the texture in GIMP (either photosourcing or by hand), and then I save it as a high-quality BMP or PNG.
Then I open IrfanView and decrease the colour depth to 8 bits, and save the BMP into another folder.
Once I'm done with putting all the 8-bit BMPs into the folder, I open HL Texture Tools and I make a WAD with them.

As for the colours, Wally sometimes really tends to screw up my texture. A single GoldSrc texture can only have up to 256 colours. I use IrfanView now, because it converts it to 8-bit as good as possible. GIMP can sometimes convert RGB 0 0 0 into 27 27 27 (for example), which is laughable, so I don't index the texture in there.

It can be a bit complex at first, but once you get used to it, it's not a big deal at all.

I make my image then drag it over in the wally image editor, then it loads for a bit (idk why), then I try my best not confusing export to save as I need to save as a .wad file, then I have to open up hammer editor and import the .wad into the texture, then who knows if the texture is even right. Once I'm finished with everything, I don't know how to even pack the whole map! I assume you just put the textures in the correct folders and then post it online, but what about people who download it through the game?

First things first, in Wally you should go to File -> New and then pick Half-Life WAD.
It's loading for a while probably because it's converting itself to 8-bit.
As for packing the texture into the map, use -wadinclude [wadname] (no extension). You can even include an entire folder IIRC, and if you want to include more than one, do -wadinclude [wadname1] -wadinclude [wadname2] in HLCSG.
If you don't want to pack it into the map, and have the WAD file in the valve or cstrike folder (for example), create a RES file by dragging and dropping the BSP file into a RES generator. That's all.

One more thing, textures must be powers of 2 if you want to ensure quality and compatibility.
Multiples of 16 are allowed, like 96x96, but that's going to be downscaled to the nearest power-of-two texture (64x64) in OpenGL and Direct3D. Hence 1024x256 looks exactly like 256x256. So yeah, 32² up to 512². This wouldn't happen in Software mode, however.

What? You think source is easier than Goldsrc? I think the opposite!

There's a few rules you need to follow, such as ensuring your texture dimension are powers of two, and that your image is (finally saved) as an 8bit BMP file.

If you're using Photoshop this is crazy easy, just make a texture as normal and then change the image mode to indexed colour once finished, and Photoshop will do it's best to find out the best palette that keeps the image as close to the original as possible. Drag and drop your final image into Wally, save as a wad, it's literally that easy.

Wads are completely self contained, so once your images are in the wad file, that is the only thing you need to keep in your folder. You don't need to keep the individual images around like with vtfs

Yeah, I would say that it's the opposite way around. I actually enjoy making textures with goldsource far more than when I attempted with Source. Admittedly Source offers all the effects like normal mapping, refraction and reflections, but that's just more faff that I cannot be bothered with.

In Goldsource I make texture in photoshop with dimensions divisible by 16 (squared images to avoid Steam Half-Life's blurring bug) and then copy and paste right into wally. Simplicity itself, but then I've been doing it for two decades...

I found this to be really helpful: http://the303.org/tutorials/gold_texture.htm

Woaah, I didn't expect to get a lot of help from such an old community! I followed your suggestions and tips, tried out making .wads with some textures I made, and wow it's pretty easy now. I guess I over exaggerated my confusion with wally as now it seems so quick and easy. Maps look a lot better now.

Thanks to everyone who helped here! I'll take your tips to heart and save this thread in case I get stuck on something :thumbsup:

I'd say the longevity of TWHL is down to it's dedicated staff and community.

Things are a little quieter these days, but you would be hard pressed to find a more welcoming and helpful bunch of people. I've tried to leave this place like, three times... I've made too many friends here.