VTEX (Valve Texture Tool)

, or Valve Texture Tool, is the command-line tool used to convert targa (.tga), portable floatmap (.pfm), or Photoshop (.psd) (Orange box SDK) image files into Valve Texture Files (.vtf) for use in the engine.
== Limitations ==
== Supported input formats ==
# Truevision Targa (.tga)
# Portable Floatmap (.pfm)
# Photoshop (.psd) image files 
== Supported output formats ==
# Valve Texture Files (.vtf) for use in the engine
== Usage ==
=== Basic ===
#Make sure that Steam is running.
#Place the targa image to be converted inside the SteamApps/common/gamefolder/materialsrc/ folder, where gamefolder is the game folder of the current game (cstrike/dod/hl2/hl2mp/tf). You can also place the image within a subfolder of this folder, to make Vtex compile the texture to the corresponding materials/ subfolder. (For instance, placing the image in a materialsrc/metal/ subfolder, will make Vtex compile the texture to the materials/metal/ subfolder.)
#If necessary, write a text (.txt) file containing a set of Vtex compile parameters. Give it the same name as the targa image (with the exception of the .txt extension) and put it in the same folder. If you choose to omit this list, Vtex will create an empty one for you during compilation.
#The Vtex executable (Vtex.exe) is located in the /Steam/SteamApps/common/gamefolder/bin/ folder, again where gamefolder is the folder that corresponds with the target game. It can be executed in one of two ways: Through the easy "drag-and-drop" method (described below), or the more advanced command prompt method, described here. Steam must run while it is executed.
::
#The resulting Valve Texture File (VTF) will be compiled to the materials/ folder of the current game by default. For instance, if the current game would be Half-Life 2, the texture file would be compiled to the SteamApps/common/Half-Life 2/hl2/materials/ folder. If the targa image resided within a subfolder, Vtex will compile the texture file to the corresponding materials/ subfolder. If that subfolder doesn't exist, Vtex will create it automatically.
=== The Drag-and-Drop Method ===
The drag-and-drop method is the easy way to use Vtex. Just drag the icon of either the targa image to be converted, or its list of compile parameters (from its materialsrc/ folder) on top of the icon of the Vtex executable (Vtex.exe) and let go, and Vtex will compile the texture file automatically.
=== Command-line interface ===
== Compile parameters ==
Vtex can accept a list of additional compile parameters during its execution. These parameters are optional, but sometimes necessary to get a good result.
The list is written in the form of a simple text (.txt) document with the same name as the targa (.tga) image to compile, and it should be put in the same folder as it, namely in the SteamApps/common/gamefolder/materialsrc/ folder, where gamefolder is the game folder of the current game (cstrike/dod/hl2/hl2mp).
Example usage for one of the files for the console background:
// This is a comment, and will be ignored
nonice 1
nolod 1
nomip 1
=== Parameters ===
; 
: Force texture to use all mipmaps (no minimum mipmap).
; 
: Keep alpha channels of mipmaps binary (only transparent or opaque), for use with .
: No effect on the full resolution texture (mipmap 0).
; 
; 
: Fine-grain control for alphatest mipmap generation
; 
: Creates alpha-to-distance textures.
; 
: Use anisotropic filtering on the compiled texture, even if the user has selected bilinear or trilinear filtering in their video settings.
; 
: Sets texture's bumpscale value, which controls normal map intensity.
; 
; 
; 
: Do not allow the texture to wrap in the S (sides), T (top), or U ( coordinate space, respectively. This is most often used for sprites that are not tiled. 
; 
: How much to spread alpha when creating alpha-to-distance textures.
; 
: Texture is a Du/Dv map.
; 
: Force DXT5 compression, even if the source has no alpha channel.
; 
: Invert the green channel of the input texture (used for converting OpenGL normal maps to DirectX).
; 
: Use pre-authored mipmaps instead of generating them from the full resolution texture
: 
; 
; 
; 
; 
: Sets maximum texture resolution for "High" () texture quality.
: If absent, both "High" () and "Very High" () texture quality will use the full-resolution texture.
: 
; 
: Fade out to a specific color or alpha starting with mip level 3. Takes one of the following options:
:* - Fade out all color channels to 128, for detail textures using .
:* - ???
:* , , , - Fade out to the specified value. Include a statements for each channel, like so
 "mipblend" "r=247"
 "mipblend" "g=154"
 "mipblend" "b=16"
 "mipblend" "a=255"
:: Any omitted values will be treated as zero.
::
; 
: Do not use compression on this texture. Useful for textures with fine gradation (like light halos).
; 
: No debug override.
; 
: Do not use lower resolution versions of this texture regardless of texture quality (mat_picmip) settings. Used for non-world graphics such as HUD art.
; 
: Do not use mipmapping for this texture. Used for materials like skyboxes and menu backgrounds. 
; 
: Do not use NICE filtering on this texture’s lower mip-levels.
; 
: Texture is a normal map. Implies , so that all normals will be kept normalized during mipmap generation. Also regenerates the Blue color channel if missing, at least in some versions.
:
; 
: Use alpha channel as luminance when converting from normal maps to Du/Dv maps
; 
: Converts the texture to a Du/Dv map.
; 
: How many channels to import from source file. (1 = Red only, 2 = Red and Green, 3 = RGB, 4 = RGB + Alpha).
: Omitted color channels are replaced with full color intensity; cannot be used to create an I8-encoded VTF.
; 
: Alpha channel fades out as mipmaps get smaller.
; 
: Source texture is a portable floatmap. Used for HDR.
; 
: Used to scale floatmap intensity.
; 
: Do not filter this texture in-game.
: 
; 
: Color channel fades out as mipmaps get smaller. Used when converting normal maps to Du/Dv maps.
; 
: Texture is procedural.
; 
; 
; 
: Downscales on both axes, only X axis, or only Y axis, respectively. Value must be a power of two, and tells VTEX how to reduce the dimensions (2 = half size, 4 = quarter size, 8 = eighth size, etc.).
; 
: Texture is a rendertarget.
; 
: 
; 
: Used for compiling skyboxes. This assures the edges match between each facet.
; 
: Like mipblend, but for specular masks.
: Implies .
; 
; 
; 
; 
; 
; 
: 
; 
: Used for self-shadowing bump maps.
; 
; 
: 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. Up to 1,000 frames are allowed.
; 
: Used to tell Vtex to ignore the source texture's alpha channel.
: If the texture is SDR, the resulting VTF will be encoded as DXT1 or BGR888 instead of DXT5 or BGRA8888, respectively (depending upon presence of ), unless the parameter is used.
: If the texture is HDR, the resulting alpha channel will be completely opaque ("white").
; 
: Used to create a texture with no color data. 
: Implies ; the resulting VTF will be encoded as A8. Not compatible with .
; 
: Use at least trilinear filtering on the compiled texture, even if the user has selected bilinear filtering in their video settings.
; 
: Creates a volumetric texture.
: Implies and .
=== using .psd 'file info' parameters ===
Textures compiled from .psd files can have command line parameters saved into the .psd directly. To do this, use the 'File Info' menu in Photoshop and add your Vtex commands into the "description" text field. These parameters will get evaluated by Vtex when the .psd file is compiled. 
Here's an example of usage for creating a flashlight that won't tile:
clamps 1;
clampt 1;
border 0;
== Troubleshooting ==
=== Local Steam Service is not running ===
Vtex will give the following error:
 SteamStartup() failed: SteamStartup(0xf,0x0012F0E4) failed with error 108: The local Steam Service is not running
Steam must run while Vtex is run. Start Steam to fix this.
=== Problem figuring out outputdir ===
Vtex will give the following error:
 Problem figuring out outputdir for <path>
As a first step, check that the texture to convert is really in the \sourcesdk_content\gamedir\materialsrc folder, where gamedir is the game folder (cstrike/dod/hl2/hl2mp).
If the texture is in the correct folder, the error might instead be caused by a complication with the environment variables. Primarily, this should be able to be eliminated by using VConfig and ensuring the selected mod has been run at least once. However, there are cases where this doesn't solve the problem.
One solution is to remove the instance of the VProject Environment variable. In Windows XP this can be accomplished by the following:
#Right-click on My computer and click on Properties.
#Select the Advanced tab.
#Click on Environment Variables near the bottom of the window.
#In the System variables section scroll down and highlight the line VProject.
#Click the Delete button.
#Click OK twice to exit.
However, this solution will create the Unable to find gameinfo.txt error instead. 
==== Alternative solution ====
vtex.exe cannot understand spaces in the input file. One solution is to create a folder directly on the C:/ drive with the same name as the original one the vtex shortcut was pointing at. For example, create C:/tf instead of C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\<account_name>\team fortress 2\tf. Update the vtex.exe shortcut to point to this new folder. In this folder, put the gameinfo.txt from the original folder, as well as an empty materialsrc and materials folder. Place your file to be converted in the new materialsrc folder. Now drag-and-drop the file onto the vtex shortcut, and the output will be in the new materials folder.
=== "Unable to find gameinfo.txt" ===
Vtex will give the following error and instructions:
 Unable to find gameinfo.txt. Solutions:
 
 1. Read http://www.valve-erc.com/srcsdk/faq.html#NoGameDir
 2. Run vconfig to specify which game you're working on.
 3. Add -game <path> on the command line where <path> is the directory that gameinfo.txt is in.
This error will occur after VProject has been removed using the steps above.
Open Source SDK and change the Current Game.
=== Setup file gameinfo.txt doesn't exist ===
The Nov 7th, 2007 SDK release includes Orange Box with TF2 and trying to use vtex in this new SDK update to create a vtf file for Team Fortress 2 results in the following error message:
 "Setup file 'gameinfo.txt' doesn't exist in subdirectory 'C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\player name\sourcesdk\bin\orangebox\bin\vconfig'. check your -game parameter or VCONFIG setting.".
Assuming that this is the same error as "Unable to find gameinfo.txt" above, then trying to run vconfig.exe results in this error:
 "This application has failed to start because Steam.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem."
Solution: 
#Create a shortcut to vtex.exe which is located in "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\player_name\sourcesdk\bin\orangebox\bin\vtex.exe" and select Properties.
#At the end of the Target text add -game "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\player_name\team fortress 2\tf" -nop4
Valve intends to fix the problem with requirement of a -nop4 argument to be added to the target.
=== TGA is bogus ===
Vtex will give the following error:
 TGA <path> is bogus!
The texture image you are trying to convert is not recognized as a valid targa (.tga) file. Make sure that it is, and that it is either 24 bit/pixel or 32 bit/pixel. (8 or 16 bit/pixel is not recognized.)
=== "Warning: falling back to auto detection of vconfig" (Windows Vista) ===
Vtex will give the following error:
Make a shortcut for vtex.exe and add -game [path to game directory]
:Example: -game c:/steam/steamapps/sourcemods/Awakening
If there are spaces in any of the folders in your path use "
:Example: -game "c:/program files/steam/steamapps/sourcemods/insurgency"
=== Error loading texture texturename.pfm ===
The byteorder ( endian ) of your .pfm is probably not the correct one.
If you exported your texture from photoshop, this might happen depending on the specific photoshop version you are using.
A workaround for this issue is by converting to .pfm using Imagemagick ( Make sure to download the version specific to your OS that has HDR imaging enabled! )
Run your texture ( .tif, .hdr, .exr ... ) through the tool with -endian LSB and the resulting .pfm should no longer make vtex complain!
== See also ==
* Creating a Material
Category: Material System