So, i’m making a model, a truck for example, i wanna take the standard HL2 wooden crate and fuse it with my truck, so the the crates are in the back. Can anyone tell me how to import the standard HL2 box into my scene??

What about it’s texture?? do i have to uv map and texture it again??

Thanks in advance.

Would the crates be completely static (unable to break open, be moved by the gravity gun, etc), or just normal crates placed in the back of the truck that the player can still interact with?

Yes, they wouldnt be able to be destroyed or get manipulated by the gravity gun. I’m making these models so they can become “structures” for an RTS mod, hopefully later they can get destroyed when the structure dies, a sort of death animation, so i guess knowing how to export BOTH (static and non-static) would be nice. However, if you dont know how, ill just take the static option.

Thanks again.

You’ll have to use gcfscape to extract the .mdl from the .gcf files. From there run the file through an mdl decompiler to get the .smd, which should import into XSI through Valve’s addon and contain the mesh and UVs. You can pull the texture out from the .gcf as well (you shouldn’t have to set up the materials for it again, as long as they are pointing correctly to the ones in the gcf)

I downloaded GCFscape and extracted the needed crates as 3 files, an .mdl, .phy and as a .jpg (image). Now, i assume i need to decompile the .mdl into an .smd, i got a decompiler from here: http://www.chaosincarnate.net/cannonfodder/cftools.htm

Is it a good .mdl decompiler? are there other better ones?

I extracted the mdl decompiler exe file into my steam/steamapps/username/sourcesdk/bin folder, and when i click it, it gives the following error “The procedure entry point Q_AppendSlash could not be located in the dynamic link library vstdlib.dll.”

Although the decompiler says that i must export into “/SteamApps/sourcesdk/bin”, the only sourcesdk in Steamapps is the sourcesdk.gcf (which has a bin folder inside of it), so maybe, i need to place it inside the GCF? but how??. Maybe i exported the decompiler into the wrong place altogether??

Nevermind, i fixed all of that.

Now when i import the crate smd into XSI, it doesnt display the texture… In the import window, there is a “Import Materials” function. I put the smd’s, the other files and the vmt’s into a folder, and then i browse to that folder yet still it doesn’t display the texture. Also the UV’s are under the image for some reason, but i move them up, yet still it’s just the standard checker box image.

In the texture editor window, the clips tab has 2 clips, the name of the VMT and the standard clip, both are displaying the same standard checkerboard as well. (well the standard clip is suppose to do that, but the VMT shouldn’t i guess.)

Ok i fixed that as well, sorry for the trouble… but now i have one final question, i cannot see textures in my user viewport, i can only see them if all four viewports are displayed with one viewport being the texture editor, and i checked, i have textured mode selected on my user viewport....

Any idea why this is happening?

If you have the texture editor open, it can override materials and display the active clip (in the texture editor) on whatever model is selected. It depends on the model you’ve imported, but there’s a chance it has clusters which have multiple materials. You may not see the texture normally as a cluster material can be overriding it, but with the texture editor open it may override the cluster material to once again display the texture as long as the texture editor is open. Hard to tell without having the scene file, but try going through the model in the explorer to see if it has any clusters applied (if so, delete the clusters, assign the model a new material, and reapply the texture).

Ok the situation is fixed, thanks alot.

one last question (i swear), why is it when i import models, the uv’s are outside the 1:1 box? usually on the bottom? and how do i Import the model ALONG with it’s texture? the way i do it now is, i import it, it has no texture so i import a new clip, which is the file it uses as its texture in the .QC file, a .VTF file i think which i extract from gcfscape.

Haha, if you have questions keep them coming :P

Unfortunately I don’t know the answer to either though. Its possible something happens to the UVs during the compiling process (perhaps decompile one of the models you’ve compiled to see if there are any changes). Does the texture still appear correct due to wrapping?

I’ve also never used the import material option either, but use the method you described (extracting the texture and reassigning it automatically).

Unfortunately I don’t know the answer to either though. Its possible something happens to the UVs during the compiling process (perhaps decompile one of the models you’ve compiled to see if there are any changes). Does the texture still appear correct due to wrapping?

I think we are on the wrong page, let me start over JUST in case to show you what exactly i did… I modeled stuff, i imported some stuff from HL2, and i notice that the uv’s for the HL2 objects are OUTSIDE the 1:1 box, so i import the texture MANUALLY, (even though in the import smd box, i selected import materials and linked the folder with the texture AS well) since it doesnt do it automatically.

I move the uv’s back to their place and check it in user view, (didnt bother checking textured view when i 1st saw the uv’s outside) i see the texture, everything is ok and i get back to modeling. when the texture editor closes, i cant see the texture even though textured mode is enabled. After asking you as to why this is happening, the “unable to see textures in textured mode” bug disappears.

So, in your latest reply, i noticed something, you think i already compiled the model and sent it into the mod HL2, but i didnt do that, i usually dont do that, i just export the final scene as an SMD and give it to the coders, they import it in to the mod. Which is why i started retelling everything to you.

Now, i decided to show you a pic of what i meant, and i noticed that even tho the uv’s are outside the 1:1 box, they still have the correct texture. i didnt notice that before due to the textured mode bug. My question is, do i need to move the uv’s BACK into the rightful places?

P.S

Does the texture still appear correct due to wrapping?

EDIT: i got like different multiple items in the scene, how do i make them have their own textures? with clusters?

here’s the pic: http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/7546/535n.jpg