This reloads textures when you alt-tab back to XSI from another program like Photoshop, a good time saver.Ĭompiling your.VTF : Valve Texture FormatĪny Texture that has been mapped to a model (before exporting your.SMD from XSI) must be converted from a TGA to a VTF file before it can be used in the Source Engine. Make sure that you have your preferences set to "reload externally modified images on focus". If you do need to create multiple textures on one model, you must first select a group of polygons, make a cluster of them, then apply the material and image to your cluster.
Multiple textures on a model can drastically affect rendering time. You should try to only use one basetexture, unless material demands require otherwise.While it may seem that bigger is better, this isn’t always the case, mipmapping can force your large texture down in size until blurriness becomes a problem.
VTF as early as possible and load preview your model in the engine, using the mat_showmiplevels command at the console, check what mip level you’re seeing at some of the most common encounters your character is going to have during gameplay. The default noicon.pic file in XSI is a good choice or you may use this file, Checkerboard Starter Texture (right-click save as.) included in the SDK. Also, using a checkerboard texture gives you a very good way to measure how much texel density you have on the various parts of your model, as you define the UV’s, some areas like faces may need a bit of extra density, but overall you should strive for even and consistent texel density across your model.
Models in Source games - whether props, characters, viewmodels, etc - need at least 3 basic components: your. 4 Compiling your.VMT : Valve Material Type.3 Compiling your.VTF : Valve Texture Format.