Pre SDK - How to set up Hammer for L4D

**Kebab-Kastike** · 01-09-2009, 09:19 AM

So you can't wait for the official release of the L4D SDK?

Don't worry, you can set it up old-school style.

Here's how:

First Step

Open up steam and go to Tools tab.
From there select Source SDK
From the drop down list select the engine version to be "The Orange Box"

This sets the editor to the newest source engine version.
If you have The Orange Box selected already you don't have to select it again, naturally.

From the Source SDK panel press the "Create a Mod" button.
Select Create Half-Life 2 Multiplayer Mod and press Next.
Now a new screen pops up and asks what is the mod called and where it should be saved. Type "C:\Left4Fake" to the first field and to the second "Left4Fake"

Why Left4Fake? So it doesn't mess anything up when Valve decides to release the official SDK for Left4Dead.
It'll load now for a while. Let it do it's job.

Done? Awesome let's get ready for second step:

Second Step

Download program from this link.

Link to the .zip will come up when you press the link called A newer build of my VPK tool that now includes a UI.

Unzip the files somewhere in your hard drive.
Now double click Gibbed.Valve.ExtractPackage.exe.
Press Extract and find the file called pak01_dir.vpk found in Your Steam Install Directory\SteamApps\Common\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\

Extract the file to SteamApps\Sourcemods\Left4Fake\

This will extract all the textures, sounds and models and stuff like that so you can work with them. It'll take a while.
"As your attoyrney I advice you to use this time to make a hot cup of coffee."

All done? Awesome! Get ready for the most annoying step.

Third Step

This is a tad bit more tedious as the script that would do all the work for you has disappeared to bit heaven. You have to do this by hand now...

Copy the following to a text file:

Code:

copy *.vtx *.dx80.vtx 
copy *.vtx *.dx90.vtx
copy *.vtx *.sw.vtx
del *.dx80.dx90.sw.vtx
del *.dx80.dx90.vtx
del *.dx80.sw.vtx
del *.dx90.sw.vtx

Now rename that txt to: vtxfixer.bat

Go to your Left4Fake model folder at SteamApps\SourceMods\Left4Fake\models\

Sidenote: If you cannot find that folder, you have done something wrong.

and copypaste that script file you just made there.
Run it.
Now copy&paste that script to EVERY folder and SUB folder at your models directory and run it.

The script fixes the model files so that you can use them.

When you are done crack open a cold beer. You are almost done here.

Fourth Step

Download the following file: http://www.filefactory.com/file/af796ad/n/L4Dfgd_zip
Extract that anywhere you like.

I extracted mine to SteamApps\MyUserName\sourceSDK_content\ just to keep things tidy.

Now open up Source SDK and make sure you have The Orange Box engine version and Left4Fake selected from the drop down list.

Go ahead and start up Hammer.
Go to Tools -> Options

New screen pops up.

From the Game Data files, go ahead and remove the HalfLife multiplayer one.
Press Add and add the file you downloaded earlier and extracted... where ever you did extract it.
Update the following info to following tabs:

Code:

Game Executable Directory:
$SteamDir\steamapps\SourceMods\Left4Fake

Game Directory:
$SteamDir\steamapps\SourceMods\Left4Fake

Hammer VMF Directory:
$SteamUserDir\sourcesdk_content\l4f

For the Hammer VMF Directory you have to create new folder to that location. It should be made in: SteamApps\YourUserName\sourcesdk_content

YOU ARE ALL SET!

Fifth Step

Now make them maps and make me proud.

When you are ready to test your map compile it (without running it) and put the compiled file to your L4D maps folder found in SteamApps\Common\Left4Dead\left4dead\maps\

Start up Left 4 Dead and type the following to console "map yourmapname"
It'll load it up.

To create navigation maps for your map (so that the dumb bots and zombies can run around) type "nav_generate" in console after your map is loaded.

Now add Kebab's reputation and worship him as your god!

**Exploding_Silver** · 01-14-2009, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kebab-Kastike

Fourth Step

Download the following file: http://www.gimmik.net/terrenteller/f...VDC/L4Dfgd.zip
Extract that anywhere you like.

I extracted mine to SteamApps\MyUserName\sourceSDK_content\ just to keep things tidy.

link does work
get the file here instead
http://files.filefront.com/L4Dfgdzip.../fileinfo.html

**Kebab-Kastike** · 01-14-2009, 02:53 PM

I see I can't edit the post, maybe the mods can help with editing that.

Pooley182 · 01-28-2009, 05:41 PM

hey thanks a lot your toturial really helped me set up Source SDK and can't wait to start mapping, i got annoyed with the copy and pasting to folders over and over again, and since i work with CMD prompt and scripts alot at college i wrote you a new one, tested it myself and it all works fine.

Code:

@echo off
echo Starting file copy and rename.
call:loopCurrentDirectory "%CD%"
echo Finished.
goto:eof

:loopCurrentDirectory
  :://Grab the folder we're in, not the entire path.
  :://This information will be used to output status info in directoryLoop.
  set directoryname=%~n1
  call:directoryLoop %1 %directoryname%
goto:eof

:directoryLoop
  :://Set a variable to count how many files we copy out in the current directory.
  set numCopied=0
  
  :://Strip quotes from our parameters.
  for /f "useback tokens=*" %%v in ('%1') do set noquotes1=%%~v
  for /f "useback tokens=*" %%w in ('%2') do set noquotes2=%%~w
  
  :://Output what directory we're in.
  echo   - Searching "%noquotes2%"
  
  :://If there's any vtx files in the current subdirectory, then process them.
  IF EXIST %1\*.vtx for /f "delims=" %%G in ('dir %1\*.vtx /b') do call:stripThenProcessFileName "%noquotes1%\%%G"
  
  :://If we copied anything out from the current directory, output that info.
  IF %numCopied% GTR 0 echo            - %numCopied% files were copied.
  
  :://Recurse on any subdirectories.
  for /f "delims=" %%G in ('dir %1 /b /AD') do call:directoryLoop "%~d1%~p1%~n1\%%G" "%noquotes2%\%%G"
goto:eof

:stripThenProcessFileName
  :://Strip the filename from the parameter.
  set filename=%~n1
  call:processFileName %1 %filename%
goto:eof

:processFileName
  :://If this file is one of the copied ones, don't do anything with it.
  IF "%~x2"==".sw"   goto check_done
  IF "%~x2"==".dx90" goto check_done
  IF "%~x2"==".dx80" goto check_done

  :://Set full path information variables for the copy destinations.
  set file_sw="%~d1%~p1%~n1.sw.vtx"
  set file_dx90="%~d1%~p1%~n1.dx90.vtx"
  set file_dx80="%~d1%~p1%~n1.dx80.vtx"
  
  :check_sw
  :://If the file already exists, skip this part.
  IF EXIST %file_sw%   goto check_dx90
    :://Otherwise, copy the file and increment the counter by 1.
    copy %1 %file_sw% > NUL
    set /A numCopied=%numCopied%+1

  :check_dx90
  :://If the file already exists, skip this part.
  IF EXIST %file_dx90% goto check_dx80
    :://Otherwise, copy the file and increment the counter by 1.
    copy %1 %file_dx90% > NUL
    set /A numCopied=%numCopied%+1
  
  :check_dx80
  :://If the file already exists, skip this part.
  IF EXIST %file_dx80% goto check_done
    :://Otherwise, copy the file and increment the counter by 1.
    copy %1 %file_dx80% > NUL
    set /A numCopied=%numCopied%+1
  
  :check_done
goto:eof

copy this into notepad and save as vtxfixer.bat and save in C:\Left4Fake\Models

**Kebab-Kastike** · 01-29-2009, 09:11 AM

Nice, thanks for sharing.

16Note · 01-31-2009, 10:58 PM

I'm having a problem opening up my Left4Fake mod....it says "MountFilesSystem( 203 ) failed:Failed to resize the cache files." Any ideas?

**Kebab-Kastike** · 02-05-2009, 08:40 AM

That doesn't sound right.
Maybe you have failed to unpack the files in step two or you haven't ran L4D or HL2DM.

16Note · 02-05-2009, 09:05 AM

Sorry, disregard that post. I got it to work, and I'm now trying to figure out the best way to build a parking garage.

**Kebab-Kastike** · 02-06-2009, 01:31 PM

Alright.

You might want to share how you got it to work, people who might have that same error code will find this thread via google and they'll be sad when they see you didn't share the answer.

What comes to the parking garage, just remember that don't add the pilars (if you are going to make the classic pilars of parking garage) to be next to the "blackness" aka outside wall, but inside the room and then tie them to entity func_brush. That'll make your parking garage run much smoother because the vis leafs don't get confused.

**Exploding_Silver** · 03-16-2009, 05:19 PM

for info
I think this thread is being found on google a lot, due to the thread title and tags
this thread has 1880 views (as of today)
the filefront file i uploaded has had 296 downloads (as of today)
http://files.filefront.com/L4Dfgdzip.../fileinfo.html

**Kebab-Kastike** · 03-16-2009, 08:12 PM

Cool, hope they take time to check out the community while they are here.

flavourings · 03-25-2009, 04:13 PM

hey guys finally got mine working agian!

right heres a fix for the Source SDK crashing when you Create a new mod (gets to 95% then dies on you)

You need
Source SDK
Limited Computer skills
A friend that is running Xp who also had Source SDK

1. get your friend to create a mod on their called Left4Fake
2. get them to send you the C:\Left4Fake file
3. get them to send you the C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\SourceMods\Left4Fake file
4. Put these files into there places...
5. now, go to C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\<insert steam login here>\sourcesdk\bin\orangebox\bin and open the GameConfig in notepad
6. This is a bit tricky if you have other games installed... if you have no games paste this into the notepad;

"Configs"
{
"Games"
{
"Left4Fake"
{
"GameDir" "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\SourceMods\Left4Fake"
"hammer"
{
"GameData0" "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\<user name>\sourcesdk\bin\orangebox\bin\hl2mp.fgd"
"TextureFormat" "5"
"MapFormat" "4"
"DefaultTextureScale" "0.250000"
"DefaultLightmapScale" "16"
"GameExe" "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\<user name>\half-life 2\hl2.exe"
"DefaultSolidEntity" "func_detail"
"BSP" "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\<user name>\sourcesdk\bin\orangebox\bin\vbsp.exe"
"Vis" "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\<user name>\sourcesdk\bin\orangebox\bin\vvis.exe"
"Light" "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\<user name>\sourcesdk\bin\orangebox\bin\vrad.exe"
"GameExeDir" "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\<user name>\half-life 2"
"MapDir" "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\SourceMods\sourcesdk_content \Left4Fake\mapsrc"
"BSPDir" "c:\program files\steam\steamapps\SourceMods\Left4Fake\maps"
"CordonTexture" "tools\toolsskybox"
"MaterialExcludeCount" "0"
}
}
}
"SDKVersion" "3"
}

That should do it, however if you have other games in that list you need to past only the bits after
"Configs"
{
"Games"

Hope this helps!

**Exploding_Silver** · 03-28-2009, 05:23 PM

filefront is closing 30th march so the link above will not work anymore
new link for L4Dfgd_zip
Download L4Dfgd.zip from FileFactory.com

admin plz amend post 1 in this thread with new link

Morganan · 03-31-2009, 01:56 PM

A few notes about using this sdk...

What you cannot do:

-You cannot do proper panic events/crescendo events with this, the SDK is the wrong version and some of the options you need in the drop down menus simply aren't there. You can still set them up but they will run stupidly if you use more then one event/map and less then half of them will spawn mobs worth calling hordes and the few that are hordes will come from to far away to be truly effective. The new versions of dead city show this off perfectly.
-You cannot set tank spawn triggers for the director to use, again, lack of drop-down menu options.
- You cannot set witch spawn triggers for the same reason you cannot do tank spawn triggers.
-You cannot set infected climbing points for the same reasons that you cannot do the above things either. Normal infected can climb 180 units without requiring climbing points, but the special infected require them. (180 units=roughly 3X the height of the survivors)
-You cannot add breakable walls, there are options you need to adjust that the current form of the sdk doesnt allow for.

What you can do...

-You can basically design your entire map from player start to the end checkpoint.
-You can do the nav meshes so you can test out your map for buggy/glitched positions.
-You can do all the lighting and the cube maps (the 2 things you typically do last as they add to the compile time the most) not that you will do those things anyway. Tip: do cubemaps as your "last item" before releasing a version of your map to test to keep the size of your .bsp file down.

Observations:

Valve has put a lot of work into making setting up the nav meshes (basically the AI and the directors logic for your map) pretty quick and painless. I'm impressed with how intuitive the entire process is. If you bind keys to basically 6 commands, you can fly through a map and do all the work you need to in noclip mode in basically the time it takes you to fly through the level.

**Kebab-Kastike** · 04-07-2009, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morganan

-You cannot add breakable walls, there are options you need to adjust that the current form of the sdk doesnt allow for.

Yes you can. Only problem is that the survivors can break them aswell, unlike it's in the game, that only infected can break the walls.

This SDK is by no means the same as the official one. This way is to set up the SDK so you can playtest your map with L4D instead of HL2DM or something like that while using L4D models.