ITT: What is a VMT file?

[Super Ultra]

I once opened one and it was just some text. What does it do?

[Skunky]

Valve Material File. Well, it contains materials. (mostly, weapons and players.)

[AntonFTW]

It contains information about a texture file. (.vtf)

Things like bump maps, shading method and that stuff.

[macdoo999]

-snip, ninja'd-

[Jojje]

points to valve texture files (.vtf)
say for instance you want a model to have bumpmaps and be shiny and stuff
well you put that information in the .vmt

[Super Ultra]

So wait, is the text programming?

[DatWut?]

[QUOTE=AntonFTW;23451521]It contains information about a[B] texture[/B] file. (.vtf)

Things like bumpmaps, shading method and that stuff.[/QUOTE]
Fix'd.

[Reagy]

[QUOTE=Super Ultra;23451477]I once opened one and it was just some text. What does it do?[/QUOTE]

It controls how a texture is displayed and what shader effects should be applied.
Also mega ninja'ing here.

[DatWut?]

[QUOTE=Super Ultra;23451564]So wait, is the text programming?[/QUOTE]
Not really, no. It's just how things reflect/shine, how bright they are.

[KarmaPolice]

[QUOTE=DatWut?;23451586]Not really, no. It's just how things reflect/shine, how bright they are.[/QUOTE]

It also tells the engine what kind of "material" it is, for the sake of hit sounds and decals and what not.

[Skyhawk]

Here's a little info about the Source engine and game-making in general:

In game creation, developers use textures to add color to the world. Textures are kind of like a coat of paint laid on top of your bleak geometry. Without textures, we'd simply see either points and lines or a bunch of gray models. In the Source Engine, texture files are split into two parts: a .vtf file, and a .vmt file. VTF files contain the raw color data - the actual picture, if you will. VTFs can also be used for normal maps or other information that can be handled by color data. VMT files contain instructions for the engine to draw VTFs. They tell the engine how the texture should be lit, whether or not it should shine, whether or not it's transparent, what shader effects to use, as well as how surfaces painted with the texture should physically interact with the world - are they solid, are they slippery, how does it sound when hit, should it create wooden or stone bits when shot? Multiple VMTs can use the same VTF file, and some VMTs actually reference two or more VTFs. VMTs are stored as plain text to be developer-friendly to modify.

I think that's about it, for a summary anyway.

[DatWut?]

[QUOTE=KarmaPolice;23451726]It also tells the engine what kind of "material" it is, [I][U]for the sake of hit sounds[/U][/I] and decals and what not.[/QUOTE]
Wait what? Totally wrong. There are other text files where hitsounds are defined.

[Skyhawk]

[QUOTE=DatWut?;23452619]Wait what? Totally wrong. There are other text files where hitsounds are defined.[/QUOTE]

The VMT tells it which [i]set[/i] of hit sounds to use, not which sound files in particular.

[editline]Edit1[/editline]

You're both right.

[editline]Edit2[/editline]

Except you're wrong about him being wrong :v:

[DatWut?]

Okay then. So, you could change the Homewrecker's Sounds with a VMT?

[DainBramageStud]

I don't think you know what ITT is meant for.

Anyway, you can imagine vmts are just a little sticky note attached to the texture that the engine reads to determine how it should interact with everything else, such as how it shines, whether it is transparent and so on.

[editline]10:26PM[/editline]

[QUOTE=DatWut?;23453077]Okay then. So, you could change the Homewrecker's Sounds with a VMT?[/QUOTE]

no

To change the homewrecker sound just replace it.

[DatWut?]

[QUOTE=DainBramageStudios;23453089]I don't think you know what ITT is meant for.

Anyway, you can imagine vmts are just a little sticky note attached to the texture that the engine reads to determine how it should interact with everything else, such as how it shines, whether it is transparent and so on.

[editline]10:26PM[/editline]

no

To change the homewrecker sound just replace it.[/QUOTE]
Would replace the Axe's sounds, too.

[DainBramageStud]

[QUOTE=DatWut?;23453120]Would replace the Axe's sounds, too.[/QUOTE]

true. would it work if you changed the soundscape files, or do they only govern map sounds?

[RoloPogo]

[URL="http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Vmt"]Wiki article.[/URL]

[DatWut?]

[QUOTE=DainBramageStudios;23453154]true. would it work if you changed the soundscape files, or do they only govern map sounds?[/QUOTE]
[I] items_game.txt[/I] and [I]game_sounds_weapons.txt[/I]

[DainBramageStud]

informative

[Skyhawk]

[QUOTE=DatWut?;23453077]Okay then. So, you could change the Homewrecker's Sounds with a VMT?[/QUOTE]

The VMT tells the engine what surface properties the material has, such as stone or flesh or wood. When a sound is being set up by a weapon, it selects sounds from predefined sets using the surface property of the material the weapon (or its bullet/projectile) is colliding with. The sets of sounds are defined elsewhere, I'd guess in the weapon scripts, not in any VMTs.

Here's a crappy MS Paint illustration in case I'm not making any sense:

[img]http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/9955/crappillustrationvmts.jpg[/img]

So no, you couldn't change a weapon's sounds. However, you could select a, say, concrete material and set its surface properties to flesh using the VMT, thus causing the weapon to play the flesh impact sound when it hits that surface instead of the concrete one.

[Divaya]

[QUOTE=Skunky;23451480]Valve Material File. Well, it contains materials. (mostly, weapons and players.)[/QUOTE]

"Valve Material File"? VMF would be Valve Map File

VTF would be Valve Texture File
VMT stands for [b]Valve Material Text[/b]

It points to a VTF file, which is like a picture, to a power of 2 (16x16, 32x32, 64x64, 128x128, 256x256, 512x512, or 1024x1024, occasionally higher)

It describes the lighting for the material, brush, model, etc.
It describes the VTF file locasion with the string $baseTexture
It describes what sort of impact type with the string $surfaceprop

Here's an example of a basic, (brush based)

"LightmappedGeneric"
{
       "$baseTexture" "subfolder/texture.vtf"
       "$surfaceprop" "metal"
}

Surface prop can vary from paper to glass to flesh. There are many more strings for a .vmt file, depending on the texture.

VMT files are essential for the vtf to be displayed in Source SDK's Hammer. They will not show through search without it.

[img]http://www.facepunch.com/fp/rating/information.png[/img]