Basic Materials

This is a part of the Simple .MDL: Converting Models tutorial and is meant for people who want to convert their textures into .MDL compatible materials. Keep in mind that this is completely optional and you can add materials in PAC, however this method should be easier than going through all the settings in PAC materials. To keep things simple this will only cover diffuse (color) textures.

This requires some additional tools.

Download VTFEdit, open the archive and extract the x64 folder. ¹⁾

This is a continuation of the previous tutorial, at this point you should be in the folder with all the compiled files.²⁾

1. Create and open a new folder called materials

1. Open VTFEdit.exe³⁾ and go to File → Import
2. Select the image file that you want to use and click Open
3. A new window called VTF Options will pop up, simply click OK⁴⁾
4. Go to File → Save As.. and save the file in the materials folder

1. Download material.vmt and put it in the materials folder
2. In Blender go to the Materials panel
3. Rename the material.vmt file and give it the same name as in Blender
   
4. Open the .VMT file with any text editor
5. Change texture in the $basetexture “materials/texture” line to your texture name and save it
   

That's it, if your model has multiple materials repeat these steps for each of them.

← Go back to creating a zip archive

If your model uses a normal map texture (usually a purple image) you can add it as well, just convert it and replace dev/bump_normal with materials/<normalmap_name>

If your model has many textures you can convert all of them at once by using the File → Convert Folder option in VTFEdit. Just make sure that Create VMT files is NOT checked.

For the curious → List of .VMT shader parameters

Ask for help → Official PAC Discord