Sprays keep getting mixed up.

[club]

My sprays in this game have been fine for years, till suddenly a few weeks ago, they occasionally keep getting mixed up with each other. That is, I'll choose one and it actually displays one of my other ones instead. I'm not sure if other players are seeing the wrong one or just me.

The only way to fix it is to close the game, delete both the vmt and vtf files of the messed up spray in C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead\left4dead\materials\vgui\logos\custom\ and delete the vmt file for it in C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead\left4dead\materials\vgui\logos\UI
then restart the game and re-Import the spray fresh. But after a few days it seems to get messed up again and I have to repeat this process.

I deleted/reinstalled the whole game to try to stop this from continuing to happen but that made no change. Anyone else getting this, or know why it's happening?

[Bad Card]

This started happening to me a couple of weeks ago too, but I found a good workaround is to delete the sprays like you described, then import the spray you are going to use, close the game and mark the spray files "read only". Haven't had the problem since.

[club]

Thanks. Great idea. Enjoy +rep!

[club]

Damn. This didnt work so well for me. If I made the files read-only in \materials\vgui\logos\custom\ I would get a permissions error in game when trying to switch sprays. However, I was able to leave the files in \materials\vgui\logos\UI\ as read only and things were fine with switching sprays. However, the problem still came back.

I did discover it seems to happen when starting the game. Whichever spray I had last left it on that was working fine when I quit the game, seems to be the one that gets messed up the next time I start it (intermittently).

I guess one workaround is before quitting the game, to switch to one of the default sprays the game comes with. Just a PITA to do every time. But if it stops messing up my sprays I'll try that for awhile and see if it makes a difference.

[club]

Ok never mind intermittent. Literally everytime I quit the game, if I left it on a custom spray, that spray is messed up next time I start the game. Every time now. WTF

[zorrex]

Ok never mind intermittent. Literally everytime I quit the game, if I left it on a custom spray, that spray is messed up next time I start the game. Every time now. WTF

I have this problem. SOMETIMES I can import a spray and have it work, but every time I quit and restart the game, it reverts to bill's spray... :-\

[Bad Card]

You both should just pick the one spray you like the best and stick with it, utilizing the mark read only workaround. Unless you want to keep changing sprays and doing the trick from the beginning every time.

[Lemmers]

I have strange problems with sprays too. I think part of it has to do with the resolution of the spray. If I set a 512x512 pixel vtf as a spray and restart, it almost always resets it to the last 256x256 spray I used. I always keep my sprays in one folder and import them in the game every time I change, so if I import a larger spray it will reset it next time with one in the same folder that's smaller that I've already imported.

The only workaround I've found is to not keep all your sprays in one big folder (like I wanted to do), but to have one folder that has the single spray you want to always show inside it and nothing else. Then import that single spray ingame and it seems to stick after restarts since there's nothing in that folder that can conflict or replace it. If you want to toggle different sprays ingame it's a pain with this method, but it's the only one I've found that works for me.

I think it would also work to have two folders, one for 256x256 sprays and one for 512x512 and then import sprays in each time, but then you have to sort every spray you collect/make this way.

And sometimes when I select a spray it will have the incorrect thumbnail. I've noticed that if I minimize the game at this menu right after changing it, then maximize it again, it now displays the correct thumbnail preview.