Episode 1 Props in HL2

[blacksmith123]

I'm working on a pretty creepy silent hill-type map set in one of those alternate-dimension hospitals they love so much. In episode 1, there is a WW11-esque hospital you go through that has some of the exact props I'm looking for, but when I open the model browser in hammer, they're nowhere to be found. I've downloaded GCF-scape and gotten the .Net framework, etc. and found the .vmt and .vtf files I want and extracted the folder, but I'm stumped on how to move the folder into the HL2 .gcf file. Anybody know how to add the folder to the compressed .gcf file?

[Slackiller]

just extract them and move them over to HL2 folders and keep them in the same directory set up. Your not really supposed to do it (legally).
but if your not going to distribute it to people.

giving people props and textures for a game they did not buy.

[blacksmith123]

Haha, worked like a charm! Thanks! Took me a while to realize I had to extract the materials as well as the models. What baffles me is that you can't use the props even if you run hammer under Episode 1.

[vecima]

it should work if you are running under EP1... that's odd, though honestly i've never tried it.

anyway, as slackiller said, either distribute as an EP1 mod/map pack, or take out the EP1 props. you're not allowed to give it away as a HL2 mod/ map pack

[samsaber]

VALVe locked EP1 content usage in hammer, you need to extract the models as said before.

[Mike Durand]

We Didn't Mean to Lock It

What actually happened is that we accidentally had the SteamAppId set to 220 instead of 380 in Episode 1's GameInfo.txt. This caused Steam to load the HL2 GCF instead of Ep1's so you could choose Ep1 entities in Hammer (because the .fgd contained them), but they weren't displayed in Hammer (because the Steam file system was loading the wrong GCF).

I fixed this in a February so maybe it's possible that you have a local copy of Ep1's GameInfo.txt that is overriding the one in the updated GCF. Please check

<SteamInstallPath>\SteamApps\<UserName>\half-life 2 episode one\episodic\GameInfo.txt

and make sure that the SteamAppId is set to 380 and not 220. Also, please tell me the names of the Ep1 props you want to use. I checked that this bug was fixed by adding a Zombine to my test level since its model/textures are specific to Ep1.

Regarding Redistributing The Ep1 Props

We don't allow mods to redistribute the contents of cracked GCFs, but you can programmatically mount the Ep1 GCF from you mod so that you have access to the props you need. Going forward I want to come up with an easier way for mod teams to pick and choose the GCFs from which they need to get game assets. The end users would still need to own all GCFs that the mod team needs, but at least it Hammer would be able to load all GCFs needed instead of just the one specified by SteamAppId.

-Best Regards,

[blacksmith123]

It's working just fine now, but I have a quick question: since CS:S uses the HAVOK physics engine while HL2 uses Vphysics, would importing a prop_physics from CS:S intp HL2 screw it up at all? Also, is there any way to use physics props in CS:S without all of that incessant bouncing around?

[vecima]

They both use HAVOK. (i could be way off but i think...) vphysics is powered by HAVOK.

at any rate, no, a cs:s prop would work in hl2... if you mounted both GCFs you could do it quite easily.