edit/create skins for CS:S beta.

[zero_tolerance]

By freeze

tutorial to edit/create skins for CS:S beta.

tools needed:
- gcfscape to unpack valve packed files. found at:
http://countermap.counter-strike.net/Nemesis/
- vtf2tga and tga2vtf to convert back and forth to valve texture file format(vtf).
found at: http://gamesfusion.fileburst.com/public/tools/vtex.zip
- a paint program that supports directly the edition of 32 bits .tga format
you can use photoshop its best

1) first, lets use gcfscape to browse and extract CSS model textures.
run gcfscape.exe and point it to this file:
X:\steam\SteamApps\counter-strike source shared content.gcf
once opened, it will show folders. go to the folder cstrike\materials\models\player
you will see 2 folders: terror and urban. each one of them contain a vtf file
for each of them simply right click on them and select "extract" and the destination.

2) now we gonna convert each of the vtf files to tga format.
unzip vtex.zip somewhere, keeping the directory structure.
run vtf2tga_gui.exe. precise the path of vtf2tga.exe, the vtf with path you wanna convert,
and the tga destination folder.

3) now edit your tga file in the paint program.
if you wanna have full colored models, just fill all the tga with the color.
if you wanna have some part colored (like helmet) just fill the helmet part of the skin

4) once our artwork is finished, we gonna convert back the tga to vtf format.
put your tga files in vtex\hl2\materialsrc\sprays\
run tga2vtf.bat to convert them.
you should have your new .vtf files in vtex\hl2\materials\sprays\

5) testing
close gcfscape if not done yet.
create materials\players\terror and materials\players\urban folders under this folder:
x:\steam\steamapps\[youraccountname]\counter-strike source beta\cstrike
put your vtf files in corresponding folder, ie terrortemp.vtf under terror etc..
run CSS and watch your art in motion!

with minor adaptation, this tutorial can be used to edit any texture in game
enjoy and share your work!
-Freeze