Originally posted by Pte Jack:

SMD and DMX - both - need to be compiled with a QC to work in the source engine. -

What if Deo3560 wants to use it for non-Source purposes? That's what the following implies to me:

Originally posted by Deo3560:

- [SMD is] what our devs decided to have our models rendered with in our code

And even if I'm incorrect about that, then it's still bad and wrong that the Blender Source Tools can't export SMD meshes when it's supposed to be able to, regardless of whether or not it can still export DMX meshes anyway.

I would personally handle this by duplicating the mesh and/or the mesh object in Blender, then using "Flip Normals" to turn the copy inside-out, manually making the inside. (This may be annoying to do every time if constantly tweaking the mesh to make it look just right, though.)

Originally posted by ☠Grim_Fandango666☠:

- I exported the scene as dmx - and put it into the sessions folder; Then when i tried to open it I got an error message "Document not opened because the file could not be read.". -

The Blender Source Tools plug-in doesn't export Source Filmmaker sessions. It exports mesh and animation files. (A DMX/SMD animation is not the same as a Source Filmmaker session.)

To use your custom model in Source Filmmaker, you have to write a QC file that references/loads the DMX file and sets some other options, and then compile that into a Source model.


The probably-most-comprehensive guide on this subject can be found here:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=245723825 Note that while it appears very long at first glance, that's simply because that it covers a lot of things, many of which you can easily skip over, and it also goes into detail on everything, to help guide you along the way as much as possible.
(Also note that this guide was last updated in 2018, so it may be a bit outdated, but hopefully you can figure out what has changed how in Blender and the Blender Source Tools since then.)

You may also be able to google "Your First Source Model" or such to maybe find a simpler guide on converting your DMX mesh into a Source model, however that might not cover some of the things that you want to do with your model.

Originally posted by Tomato Man:

- Do I need 5 materials as it keeps showing "unknown material" -

No, you don't need an extra VMT for it. The "unknowmaterial" thing might be due to one of the Blender objects not having any materials assigned, or something along those lines.

Originally posted by Tomato Man:

- and now it's missing the Shirt.vtf altogether somehow.

The console log shows that it can't find "materials/streetbackguy/carlito/shirt.vtf". Seeing as there's no "models" in that, my guess is that you forgot to specify "models/" at the start of $BaseTexture.

Originally posted by Tomato Man:

Not a problem! The model path is this:

"-\game\usermod\materials\models\streetbackguy\Carlito\Flesh.vmt"

The consolesays this:

- streetbackguy/Carlito/carlito.mdl : material "models/streetbackguy/carlito/ /usermod/materials/models/streetbackguy/carlito/flesh" not found. -

Did you use the "material path" option within the Blender Source Tools plug-in when you exported the DMX? If so, that's not all too good. I suggest leaving that path empty, re-exporting the DMX file, and then just using $CDMaterials in the QC file to specify the path.

Originally posted by Tomato Man:

- I've now changed the QC to reflect that and recompiled to see if that helped but sadly it's the same thing, purple and black checked squares. -

Please reboot Source Filmmaker, make a new session, click "Windows" > "Console" at the top-left of Source Filmmaker's main window, click on the "Clear" button to clear the console, open the model browser, select and place your model into the session, copy everything that's now in the console, and paste it here for me to see.

In addition to that, please also hold Shift and right-click the VMT file in File Explorer, choose "Copy as path", and paste that here for me to see as well.

Originally posted by Tomato Man:

- As for the VMT code, is there anything in there that looks wrong? -

It's very basic (most materials specify a little variety of options, such as $phong and $bumpmap), but not wrong at all (the many different options are not required or anything, just optional; a simple $basetexture-only material is perfectly valid).

Originally posted by Tomato Man:

-
$cdmaterials "materials/models/{name}/Carlito"
-
"$basetexture" "models/streetbackguy/Carlito/Flesh"
-

$CDMaterials is relative to the "materials" folder, so you shouldn't have "materials" at the start of it. Additionally, the QC tells Source to look for VMTs in "materials/models/{name}/Carlito/", while the VMT says to look for a VTF within "models/streetbackguy/Carlito/", so if the VMT is in that same folder as the VTF, you should probably also change the "{name}" in $CDMaterials to "streetbackguy". Like this:

Originally posted by Javers Mishima (GDA):

I am using source tools 2.10.0 with blender 2.83

You should be using Blender Source Tools v3.1.0, not v2.10.0, for Blender 2.83.

That screenshot's error implies that you're using Blender 2.69. What version of the Blender Source Tools are you using? Not all plug-in versions are compatible with all Blender versions.

Originally posted by Facepalm Full O' Napalm:

- I found the option to change the binary options -

Above the DMX version selection options, there's a path option labelled "Engine Path".

If you set it to the path of the "bin" folder that contains the StudioMDL.exe that you're/Crowbar's using to compile the model, the Blender Source Tools should auto-detect and use the DMX version best suited for the StudioMDL.exe in question.

(If you set the path correctly, you should no longer be able to manually choose a DMX version.)