Setup the "Valve Hammer Editor" for Torque

There seems to have been a resource covering this but I could not find it (broken link) so had to do this the hard way, To save you some time this is what I came up with .....

There have been concerns in the past about licensing issues using Hammer, for more info see www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=2497

For this HowTo: it is expected that the Torque SDK has been installed at C:\Torque_SDK

Download Hammer from collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?go=hammer

Run the install but do not run the application yet.....

Assuming you installed to the default location: C:\Program Files\Valve Hammer Editor

Create a new directory: C:\Program Files\Valve Hammer Editor\fgd\Torque

Copy or Create torque.fgd in/to the above directory, you can find it in C:\Torque_SDK\tools\map2dif\

Hammer uses textures contained in a .wad file, so you will need to create a file for hammer to use.

There are two options ....

1. Use wally www.telefragged.com/wally/
2. Use the buildwad tool included with torque. (find it in C:\Torque_SDK\tools)

Create a wad file containing at least one texture.

Create a working directory C:\test

Copy the texture(s) you put into the wad file into this directory, map2dif will need to use them during its DIF creation.

Copy map2dif_plus.exe to C:\Program Files\Valve Hammer Editor\tools
This file can be found in C:\Torque_SDK\tools (after you have compiled the Torque SDK) else you can download it from www.garagegames.com/mg/projects/tge/artist.php#DIF

Start Hammer,

The configuration dialog should already be open, else open from Tools/options menu.

On the Textures tab hit the Add WAD button and locate the wad file you just created.
On the Build Programs tab under CSG executable hit the browse button and locate C:\Program Files\Valve Hammer Editor\tools\map2dif_plus.exe
You can leave all the other paths here blank.
hit ok.

Now to create a test map/room,

1. Select menu File/new
2. Ensure you have the block tool selected (white cube icon on left-hand icon list).
3. In the top view drag out a box (top view is the top right pane).
4. In the side view (lower right pane) drag the top handle up (small white dot) to make the box a bit larger.
5. Right click inside the box and select "create object".
6. Select the selection tool (the red arrow icon on left-hand icon list).
7. Select the box by clicking on one of it lines or the little "x" in the middle (it will turn red).
8. Select menu Tools/Make Hollow (or hit CTRL+H), keep the default 32 value and hit ok.
9. Re-select the box, and right click it, select ungroup from the drop-down menu (or hit CTRL+U).
10. Un-select the box by clicking away from it.
11. Select the end wall by clicking in the center of the box in the side view(lower right pane).
12. Hit the "left square bracket key" two times to reduce the grid size to 16.
13. Drag each side of the wall out by 1 grid in the side view (lower right pane, using the small white dots).
14. Right click the end wall and select "tie to entity" (or hit CTRL+T).
15. In the dialog change the class to portal, then ...
16. Select Ambient Light, and change the drop-down option to "Passes through", close dialog.
17. Save the file in C:\test\ call it "myfirstroom" (menu file/save as, the file will get a .rmf extension by default).

Open the compile dialog (F9 or menu file/run) hit the expert button at the bottom.
Select edit, create a new configuration by hitting the "New" button, name it Torque
Ensure the new Torque config is selected in the "Configurations:" drop-down list.

hit the New button
On the right hit the Cmds Button and select CSG program option

Copy the following and paste and in the parameters: dialog.

-v -h -o $path -t $path $path\$file.$ext

Select the tick box next to $csg_exe in the Compile/run commands pane, then Hit Go! button to create the DIF file.

myfirstroom.dif will be located in c:\test

notes:

$path in the above config points to where you saved/loaded the rmf file.

You can change -o $path to -o C:\Torque_SDK\example\starter.fps\data\interiors\test (don't forget to create the test directory interiors\test!).

You can change -t $path to -o C:\Torque_SDK\example\starter.fps\data\interiors for the textures.

Hope this saves you some time .....

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