Quote from KennKong on January 10, 2012, 3:43 pm

I am preparing a basic mod for playing .vpks, see here:
http://forums.thinking.withportals.com/mapping-help/mod-for-playing-vpk-file-t5388.html
In that thread, others have said you could pack your files into the .bsp, as discussed here. I have the following questions:

1. If you have a multimap series (e.g. NYS-5) do you need to include the custom content in every .bsp file that uses them? And if so, does custom content add enough size doing it this way to make using a .vpk a better option?
2. Are there any files that would work in a .vpk that won't work in a .bsp, e.g. sp_lightboard_icons.txt?

Quote from DaMaGepy on January 10, 2012, 9:34 pm

- ye, must include into all bsp, so that way vpk is better for mappacks
- ye, it should work with bsp too. In my latest experiment map I included a custom music mp3, skybox, and a .nut file without problem. Also works with script .txt

Quote from Skotty on January 11, 2012, 6:58 pm

Why aren't you just using Pakrat?
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Pakrat

It's an old but very very useful and easy to handle program.

Quote from DaMaGepy on January 12, 2012, 7:03 am

Skotty wrote:

Why aren't you just using Pakrat?
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Pakrat

It's an old but very very useful and easy to handle program.

I must pak things into the bsp manually after every compilation, or does it have a commandline auto feature? Since with bspzip, I do nothing. Every time I compile my map with F9 in hammer, it auto-includes everything, so at the end, the resulting BSP that gets copied to the maps dir is ready to go. Thats why I like my method (even if it not always works for others)

Quote from CosmicD on December 30, 2012, 2:19 am

I found this topic trough google.

I had the big trouble in one of my maps that wav sounds just don't play (you hear kleiner complain about fiddlesticks) Strangely enough pakrat would include the wavs in my sound/cosmicd/glados map, but not in the sound/cosmicd/music dir

I just have tried all kind of methods, also adding the $b_zip variable with addlist but hmm.. doesn't still work somehow.

bzip says -addlist unknown command

EDIT: So I read the issue you had with bsp variables and tried the game thing, but what I get then is that my game just starts up (even when I didn't tick the game start rule in the expert compile mode)

Quote from josepezdj on December 30, 2012, 5:48 am

Always use pakrat... works great for everything. Follow this tutorial. If your .wav files are not working, maybe they're not accomplishing the requirements. Fir example, are they 44110Hz sample rate?

Quote from CosmicD on December 31, 2012, 7:47 am

Very strange. This is a silly engine trap once again. I just don't understand.

1. I made all files mono 44.1k (because I thought it might be an issue to include stereo files
2. I recompiled the map to have it without all custom stuff in it. skybox stuff
3. I open the bsp with pakrat and if i click "auto" it only finds models/materials but doesn't want to add the sounds somehow. (as it does with the other map.

Where does pakrat look to decide with sounds to add ? I thought it was in the ambient_generics but that doesn't sem to be it because there are about 4 with custom sounds that I use in this map.

Quote from CosmicD on December 31, 2012, 11:50 am

UPDATE:

Seems like it has something to do with the compiler. If I don't choose expert mode to compile (and I use the normal mode with hdr checkbox), then the information for the waves somehow get included)

Now I'm wondering, what does the compiler do in normal mode what it doesn't do in expert mode ?

Quote from Gemarakup on January 14, 2013, 7:19 am

What directory via pakrat do you need to write to pak instances?