The larger the scale you set, the smaller your detail texture gets and the resolution is increased, but it can lead to an unappealing 'repeating' look if you tile, say, 10 times. If the map texture 256x128, then again, it will be stretched horizontally to fit, making it look bad.

This means, however, if your detail texture is 128x128 then it will stretch to fit, decreasing its resolution. So if the texture in your map is 256x256 and you set the scale to 1.0 and 1.0 then it will tile once in that 256x256 sized texture. The first is the horizontal scale and the second is the vertical scale. This is the number of times your detail texture will tile compared to the size of the texture. The advantage of this is that you can have a subdirectoy to use for your own map, eg detail/bigbox/mytexture.tga, and you won't overwrite other map's files if they have the same name. The engine will only look in the GFX folder and the file extension is not required as it is looking for a TGA file. The next value is the directory and file name of your detail texture you just created. The first value is the name of the map texture to apply the detail texture to, you need to rename this to the name of the texture you used in your map, eg, if you used the texture C1A0_LABW2 in your map you need to replace texname with C1A0_LABW2, it is not case sensitive. Open up the TXT file and add the following line: Go to your half-life/(modname)/maps folder and create a new TXT file the EXACT same name as your map name but add the prefix _detail.txt to the end. Now that we have a detail texture, we can use it in our map. The original texture + The detail texture = More in-game detailing and atmosphere Implementing Detailed Textures You can create a subdirectory within the detail folder but for now this will do. Once you create your image, save it as a 24-bit colour, uncompressed TGA image in the directory: Half-Life/(modname)/gfx/detail/mytexture.tga.

To avoid blotchy and ugly looking detail textures, always try to remain close to the middle gray colour when making shadows and highlights, as very white and very black shades will cover the map texture and look more like paint on your map texture. Brighter shades create highlights and darker shades create shadows. When creating your image remember that the colour 128 128 128 on the RGB (red, green, blue) scale will be completely transparent.

Detail textures are best made with the grayscale pallet, in other words, don't use colour. The recommended maximum size is 256x256 pixels because although they can be larger, results can become unpredictable. The ideal size for a detail texture is 128x128 pixels. I use Corel Photopaint 10 but any other graphics programs that can create TGA images are suitable. Now you will need to create a detail texture to use in your map. This gives the impression of a small details when you get up close to a texture instead of the usual blurred image you get when the texture fills the screen. A before and after shot of using detailed texturesKeep in mind that you need the Steam version of Half-Life to use these as Valve stopped updating WON versions long ago.įirst up, what is a detail texture? A detail texture is a high resolution external image (TGA image file) that is placed over the top of a map texture.

Half life 1 animated textures