Hey! You! Yes, you, aspiring workshop mod maker(s)!


Do you hate the workshop uploader for taking your thumbnail and forces them down into 640x360?


Do you or someone you love absolutely abhorred those annoying black bars that destroy the readability of that sweet thumbnail you took so long to make?

Do you hate the fact that the jerkops at Steam Workshop are trying to kick you out over the fact that your attraction sign is, in fact, not attractive?


Well, do I have a solution for those problems!

Today, I will teach you how to make that sweet, attractive thumbnail of yours and force the Workshop Uploader to accept them for who they are without having to go through third-party tools like Crowbar!

Obviously, you need to buy the game to start; pirated copies don't come with those sweet Authoring Tools you need to get to your workshop uploader (unless you're looking for complicated disappointments through pirated Authoring Tools).

Installing the Authoring Tools is easy; just buy the game, then search for "Left 4 Dead 2 Authoring Tools" (It's under the "Tools" filter, to your left margin (by default)), then finally install it. It should take no more than a few seconds to install.
If you're making mods on Linux, run Left 4 Dead 2 Authoring Tools under Proton, then add a launch option to avoid rendering bugs: PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%

Then, you need to install either CGFScape or VPKEdit. Both are them are apps that lets you mess around with any maps, models, skins, and sound files that are within the .cgf files. CGFScape also works for opening, importing, and exporting .cgf files, but if you're looking for convenience (such as previewing model, texture, and sound file), VPKEdit is the software to go with.
For macOS and Linux mod-makers who are currently using CGFScape, they will need to install .NET Framework 4.0 or later, then Visual C++ 2010 SP1 runtime, and then run all of them through the Wine program, in order to properly run GCFScape. Sounds complicated, but you'll need them if you want to make your attractive signs, but you only have mac or Linux.
To make your life easier, I highly suggest using VPKEdit instead; regardless of the operating system you're currently on, the only thing you need to install is the VPKEdit installation file itself.

Finally, you need some image editing program to make your attraction signs for your mods.
I recommend Adobe Photoshop (ideally Photoshop 2016 or 2023), but if you don't have the money to buy it or if Adobe pisses on your grave, GIMP or paint(dot)net are your best options. I wouldn't go for Microsoft Paint though; they don't have the layers you need to make an actually attractive thumbnails, but you can try.
Ultimately, it's your call.


CGFScape: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/GCFScape
VPKEdit: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/VPKEdit
Wine (Linux): https://www.winehq.org
Proton (maxOS + Linux): https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/releases
GIMP: https://www.gimp.org
paint(dot)net: https://getpaint.net

Open up whatever image editor you got.
As mentioned before, I would recommend Photoshop or GIMP just to make your thumbnail look professional, but any image doctoring software will do the trick.

Then, make a base image of 800x800 pixels. Then drag or paste whatever images you want to edit.
For you lucky readers, I made a template frame to go with your mods.
It is in 800x800, perfect fit for any Workshop thumbnails.
Use it with care, since it is in PNG!


If you are using this border for whatever game mods you made, I asked that you give credit to me in the description, as "Thumbnail Template by Clauen Saxon."
With or without quotes. It's up to you.


For this guide, I will be using the face portrait of Moses from Joshua and the Promised Land to use on my template. (It's for my sound mod, search "Moses Smoker" if you want to look at it.)









If you feel satisfied about how your thumbnail looks, save it as JPG and close your image editing program.
Or, if you can't, save it as PNG, then convert it into JPG. There's a lot of image file converter online, but I recommend image online-convert (https://image.online-convert.com) for this job; it's free, you can submit as much pictures as you want (while there is a one image limit per submission, there is no hard limit on how much you can submit per day), and it does the job well.


After saving or converting the image into JPG, you want to make sure that your 800x800 attraction sign has the read only attribute on! This will prevent your work from being replace with the inferior zoomed-in image.
To do this, right-click your JPG, go to "Properties" and check the "Read-only" box. Then click "Apply" at the bottom right and close.
















If you want to convert all of your JPG image to Read-only JPG thumbnails, single click your JPG, press the Shift key, single click another one of your JPG, right-click, go to "Properties" and check the "Read-only" box. Then click "Apply" at the bottom right and close.
Doing this will highlight all of the JPGs in the folder to be made Read-only.


If you want to convert specific JPGs, single click your JPG image, press and hold down CTRL, left click another one of your JPG, right-click, go to "Properties" and check the "Read-only" box. Then click "Apply" at the bottom right and close.
Doing this will highlight only whatever JPG thumbnails you want to made Read-only.







Make sure to set your thumbnail(s) to Read Only before uploading or replacing old thumbnail(s).
Otherwise, Workshop will break your thumbnail in half.

You want to open the Left 4 Dead 2 Authoring Tools, go to Workshop Manager, and upload whatever addon you want to show off.
After that, place your prototype thumbnail in the preview image, and press the upload button so it goes to the workshop.



Make sure to set your new mod to private, so no one gets to see your mod's unattractive thumbnail while you work on that sleek thumbnail!



After that go the the File Explorer and open, "Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Left 4 Dead 2/bin/l4d2_workshop_manager."

After you paid your visit to the workshop_manager folder, find the 640x360 (mod's internal name)_thumb and copy and paste its name into your 800x800 JPG. Then drag your new, sexy 800x800 into the l4d2_workshop_manager folder and replace that son of a 640x360 bi󠀡t󠀡󠀡ch.
(It's a good idea to make a backup copy of your 800x800 thumbnail should the replacement break by any means!)



Make sure you set the image on Read-only mode, or the Workshop will crop your sign into 640x360, ruining all of that hard work. You can do it before or after replacing the image with the thumbnail, but you must set it to Read-only before you replace your Workshop mod thumbnail!

Now go back to your Authoring Tools, go to Workshop Manager, and edit the addon you've been or are currently working on.

Go to the preview image, select the new 800x800 (name)_thumb.jpg from the l4d2_workshop_manager folder, and hit that 'Upload' button again. Then go back to your Workshop list and it should appear!


Don't worry if it looks like this in the Manager (either the image is cropped or the image doesn't appear). Just make sure you put the thumbnail in .JPG format and the image is in the workshop_manager folder and it should allow you to update the thumbnail.


Open up the Authoring Tools, double click the mod you want to edit, and look for your mod's filename. It can be something silly as "left 4 deafness 2 consume u" or something serious like "hunter ellis". (Just to be on the safe side, replace any space with underscores.)


Type the filename to your new thumbnail, add "_thumb" next to it (like this: pootis_thumb), drag it to l4d2_workshop_manager, and select it to the preview image.
Hit that 'upload' button, then go back to your Workshop list and it should appear like this:

Congratulations! You'd just legally committed

to the Workshop Manager!

Now the jerkops at Steam Workshop will have to acknowledge that beautiful sign for what it is and who they are without tearing it apart!

So! What are you waiting for!?
Like, Favorite, and Share this and the other guy's guide to your fellow mod makers in hopes that they too can make their own attraction sign that won't get their arses kick out of the store.

мeн ιdιoт's guide: https://web.archive.org/web/20230805025035/https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1782148927
(because the original guide can no longer be found)