Making basic textures for Hammer is relatively simple with the right tools, and introducing an entire new theme through textures to a game that hasn’t seen them before can really draw the crowds to your map. Below is a step by step process on how to import the simplest of textures.

Valve uses a special file type to dictate how textures appear in game, there are various editors, but the most basic and easiest one to use can be found here:
VTF Edit Download[nemesis.thewavelength.net]

Download and install this application to your preferred directory, make note of the directory location because you may have to manually associate the program with Valve’s files.

You can test to see whether VTFEdit has been installed correctly by going to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Blade Symphony\berimbau\materials\Bamboo and opening one of the files. If VTFEdit isn’t associated, Right-Click either of the “bamboo_01”s and select “Open With”, then browse for the location you installed the VTFEdit application and select the vtfedit.exe.

Now that you have access to editing all of Valve’s textures, you can copy and paste lines of code from the pre-existing textures into your own. Open up the file directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Blade Symphony\berimbau\materials\Bamboo
You’ll see that each texture has the name twice, for instance: bamboo_01. One of these is the .vtf which holds the actual texture (picture) and the other is the .vmt which dictates how that texture should be seen in game. Commonly, the named file that is larger in size is the texture, while the 1kb file is the .vmt.

Now that you know how to find and edit .vtf/.vmt files, it’s time to make your first texture!
Make a folder either in your Blade Symphony directory or on your Desktop that’s dedicated to texturing. Put in any pictures you want so you can easily find and access them later.

.VTF’s have some basic characteristics that need to be followed when created. You should use a texture editing program to resize or crop your texture into a multiple of 64pixels. The most common textures in Source games have their width and height in 512x to 1024x for regular resolution textures. Just use your monitor settings as a reference if you have no clue of what sizes are popular.

A. Once you’ve resized/cropped your texture, it’s time to import it into VTFEdit. Open up the VTFEdit program and you’ll be greeted with empty workspace. Go to FILE and select IMPORT (CTRL-I). Find your way to the texture you want, select it, and then click open.

B. A new window labeled “VTF Options” will pop up. Most of these functions you do not need to know until you’re ready for advanced editing, all you need to change is the bottom left settings under “Clamp”: Change the Maximum Width and Maximum Height to exactly what you set your texture as (256x 512x 1024x etc), then click ok.
C. You should now see your texture in the program, all you have to do is go to FILE, and then click “Save As”. Save it to your workspace location and you’re done with your .vtf!
Note: Leave your VTFEdit open on the .vtf file so you can easily turn it into a .vmt with the next step.

.VMT’s are the line of code that tell the Source engine and Hammer how to use the texture in-game. For those without coding skills (Like myself) it’s best to just copy-paste from another file.
A. In .VTFEdit with your .vtf displayed, select “Tools” from the top menu then select “Create .VMT”. An option window will pop-up, click “Create” for the purposes of this guide. When you save the file, save it as the same name of the .vtf file, this way the program knows to correlate the two.
B. Now you should be greeted with an empty workspace in VTFEdit again, from here you can customize how you want the source engine to use your texture in game. To streamline this for you, a copy of the most basic form of .vmt is below:



"lightmappedgeneric"
{
"$basetexture" "mytextures/texturename"
"$surfaceprop" "dirt"
//"$translucent" 1
"%keywords" "berimbau"
}

You can copy and paste this code into your own .vmt, but it will need some editing before you save!





C. IMPORTANT STEP: The "$basetexture" line needs to have a directory assigned to it for where the actual files will be. Go to: Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Blade Symphony\berimbau\materials and create a new folder called “mytextures” Return to your .vmt and edit the texture name in "$basetexture" "mytextures/texturename" to reflect the name of your texture (No .vtf/.vmt at the end needed.) This will tell Hammer and Source where to find your texture; if you do this step wrong then nothing else will work.
D. Save your .vmt one more time, then you can close out VTFEdit.

Once all previous steps are completed and you have your .vtf, .vmt, and a folder location created in your Blade Symphony directory, you need to copy and paste the .vtf/.vmt into that location (Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Blade Symphony\berimbau\materials\mytextures)
Close out Hammer and open it again. Go to textures, and search for your texture by either typing in its exact name, or "mytextures". You should see it pop up and be ready for use in while mapping. Congratulations!

In order for other users to see your textures, you have to “pack” the texture into the map using another program. While there is no guide for this yet, I suggest using http://VIDE for its “Pakfile Lump Editor” to stick them in. Searching the internet may reveal other guides in this area. Good luck!