vmf-cell-shading-generator

Generates fake cell shaded brushes for the Source engine with a .vmf input. Outputs a vmf that should be used as an instance.

Basically, this is what it does:

Usage

Hammer setup

1. Download the latest release and put it somewhere on your computer.
2. Open any map in Hammer.
3. Open the Run Map window in expert mode.
4. Click on the New button.
5. Click Move Up until the new run command is at the top of the Compile/run command list.
6. Click on the checkbox next to the new empty command to enable it.
7. On the right side of the window, click on Cmds and select Executable.
8. Browse to where you saved the vmf_cell_shading executable and select it.
9. Copy -outlinewidth 2 -input $path\$file.vmf -output $path\instances\$file_cellshaded.vmf into the Parameters: text box. This options output the generated instance vmf into the instances folder where your vmf is. This folder has to exist. Modify these parameters as you see fit. You can add -help to the list to see more information about the commands.

These instructions, but in video form

Map setup

1. You have to complete the hammer setup first!
2. Create a point entity at the exact origin of the hammer grid and name it func_instance.
3. Change VMF Filename to instances/<YOUR MAP NAME HERE>_cellshaded.vmf. For example if your map name is test.vmf, then you type instances/test_cellshaded.vmf.
4. If the instances folder doesn't exist in the folder where your vmf is, then create it!
5. Create a visgroup named Cellshade and put the entities (no world brushes currently) you want cell shaded in that visgroup. Faces that are textured with tools/toolsnodraw won't have an outline generated.
6. You can now compile your map and see the epic cell shading in-game!
7. To see the cell shading update in hammer you have to close and reopen the map unfortunately.

These instructions, but in video form

Limitations/Problems

Hammer won't update the instance if you change it outside of it, so you have to reopen your map to see the changes (note: this was tested only on Hammer++).

If two brushes are flush with each other, but have diagonal faces, then sometimes there are gaps in the cell shading between those brushes.

Example:

Building

Compile vmf_cell_shading.cpp with your favourite compiler. This should compile on Linux, haven't tested though.

For windows you can try and use my build.bat and set_up_msvc.bat things. They use msvc (visual studio's compiler), so you need to install that.