Counter Strike Source Mods

[Maren Ruminski]

Settingup a proper game development environment is critically important when making MODs and content for the Source Engine. The most important aspect of the game environment is determining the location of the game directory. This document explains what the game directory is, and how it is used.

The game directory is the folder that the tools refer to when they are looking for a game's content. For example, the Hammer Editor needs to know where it can find your materials so it can display them. Studiomdl will compile a model, but it needs to know where to place the compiled model files. Vrad.exe will light a map, but it needs to know where to find prop models so it can load them and determine how they block light. None of the SDK tools will run unless they can find your game directory.

In the following examples, we're going to refer to the game directory as C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\sourcemods\MyMod\Blasters. This would be the case if you selected Create a Mod in the SDK launcher, entered C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\sourcemods\MyMod as the directory, and entered Blasters as the mod name.

One way to determine the game directory of your game is to look for a file called GameInfo.txt. If you find the GameInfo.txt file, then the directory it sits in is the game directory. In the example above, if you had created C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\sourcemods\MyMod\Blasters, there would be a file on your hard drive called C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\sourcemods\MyMod\Blasters\GameInfo.txt. Once you've found the game directory, you need to tell the SDK tools where that directory is.

The active game directory is set so that all the tools know how to find the game content without having to specify it each time. The Current Game drop-down list on the Source SDK Launcher is the primary way to set the active game directory.

Alternatively, you can specify the game directory you wish to use without launching VConfig and choosing from the menu. To do this, simply run VConfig with the command-line parameter -game [directory]. This can be especially useful for setting the game directory in a batch file or other automated process.

An alternative method to set the current game directory is to directly specify the directory location on the command line when running each SDK tool. All of the SDK tools support the -game command line parameter. The advantage to specifying the game directory on the command line is that you are being explicit about where your game's content is to be found.

Using the -game command-line parameter to specify the current game directory gives you the advantage of being able to work on multiple games or MODs at once, and change your configurations for each. This can be easily done by making shortcuts to tools such as vtex with the -game parameter built-into the shortcut. When doing this, make sure to add quotes around the game directory path, if the path contains spaces.

All the files mounted into the game info can be previewed with XBLAH's Modding Tool in the File Explorer. The File Explorer replaces the GCFScape as the ultimate file browsing tool, since it will mount all the VPKs and loose files according to the game info, to show the modder a compreensive list of files. This relieves the modder of having to browse vpks individually, and the integrated features of the tool usually dismisses the necessity of extracting the files from the vpks, since they can be accessed natively by double clicking the file (or right clicking for more options).

Counter-Strike: Source has brilliant weapons, but somehow the huge Counter-Strike modding community has managed to make them even better. Modders have achieved great results by cutting out the polygons devoted to bits of arm you hardly ever see, and piling them into creating new high detail weapons complete with new sounds and custom animations. They're also dead easy to install. Perhaps you're tired of seeing the same old combat knife, fancy sticking a scope on your M4A1 or want to dual wield Berettas made of ice and fire. Read on for ten of the best.

Before you install any mods, it's worth keeping a backup of your 'cstrike' file, as not all servers support custom skins. With that done, all you need to do to get each of these mods working in your game of Counter-Strike: Source is download and unzip the mod file. Then open your Counter-Strike: Source directory, normally located at Steam/Steamapps/*your account name here*/counter-strike source/cstrike.. and drag the mod folders into this directory. If Windows asks whether you want to merge the files, click 'yes'. Now, boot up the game. Voila. All those old weapons you've seen a thousand times before will be shiny and different. Here's our top ten.

As the default pistol, the USP is the one gun you're going to see a lot. Spice it up a bit with these alternative models. The sleek Nighthawk will give you a highly detailed alternative with a realistic looking scope. The HK1911 0.45cal is another great replacement, with unique animations and unusual boxy silencer.

This brilliant mod replaces the once-great P90 with a pair of M7 submachineguns, because two guns are better than one, that's just a fact. If there's one thing everyone knows about submachineguns, it's that spinning them round and round like an idiot makes them fire better, that's another fact. Brace yourself, this is probably the best reload animation ever.

I know what you're thinking. "There isn't enough Klingon weaponry in Counter-Strike Source." You're absolutely right. The Scorpion is exactly what you need if you want to replace the boring old knife with something more exotic. If that's a bit too otherworldly for your taste, the M9 Probis III blade is a perfectly fine replacement for Valve's original.

The Auric Dragon reskin brings a touch of class to your tired old Deagle. The traditional silver texture is darker, and, here's the good bit, there are golden dragons embedded into the grip. It looks like it's come straight out of a John Woo film.

This mod gets rid of the AWP sniper rifle entirely. Instead of replacing it with another gun it gives you telekenetic powers . A quick point of the index finger sends a floating bullet flying at your target. The reload animation makes you beckon, at which point the bullet you just fired flies back into your hand. Genius. You'll find a video of the magic bullet in action here .

This mod replaces the XM1014 with a good old fashioned double barrelled shotgun The sturdy looking weapon comes with its own reloading animations. For a good modern alternative check out the mighty Striker .

This fantastic looking replacement for the M4A1 looks as though it's come from a modern Call of Duty game. Who needs a gun with both scope and a laser sight, you ask? You do! Because it looks awesome.

If you've braved S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s terrifying wastelands, you'll know how comforting it is to have a G36 at the ready. Thankfully it kills Terrorists as well as it does mutants, and it looks a lot better than the SG552 it replaces.

The Vintorez really does look as though it could shoot a pea from a mile away. That's partly because it has the the biggest scope you've ever seen, but mostly because of the superb texturing work. This weapon replaces the SG1 sniper rifle.

Those Beretta Elites, they think they're so great. Little do they know that the Mark 23 Auto Akimbo models, with their high resolution, high detail textures are superior them in almost every way. The underslung attachments make them look meaner than the standard Berettas, and it has custom animations provided by a man who calls himself Batman IV. For an unusual alternative, check out Ice's Heaven and Hell Berettas , because firing a gun while it's on fire earns you extra action hero points.

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The history of video games is full of boundary-busting hits that we could never put down, nor can ever forget. These games were more often-than-not built from scratch, with the additional heft of making an engine to boot. Risks were at a maximum, and for the very few, it paid off handsomely. If making games were akin to the gold industry, there has often been a visionary (or 'The Prospector') convinced that there is 'gold in them hills', their team (Miners) then bust their backs in producing raw materials, and then they all refine it together into a product under the intense heat of a production cycle.

In contrast to the Mine-and-Refine model above, Modding, or 'modifying' can remove some of the risks of 'mining'. Modding allows the developer to focus on 'that one thing' that they want to add or change, e.g. 'What if instead of players looting for weapons and shooting each other, PubG was about looting letter tiles and having rapid-fire spelling showdowns?' There's still jumping out of planes, looting, and encounters, but we've replaced 'shoot' with 'spell'. Ridiculous perhaps, but that mod would not require making all those other bits from scratch and that saves a LOT of time. One well-placed, imaginative alteration can be all that it takes to create a phenomenon.

This attribute of Modding makes it a development process that is more conducive to discovering innovations. I've never personally subscribed to the 'revolutionary' definition of the term 'innovation'. In my 23 years of game development experience, innovations tend to be products of slight deviations from the known, quite often in service of an existing issue that is customer-facing. Innovations carry something forward, making it 'better', more so than being orthogonal plunges into the infinite unknown.

Presently, in 2018, the Games market is aglow with the success of two offerings that are the products of modding. Fortnite Battle Royale is a PVP mod of its original PVE self, and PubG got its start as an Arma 3 mod. As I understand it, no investor funded the 'mod' as 'the business plan', but the value was created nonetheless. So, can 'Modding' be a core component of a business strategy?

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