I’m releasing VMFs of every Valve-created CS:GO map, as well as my own so that you can
look at them and edit them as you like.
Download them in this video’s description.
From the interest that both my Newke and Infernew projects received, the CS:GO community is
clearly very keen to experiment and to change existing maps.
Just the other day on Reddit, LaxGuit shared sketched out plans for an improved Nuke and
I was called to do them.
Well… now, I don’t have to.
Because you can.
Before I go any further, just to clarify the obvious, I didn’t make these maps.
They’re not mine.
They are all Valve’s, if you do use them then don’t claim them as your own or sell
them or do anything particularly stupid with them.
I have simply extracted them, fixed the mess that this leaves behind, and have packaged
them up into a bundle to share with you.
It took a long time.
More on this process later.
What you need to know is that the VMF files are the editable copies of the maps.
They can be opened and modified using the Hammer editor, of which I have tutorials for.
You can also open them using Notepad, which is pointless but interesting because you get
to see how they’re made- they’re effectively a list of coordinates and properties for every
item that makes up a level.
I’ve also uploaded all of my own maps in this format.
This is scary since it leaves my creations naked, letting everybody prod and poke at
them as they please, criticising all the shortcuts I used to make them in the first place.
I’m going to warn you now that I don’t recommend editing any of these maps unless
you know what you’re doing.
I will not provide help for all of the thousands of complicated errors you could face, which
almost definitely WILL occur if you try changing the maps in any major or meaningful way beyond
just adding a few new props or blocks for the hell of it.
Also, to convert these VMF files back into playable map files that CS:GO can load, you
have to compile them so that it can calculate the lighting and stuff.
This can take anywhere between 1 and 18 (!) hours to do on my super fast DinoPC that’s almost
certainly faster than yours.
You’ll find 3 downloads: one containing all of my maps, one featuring every Valve
map apart from Nuke… and one containing Nuke.
I kept this one separate because for some reason they haven’t included most of the
models it uses in the game itself, so I had to rip these out and include them with the
download.
This makes the Nuke download larger than all of the other maps put together.
You won’t find Cache anywhere, since this is FMPone’s and he has personally requested
I don’t release it.
For every map you’ll find the VMF file, doesn’t matter where you put this since
when you compile the map in Hammer it automatically saves the map file to the correct location.
But for the folders, you need to drag them into CSGO’s base directory like so.
Doing this isn’t essential but will ensure that the radar and map descriptions work.
I have renamed all of these files, so editing any of these will not replace the official
maps.
But even if it did it won’t get you VAC banned or anything like that, it would only
stop you from joining servers officially hosting those maps.
I’m aware that releasing all of Valve’s stuff like this is a little iffy, I’m a
bit unsure as to what they think of me doing this because… well, they don’t talk much.
But they’ve already included some out of date versions for people to edit and- let’s
face it- getting us to edit the maps is the best way to get these custom layouts tested.
It’s taken me a lot of time to get these files ready, but I’m hoping that it will
save the community a lot more in the longrun.
Finally I’ll share with you the problems I faced with this project.
Any mapper can extract a VMF file by using a program like BSPsource, it takes about 5
seconds to do.
The problem is that it makes some mistakes.
For a start, it groups all of the func_details together.
These are all of the hand-placed items that Valve have made for the maps, excluding the
models.
There are typically several thousand of these per level and it’s up to me to remake them
one by one based on my own judgement of what should be grouped together.
This stage is fairly simple to do, but takes a while.
Then I have to fix the areaportals and occluders which are the things in the level that hide
bits you shouldn’t be able to see.
This improves the framerate.
When they’re broken it typically looks something like this in-game.
I render the maps in super fast mode to find these problems and to see if they’re fixed.
Rendering in super fast mode only takes a few seconds, but does mean that the maps aren’t
properly lit.
I normally manage to fix the areaportals, but the occluders are mostly horrendously
broken and I typically just delete them, so although these edited maps work they may not
be quite as optimised as the original things.
But I did my best.
I then compile it properly, which takes forever and after which I usually find one last problem
that will seriously trigger my OCD but won’t be serious enough for me to compile again
to see if I managed to fix it, leaving me feeling restless for weeks.
To further complicate things I accidentally deleted Mirage and the new Inferno’s fixed
files, meaning that I had to do them twice.
But now it’s all done and in your hands.
If you find any problems with them, let me know and I’ll try to fix and update the
download.
And if Valve updates the maps I’ll have to do it again any way.
So for once…
Valve, please don’t fix.
For a while, at least.