Retexture a hero

Find the material and its images

1. Open Source 2 Viewer.
2. Open Deadlock/game/citadel/pak01_dir.vpk.
3. Find the hero's model in models/heroes_wip/ or models/heroes_staging/. Look up the codename in Hero names and file paths.
4. Open the model and check its References tab. It lists the materials (.vmat) the model uses.
5. Open the material for the part you want to change. Write down its full path.
6. Find the material's color texture: a .vtex_c file with color in its name. Double-click it and note its size, such as 2048 x 2048. Your image must keep that size.

Decompile it into your addon

1. In the CSDK 12 launcher, create a new addon. Name it in lowercase with no spaces, such as myretexture.
2. Right-click the addon and choose Explore Content Folder.
3. Inside it, rebuild the material's folder path.
4. In Source 2 Viewer, right-click the material (.vmat_c) and choose Decompile & export.
5. Save it into the folder you made in step 3.

You get the .vmat file and its images as PNG files. Paint only the color image, the one with color in its name. The normal, roughness, and mask images hold shape and shine data. Leave them alone. Hero material settings reference explains each one.

Find which part of the image is which

This step is optional. One image often covers parts you do not expect. On Lady Geist, the head image also covers an arm, and the clothes image covers the legs. Blender shows you which area paints which part.

1. In Source 2 Viewer, right-click the hero's model (.vmdl_c) and choose Decompile & export. Pick glTF and save it to a work folder outside your addon.
2. In Blender, choose FileImportglTF 2.0File, then Import, then glTF 2.0 and open the file.
3. Delete the extra helper objects, such as the icosphere. Select the large bones and press H to hide them.
4. Select the hero mesh and press Tab for Edit Mode.
5. Open the Material Properties tab. Click a material and click Select.
6. Right-click and choose SeparateSelectionSeparate, then Selection. Repeat for each material you want to see on its own.
7. Switch to the UV Editing workspace. In the image list, pick that part's texture.
8. Turn on UV Sync Selection. Select faces on the model. Their area lights up on the image.

Use what you see as a map. In your image editor, cut that area onto its own layer. Areas that never light up are unused, so paint there does not show in game.

Blender is only for looking here. It does not change the files you ship.

Paint the image

1. Open the color PNG in your image editor.
2. Paint your changes. Keep the image at its exact size.
3. Keep any transparency. In GIMP, tick Save color values from transparent pixels when you export, or see-through areas turn black.
4. Save the result over the decompiled color PNG, with the same name.

Exported game textures lose a little quality with each save. Keep a layered file (.xcf or .psd) and export a fresh PNG from it each time.

Sizes must be a power of two, such as 512, 1024, or 2048. Other sizes can fail to compile or look blurry.

Rebuild the material

1. In the CSDK 12 launcher, select your addon and click Launch Tools.
2. In the Asset Browser, find your material. Double-click it to open the Material Editor. Recolor with material values shows how to filter the list.
3. Check that the shader at the top is pbr.vfx.
4. Look at each texture slot. A purple checkerboard means the slot lost its image.
5. For each checkerboard slot, click the magnifier and pick your PNG for that slot.
6. Press Ctrl+S to save. Check the result on the hero in the preview.
7. In the Asset Browser, right-click the material and choose RecompileFullRecompile, then Full.
8. Right-click your addon in the launcher and choose Explore Game Folder. Open the material's folder. You see a new .vmat_c and new .vtex_c files.