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vtex2

vtex2 is a Valve Texture Format conversion and creation tool. It has a CLI and a GUI component for viewing, packing and otherwise converting the files.

Usage

Command help documentation and usage examples can be shown on the command line using vtex2 --help.

For action-specific help, use vtex2 <action> --help.

Creating VTFs

Creating a VTF can be done with the vtex2 convert action.

For example, the following command will create a VTF called some-file.vtf with the format BGRA8888:

vtex2 convert -f bgra8888 some-file.jpg

If you pass a directory to vtex2 convert, it will convert all files in that directory. The -r or --recursive parameter will cause the program to descend and process subdirectories too.

Full list of options:

USAGE: vtex2 convert [OPTIONS] file...

  Convert a generic image file to VTF

Options:
  --bumpscale          Bumpscale
  --clamps             Clamp on S axis
  --clampt             Clamp on T axis
  --clampu             Clamp on U axis
  --gamma-correct      Apply gamma correction
  --pointsample        Set point sampling method
  --srgb               Process this image in sRGB color space
  --start-frame        Animation frame to start on
  --thumbnail          Generate thumbnail for the image
  --trilinear          Set trilinear sampling method
  --version            Set the VTF version to use
  -c,--compress [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
                       DEFLATE compression level to use. 0=none, 9=max. This will force VTF version to 7.6
  -f,--format [rgba8888, abgr8888, rgb888, bgr888, rgb565, i8, ia88, p8, a8, rgb888_bluescreen, bgr888_bluescreen, argb8888, bgra8888, dxt1, dxt3, dxt5, bgrx8888, bgr565, bgrx5551, bgra4444, dxt1_onebitalpha, bgra5551, uv88, uvwq8888, rgba16161616f, rgba16161616, uvlx8888, r32f, rgb323232f, rgba32323232f, ati2n, ati1n]
                       Image format of the VTF
  -m,--mips            Number of mips to generate
  -n,--normal          Create a normal map
  -o,--output          Name of the output VTF
  -r,--recursive       Recursively process directories
  file                 Image file to convert

Extracting image data from VTF

Extracting image data from a VTF can be done using vtex2 extract.

For example, the following command will extract the VTF to some-file.jpg:

vtex2 extract -f jpg some-file.vtf

If you pass a directory to vtex2 extract, it will convert all files in that directory. The -r or --recursive parameter will cause the program to descend and process subdirectories too.

Full list of options:

USAGE: vtex2 extract [OPTIONS] file...

  Converts a VTF into png, tga, jpeg, bmp or hdr image file

Options:
  -f,--format [png, jpeg, jpg, tga, bmp, hdr]
                       Output format to use
  -m,--mip             Mipmap to extract from image
  -na,--no-alpha       Exclude alpha channel from converted image
  -o,--output          File to place the output in
  -r,--recursive       Recursively process directories
  file                 VTF file to convert

Displaying VTF Info

The vtex2 info command can be used to display some info about VTF files.

Full list of options:

USAGE: vtex2 info [OPTIONS] file...

  Displays info about a VTF file

Options:
  -a,--all             Display all detailed info about a VTF
  -r,--resources       List all resource entries in the VTF
  file                 VTF file to process

Building

The first step is to clone the repository. Make sure to do a recursive clone!

git clone https://github.com/StrataSource/vtex2.git --recursive

Linux

Required packages:

• qtbase5-dev (Optional, only for GUI)
• cmake
• make or ninja

mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make -j$(nproc)

Windows

Packages

You must install Qt5 (Or 6, the viewer may work with that too). Make note of the install directory.

CMake and Visual Studio 2022 or 2019 are required.

Building

(From powershell)

mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -DQT_BASEDIR=C:\path\to\my\Qt5

You can then open build\vtex2.sln in Visual Studio and compile from there.