The Elders' House of Pain

Server Forum => Team Fortress 2 Pub (72.5.152.147) => Topic started by: crazydog on March 28, 2008, 01:09:51 AM

Title: How to get a map to be the background in TF2
Post by: crazydog on March 28, 2008, 01:09:51 AM
Do you miss the days of yore when TF2 would load a map as the background?

Well you can still do it.

If you don't mind waiting a little longer on the inital load, so that you wait less on your first server connection, you can make a map your background like so:

(http://imgcake.com/img/cp_badlands0003x4.jpg)

Just do this:
Open the "My Games" list
Right click on TF2
Hit "Properties"
Hit "Launch Options"
Type in "+map_background your_favoritemap"

Ta-da

You can make a blurred screenshot and set it as your background if you want by making a .vtf and putting it in
"C:\program files\Steam\SteamApps\your@email\team fortress 2\tf\materials\console"
call it "background01.vtf" or "background01_widescreen.vtf". The width x height needs to be a power of 2, such as 512x512, 1024x1024, 2048x2048 etc. It will look stretched when you make it, but it will look fine in game.

There is a plugin for photoshop (http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/index.php?c=154) that will make VTFs. When you save it, choose "Compressed Texture" from the "Template" box.

I've attached the non-widescreen badlands texture to this post. It looks like this
(http://imgcake.com/img/backgroundx1.jpg)
Title: Re: How to get a map to be the background in TF2
Post by: Hitman Smurf on March 28, 2008, 07:29:09 PM
Hmmm...might try that.