Questions: smoke, animations, smd, dmx

Skeindem

Hello everyone!

As the title already says I have few questions about TF2 item making.

1)How it is possible to attach smoke to hat or other cosmetic items in TF2?
2)Is it possible to put animation, some kind of animated detail, into cosmetic item or hat?
3)I know I could easily look this up, but maybe someone can even more easily anwer me: What exactly is difference between smd and dmx? What can I do with dmx?
4)To which bone should I attach hat for engineer? Bip_head or prp_helmet?
5)How do I make styles for items?

I really appreciate any help you can provide!

EmAr

Some of your questions can be answered by decompiling game models using Crowbar and inspecting the smd/dmx and qc files. You'll also need GCFScape to get mdl files out of the packages. Models are in tf2_misc_dir.vpk, textures are in tf2_textures_dir.vpk. I actually have these 2 package files completely extracted in my "Steam\SteamApps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf" folder so I can look up models with hlmv more easily.

1) You attach particles in the qc file. Read here:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=33455838&postcount=2308

2) Cosmetic items can't have key based animation AFAIK.

3) Smd is the old format which you can edit in notepad etc. dmx is better because it supports facial flexes without the need for a vta file. Probably, there are more advantages that I don't know.

4) Decompile a similar model from the game and see what bone it uses.

5) Styles can be separate textures or models(mdl files). Again, look into the packages and decompile models if necessary. In order to make sure your model works fine, replace a game model(by creating a mod) which has the same paintability and style properties and check your model in the shop.

Good luck!

Skeindem

Thank you very much for your answers!