Overview
This guide is going to show you how to install and use Hammer++ for Black Mesa.
Introduction
Hammer++ is basically a sick community-made upgraded version of Hammer, which is easy to install for the main games that use Hammer such as Tf2. But thanks to a very helpful communtiy member on the Black Mesa Discord they managed to make it work for Black Mesa (even if flawed in some parts) and I’m simply relaying this information into this guide. All credits go to him.
This guide is meant to explain to mappers old and new how to install and set up Hammer++ for Black Mesa and hopefully is an easy to process and easy to deconstruct guide.
Installing Hammer++
First and foremost to use Hammer++ you are going to need to install it.
To install it you are also going to need to install Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer. To do that go to your Steam Library and click Games. Then select tools and search Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer and simply install it.
Once you have the SDK installed, you can download Hammer++ here:
[link]The link takes you to the main page. Go to the DOWNLOAD tab and then select the Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer version of Hammer++. After clicking on it it will download a zip file. The zip file will contain a folder and in that folder will be a README file and a folder called bin. In the bin folder will be an application file and a hammer++ folder. The application file will launch Hammer++ while the folder will be what stores your Hammer++ settings and configs.
Next you are going to navigate to:
C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonSource SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer
(I would recommend pinning this file location in Quick Access to quickly access it instead of clicking each folder over and over again.)
Once you arrive at the folder directory, simply place the bin file from the Hammer++ zip file into the Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer folder and with that you are done!
You could go into the bin folder of the Source SDK Base 2013 folder and simply launch the application. That is how you install Hammer++. Now that leads us to our next step which is…
Configuring Hammer++ For Black Mesa
The next step after installing Hammer++ is to set it up to use for Black Mesa.
Since all of the settings that you change in Hammer++ are stored in a folder, you can just download the folder I made with what I did below. But if it doesn’t work or you just want to do it manually you have the instructions below. Click {LINK REMOVED}HERE to download the folder.
Simply put the folder in:
C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonSource SDK Base 2013 Singleplayerbin
And when you launch Hammer++ there should be a setting that says “Black Mesa.” If there isn’t then you have the manual instructions below. If downloading the folder and putting it into the correct location worked, than you can move directly to Step 3.
The first thing you’re going to want to do is to open up Hammer++. To do that go to the Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer folder and click on bin. After scrolling down or searching for it, double click the application file for Hammer++. It will bring up a tab that says “Select a game configuration to use.” From what I could tell you could use any because you are just using it to open the program but I used SourceTest just in case.
After successfully opening Hammer++ click Tools in the top left corner and click Options. A box that says “Configure Hammer++” will open up. There are several tabs at the top of the box that say “Materials, Build Programs, Hammer++,” you are going to click Hammer++.
Many checkmark boxes will show up appearing in various tabs that say “Graphics, Discord, Misc, Options, Gizmo.” What you need to uncheck is “Use modern Windows file dialog UI.” It is located at the bottom of the Options tab.
After unchecking the “Use modern Windows file dialog UI” box, go back to the top of “Configure Hammer++” where the different tabs such as “Game Configurations, General, etc.” are located. Click on “Game Configurations.”
What you are going to next is click on the big edit button to the right of where it says “Configuration.” When you click on it it will say “Add, Remove, Copy.” Click “Add.” And type “Black Mesa.”
Now to set up the Black Mesa configuration, you are going to click on each of the “fgd” files in the “Game Data Files” tab and click remove for each of them. After doing that you are going to click “Add” which will bring up your files.
After that you are going to click the icon that says “Up One Level” twice. From there you enter the Black Mesa folder, and then the bin folder. After you do that you add all 3 fgd files into the Game Data Files.
One you add all 3 fgd files, the 4 things you are going to NEED to change is the Game Executable Directory, the Game Directory, and the Hammer VMF Directory.
For the Game Executable Directory you are going to set it to:
C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonBlack Mesa because that’s where the application file is and where it will launch the game from when you launch the map.
For the Game Directory you are going to set it to:
C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonBlack Mesabms because that’s where the GameInfo.txt file is located and Hammer++ won’t be able to run with the BM config otherwise.
For the Hammer VMF Directory you could choose wherever you like to store your VMFs
(Valve Map Files) but by default and where mine are stored is likely in:
C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonBlack Mesabmsmapsgraphs because maps is where the BSP’s themselves are while the VMF’s are in the graphs folder (in the maps folder.)
(Optional) You can also set your prefab directory to:
C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonBlack Mesabmsmapsprefabs. You probably don’t have a prefab file so you have to create one in the maps folder.
After you have done that you’re now going to need to set up the Compiler to compile maps in Hammer++ by setting up the directories in the Build Program tab. In between the Materials tab and Hammer++ tab there is a tab that says “Build Programs.” Click it.
Similar to how you set up the directories in Game Configurations you are going to set up the directories in Build Programs.
For Game Executable you are going to set it to:
C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonBlack Mesabms.exe where you actually link it to the application file itself rather than the folder that it’s in.
For BSP executable you are going to set it to:
C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonBlack Mesabinvbsp.exe which is the application that creates the BSP files for your map.
For VIS executable you are going to set it to:
C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonBlack Mesabinvvis.exe which is the application that creates the vis files for your map.
For RAD executable you are going to set it to:
C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonBlack Mesabinvrad.exe which is the application that creates the RAD files for your map.
And finally you are going to set the directory to where compiled maps will go (BSPs) which is:
C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonBlack Mesabmsmaps
Once you have done that you have finished setting up the BM Configuration for Hammer++ which leads us to our final step…
Porting Black Mesa Files Using Symbolic Links For Hammer++
Now the final step is to port all of Black Mesa’s textures, models, sounds, etc. to the
Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer folder so that Hammer can use the entities, textures, and models from Black Mesa. If you don’t you will have missing textures and errors everywhere.
There are 3 ways you could do this:
1. Literally Port Over All Files to Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer
This is the simplest and easiest way to finalize setting up Hammer++ for Black Mesa, but is not recommended because of how much memory it will take up and for how cluttered it will be. So the second option is to simply use a Symbolic Link to directly link your BMS files to the SDK folder.
2. Download a Plugin To Create A Symbolic Link (Recommended)
So the second option as an alternative is to simply use a Symbolic Link to directly link your BMS files to the Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer folder. A simple and easy way to do this is to download and install a plugin that allows you to make a Visible symbolic link folder that you can move around and delete. One that I used to do it and was recommended to me was this: [link]
To install it click on Download near “Quickstart” and scroll down a little or instead click on HardLinkShellExt_$(platform).exe near the installation instructions. You will see multiple versions you could download for different systems etc. I downloaded the “64 Bit All Windows” version. There is also a 32 Bit version for people that have a 32 Bit system. I scanned it with Kaspersky, made sure there were no threats, malware, etc. and seems pretty safe to me.
After downloading and installing it per it’s instructions (running the application/installer) and installing it you can now right click on folders and quickly and easily create Symbolic Links, and see exactly where they are, and where they lead.
To create a symbolic for your BMS files to the Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer folder, go to your BMS file directory at:
C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonBlack Mesa and right click on your “bms” folder. When you do click there will be an option called “Pick Link Source.” Select it.
After you do that go to your Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer folder directory at:
C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonSource SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer
Then right click in the folder and an option that says “Drop As…” will appear below
“Cancel Link Creation” which will obviously cancel the symbolic link creation. When you click on “Drop As…” you will get multiple options such as “Symbolic Link, Junction, Smart Copy, etc.” Click on “Symbolic Link.”
Once you click it a folder that says “bms” with a small blue arrow in the bottom left corner, similar to a desktop shortcut, will appear in your Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer folder. It will link you and Hammer++ to your BMS files.
3. Use Command Prompt to Generate Symbolic Links
If for whatever reason you are still uncertain about downloading the plugin you could use Command Prompt to generate symbolic links as Invisible Files. I tried this and I screwed it up, and couldn’t do it, and it didn’t work, and it was a hassle fixing it, and I couldn’t fix it, so I just downloaded the plugin.
To use Command Prompt you are going to go to the search bar at the bottom left corner of your screen and type “Command Prompt.” An important thing to do is not to simply click on it but right click on it and run as administrator, otherwise you won’t be allowed execute the command.
To create the symbolic link (specifically a hard link which stores the actual data of the original file) from file directory to directory you have to use the command:
mklink /J “Link To Folder” “Folder Being Linked To”
which in our case is:
mklink /J “C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonSource SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer” “C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonBlack Mesabms”
You can just copy and paste the command with ctrl c and ctrl v. The quotation marks are important.
Theoretically it should work but for me it didn’t seem to work out. Let me know if it works for you because I can’t confirm if it works, all I can say is it’s a hassle to deal with if it doesn’t work. You can’t actually see the symbolic link when using the command prompt method so you don’t know if it worked or not unless you boot up Hammer++ and see if all your textures and props are missing or not. If this option doesn’t work try option 2 which is what I did.
Credits/Conclusion
With that everything should theoretically work and you’ve got yourself an upgraded very awesome community made version of Hammer for Black Mesa mapping!
All of this information was found on the official Black Mesa Discord and it’s wonderful members. If you like this guide and have anything you want to suggest, discuss, talk about, this server is for you!
If you have any trouble shoots, comments, issues, please feel free to start a discussion. Unfortunately I’m still new to mapping myself and can’t answer many questions but perhaps someone more experienced can.
BIG THANKS TO:
[link]
For digging around and finding A LOT of the information in this guide. Without him this probably wouldn’t be possible.
[link] and his Friends/Team
For creating such an amazing upgrade to Hammer that will make creating much easier.