Do you need cubemaps to make pakrat work?

PC's_Frank

L4: Comfortable Member
Aug 29, 2012
178
24
I recently made some custom posters for my payload map, pl_siege. I downloaded pakrat to pack the custom content into the file. However, when trying to open my .bsp through pakrat, I am not presented with the screen with the "add" button. Instead, I see what appears to be some sort of compile log, one which I have been incapable of copying and pasting. After doing some research, I found some similar problems where the answer had been to put cubemaps in the map. However, my map is only in alpha, and I've been told that building cubemaps is a lengthy process that should be reserved for when working on the final version.

My question is this: is there a way to make pakrat work without having to build cubemaps? If not, then is there some other way around that?

Update: Okay, I think I may have found a away around this. I knew that the menu I wanted would only open for maps with cubemaps, so I opened one of those (in this case arena_watchtower). Then, while on the desired screen, I clicked "load bsp" under the file tab, brought up the bsp of my payload map. After that, I used the "add" button to put the custom textures inside.

I'm not certain if I am being clever or if I just did something incredibly stupid. If anyone know if this actually works, please let me know.
 
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UKCS-Alias

Mann vs Machine... or... Mapper vs Meta?
aa
Sep 8, 2008
1,264
816
However, my map is only in alpha, and I've been told that building cubemaps is a lengthy process that should be reserved for when working on the final version.
Cubemaps are textures for reflections. They take in HDD space which people consider useless for alpha maps. Personaly i would just put in 1 env_cubemap so there at least would be a cubemap that can be used. Even if its reflections are incorrect.

And about time, compile times are the least of a problem. If a map takes 10 or 20 minutes realy doesnt matter other than being anoying for the mapper itself. The same counts on cubemaps for that, if they take time it wouldnt harm itself. However, it probably would still mean you have too many of them and the size of the file would become too large.
My question is this: is there a way to make pakrat work without having to build cubemaps? If not, then is there some other way around that?
I wasnt even aware it didnt work without cubemaps. So i cant answer on that. But then again, i probably never had the need to do that anyway (the popfiles for mvm dont work properly when packed).

Still, make sure that the cubemaps are made under the same name as which the map was compiled. Never rename your compiled map. Even if it wouldnt break your map, it would still result in double the space required for the cubemaps.

Your process sounds too odd though to be a proper way to solve it.