VMFInstanceInserter (VMFII)

Inserts instances into a VMF. I am the best at names.

https://github.com/Metapyziks/VMFInstanceInserter

How to Use With Hammer

This is how to make Hammer automatically run this tool when you compile a map.

1. Obtain vmfii.exe. You can get vmfii.exe by compiling it yourself from the github repo or downloading it. You will need to put vmfii.exe in the bin/ directory of the source sdk branch you are using (the directory with vbsp.exe, vvis.exe etc).

2. Launch Hammer and open the Run Map dialogue (File -> Run Map... or F9). Switch to Expert mode by clicking the button at the bottom left.

   On the left is a list of commands that hammer runs when it compiles a map. By default, these should be the compilers vbsp.exe, vvis.exe, and vrad.exe, then a command to copy the compiled map to your game's map folder, and finally an optional command to run the game your map is for.

   On the right is information about whichever command is selected.

   If you are unsure as to what is going on here, have a read of this:

   https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Compiling
   

   What we want to do is run vmfii.exe to insert any instances in our map before the map is given to vbsp.exe.

3. Click the "New" button, which adds a new empty command to the bottom of the list. This command will be the call to vmfii.exe, so we want this command to be executed first. Click "Move Up" until it is at the top.

   On the right, click on Cmds. This will give you a list of the various possible command types. Click on "Executable". In the file selection dialogue that just popped up, find vmfii.exe.

   We need to tell vmfii.exe which map to work with, and where to save the new map when it is done. We can tell it this by giving it parameters. You can also specify which FGD files should be used to work out what to do with different entity classes. In the "Parameters" text box enter the following (replacing "first.fgd,second.fgd,..." with the absolute paths to any FGD files used by the mod you are mapping for):

   $path\$file.$ext $path\$file.temp.$ext --fgd "first.fgd,second.fgd,..."
   

   Hammer will replace each word with the '$' prefix with a relevant piece of information, like "$file" is the name of the .vmf it is compiling. You may notice that we are telling vmfii.exe to save the fixed map with .temp.vmf as its extension. This is so your original map isn't overwritten.

4. Select the second line, which should start with "$bsp_exe". Change the parameters to this:

   -game $gamedir $path\$file.temp.$ext
   

   This is telling vbsp.exe to compile the fixed .vmf made by vmfii.exe.

5. Now we need to prepare the output of vbsp.exe for vvis.exe. Make a new command after the second line, and set the command type to be "Executable". Now navigate to vmfii.exe again (it should already be in the right directory) but this time use these as the arguments:

   $path\$file.$ext $path\$file.temp.$ext --cleanup
   

   Specifically, this will delete the .temp.vmf that vmfii.exe created since it isn't needed again, and will rename the .temp.prt file vbsp.exe created to only have .prt as the extension.

6. That's it. Now just hit "Go!" when you want to compile. You won't have to enter that stuff in again unless you are setting up a new installation of hammer.