Feb. 25, 2005 @ 22:35
New VTF Shell Extensions

I’ve updated my Windows XP/2000 VTF Shell extensions to include new columns when using detail view on a folder. These new columns allow you to see extended info about the VTF texture such as its dimensions, type, format, etc.

I’ve bundled this new extension along with the thumbnail extension into a quick and easy installer that will take care of installing and registering them with the system.

These extensions replace the original thumbnail extension so if your using that one, please un-install it first!

Details and download on the Source SDK Tools page.

Responses to “New VTF Shell Extensions”


It still displays a number of mips for textures without mipmapping (and detecting that is one of the main uses of this for me), is there any way to make it say it isn’t mipmapped?

Posted by Monkeh
Sun, February 27th, 2005 @ 05:46

Hmm, thats interesting Monkeh. The value displayed in the MipMap count column is actually read from the VTF’s own header. If it is wrong then it means that the actual VTF header must be incorrect too! :o/

Can you give me the path/filename of an example VTF that doesnt have MIP mapping so I can check?

Posted by Jed
Sun, February 27th, 2005 @ 16:40

Actually, with further investigation, it seems ALL textures have the mipmaps with them, it simply doesn’t use them ingame if you add “nomip” “1” to the .txt. Maybe a way to read that from the .vtf? I can upload several example textures if needed.

Posted by Monkeh
Sun, February 27th, 2005 @ 16:46

Hmm, thats what I thought. The VTF creation code seems to make them no matter what, its just that NOMIP is a flag in the VTF header so I guess it tells the system not to use the Mip maps, even though their included in the actual file – which seems a bit of a waste of space.

Anyway, I can probably hack together a version to add the extra “No Mips” flag for you – I didnt add it because I honestly didnt think anyone would need that much detail.

Posted by Jed
Sun, February 27th, 2005 @ 18:04

I’d appreciate it, I’ve got 180 files to go over.

Posted by Monkeh
Sun, February 27th, 2005 @ 18:10