CSDK 12

Community Source Development Kit 12 (CSDK12) is the community set of tools made by merging together files from the CS2 Workshop Tools and fixes made by the community members for the Deadlock’s 6 Heroes (Aug 19) update.

Reduced CSDK 12 is a stripped down version of the full CSDK 12 (without full game files). It can be used for editing models, sounds, textures, UI, vdata and more.

Installation

Download and open the archive.

Inside the archive is the Reduced_CSDK_12 folder. Unpack it where you want it to be and open it.

Launch csdkcfg.exe to load into the Configuration Tool. See the Usage section down below for instructions on how to use it.

Full Game Files

This step is required to be able to launch the game in bin_server mode, use S2FM and create maps in Hammer. To have full game files with your CSDK 12, you need to:

Warning

Do not touch the Deadlock files from Steam during this.

1. Download Depot Downloader. Make sure you own Deadlock on Steam.
2. With Depot Downloader, download these manifests through the command prompt using the following commands:

DepotDownloader -app 1422450 -depot 1422451 -manifest 2639812037154209539 -qr -dir "C:\path\to\Reduced_CSDK_12"

DepotDownloader -app 1422450 -depot 1422456 -manifest 6378769520310560496 -qr -dir "C:\path\to\Reduced_CSDK_12"

Replace the path after -dir with the path to the root directory of Reduced CSDK 12.

3. Open Reduced_CSDK_12/game/citadel/pak01_dir.vpk with Source 2 Viewer.

4. In Source 2 Viewer, right click on pak01_dir.vpk, select “Export as is” and export it to Reduced_CSDK_12/game/citadel.

   

5. After all files have been exported, delete pak01_dir.vpk and all pak01_###.vpk files from Reduced_CSDK_12/game/citadel and Reduced_CSDK_12/game/core.

6. Open the Reduced_CSDK_12.zip archive that you downloaded, and re-extract it into Reduced_CSDK_12. When prompted, select “Replace the files in the destination”. This is a necessary step.

   

Usage

Launch the CSDK Configuration Tool (launcher) by opening Reduced_CSDK_12/csdkcfg.exe.

Press the “Launch Tools” button in the bottom right corner to launch the Asset Browser for the currently selected addon.

Important

Steam must be running when launching the tools.

Addons

On the left side of the launcher is the “Addons” section. You can think of addons as projects, it’s recommended to create a separate addon for every mod that you make. To create an addon press the “Create New Addon” button and give it a name.

Addon names must be all lowercase with no spaces.

Warning

If you have addons with uppercase letters, spaces, or special characters in their name they won’t show up in this launcher. You need to rename your addon folders in content/citadel_addons and game/citadel_addons and press the “Refresh addons list” button to use them in the new launcher.

Creating an addon automatically makes two folders for your project:

• content/citadel_addons/<your_addon_name>: This is where you’ll place all raw source files, so they can be used by the tools. It is the main folder you’ll be working in.
• game/citadel_addons/<your_addon_name>: This is where the compiled versions of your assets will be stored and read by the game. Tools should automatically compile new files if they are present in content/ and be placed by the game in the game/ directory. Some files like localization files might be the exception. Compiled files usually end in _c (e.g., .vtex_c, .vmdl_c, .vdata_c).

Right clicking on an addon in the list or pressing the gear icon next to the currently selected addon at the bottom will bring up the context menu:

From here you can:

• Explore Content Folder: open the content/citadel_addons/ folder for this addon.
• Explore Game Folder: open the game/citadel_addons/ folder for this addon.
• Delete: delete both Content and Game folders of this addon.
• Duplicate: make a copy of this addon. This is how you make template addons into regular (editable and launchable) addons.
• Compile All Assets: use the Resource Compiler to compile all assets in the Content folder of this addon without launching the tools.
• Create VPK: create a .vpk file from the compiled Game folder of this addon.

Binaries

CSDK12 ships with four sets of binaries: bin, bin_cs2 (only for the Lighting Compiler), bin_server and bin_tools.

You can select which set of binaries to use for launching the tools in the top-left corner of the launcher:

bin

Regular tool binaries. This mode is able to compile Animgraph1 files, but crashes on previewing some projected particles.

bin_server

Requires Full Game Files. Allows you to launch Deadlock in server mode with limited tools like Asset Browser, Material Editor and the ability to compile some files like VData and Panorama assets. Everything else will crash. Useful for previewing your mods.

bin_tools

Other set of tools binaries. This mode doesn’t crash on previewing projected particles, but crashes on compiling Animgraph1 files.

bin_cs2

Used by GUIMapCompiler shipping with CSDK 12 to compile maps without tools open.

Launch Options

On the right side of the configuration tool are “Launch Options”.

VConsole: Whether to use the VConsole or the in-game console window.

No Addon: This launches the tools with no addon mounted. Should be only used to edit some specific tool assets like toolscenelightrigs.vdata and game_asset_tags.vdata.

Warning

For regular mod-making behavior, it’s advised to create a new addon or duplicate an existing addon. Continuing in “No Addon” might lead to original game/citadel assets being overridden, potential corruption of important data and the addon approach works together with the CS2 Workshop Manager to pack the addons in a VPK, plus it’s much easier and cleaner to organize packs of assets in addons.

Lighting Compiler

Launch Reduced_CSDK_12/GUIMapCompiler/CS2MapCompiler.exe to use the GUI Map Compiler. Requires bin_cs2 binaries to be present. This tool is needed in order to compile maps with lighting.