HammerAssociate

HammerAssociate is a utility designed for convenient opening of files with the .vmf extension. The utility is intended for opening Valve Hammer Editor maps, allowing users to quickly and easily launch the corresponding Hammer for the respective game.

When working with .vmf files, it is often inconvenient to use the standard file opening methods, and the option to "Open with" does not work as it requires additional parameters to be specified through the registry, which is quite problematic. HammerAssociate solves this problem by providing a simple and intuitive algorithm for determining which game the map belongs to and automatically launching the corresponding Hammer Editor.

* Please note that now the HammerPlusPlusAssociate branch is available for HammerPlusPlus!

How does the algorithm work?

The utility searches for the executable file bin\hammer.exe by scanning the folder hierarchy above the location of the .vmf map.

For example, here is the launched map:

"...\common\Portal 2\sdk_content\maps\map.vmf"

The algorithm goes up the hierarchy each time until it finds bin\hammer.exe:

"...\common\Portal 2\sdk_content\maps\bin\hammer.exe" - Not found

"...\common\Portal 2\sdk_content\bin\hammer.exe" - Not found

"...\common\Portal 2\bin\hammer.exe" - Found

This algorithm allows launching the corresponding map in the corresponding game.

If hammer.exe is not found, the utility uses the information stored in the registry about the last opened Hammer Editor and launches the map through it: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Valve\Hammer\General\Directory

REGHACK feature

HammerAssociate also includes an additional registry hack to automatically set ultra settings for rendering distance above Hammer limits:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Valve\Hammer\3D Views", "BackPlane", 131072
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Valve\Hammer\3D Views", "DetailDistance", 131072
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Valve\Hammer\3D Views", "ModelDistance", 131072
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Valve\Hammer\General", "Undo Levels", 131072

These parameters are set automatically when opening a map and allow increasing the limitations on the rendering distance of objects.

You can opt out of the REGHACK feature during compilation in the corresponding choice!

Installation

0. Install PyInstaller (if you haven't already)

1. Install pyinstaller, press WIN+R and enter the command:

pip install -U pyinstaller

2. Run compile.bat without administrator privileges to compile the utility into an .exe and choose whether you need REGHACK.

3. Run install.bat as an administrator to install the necessary associations in the system.

4. Installation complete. You may need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

Known issues

1. Hammer editor for some reason cannot properly open .vmx through launch parameters, so when opening .vmx, the utility creates a copy of the map with the suffix _x.vmf and launches it. If a file with the same name already exists during copying, the utility will ask if it can replace it.

2. In the Hammer editor window title after opening a map and in the file replacement dialog, a broken path to the map may be displayed. Don't worry, this is strictly a graphical artifact and does not affect functionality! [FIXED!]

3. When creating _x.vmf, in some cases, the filename becomes corrupted. [FIXED!]

4. Sometimes, when opening a map, there is a chance that Hammer may crash for unknown reasons. But it is known that this issue is on Hammer's side. It is not critical, simply reopen the map!

License

The utility has no license ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ You can do whatever you want with it!

* This text, like the utility itself, was written and translated using ChatGPT-3.5!