Content Authoring Tools contains a copy of Hammer++, an extensive modification of the stock Hammer editor by ficool2.

Lambda Content Authoring Tools installs Hammer++ for you automatically.

To get started, once you have signed in to the tools using your Lambda account, click on the Hammer++ tile on the dashboard.

You will be taken to a dashboard which shows the current status of Hammer++. To begin, click the "Install Hammer++" button.

Installation will take a few seconds, and then you should see the dashboard update to state that Hammer++ is installed, with a button to launch the tool.

FGD Files

FGD (Forge Game Data) files are used to define entities within the game. CAT ships with FGD files for various Lambda gamemodes.

CAT contains the following FGD files for you to use:

• Generic Entities: Generic entities shared across multiple Lambda gamemodes, such as CT & T spawns, Bomb Zones, Buy Zones, and hostages.
• Guardian Entities: While Guardian is based upon our CS Base Gamemode, it has its own entities that are unique to the gamemode.
• Skin Testing Environment: For the first time ever, users can create their own maps for the Skin Testing Environment, allowing a LambdaNet lobby to run on a custom map. This FGD contains entities for Market NPCs, Inspect Zones, and Screenshot Zones.
• Snowball Fight!: Snowball Fight has one unique entity: the snowball pile, where players pick up snowball ammunition.
• Auto-Radar Entities: Entities you should place in your map to aid with generating radars automatically based upon your map layout.

As new gamemodes requiring custom entities are created, new versions of CAT will include FGD files for them.

Installing FGD Files

You only need to install the files you actually require, so next to each entry is an install button. This will copy the FGD to your specified game path and then update the Hammer++ config automatically to mount the file.

Cartographer

The Cartographer page generates radar images (overview maps) from your Hammer++ map sources. Maps appear in the list automatically once you have opened them in Hammer++, or you can open any VMF from disk.

See Generating Radars for how to prepare your map and generate a radar.

Map Tools

The Map Tools page lists every compiled map (.bsp) found in your Garry's Mod garrysmod/maps folder, along with whether a navigation mesh (.nav) file exists for it.

Each map has an Actions menu that links into the other map tools:

• Load in Assembly: Opens the map in Assembly so you can inspect and pack custom content into it.
• Load in Place Forge: Opens the map (and its navigation mesh, if present) in the Place Forge beta editor. Only visible if you are enrolled in the Place Forge beta experiment.
• Generate Navmesh: Runs the Lambda Navigation Mesh tool to generate an optimised navigation mesh for the map. This overwrites any existing .nav file. Only visible if you are enrolled in the navmesh generator experiment.

If the table is empty, check that your game path is configured correctly in the app settings.