Map Icons have been a feature for Garry's Mod since the early days of the map select menu. Originally the process to creating Map Icons was a lot longer and more difficult for the average user to understand.

They used to require a program called .VTFedit, a tool that allowed you to mess around with the standard Valve Texture Files and enable them to be used either in actual maps or even be used to turn regular images into Map Icons.

With that said, the advent of Garry's Mod 12 & 13 has allowed the Map Icon creation process to be a lot easier and more simpler, making it better and quicker than ever before for Garry's Mod players to learn and use effectively.

For example, the files that I upload the Steam Workshop all come with Map Icons allowing the player to quickly identify where the map is amongst the other maps that don't have an icon.

I hope that with this tutorial that I can teach you how to create your own map icons for Garry's Mod and do something positive for the community. I'm willing to help users through the comments if they're stuck on a part they don't understand and I'll try my best to keep the tutorial up to date.

In order to follow the Tutorial you will require photo editing software in order to edit the images you take and turn them into map icons for Garry's Mod. If you already have image editing software on your computer then please ignore this part and continue with the other steps.

You will require:

• Basic knowledge of image editing.
  
• PAINT.NET - Image Editing Software.

Below this text is a download link to the official PAINT.NET website. Please note that this program will work for Windows, I'm unsure if it will work for Mac users and otherwise so please download with caution if you're not using the Windows OS.

http://www.getpaint.net/download.html

Once you have downloaded and installed this program to your computer then please continue on with the review. The file is verified as safe and it shouldn't affect anyone's anti-virus programs.

The first step into creating a map icon for Garry's Mod is the your choice of map. No doubt that over quite some time you have happened to download certain maps off the Steam Workshop and found that they haven't come with a map icon. Firstly, choose a map with a blank icon as seen in this image below.

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The map I'll be using for this tutorial is called "city_test03_31" by Steam user, Fredbob.




You're more than welcome to use this map for the sake of going through with the tutorial. Click on the highlighted text next to the image if you want to download the map.

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Now that I have chosen "city_test03_31" I have clicked on it and I'm loading it up. After loading, I've spawned at the starting area as seen in the image below.

My next step is to explore the map and find an area that will be good enough for a map icon.

If the map icon doesn't show off a good portion of the map or a unique feature then it won't stand out or look as good.





After exploring the map a little I have found an area that I want to use which will be part of the map icon, simply select the camera tool and aim the object you wish to take a screenshot of.

For instance, I have taken an image of an APC that's found in the map.

Now that we've taken a screenshot on Garry's Mod we need to access the games folders and locate the screenshots. When you're on your STEAM account's game library and you have selected Garry's Mod, scroll all the way down until you find the screenshots section as seen in this image:

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When you're at this section, click on "VIEW SCREENSHOT LIBRARY" once you've clicked on that then this window will appear as seen in the image below.

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Once this window has popped up, you can see all the images that you've made for Garry's Mod. At the bottom, click on "SHOW ON DISK". Once you click on it, a folder will appear as seen in the image below.





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In this folder you will find all of the screenshots that you've taken in Garry's Mod. Click on the images to find the one that you want to be your map icon.

Once you've found the image. We can proceed to the next step.

We're now in the most important part of the tutorial, the image editing. Using the program that I recommended at the start is essential for creating the map icon. Although, if you happen to have a different image editing program such as Photoshop then the instructions should be very similar.

Like in the last step, you have found the image inside the screenshots folder. Go to the desktop or wherever you have installed PAINT.NET and launch it. When the program loads you should be on the main menu as seen in the image below.

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Instead of going to the "File" tab, go back to the screenshots folder and drag the image that you want to be the map icon into the program. If done correctly, another window in PAINT.NET should have popped up as seen in the image below.








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Click "Open" and the image will appear in PAINT.NET as seen in the image below.










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Now that the image has been loaded into PAINT.NET, press CRTL+R and another window should have popped up as seen in the image below.









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Now that this window has popped up, this will allow you to resize the width and height down to "128x128". Untick the "Maintain aspect ratio" box if it is ticked and change the height and width to the appropriate measurements as seen in the image below.














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If done correctly, the image in PAINT.NET will be shrunken down to its correct size. With that done, go to "File" and click on "Save As..." if done correctly then a window should pop up as seen in the image below.








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First off, you'll need to rename the image and change it from a JPEG to a PNG. Depending on what map you used for the tutorial, you have to change the screenshot's name to the name of the level you want the icon for. For example, since I'm using "city_test03_31" I will change the name to that as seen in the image below.





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I've changed the name of the image to the maps name and I have changed the file type to PNG. Now this is ready to be placed inside the Garry's Mod directory.

Now that we've completed the map icon, it needs to be placed inside the Garry's Mod directory for it to work. If it isn't inside the directory and the correct folder then it will not appear at the map select screen.

Continuing on from where we left off, now that we've changed the name of the screenshot to the level we want and the file type to PNG we've got to move the map icon into the Garry's Mod directory.

However, it varies from user to user where the Garry's Mod directory lies and it may get confusing for some if I posted my own. So this method is a way that users of all kinds will be able to use to quickly reach the directory in no time and place the map icon in without having to go through tons of folders.

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Save the map icon to your desktop. Once you click on "save" then a window should pop up as seen in the image below.









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When this window appears, click on "OK" and the map icon will go to your desktop as seen in the image below.









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Now that your map icon is on your desktop, head back onto Steam as seen in the image below.










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In your Steam library select Garry's Mod and right click on it. A group of options should appear, click on "Properties" and a window should appear as seen in the image below.












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Once you're on the properties menu, click on "local files" which is found at the top of the window. Once you clicked it will go to another window as seen in the image below.













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Once you're on this page, click on "Browse local files...". If done right you'll appear inside the Garry's Mod directory as seen in the image below.














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Now that you're in the Garry's Mod directory, click on the folder called "garrysmod" and it will take you to where all the game's files are kept as seen in the image below.





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This is where all the games files are kept, models, textures, sounds and even Workshop addons. Look amongst the folders and click on the "maps" folder.

If the "maps" folder doesn't exist then simply create a new folder named "maps". Once you've found/created the maps folder, go inside it as seen in the image below.









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Inside the maps folder there should be another folder called "thumb", if that doesn't exist then simply create a new folder with the same name. Once found/created, click on it as seen in the image below.


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Once inside the "thumb" folder, drag and drop the map icon you have created into this folder.

Once you've dropped your new map icon into the "thumb" folder, head back onto Steam and launch Garry's Mod. Once the game has loaded up head to the map select screen and look for the map that you've created an icon for and see the results for yourself.


Before:






After:

If you've followed all the steps correctly then you should be very proud of yourself. Now that you've created a map icon you will be able to create many more! With practice you'll be able to make lots of them in very little time once you follow the steps.

Thanks for reading.

Please respond in the comments if you're having problems, I will try help you out as much as I can. If I happen to make any mistakes regarding spelling, grammar and otherwise then please notify me and I will try and improve.