Purple Checkerboard of Death

Does anyone know a cure to the purple checkboard textures that appear in game after you build a map.  My understanding from multiple sources is that it's due to not actually having the proper texture that the checkerboard appears on.  However, the checkerboard is showing up on character models and props as well.   Basically, anything that is shiny shows the texture, water/character weapons/cap points/etc...  Any help will be greatly appreciated as this is one of the few things left causing problems w/ my map.


Update, I fixed the checkerboard on ingame models, but it still appears on shiny textures, if anyone knows a fix please let me know.  I really wish to begin beta testing

Second Update, I may have figured out the problem, but have no clue on the solution.  I think my shiny surfaces are reflecting an unknown sky texture.  I'm using the dustbowl sky name from this site here http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Skies but when I do a buildcubemap on the map, it claims the texture can't be found.  Any info would be appreciated

maybe it has something to do with the cubemaps?

try placing an env_cubemap in the room where you have the shiny purple checkerd stuff.

Its always been my experience that purple checkered boxes means that the game cannot find the texture file.  If your using only materials from the GCF that shouldnt be the problem.

I have a single one in the map right now, which is tied to the surface of the water (which is one of the checkerboard surfaces).  It doesn't seem to help, but I'm fairly new to cubemaps too, is there something specific I should do?


This is the error I get related to the sky when compiling, not sure if this is what's causing it:

*** Error: Skybox vtf files for skybox/sky_dustbowl_01 weren't compiled with the same size texture and/or same flags!
Can't load skybox file skybox/sky_dustbowl_01 to build the default cubemap!
*** Error: Skybox vtf files for skybox/sky_dustbowl_01 weren't compiled with the same size texture and/or same flags!
Can't load skybox file skybox/sky_dustbowl_01 to build the default cubemap!

P.S.  I also wanted to state, that the checkerboard is purely reflection off of shiny surfaces, it is not a "solid" texture (I don't literally see a wall covered w/ purple checkerboard).  I can get a pic if necessary.

Final update, apparently I cannot use the default TF2 skies, I'm having to use a HF2 sky instead, which is fine b/c it works (no more checkers for me).  If anyone knows how to make TF2 skies work though, I'd love to know how.

Please visit http://www.fpsbanana.com/tuts/8615 for a solution to your problem

You may have multiple issues

We do realize that this thread is a year and a half old right???

Guys, this was a year and a half ago- i'd like to think that the guy who used to teach mapping classes was probably able to get his sky to work :|

/facepalm