A guide to downloading and installing custom skins (and other content) for Counter-Strike: Source. By MrPaqman.
Introduction:
I'm MrPaqman. That was easy.
Purpose:
This is a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to Downloading and installing custom skins and other content (like sounds and animations) for Counter-Strike Source. By the end of this guide, you'll know what types of custom content there are, where to get custom content, and how to install custom content for Counter-Strike: Source.
What is a "skin"?
A "skin" is the general term specifically given to the visual design of a visible in-game object. Therefore, a "reskin" is the redesign of an in-game object. Therefore, installing "custom skins" to Counter-Strike Source (hereafter referred to as "CS:S") means that you are customizing the look and feel of objects in the game. Skins DO NOT change the functionality of an object (except perhaps to make an object more visible by giving an object a more contrasting color scheme.) Skins are different than "hacks" "warez" or any other illegitimate form of game alteration or customization- they DO NOT overwrite, change, or delete any existing game files- they are considered "legitimate". (See This Steam Support Page). The most common items to be reskinned in CS:S are weapons, since you are always armed.
What is an "animation"?
Simply put, "animations" are the movements the items in game go through when certain actions occur- for example, every time you hit "mouse 1" to fire, your weapon displays several frames that indicate that it is firing a round- flashing of the muzzle, knock-back of the weapon, flying back of the bolt- these are all animations of the weapon.
What is a "sound"?
In this context, a custom "sound" will be what is heard when an in-game item has a certain action performed upon it- for example, every weapon has a specific "sound" for when it is used successfully.
What is a "script"?
A script is a set of commands sent to the game to tell it to perform a specific set of instructions. For example, the "Auto-Buy" button in the buy menu of CS:S executes a script to buy certain weapons.
Where can I find custom skins, animations, and sounds for my items?
Without question, the number one place to find custom content for CS:S is FPSBANANA. FPSBANANA Hosts custom everything- for CS:S and every other First Person Shooter (FPS) (and many other games). The .rar and .zip files found here are "rar" and "zip" archives, respectively. These archives contain skin packs designed by community members.
What is a "skin pack"?
Since skins are simply the visual design of an object, "skin packs" are akin to "starter sets" for skins- they (usually) contain not only a new custom skin, but perhaps even a new set of animations for the item, as well as new sounds and scripts for it. (Some sets even contain multiple choices for each of these- allowing you to "mix and match" your favorites.) Almost all of the submissions in the "skins" category at FPSBANANA are actually "skin packs", because they contain more than simply the actual reskinning of an object. They are saved in either .rar or .zip format. If you don't have a program that can extract these file formats, you may obtain a 40-day trial copy of WinRAR (for windows, mac, or linux) at Rar Lab.
What do I do first?
You'll need to locate your cstrike file. Depending on which version of Steam you have installed, it could be either of the following:
(Your Hard Drive Letter) is the letter of the hard drive Steam is installed on; is your steam username.
(Your Hard Drive Letter):\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\\counter-strike source\cstrike
(Your Hard Drive Letter):\Program Files\Valve\Steam\steamapps\\counter-strike source\cstrike
Now that you're there, create a custom folder inside it- call it "Custom CSS Files", or something that reminds you that this is the place you'll be saving custom CS:S content.
How do I download "skin packs"?
As mentioned above, go to FPSBANANA. FPSBANANA splits custom content much in the same way I have- skins, sounds, scripts, etc. The first items you'll want to look at are skins- found in The FPSBANANA CS:S Skins Section. At the center-left portion of the screen are pictures of the different categories of skins, starting with weapons, and eventually moving on to other items, player models, and world objects. First, select a category (Example: click the third option, which is "Knives"). The page that pops up has a listing on the right-hand side of custom knife skin-packs, sorted alphabetically. I recommend you select Filter: Highest Rated from the drop down bar, to have the highest rated skins sort to the top of the page. (Example: sort by highest rated, and select "Alabama Slamma' - Millenia's"). That custom skin pack's page pops up. Each custom skins page has several sections, including the author's description of the skin, screen shots of the skin, and comments from users about the skin. Browse the screen shots of each item you select until you've found a specific skin you wish to have replace the standard skin for that object. To download the skin, select "Download" from the Author's description box, found in the center-left column of the screen. Select "Save" from the download menu and save the item in the "Custom CSS Files" folder you created inside your cstrike folder.
I've successfully downloaded a skin. What do I do now?
The final steps are installing the skin. Navigate to it in your "Custom CSS Files" folder in your cstrike folder, and double-click the file. If necessary, select "extract to" in the navigation menu, and the "Extract to" screen will appear. You'll want to extract it to your cstrike folder. If you're going to install multiple custom skins, you'll probably have to give more specific names to redundant files like readme and credits text files. If "games-sounds-manifest.txt" pops up as a file that should be replaced, select "No". If your skin pack had only one option for material, model, sound, and script, you're done! If your skin pack had multiple options for any of these, you'll have to select which option you wanted, and cut/paste that option into its specific directory.
What specific directories do each part of a skin pack go into?
If a skin pack has an option directory like \materials\models\weapons\v_models\, you'll have to locate that directory in your cstrike folder- meaning you'd have to find cstrike\materials\models\weapons\v_models\ and extract the folder there. You'll have to find some one-option packs to extract first, as they'll show you exactly where each part of a pack goes.
What if I only want to have certain parts be custom for an item?
That's perfectly ok- Counter-Strike will set any parts you don't to default settings. So if you wanted to have custom sounds for the glock pistol without changing anything else, you could download a custom sound pack into your cstrike\sound\weapons folder.
I want to uninstall a custom skin- what do I do?
Just delete the files from your cstrike folder. If this still doesn't work, check the other "installing and uninstalling" tutorials on FPSBANANA.
This guide didn't work!
Then you didn't follow its directions as they are written. Because I wrote it correctly.
I'm sure I followed your directions, but it didn't work!
Then you tried to download/install custom content that wasn't formatted correctly for use. Not my fault.
I have more questions. Please help!
If your question isn't answered here, please try another tutorial at FPSBANANA. If those don't help, time to hit up Steam Support. (You may have to delete your cstrike folder and redownload the stuff that was there, and you may have to reinstall counter-strike. It's not likely, but it happens.)
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