Team Fortress 2

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Disabling Decals on Casual Mode (A Mod that Actually Works)
By Zeugziumy and 1 collaborators
This is a working method with a mod that is able to disable decals on Casual Mode, as well Community Servers.
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As of Scream Fortress 2023, this mod no longer works.
Please see this other guide in order to disable decals: https://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3049594375
This guide ("Disabling Decals on Casual Mode (A Mod that Actually Works)"), will be updated if any new methods are found to use custom mods on Casual servers. Until then, the only method may only be with the hosts file, as detailed on my other guide.
Video Demonstration
Watch me going to a Casual Server and showcasing that none of the decals from my decal-ed items are showing up.
How this works
It seems that on Casual Servers, TF2 still allows you to use custom models, but, not custom textures and materials. Knowing this, I used EXISTING materials currently in the game files, and applied to the UV map on each decalable item to use that material instead.

Because I'm using things that are in the game, not custom things, it still accepts as a valid mod on casual mode.

However, because each of the model's .qc file loads a material instead of a direct texture, I was unable to use the default decals for the Objector, Photo Badge, Clan Pride, and Flair!, due to these item's materials having the syntax that allows decalability.

With that out of the way, I used the following materials in the game files to replicate the original textures:

- Conscientious Objector and Photo Badge: It uses the back of the Star-Spangled Strategy taunt prop, as it has a huge TF2 logo on it.
- The Clan Pride uses the back texture of the medal.
- The Flair was the most difficult, as I had to do for each class, and, use different textures for each button. The RED and BLU logos comes from the pins on the Whoopee Cap's textures (both RED and BLU textures), the TF2 logo comes from the Tuxxy's texture, and the Saxton Hale head comes from the Saxton Hale Mask texture.

Since the models now uses textures / materials from other items, if you have any mod that does any changes to them, it will reflect on them as well. Although your mod wouldn't show up in Casual Mode due to its restriction of custom files, it would still show on community servers that do not enable sv_pure.
Why this method and not others?
This is probably the best method to achieve this and it's the only method I know how to achieve for the Conscientious Objector. Mods that can disable "hats" can still disable Clan Pride, Photo Badge, and Flair!'s completely, however, not the Objector.

Using the same method of hiding these models for the Objector simply does not work. I also decided to try make that the items were similar to their default decal visuals instead of simply making them invisible completely, for the case of everything except the Objector.
Hide decal icon from the UI
The mod also includes an extra pack that will hide the decal image on Freezecam Screenshots, inspecting someone, inspecting someone on MVM, as well when using the spectator mode, under the file name / folder: "Hide Decal Icon on UI (Default HUD)"

However, because the game uses the same syntax as the paint splatter icon, this will also hide that. There's no way around it without custom textures, which are not possible in Casual Mode.

This will also hide the decals from items you applied from your inventory. Don't panic! Your decals are still safe, just that the UI no longer shows them, and, neither the texture with this pack, but they are still properly applied, and will show up again if you decide to no longer use both mods.


If you wish to hide the decal icon on your custom HUD, you will have to do the following:
  • If the HUD is on a .vpk, you'll have to extract it using GCFScape. It can be downloaded here: https://web.archive.org/web/20200131172739/http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/files/files/gcfscape186.zip
  • Go to tf/custom, and create a folder like "MyCustomHUD", and drop the files from the .vpk there. Make sure to extract what is inside "root", and not the "root" folder.
  • Create a file called "info.vdf" inside "MyCustomHUD". If it already exists, you don't need to do this step.
  • Open "info.vdf" with Notepad by dragging and dropping to the Notepad window.
  • Make sure to put this on the file:
  • Go to "resource/ui/econ", and find a file called "itemmodelpanel.res". Open on Notepad the same way you did "info.vdf".
  • Find the section called "paint_icon", and replace "wide", "tall", "visible" and "enabled" values to "0".
  • Now you have disable the decals on the UI as well, on your custom HUD of choice.
Why are you advertising a mod on the guides section?
Well, because it's the only current way of hiding decals on Casual Servers. The Guides also have a category for Game Customization. Considering that has been countless requests to add an option in-game to hide decals, I decided to turn into a guide as well.
Image previews (default vs. new)
Special Thanks
Special thanks to Asomn to help me testing the mod that hides the decal from the UI.
21 Comments
Zeugziumy  [author] 12 Oct, 2023 @ 9:54am 
A new guide was made with an entirely different method to disable decals. It's available here:
https://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3049594375

This guide will be still up, but I will put a disclaimer to the other guide. If any new methods related to using TF2 mods in casual arise, I will update my mod and this guide.
Zeugziumy  [author] 12 Oct, 2023 @ 6:49am 
Well, what .vpk are you using from that mod? The "objector" only? My mod still works with the rest of the decalable items (photo badge, flair, and clan pride). Perhaps it would work if you made a combination of the two.
AleXandriX 12 Oct, 2023 @ 6:15am 
uh, weird, cuz the the mod I sent works for me in casual, but only for signs, while doesn't work on photo badge and flair. Good luck with the new guide tho, as your mod single-handedly saved me a lot of headaches when streaming :steamthumbsup:
Zeugziumy  [author] 12 Oct, 2023 @ 5:53am 
As far as I remember, the Objector used to have a "loadondemand" "1" on the item schema, that seems to have been removed recently? I'm not exactly sure. Although, it's possible that this got fixed internally by the game's code.

I'm not exactly sure what is the inner workings of the mod you sent me, but I can confirm it didn't work on Casual either. I also attempted converting the c_picket_paper texture from VTF 7.4 to VTF 7.5 (which isn't supported in-game). However, that also did not work on Casual.

I did manage to find another way to disable decals, but there's many hoops to go through. I will eventually write a different guide as it's a completely different method to do so. No ETA on this, however.
AleXandriX 12 Oct, 2023 @ 4:23am 
There is another mod that still works in casual a bit: https://gamebanana.com/mods/440269 . Only problem is it only works on the sign, while for the other items it doesn't work. I have no way of contacting the owner of the mod tho
Zeugziumy  [author] 11 Oct, 2023 @ 9:25pm 
The other casual-bypass work around doesn't seem to be working anymore, the one with the "console" or "vgui/replay/thumbnails" folders. However, I'm testing out other possibilities.
Zeugziumy  [author] 11 Oct, 2023 @ 2:59pm 
Looks like it's not even working on my first match. Well, I was afraid this was going to happen once I uploaded it. I will see about the other workaround mentioned on my previous post.
AleXandriX 11 Oct, 2023 @ 6:57am 
Doesn't work anymore after the Halloween update, works the first match then stops working
Zeugziumy  [author] 8 Oct, 2023 @ 7:38am 
Well, yes. Originally the mod did that before I discovered another way to make this work on Casual Mode.

However, the textures would need to be updated too. It has baked shadows behind where the paper is. Even if removing the vertices on the model, the texture would also need to be updated, in which... wouldn't work on Casual.

There seems to be a different workaround for custom mods working on Casual that differs from the one I discovered and used (that allows custom textures), which was discovered only a few days after I initially uploaded my mod.
average 8 Oct, 2023 @ 2:29am 
is there a way to get rid of all the paper on the objector altogether?