title: Important Notes
author: DanielPharos

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Here are a few things everybody should keep in mind when setting up Half-Life 2:
<ul>
<li>You will need the <b>Source SDK</b> installed. To do this, open Steam's Tools tab
and install the Source SDK Tools. The Source SDK contains the compilers needed.
Installing all 3 different Source SDK packages will allow to make a map for any source
engine game. Once installed, you need to run every Source SDK at least once,
so the Source SDK is configured properly (it does not do this on install!).

<li>Every once in a while Valve updates the tools and you will have to repeat the above
steps for it to work again (you will know when to do this because you suddenly won't be
able to compile a map, and/or other Steam related issues appear out of nowhere).
Launch the Source SDK; this should refresh the files. You can also use the <b>Refresh Source SDK files</b>
option there to make sure everything is OK. Then since you changed them you will need to fix the setup,
under the Half-Life 2 Configuration do the following:

1) In default directory of build programs change to "%steampath%\SteamApps\%steamuser%\%sourcesdkdir%".<br>
2) Change the first 3 programs back to "vbsp.exe", "vvis.exe", and "vrad.exe" respectively.

<li>You will need to have run the game at least once, for the data files to be properly extracted,
so QuArK can find them. Same probably goes for the Hammer editor.
</ul>
