I have just followed a tutorial at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPq0QF2vbBg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPq0QF2vbBg)
to make a Pokeball and finished it. It looks really good but when I tried to export it, I was able to export the qc and model but when I tried to export the vtf's and vmt it said It doesn't have any textures. The tutorial only uses colours instead of actual textures so I am wondering if the VTF step is needed if only colours are used? I am quite new to making custom content as well as using 3ds max so I am unable to answer this question myself...
sorry for being a nuisance but I really want to learn more about 3d modelling and making custom content for source games...
If there are no textures, then you have two choices:
Keep the model with Color-Only VMT files (which is allowed, actually... you don't need textures if just using solid colors).
Or... Unwrap the Model and use Render To Texture (https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/3DSMax/files/GUID-37414F9F-5E33-4B1C-A77F-547D0B6F511A-htm.html). Make sure to bake the bitmaps to TGA format.
The first option I am not sure whether is possible as when I try to export the vtf's it says there need to be bitmap or psd vtf's which I obviously don't have. I will have a look at the second option.
That warning needs to be removed. It was put on that UI years ago... but support for materials without bitmaps was added quite a while back. The Material will export into a VMT now even if there are no bitmaps. As long as the object has actual Standard Materials, they should export as solid colors.