Help:Model Viewer

The Half-Life Model Viewer (HLMV) is a program used to view and manipulate Source engine models.

Setup

A number of options and settings need to be tweaked in order to achieve best performance from the Model Viewer. The program has no GUI-based video settings like the game, so several other steps need to be taken.

Graphics card settings

For ATi/AMD cards, under '3D' in Catalyst Control Center's drop down menu, uncheck "Use Application Settings" in the "AA" section and move the slider to 8x.

For NVIDIA cards, open the "NVIDIA Control Panel" and navigate to "Manage 3D settings" or similar. Add a program-specific setting for hlmv.exe (file location is below):

\Steam\steamapps\[your account name]\sourcesdk\bin\orangebox\bin\hlmv.exe

Ensure that the following settings are enabled:

• Anti-aliasing set to "override" and on highest setting possible
• Texture filtering quality on highest setting possible

dxsupport.cfg

The Model Viewer also pulls settings from the config file 'dxsupport.cfg'. If the graphics card settings above do not work, then this method should still force the Viewer to output with high settings.

1. Navigate to the directory in the section above.
2. Open up dxsupport.cfg in a text editor of your choice. If you do not have this file, create it with this content.
3. Find your graphics card within that file. If your card was made after 2007, it will not be likely be listed, so go to the bottom and use ATI Unknown or Nvidia Unknown depending on your card.
4. Add or modify the following lines in dxsupport.cfg - within the section for your graphics card and save it, the Viewer should now be using high settings.
   "DxLevel" "99"
"ConVar.mat_antialias" "8"
"ConVar.mat_forceaniso" "8"
"ConVar.mat_picmip" "-10"
5. Only if your card wasn't listed, go to Control Panel, open Device Manager, find your graphics card under Display adapters section, open Details tab of its Properties and select Hardware Ids. The IDs are 4-character hexadecimal numbers. The Vendor ID is located after VEN_, and the Device ID is located after DEV_.
6. Under your Unknown, change its lines so it looks like the following:"name" "Any name you want here"
"VendorID" "0x[Insert Vendor ID from step 5 here]"
"MinDeviceID" "0x[Insert Device ID from step 5 here]"
"MaxDeviceID" "0x[Insert Device ID from step 5 here]"
"DxLevel" "99"
"ConVar.mat_antialias" "8"
"ConVar.mat_forceaniso" "8"
"ConVar.mat_picmip" "-10"
"ConVar.mat_motion_blur_enabled" "1"
7. Only if your card is an AMD Radeon HD5000 series or above, you may enable "Super-Sample AA" under "3D" in the drop down menu in Catalyst Control Center to further increase image quality when used with the above settings.

• It is advised to revert "Super-Sample AA" back to "Multi-Sample AA" when you are done using the Viewer, as performance in games will be reduced significantly.

 Note: directly viewing some models will ignore the $colortint_base attribute (which provides the texture's normal color tint to the model), forcing the model to appear grey or washed out. This can be worked around by extracting the model's texture file and adding a new attribute $color2 with the same value as $colortint_base.

Models

\weapons\ folder

The three main folders of the \weapons\ folder are:

• w_models – holds world models for the standard weapons.
• v_models – holds view models for the standard weapons.
• c_models – holds models for all other newer weapons (viewmodel and world model share the same model)

Note that there are some discrepancies regarding c_, v_ and w_ models. Previously, all weapons had a world model and a view model that were kept separately. All newer unlockable weapons are in one model file (c_model) so the same model is used for the player's viewpoint and what other players see.

More recently, c_model equivalents for most stock weapons have been added into the game files, but they are only used for renamed or described stock weapons.

Model locations

Most models have standard names but others have vague or confusing names, so some are listed below. Alternatively, all model file paths can be found by searching "items_game.txt" (\tf\scripts\items\items_game.txt) for the item's entry and checking the value of "model_player".

Weapons

• Bonk! Atomic Punch: c_energydrink
• Blutsauger: c_leechgun
• Bushwacka: c_croc_knife
• Equalizer: c_pickaxe
• Eyelander: c_claymore
• Headtaker: c_headtaker and c_bigaxe
• Homewrecker: c_sledgehammer
• Kritzkrieg: c_overhealer
• Kukri: c_machete
• Sandman: c_woodenbat
• Scotsman's Skullcutter: c_battleaxe
• Southern Hospitality: c_spikewrench
• Tribalman's Shiv: c_wood_machete
• Vita-Saw: c_uberneedle
• Warrior's Spirit: c_bear_claw

Hats

Hat models are stored in the directory of \models\player\items.

Tools

The Crate, Paint Can, and Name Tag models are not present in the game files, however the textures are (need directory). Efforts to reproduce them in a model form are ongoing (link to facepunch post).

Player models

Player models are stored in the directory of \models\player. There are also additional models stored in \models\player\hwm. HWM models (or hardware morphs) are higher-poly versions of the standard models and were used in the creation of the Meet the Team series. For more information about them, see this thread on the Steam Users' Forums.

Registry

HLMV stores model positionings and settings inside the Template:W in separate keys. You can open the registry editor by going to Start > Run and typing in "regedit.exe". HLMV's directory is "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\hlmv".

 Note: Changes made to values in the registry editor will be overwritten if the model is open while the changes are made. You will need to either close HLMV or load a different model while editing values. The values can also be updated while viewing by refreshing the registry editor ('View' > 'Refresh' or 'F5').

Key values

Inside each key are several values, and their uses are listed below:

Value	Description	Type	Default
aColor	Ambient color		(0.3 0.3 0.3 0) #4C4C4C
bgColor	Background color		(0.25 0.25 0.25 0) #3F3F3F
cclanguageid		Integer	0
enablenormalmapping	Normal map	Integer	0
gColor	Ground color		(0.85 0.85 0.69 0) #D8D8AF
lColor	Light color		(1 1 1 0) (white)
lightrot	Positioning of the light source	(X Y Z)	(0 180 0)
merge0 – merge3	Attached weapons
overlaySequence0 – overlaySequence3	?
overlayWeight0 – overlayWeight3	?
playsounds	Toggle sounds being played	Integer	1
Rot	Model's rotation in the world view	(X Y Z)	Model dependant
sequence	Animation sequence		Model dependant (most commonly idle or ref)
showbackground		Integer	1
showground		Integer	1
showillumpos		Integer	1
showshadow		Integer	1
speechapiindex		Integer	1
speedscale			1
thumbnailsize		Integer	128
thumbnailsizeanim		Integer	128
Trans	Template:W of the model	(X Y Z)	Model dependant
viewermode		Integer	0

Program limitations

Fire texture

HLMV applies a fire overlay material to most models. Although not noticeable under most circumstances, it can become particularly apparent when working with models that have dark or black textures.

There are two methods to remove this effect:

1. The more preferred option is to download this texture replacement and save it under "Steam\steamapps\[username]\sourcesdk\bin\orangebox\tf\materials\effects\tiledfire\" (create the folders if needed). This will replace the default file texture with a 512x512 black material, effectively nullifying the effect for all models.
2. Alternatively, setting $detailblendfactor in the individual model's texture file to .00 will achieve to the same end; however, this setting must be enabled manually per model.

See also

• Painted variants (tutorial) – tutorial on taking screenshots of painted images.

External links

• Model Viewer on the Valve Developer Community

Tools

• GCFScape – tool to extract files out of the game's GCF files
• Crafty – multi-purpose tool to view models, textures, and other Source engine files. Also provides a material and model browser to allow for easier file extracting via thumbnail preview.
• VTFEdit – for the modification of texture files
• HLMV Positioner 1.2 by Netshroud (needs steamuser to be set in Presets.ini)
• Category:Third Party Tools on the Valve Developer Community

Resources

• TF2 Emporium thread on Facepunch
• Mr. Magoolachub's HLMV stuff Mr. Magoolachub's help page.