User:Shine/Sandbox

Half-Life Model Viewer is an application for previewing Source .MDL files, using a rendering output similar to that of the game engine. It can be also used by modelers to refine a .QC file by finding the exact origin and physics constraints and generating a .QC with the right values. Basically, it lets you view game models.

Notable Options

"Render" Tab

• Normal Mapping: This should be turned on. Without it, the model may seem oddly colored or lit.

"Attachments" Tab

• Attachment: None should be selected. Without it, an XYZ axis indicator may be shown. This appears as triad of red, blue, and green lines.

Finalizing

Open the "Options" dropdown at the top left corner of the screen and choose "Background Color...." In the new window, select the color swatch at the bottom right of the samples (white) and confirm.

It will now be necessary to take a screenshot of the completed scene. This can be accomplished by using the "Prnt Scrn" key. (Usually located in the upper right corner of a keyboard.) Prior to capturing the image however, insure that the cursor is not anywhere that it might show once completed.

Open up your graphics editing program of choice (Photoshop, GIMP, ect.) and paste in the screenshot. Use the "magic wand" tool (15 is generally a good threshold to use) to remove the background of the image. Save it as a PNG.

Images Containing White Shapes Which Blend Into The Background

To remedy this, two screenshots should be taken. One with the standard white background and another with a color that appears no where on the edges of the model. (A green color is often sufficient.) Paste both of these into the editing program as separate layers. Use the magic wand on the non-white layer to select the background. Before removing it however, make the white layer active, then, using the selection, delete the background from it. Delete the non-white layer and proceed as normal.

Team-colored Hat Images

The larger dimension of these should have a margin of 10% greater than that dimension of the fully cropped image. Once this has been established, the margin of the lesser dimension should be increased so that both dimensions of the the completed image are equal.