Help:Model Viewer

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

Setup

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 Unkown 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"

4. Only if your card wasn't listed and is an ATi/AMD card, open AMD Catalyst Control Center (CCC), and go to the drop down menu and select 'Information Center' and open the 'Graphics Hardware' tab and record your Device ID

5. Under ATI Unknown, change its lines so it looks like the following:

"name" "Any name you want here"
"VendorID"	"0x1002"
"MinDeviceID"	"[Insert Device ID from step 4 here]"
"MaxDeviceID"	"[Insert Device ID from step 4 here]"
"DxLevel"	"99"
"ConVar.mat_antialias"	"8"
"ConVar.mat_forceaniso "8"
"ConVar.mat_picmip"	"-10"
"ConVar.mat_motion_blur_enabled"	"1"

6. Only if your card is an Radeon HD5000 series or above, you may enable "Super-Sample AA" under '3D' in the drop down menu in CCC 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.

Models

• Todo: cover \players\hwm\ models folder.

Locations

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)

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).

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
• PDA (build): c_builder
• PDA (destroy): c_pda_engineer
• Sandman: c_woodenbat
• Scotsman's Skullcutter: c_battleaxe
• Southern Hospitality: c_spikewrench
• Tribalman's Shiv: c_wood_machete
• Vita-Saw: c_uberneedle

Hats

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).

See also

• Template: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.
• Category:Third Party Tools on the Valve Developer Community

Resources

• TF2 Emporium thread on Facepunch