The Basics for Modding Half-life 2 tutorial

[page=Setting up and the HLMV]

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction
1.1 How To Use This Tutorial
1.2 Goals

2.0 Setting Up
2.1 Setting up steam

3.0 Viewing Models
3.1 Half-Life Model Viewer
3.2 Navigating HLMV

1.0 Introduction

This tutorial was made as a resource for people new to moding Half-Life 2. In this tutorial you'll be introduced to steam and the Half-Life Model Viewer.

1.1 How To Use This Tutorial

* Information will be typed as black
* Red text will give you instructions
* Warnings are in blue

1.2 Goals

* Grasp the concept behind the SDK
* Understand what's going on behind the scenes
* Learn how to switch between games
* View models
* Get around HLMV

2.0 Setting Up

2.1 Setting Up Steam

Choose SDK under Tools tab

Steam is required when any work with the model viewer, studiomdl, vtex etc. if it is not open none of the processes will work.

Open Steam and download the Source SDK under tools

Steam will download any updates or replace any missing files automatically when you open up any program.

This menu allows you to quickly, and easily access important programs vital to creating your own content.

Source SDK Window

1. Hammer Editor - This is the level editing program.
2. Model Viewer - This allows you to preview models outside on an in game environment.
3. Face Poser - This program deals with lip sync and facial animation.
4. Release Notes - All information on patches.
5. SDK Reference Docs - Reference for the SDK, this page is a little outdated but is still a helpful resource.
6. Create a Mod - This program will allow you to make a folder dedicated to your mod. This way you wont be adding to any current games (Counter-Strike, HL2DM, etc.)
7. Refresh SDK Content - This command will update Steam so it has the correct listing of your games
8. Reset Game Configurations - This will reset all your game configurations to default.

The Current Game drop down box is very important since it switches in the settings for the game you have selected. When you change games, it actually changes a system environment variable, called "Vproject".

You must have administrative access to change environment variables, if this variable does not change you will be stuck using one game and will have difficulties with settings.

I have had issues where my mod would not show up in the drop down box; luckily, Valve has included Vconfig to allow us to configure these manually. Here, you can add a new game, or edit an existing. The directory should be the folder that contains the file gameinfo.txt

On my current project, I have found that when adding the project to the list will default a folder below the one you selected. To correct this I type it in manually.

3.0 Viewing Models

3.1 Half-Life Model Viewer

Now that you have Steam configured properly, you can now view models inside the Half-life Model Viewer (HLMV).

Select a game that you'd like to view models from in the Current Game drop down box
Open up model view from the Source SDK window.

HLMV

Choose File > Load Model.

This will bring up a list of folder contained in the game's root/models folder (To learn about the folder structure, read the Basics II tutorial.)

Locate the file: Buggy.jpg and double-click it

The buggy model should now appear in the view.

3.2 Navigating HLMV

The controls for HLMV are fairly simple, a list of controls can be found in

Help > About

Controls

Left Click - Rotate View
Shift - Left Click - Pan
Right Click - Zoom
CTRL - Left Click - Move light source

HLMV Options

1. These tabs allow you to work with other elements of the mesh
2. This drop down box allows you to choose how the model will be rendered
3. These checkbox's will show certain elements of the model.
4. Allows you to see the current Phys box

Play around with the viewer, get used to it's controls and see what each checkbox does.

[page=Structures and Workflow]

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction
1.1 How to use this tutorial
1.2 Goals

2.0 File Types

3.0 Folder Structure

4.0 Process
4.1 Utilities
4.2 Workflow

1.0 Introduction

This tutorial expands on the Basics tutorial and teaches more of the importing process and file types.

1.1 How To Use This Tutorial

* Information will be typed as black
* Red text will give you instructions
* Warnings are in blue

1.2 Goals

* Grasp the concept behind the SDK
* Understand what's going on behind the scenes
* Learn how to switch between games
* View models
* Understand File types

2.0 File Types

SMD

These files are created by the XSI exporter, there are 4 different kinds of these files and the engine handles them differently. Model files are references for the basics of the mesh, Skeletal Animation only exports the animation of the deforms, Phys box will export the mesh to be used for the collisions, and vertex animation which is used for facial animation.

Created with XSI.

QC

This is where studiomdl.exe gets its information to compile the .mdl file. This file contains information such as the name of the .mdl, scale, animations, poses, Additional QCI's, and the location of the SMD's.

Created with Notepad.

QCI
These are essentially QC's but they can be referenced from the QC. These basically organize the code into separate files for easy reference.

Created with Notepad.

VMT

These files are referenced from the engine to create shaders. This file will contain the location of your texture, if there is an alpha, normal map, and reflectivity map plus the location of each.

Created with Vtex, edited with Notepad.

When creating a file with a an extension other than TXT, make sure that the filename is correct. Sometimes a file may look like the extension is QC, but it's actually a TXT extension. To fix this problem, locate the file. In explorer go
Tools > Folder Options > View
Under the Hidden Files and Folders directory, uncheck "Hide extension for known file types."

3.0 – Folder Structure

Having a clean, organized file structure will help you with maintaining a workable environment and also make things easier when compiling multiple files together. This file structure is not required (since you define the location of files in the QC) but I highly suggest you use it.

Download the Excel Spreadsheet

View Folder Structure

Root - This folder contains all subdirectory's used. This is also where you place your QC file.

ModelSRC - This is where your exported SMD's from XSI are placed

Models - Studiomdl will create all files need for the engine in here.

MaterialSRC - Place your texture files in here, Vtex creates the TXT file

Materials - This is where Vtex will put the VMT and VTF files.

Create a folder system inside the game you which to modify.

From now on, I will be using my own file structure. If you've created your own then the locations of the files will change, but the instructions still apply.

4.0 - Process

4.1 - Utilities

XSI - The 3D package Valve used to create Half-Life 2, you can download Mod Tools (basically a demo version of XSI that includes the exporter) or get your hands on version 4.2 which comes with the exporter right out of the package.

Photoshop - The leading paint program, this is an industry standard.

Vtex - Converts TGA's to VMT and VTF. Will also create a TXT file in the same directory as your TGA's. This is located in the /Root/Bin folder.

Studiomdl - This compiles all your work into one MDL that will be used by the game engine. This is located in the /Root/Bin folder.

4.2 Workflow

To convert your own custom assets to a form that Half-Life 2 can understand requires the use of two programs. These programs are both located in the bin folder of your root directory and are called VTex.exe and StudioMDL.

Download the Excel Spreadsheet

View Workflow Flow chart