Transcript

Hello and welcome to lesson 2.4 HLMV (Half-Life Model Viewer) of How to Create Texture Mods presented by MLPTF2Mods.com. If I may quote the wiki, Half-Life Model Viewer, often abbreviated to HLMV, is the program used to preview 3D models created for Source, specifically Source .mdl files. Modellers can find additional uses for Half-Life Model Viewer, but for our purposes, we’ll just be using it to preview models. Today I’m just looking to show you it exists.

If you are wanting to run Half-Life Model Viewer, it is now included with each Source game you download. For us, we can find it by visiting our bin folder located inside our Team Fortress 2 folder. Note that is the Team Fortress 2 folder, not our tf folder. Inside, you should be able to locate and launch hlmv.exe.

So just like I quoted, it acts as a model viewer. You can import models and even weapons or cosmetics onto other models. View their attachments, bones, or wireframes. With or without normal maps. Zoom in and out. Move the camera. Rotate them on all axes. Change the light’s position. Under the sequence tab, if the model has animations, you can trigger them and blend them with others. From the models tab you can remove body groups, change their skins and more. If it is a player model, you can modify the facial flexing from the flex tab. All of this and more.

Though like I said, this is just to show you it exists and how to find it. We will have an entire lesson dedicated to using Half-Life Model Viewer later this series. Let’s move on to the last video of this section where we talk about the Valve Developer Wiki.