Mapping

Editors

• Valve Hammer Editor 3.5 - The final version of the original, official Goldsrc editor, including model support.
• J.A.C.K. - General-purpose BSP tool aimed at all Quake-based engines. Runs on Windows and Linux. Currently the most stable of the modern Hammer clones.
• Sledge Editor - A free, open-source replacement for the Hammer Editor. Created and maintained by our very own Penguinboy. Currently rather unstable - use with caution.
• TrenchBroom - An editor primarily for Quake, but can be used to partially build Half-Life levels as well.
• Quark - The Quake Army Knife, another tool aimed at being a universal editor. Don't forget to install the required addons to enable mapping for your chosen HL mod.
• GtkRadiant 1.4 or 1.5 - Half-Life has never been a big focus of the GtkRadiant project, and support for it has been removed in version 1.6.

Game Data Files

In order to use an editor for more than empty rooms, you'll need a FGD! An FGD file contains the definitions of the entities in a game/mod so you can create a map for it.

• Goldsource Games FGD Collection - All official Valve games in one convenient file, including Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Opposing Force, etc.
• For non-Valve games and mods, consult the mod website. Often the FGD is included in the mod install folder.

Compile Tools

• Vluzacn's ZHLT v34 - The most up-to-date and feature rich version of the Half-Life compile tools, with a host of lighting options and optimization entities. Includes 32- and 64-bit builds, so you can get more power if you're running a modern system. Official home on the Sven Co-op forums.
• Zoner's Half-Life Tools 3.4 (64-bit) (or 32-bit) - The foundation for Vluzacn's tools, Zoner's tools were open-source and his improvements over the Quake tools the HL SDK shipped with made it the de-facto standard for over a decade. Official website.
• Nem's Batch Compiler - An interface for the compile tools, if you don't like using the command line or compiling through your editor.
• HLFix 0.81b - A tool that converts a Hammer RMF to MAP files. In the process, it performs a number of geometric operations to fix common problems with brush geometry. Some custom builds of Hammer include these fixes by default, and the modern Hammer alternatives do not require HLFix.

Decompile Tools

• BSPTwoMAP 1.4b - A BSP decompiler for Goldsource.
• WinBspC 1.4 - A different BSP decompiler for Goldsource.

Textures and Sprites

• Wally 1.55b - Create new texture wads, extract textures from existing ones, or make edits directly in the program.
• Sprite Explorer 2.0 - Viewer and editor specifically for .spr files.
• Half-Life Texture Tools - A more recent wad editor that can also create sprites.
• To actually create texture images, use your favourite image editor such as Photoshop, GIMP, Paint.NET, etc.

Modelling

• kHED (or older free version) - A basic - but easy to use - modelling tool to edit low poly models. Has good support for Half-Life.
• MilkShape 3D - A popular (but non-free) model editor with good support for Half-Life. A 30 day trial is available.
• Blender - A free, fully-featured modelling program that supports animations. Install the Blender Source Tools (which also support Goldsource) to get Half-Life support. A guide is available here.
• Ambient.Impact.Design - Ambient.Impact's old website has arguably the best HD character models made for Half-Life, it's expansions, and a couple mods, often with source files included for those inclined to make edits.

Programming

• Visual Studio Community Edition - A free version of Visual Studio which will allow you to work with the Half-Life SDK.
• Half-Life SDK on GitHub - Official GitHub repository for the same code released in the SDK, but with additional updates and bugfixes.
• Half-Life SDK 2.3 - Though heavily outdated, this package encompasses everything Valve made available to the general public back in the day, including model and map example source files, early models and map compile tools, and full dll source for Half-Life and multiple official mods.
• Spirit of Half-Life 1.5 (Or 1.8) - Laurie Cheer's mod that adds a whole mess of quality-of-life features for mod authors. Have buttons and breakable glass move with your elevator, give every NPC a unique model, or fill your map with particle effects. 1.5 and 1.8 are more or less the same feature-wise but each have their own set of minor bugs you'll have to fix on your own using the included source code.

Viewers

• Solokiller's HLMV - Updated for modern systems, and with a host of new features. Probably the best model viewer you'll find.
• Jed's HLMV - An updated version of the official Half-Life Model Viewer supporting all HL texture features.
• Crafty Object Viewer - View models, materials, or even the geometry of compiled maps for both Source and Goldsource. Also supports exporting data to obj, if you need to use map data for creating animations or models.
• GCFScape - Browser utility for opening now-deprecated Source GCF files to view or extract content. Also compatible with HL pak files, wads, bsp files with packed information, and Source VPK files, making it an essential tool.

Additional Resources

• Slackiller's Half-Life Programs - Slackiller hosts a bunch of tools that would otherwise have been lost over the years - including a lot of things linked on this page! Hammer builds, compilers, viewers, and miscellaneous utilities abound.
• Valve Developer Union - Tool archival site dedicated to keeping Goldsource modding alive. If you can't find it on Slackiller's site, and it's still floating around, you'll almost certainly find it here.
• GS HL Tools - TWHL user Stojke maintains this repository of useful Goldsource-related modding tools.
• Penguinboy's Half-Life File Repository - A (somewhat unorganised) collection of Half-Life related downloads, applications, and miscellaneous other things.