Models in Half-Life? Created 18 years ago2006-06-02 12:19:54 UTC by Fortran

Hi Guys...have found plently of tut on the net about importing/exporting player models from Half-Life into MilkShape3D and back, but nothing is mentioned anywhere about moddeling & importing props made in MilkShape3D (or other 3d prog). Is the import of prop models allowed with the original HL engine? I see it mentioned in HL2 discussions but not HL1. If it is, are there any guides on polycount etc.

Add an env_sprite in your map then change the name/sprite(w/e) models/-thenameofthemodel-.mdl

Thanks man!!! Thats fantastic. Just 2 things.

1: Is there anyway to make env_sprite models solid? Although the name suggests otherwise lol. If not, I presume I could use a func_illusion on a box that is the same size as the model to make it appear as if it is solid (ie. player cannot walk through it)

2: Any idea if there are any tuts out there giving pointers to the amount of polys allowed for a HL prop model. Although, I presume because it is being imported via the env_sprite entity that it is actually an image of the model I am seeing rather than the actual model itself...therefore polycount should matter?

Anyway..thanks for the help again.

Ok....managed to make it appear solid by shaping a brush roughly the same size as the model..then using func_wall and {blue texture. This is where I could really use Hammer3.5 so I could see the models when I build the solid bits!! Anybody here using 3.5 without any problems ?

what? I had no idea you can use the sprite entity to display a model in game! WHAT THE HELL!

BTW, I'm using 3.5 with the spirit.fgd containing model support.

Probably doesn't matter, buy you can use the clip texture too. Using teh clip brush instead of BLUE rendered invisible may be better for two reasons I can think off:

1. Any transparancy in hl makes your map slower, and more unstable. I'm not sure if this applies to a brush rendered totally invisible though.

2. Clip-textured brushes decreases clipnodes. In other words, reduces the possible areas where the engine thinks the player can get to, resulting in better performance.

Thanks Rowleybob...will def. bear that in mind. I read an article about it and it also mentioned the clip brush as well. However, the only major difference I could understand was, apart from better peformance (which is always the better option!), was that the clip brush would allow the player to shoot through the brush...so for example, if i were using the tool_box.mdl and the player decided to shoot at it, it would not appear solid, (ie. no sparks from the bullet) whereas using the invisible {blue texture you can shoot it. Although this might not be a justifiable cause to use the {blue texture in all cases, I think it is good for some.

However, another downside to this is that obviously, shooting the toolbox does not produce the sound that would normally occur from shooting a metal texture.

Never thought of that!

Good point !

I found it in an aritcle over at

http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?ent=monster_furniture

That article says you can use the monster_furniture entity to load models in the same way as env_sprite, except of course monster_furniture uses *.mdl extension as default instead of *.spr. However, I tried it and set the location of the model in exactly the same way as I had using env_sprite and it compiled with no problems...however, when loading the map in HL I got a fatal crash saying it could not find the model ??? (which was working fine with env_sprite!) So i went back to env_sprite again lol!! Apparently this is the stock method for importing models when mapping for CS anyway.