MDL

MDL is the extension for Source's proprietary model format. It defines the structure of the model along with animation, bounding box, hit box, material, mesh and LOD information. It does not, however, contain all the information needed for the model. Additional data is stored in PHY, ANI, VTX and VVD files, and sometimes, usually for shared animations, other .mdl files.

File format

Some details of the file format may be gleaned from the source code in Valve's studio.h, specifically the struct studiohdr_t. The early header defines a series of offsets and lengths for various sub-sections within the file, along with some key scalar information. The MDL also contains the names of materials (VMT) which are used as the numerically-defined swappable skins.

See also

• Model Viewer
• Model Creation Overview
• Model