MDLDecompiler

From Valve Developer Community
Revision as of 10:22, 14 February 2010 by Jike (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

MDLDecompiler is a tool written by Cannonfodder for decompiling Source models back into they're component parts; namely SMD, VTA and QC files.

MDLDecompiler only works with version 44 MDL files from the orignal HL2 or Episode 1 and cannot decompiled newer Orangebox models which are version 48. A work around for this is to edit the MDL in a HEX editor (such as PSPad) and change the 4th byte from hex 0x30 to 0x2C or, in ASCII, from a "0" (zero) to "," (comma). If the 4th byte is a "." change it to a comma anyway, it still works!

Some issues with the original Cannonfodder decompiler were fixed by Erix920 but some bugs still remain.

Note.pngNote:MDLDecompiler is not 100% reliable and has some issues with certain MDL files. It also doesn't produce a "perfect" decompile and you may need to rework the QC file to be able to recompile a model properly.
Note.pngNote:When browsing for the .mdl file you wish to decompile it might give an error and shut down the program. When it does this try deselecting the "Use Steam File Access" inside the mdldecompiler program at the bottom. Once deselected then you should be able to browse for the .mdl files.
Note.pngNote:When using Orange Box, don't place the mdldecompiler in "sourcesdk/bin/orangebox/bin/", this does not work. You need to place the mdldecompiler.exe in "sourcesdk/bin/ep1/bin/" at all times.

External links

You can download working versions of the tools from the links below.