Half-Life Asset Manager, a tool to view and edit Half-Life 1 models
Half-Life Asset Manager is a tool designed to view and edit Half-Life 1 models, providing modders, game developers, and enthusiasts with an efficient solution for model manipulation.
Key Features:
View and edit Half-Life 1 Studio models (.mdl).
Supports various .mdl formats from Quake 1, Xash3D, Source 1, and Nexon.
Dock-based interface allows customization of workspace layout.
Tabbed interface enables multiple models to be opened simultaneously.
Editing capabilities include importing/exporting textures and adjusting sequence properties and hitboxes.
Three camera modes: Arc Ball, Free Look, and First Person for versatile model examination.
Audience & Benefit:
Ideal for modders and developers working with Half-Life 1 models, this tool streamlines the process of model editing and viewing. It offers enhanced workflow efficiency, improved visual quality through advanced graphics settings, and precise control over model attributes, making it an essential asset in game development projects.
README
Half-Life Asset Manager
> Note
> This program is no longer in development.
Half-Life Asset Manager is a model viewer for Half-Life 1. It can be used to view and edit Half-Life 1 Studio models (.mdl).
> Note
> This tool only supports Half-Life 1/GoldSource, not Half-Life 2/Source and Source 2!
Features
Opens Half-life 1 Studiomodel version 10 models
Recognizes Quake 1, Xash3D, Source 1 and Nexon model formats (all .mdl) and supports forwarding to a compatible model viewer for them
Dock-based interface allows interface elements to be moved and hidden
Tabbed interface allows multiple models to be opened, able to open ALL models in a mod without slowing down
Able to edit parts of the model's data (e.g. import and export textures, change sequence properties, hitboxes, etc)
Able to switch between three cameras: Arc Ball, Free Look and First Person
Real-time colormap preview (top and bottom color in the Multiplayer tab in-game)
Graphics options: texture filtering and resizing, multi-sample anti-aliasing, vertical sync
Audio playback for sequence events
Game configuration wizard automatically detects installed games and mods with automatic configuration switching based on the location of a model, including on-the-fly detection of loose files if they use a mod's directory structure
See the changelog for a list of changes in each version.
Minimum requirements
Windows
Operating system: Windows 7 or newer
OpenGL version: 2.1 or newer
> Note
> Half-Life Model Viewer 2 works on Windows XP and newer. If you cannot run Asset Manager then that tool may be a better option.
Linux
Operating System: 64-bit Ubuntu 22.04 or newer
OpenGL version: 2.1 or newer
> Note
> The Wayland windowing system may not work correctly with this program. Use X11 if you encounter problems. See the Manual for more information.
The installer will take care of most of the installation process. Simply run the installer, change the install location if desired, choose which file extensions to associate the program with, and the installer will do the rest.
If you already have file associations set up for one or more of the file types supported by Half-Life Asset Manager then you will have to manually change the association in the control panel.
The installer will also install the Visual Studio re-distributable. If it has already been installed then no changes will be made.
Uninstalling
To uninstall Half-Life Asset Manager, simply run the program maintenancetool.exe located in the Half-Life Asset Manager install directory. Choose the option "Uninstall all components" to uninstall the program.
Updating
To update Half-Life Asset Manager first uninstall the current version and then install the new version. User configuration files are not removed by the uninstaller so you will not lose any settings.
Differences between Model Viewer and Asset Manager
Asset Manager is based on Model Viewer and as such has the same functionality. However Asset Manager has a completely rebuilt user interface designed using Qt instead of wxWidgets, and incorporates many improvements and new features.
Visual Studio 2022 or newer (Windows) or GCC 11 (Linux)
Qt 5.15.5 (Windows: download 32 bit MSVC 2019 version using Qt maintenance tool. Linux: install package qtbase5-dev)
Clone the repository using Git. Make sure to clone submodules as well (--recurse-submodules on the command line).
Use CMake to generate project files for your platform. When specifying how to set up the project make sure to choose "toolchain" and point it to /vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake.
Run configure. You will need to specify the variable Qt5_DIR. This should point to the path /5.15.2/msvc2019/lib/cmake/Qt5 (Windows) or /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/cmake/Qt5 (Linux). The exact path may differ depending on your system.
Point CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to /installer/packages/SamVanheer.HalfLifeAssetManager/data.
Generate the project files and use them to build the project.
Creating installation packages on Windows
Build the install target to deploy required files to the installer directory. The PDF manual is generated from HalfLifeAssetManagerManual.md using the Markdown PDF Visual Studio Code extension and will be copied by the install target.
To create the installer you will need to put the program executable and all required Qt libraries in the bin directory, and place the Visual Studio x86 redistributable in the redist directory.
The batch scripts in the installer directory are used to create the offline installer and portable archive.
This will create a .deb file named something like halflifeassetmanager_3.0.0_amd64.deb. A .desktop file is included to add the program to the applications window of shells like Nautilus.
Third party dependencies are automatically detected and added by CPack. This requires third party tools to be installed first. Consult the CPack and CPack Debian generator documentation for more information:
Additionally Qt 5.15.2 (cross platform GUI framework) is also used and has to be installed using Qt's maintenance tool. The maintenance tool is part of the Qt open source release, which you can download here: https://www.qt.io/download