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MDL to VMDL Conversion

This guide will go through the process of making a .vmdl file (Source 2 Model) from a .mdl file and other model-related files from Source 1. The Wyvern Hatchling courier will be used as example, but the same process applies to heroes, buildings and any Valve Dota model.

Required Tools​

1. Acquire the model and material files from the main game VPK (pak01_dir.vpk) using GCFScape.​

The following file types are required:

  • .mdl
  • .vvd
  • .dx90.vtx
  • .vtf

Model files will be in a subfolder of the /models/ folder:

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Right-click extract into a folder of your choice.

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Color Material files are located in the the materials/models/ folder. In this example this courier has 3 associated color files, one for each skin, so we'll get

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Finally we should have these:

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2. Use Crowbar to decompile the model files into meshes (.smd)​

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Result on the output folder:

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3. Use VTFEdit to generate color TGAs out of the VTF files acquired in step 1.​

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Do File-> Export.

Result (IrfanView is an oldschool image viewer that can open TGAs just fine):

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4. Move the generated files to your addons /content/ folder.​

  • Move the decompiled files generated in step 2 to /content/models/

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  • Move the TGA files generated in step 3 to /content/materials/

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Create new folders on each or just drop the files over the respective directories. Make sure to use the content folder (not the /game/).
The location of the reference mesh in /content/models/ will determine the location where the .vmdl file will be saved.

5. Generate a .vmat file from the TGA files.​

  • Open the Material Editor
  • File -> New Material
  • Without doing anything yet, Save the empty material with the name of the TGA you want to make a .vmat for. img
  • Browse and find the TGA to use img
  • The file should be visible by default with the _color. extension img
  • Save the final material. img

6. Make a New VMDL from the Mesh file (.smd)​

  • Open the Model Editor
  • New VMDL from Mesh File (Ctrl+M) img
  • Select the reference .smd file generated in step 2. img
  • If everything went well you should get a red error mesh: img

7. Add a Material Remap for the missing textures, using the .vmat file from step 5.​

  • On the menus, Model -> Add Material Remap img
  • Select the Material Remap List and collapse the properties on the Property Editor img
  • Search Material, select on from the drop down list. These are missing materials which have to be remaped to the the .vmat made earlier.
  • Ctrl+S to save the model, now the model comes together with the texture to take shape:

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  • IF the model shows as Error, something went wrong. Make sure to delete the auto-compiled models and materials of the same name on the /game/ folders, which are now corrupted. Make sure everything is using the proper names and directories, sometimes the Model/Material editor feel like not working and doing Volvo things.

8. Add the Animations on the _anims folder and make Activities for them.​

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Select all of them.

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The Animations will now preview when you click over them, the model will move, but for game to use the animations it needs an Activity (the ACT_DOTA_name strings).

On the Sequences window (Do Tools-> View Sequences if it doesn't show up), make sure Activity is selected. It will show an empty list between brackets []

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Now, select each animation you want to have a activity for.

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On the Property Editor, there is a an Activities element which will have 0 items by default. Click on the + to add one.

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Add a Name to it, try to use the ACT_DOTA_name that better adjusts to the activity description

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Finally, we have usable animations:

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Note: This is also useful to be able to have access to some of the ACT_DOTA_ACTIVITY+string activities that some of the Taunt and Alternative animations use which currently can't be used for abilities and other purposes (as it just ignores the +string part).
Knowing this, it's possible to assign some unused activity string like "ACT_DOTA_MINI_TAUNT" and force its usage trough the OverrideAnimation KV.

9. Add the Hitboxes​

Go to Model->Hitboxes->Auto Populate and accept the list of all bones.

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If you enable Display-> Hitboxes and Hitbox Names you should see something like these:

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Final result is the finished model with all its animations (hopefully):