Using Player Models

What is a Player Model?

You've seen the Half-Life configuration screen where you choose between various characters. In the standard game you can play as "gordon", "scientist", "zombie" and a few others. Each of these characters is represented by a player model and you can download many more of them if you wish. Player model customizations are one of the special touches that keep multi-player Half-Life fresh and fun.

A player model is more than just some pretty graphics. Besides the skin, or surface image, it includes a 3D model of the body, a skeletal structure and a series of skeletal movement animations. While most player models use the original skeletons and animations done by Valve (developers of Half-Life), the best models include customized skeletal animations to achieve a personality all their own. Like mapping, these models are a fascinating art form in their own right.

Downloading Player Models

Tweezer's Half-Life Health Club makes available a limited selection of high-quality player models for download. Basically, these are the ones my friends and I use. After downloading a model please follow the installation instructions in the next section.

Because of site bandwidth and storage limitations, we ask that you please register and login before downloading models. Thank you.

Baboon	Barnes	Biker

Model Name	Date Added	Comments
Baboon	20000930	Humanoid baboon w/tail. His bright red rear end may stand out :-). A simple model in otherwise low-contrast tones.
Barnes	20000929	The giraffe's revenge. A simple model in low-contrast camouflage tones.
Biker	20000929	Scarecrow on a unicycle? Outstanding model, with great animations in how the unicycle is handled. Always a favorite, and hard to see.
Blade	20000930	Ugly guy in black t-shirt w/skull. A simple model that one of my colleagues likes.
Blindeye	20000929	An even uglier one-eyed guy in futuristic costume. A simple model in subdued tones.
Bunny	20000929	Brown rabbit with an attitude. Long ears could be a give-away. Simple model -- use him at Easter. See also "cyberbunny".
CCSakura	20000929	Anime girl in white "jester" outfit. Outstanding skeletal animations of the costume and braids, plus a nice 360 in the long-jump make ccsakura one my favorites. She's high-visibility, however.
Cyberbunny	20000929	Tasteful chrome textures accent a black bunny, still with the long "shoot me" ears. Simple model, see also "bunny".
Darth Maul	20010211	Low-contrast dark figure affords good camouflage except for his flame-red face. A simple model of the Star Wars character, included by request.
GSTC (Gene Stealer)	20000929	Large monster with additional skeletal appendages (including a tongue) and custom animations. The long-jump is especially nice.
Handy Smurf	20000929	Little blue guy with a pencil behind his ear. White pants & hat. See also "smurf". The Smurfs are small and can be difficult to see. Simple model.
Hibari	20000929	Simple model of red-haired anime girl with pink bow and red mini-skirt.

GSTC

Handy Smurf

Hibari

Iron Giant	20000929	Simple model of the the cartoon movie robot in medium-contrast gray.
Iron Man	20000929	Red and yellow chromes make this a high-visibility choice. Simple model
Kermit	20000929	Very small and cute. Even if you see him you won't want to shoot him. Best choice for stealth players.
Knute and Bolte	20000929	Well-executed symbiotic duo. Rather large, so easily seen. The model is simpler than it looks.
Major K	20000930	Dark woman in black leather suit, very low visibility. Simple model.
Mandalorian	20000930	The better of the two Bobba Fett (Star Wars) models I've seen. A simple model in low contrast camouflage tones.
Onna	20000930	Very cute anime girl in blue jean shorts and white tank top. Simple model.
QTZ	20010211	Anime boy with frozen arm and backwards baseball hat. The frozen arm looks like a silver stick. Outstanding skeletal animations of the hair and the frozen arm make this one of the best models I've seen. Jump and long-jump are both superb.
Rigell	20000929	Red-haired anime boy in fur-trimmed brown shorts. Skeletal extension in headband is subtle, not used much. Nice long jump, but the funniest is that he skips instead of walking.

Onna

QTZ

Rigell

Santa	20000930	Once a year... A simple model. The muted red suit is not too bright.
Scuba	20000929	Scuba diver in full wet suit, w/fins. Basically a simple model, but check out the way he walks.
Silencer	20000930	Low-visibility camouflage "lambda" uniform on a simple model.
Smurf	20000929	Much like Handysmurf, only no pencil. This one has green pants and hat.
Tigger	20000929	The stuffed tiger from Winnie the Pooh. This was the first non-builtin model I ever saw. Simple model with high visibility neon colors, but still fun.
TrinityRAGE	20000929	The best of the two Carrie Anne Moss/"Matrix" models I've seen. One of my favorites, this is a great looking skin with several custom animations.
Tsugumi	20000929	Yet another excellent anime girl. Black hair with red bow and red skirt, includes very precise skeletal animation of her long locks, both front and back. Watch the hair move when she shoots. Long jump includes double-twist.
Turgeon	20000929	A simple model with a very well executed skin of the famous hockey player. He's got in-line skates -- too bad he uses standard animations :-(.
USCM	20000930	Another simple model with a well done skin, this of a "U.S. Colonial Marine" from the movie Aliens. Good low-contrast camouflage.
Yoda	20000929	The Star Wars character. Very small with slightly higher visibility than Kermit. Standard animations.
Yodan	20000929	A large monster featuring a nicely animated tail. Very highly visible due to its size: sometimes the tail even sticks through walls to give away the position. Yodan features a number of original animations, though the effects are quite subtle.

Yoda	Yodan

Installing New Models

Half-Life model files must be installed in the Half-Life\valve\models\player\ directory. Each model requires its own subdirectory, and the name of the subdirectory must match the name of the model.

So, for example, the "ccsakura" model files are installed in a directory called Half-Life\valve\models\player\ccsakura\.

If you download my zip files, you should unpack them into the Half-Life\valve\models\player directory. The appropriate subdirectory for each model will be created automatically. If your system doesn't know how to unpack the zip files, you probably need to install WinZip.