Development:Half-Life (Windows)/Half-Life SDK/Monster Models

This is a sub-page of Development:Half-Life (Windows)/Half-Life SDK.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do: Go through ALL the .max files. They have a ton of content worth documenting. Comb through the .smd files and see if there's anything that got missed. Improve the organization of the page to make it easier to both document things and differentiate between models and animations. Partially done. This and the recent Animation Files leak happen to have the original internal file directories that the models' materials came from, at the time the max files were compiled. How could this be documented? Some of the max files include materials that aren't present in any known models, and these file directories can help partially help document the evolution of several models. Some of the models also have file directories for image/video renders that Valve employees made saved in the .max file. Would this be worth documenting as well? Add model renders to all the new stuff that was added.

A generous amount of Valve's internal model and animation files were placed in the Half-Life SDK for the public to dissect.

Archer

A set of blinking textures exists for the Archer. These textures are included in Half-Life: Source.

Barney

To do: It's been previously mentioned that one of the "Ted" versions of the security guard exists in the SDK. Identify him!! Found him! He's in a cut c2a4 sterilizer sequence.

Models

Prototype Barney

The security guard from the 0.52 prototype managed to weasel his way into the SDK. The only difference seems to be some minor texture alignment differences, particularly along the security guard's back. The model has modifiers that can be removed to reveal the original sculpt.

BARNEY2

To do: There are multiple versions for Barney in the SDK, and they all look really similar to this one. Work on differentiating them. Known Barneys: "Barney" "Barney2" "Construction" Despite pulling files from presumably the same place as the final game's construction.mdl, he still has his gun and nightstick!

An early model of Barney, internally dubbed "BARNEY2," can be found in the SDK/Monster Models/Barney directory. The textures for this model were not included, save for his hand, gun, and holster textures. It's speculated that this model belongs to the "Wide-Eyes" Barney seen in prerelease material.

Weird Face Barney

A near-final version of Barney, with a facial structure similar to the Slick scientist, is present in the Half-Life SDK within the BARNEY-X_Template_Biped1.max's modifier stack. The earlier texture for his face was not included in the SDK.

Before	After

The "Weird face" or "Caveman" version of Barney, as seen in an early screenshot.

Animations

stuka_warn.max

The security guard makes a quick downward hand gesture towards someone (likely the player). Given the name of the file, this animation was most likely used in conjunction with the cut stukabat alien.

Boid

The boid's earlier model edits depict it with a more pronounced snout and tail, similar to a stingray.

Curiously, the boid's model in the 1997 prototype is of the final version, which indicates that this change was made early on in Half-Life's development. Even curiouser is the fact that the file directories listed for the boid's textures have the only known instance of a texture being called upon from an id1 folder, which is the name used for Quake 1's directories.

Before	After

.max File	File Directory for Materials
Bird1.max	D:\quiver\id1\models\Bird\maps\B_Top1.bmp
Bird_Fly1.max	D:\ken\Bird\Maps\B_Top1.bmp

Charger

A cut enemy named the Charger was included among the monsters put in the Half-Life SDK. It is fully modeled, textured, and rigged, but has no animations associated with it. Unlike every other monster in the SDK, it has never appeared in any capacity in any prerelease or prototype content. Its only other appearance is as concept art included in Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, with a radically different design.

Concept art for the charger alien.

Chumtoad

The SDK has four alternatively colored skins of the Chumtoad, with six tiny eyes on its head instead of a singular, giant eye.

Floater

sidemap.BMP

A higher quality version of the flocking floater's texture was included in the SDK. The Valve developers would split this texture into three parts when making the in-game model.

Gasbag

The SDK features an earlier model for the cut gasbag model, without the little noodle on its top.

Hgrunt

Models

1997 Prototype Hsarge

To do: Add proper renders.

The Hsarge model from the 0.52 Alpha can be found within the Hgrunt folder. As texture names are not preserved when compiled into .mdl v4 format, the SDK gives us an insight into what its textures are properly called. The model's texture maps happen to be more squished compared to the one in the prototype, making the model's textures noticeably stretched. The model also has a bootback.bmp texture that the prototype Hsarge lacks — the Hsarge's backpack texture had accidentally been mapped to the back of their boots in the prototype, a detail which would be later corrected.

1997 Prototype with Boots Error	Promotional Render without Boots Error

Gloveless Hgrunt

A model that slightly predates the Hgrunt found in the 0.52 prototype. The two models are nearly the same, but instead of having their hands separated into several glove textures, this version's arm is just one giant skin texture. Additionally, the newer version of the Hgrunt uses a newarm.bmp texture, while the one found in the SDK calls upon a missing arm.bmp texture. The gloveless Hgrunt can be seen in several prerelease images for the game.

Interestingly, the 0.52 prototype has two early Hgrunt models that also have their gloves missing, desert.mdl and olive.mdl. However, their arm textures do not align with the SDK model — the newarm.bmp texture is a better fit than the desert or olive arms, with only some texture mapping oddities on the undersides of the arms. When viewing newarm.bmp from the prototype, it can be speculated that the developers simply took the original arm.bmp and crudely modified it to fit the gloved model.

• 

  newarm.bmp, as seen in the 0.52 Half-Life Prototype.

Prototype Grunt	Prerelease Grunt

Pre-Day One Grunt Body

Shortly before the Half-Life: Day One press demos were built, the Hgrunt model had a few minor tweaks that had been made to it. Most notably, the UV mapping for the Hgrunt's pants was horizontally flipped. When removing some of the edit modifiers from gruntbody.max, this pre-flipped pants mesh can be seen.

Day One Grunt	Prerelease Grunt

Commander Head

The beret head has a few secrets hidden in its .max file. None of the model's modifier history was ever cleared, so everything from the model's creation to its finalization has been preserved. The earlier model edits indicate that the commander head had first started out much thicker, and was gradually slimmed down through successive model edits.

Of note is that the textures for the commander's beret and face are called from two completely different directories. The beret comes from D:/Maxfiles/grunt/sargenthead, while the face was located in F:/quiver/valve/models/Hgrunt.

Blown Up Head

To do: Add a source for the reason it was cut. Brett Johnson, one of the mappers for HL1, is on the record stating this in one of his TikTok streams.

One of the bodygroups for the Hgrunt depicts him being completely decapitated from the lower jaw up. The player would have originally been able to blow the Hgrunt's head off if they had sufficient enough firepower. This was ultimately cut because Valve wanted to tone down the depiction of gore in the game.

HK G11

HK G11 firing animation. (gundemo.max)

Two files within the SDK, gundemo.max and gunfire.max, show the earliest version of the Hgrunt's weapon currently known of: a Heckler & Koch G11 assault rifle.

The first file, gundemo.max, is a simple firing animation for the weapon. A muzzleflash built into the model spins on a loop, and the gun repeatedly recoils backward. The model calls for the textures hkg11side.bmp and flash.bmp from the directory D:\Maxfiles\grunt\fulbitmaps.

The second file, gunfire.max, shows the HK G11 attached to a Hgrunt rig. In addition to the two aforementioned textures, gunfire also calls upon hkg11front.bmp and hkg11top.bmp.

Early concept art shows Valve being indecisive about whether to give the Hgrunt the HK G11 or the Colt Carbine. They'd end up choosing the Colt Carbine for most of development, before ultimately scrapping both and going with the MP5SD.

Thumbnail Sketch	Concept Art with Colt Carbine

Early MP5

An earlier, fatter version of the MP5 can be found within the Hgrunt's files.

Textures

Early Robogrunt Textures

Included in the SDK are three textures that belong to an earlier incarnation of the censored Hgrunt model, intended for a release to German audiences.

The model the textures belonged to.

• 

  grunt_neck.BMP

• 

  grunt_side.bmp

• 

  grunt_vent.BMP

Animations

garg_tunnel_throw.max

A Hgrunt is thrown down a tunnel. Given the map geometry that decorates the scene, as well as the context of the filename itself, this sequence would occur in the chapter Power Up.

Hvyweapons

Models

heavyweapons1.max

A high quality sculpt for the Hassault, before the texture mapping and rigging process could take place. Instead of using the 20mm handheld cannon as seen in prototype and final game's unused models, the Hassault was instead outfitted with an M60 machine gun. Additionally, two LAW rocket launchers are strapped to the Hassault's back — the prototype would get rid of the LAWs, and the final model would ultimately fill that empty space with an ammo backpack.

heavyweapons2.max

Another early model for the Hassault, this time with proper texture mapping and rigging. heavyweapons2.max makes use of the .tga files included in the Hvyweapons folder, the only model to use the filetype in the SDK. The model calls upon two textures that are not included in the SDK: launcher.tga, for the LAW rocket launchers he carries, and boot.tga, which is sourced from old Hgrunt textures, found in D:\Maxfiles\grunt(old)\fullbitmaps\boot.tga. Unlike the main model, the M60 was not texture mapped, and still cannot display any textures properly, nor are any textures for the M60 called upon in the scene's Material Editor.

The M60 that the Hassault carries.

Textures

A set of high quality textures for the Hassault, all in .tga format. These are the only textures included in the SDK to use the file format.

• 

  headmap.tga

• 

  arm.tga

• 

  chest.tga

• 

  cigar.tga

• 

  pants.tga

Kingpin

All of the kingpin's files call for a nutchrome.bmp texture that was not included within the SDK, which its material calls a "fluid sac." Despite its exclusion, however, the mesh does not appear to have any missing textures, and its use was likely supplanted by the similarly themed sac.bmp. Some of its animation files also use a sidesketch.bmp texture for the sides of the Kingpin, rather than using the headside.bmp and lowertail.bmp textures that the rest of the files use. The sidesketch.bmp texture is most likely the high resolution image that was split up for the in-game model, similar to the Floater's sidemap.bmp.

Scientist

Valve accidentally included one of the scientist's animations within "Half-Life SDK/Monster Models/Barney" when making the Half-Life SDK. Said animation contains the scientist's model data and modifier stack, which shows off the high quality sculpt that the model was based off of.

Before	After

Tentacle2

Many of the tentacle's animations happen to include map geometry that was likely imported from WorldCraft.

Turret

Included in the turret's textures is a singular chrome texture that is not used in the final game's model, Chrome1.bmp.

Cinematics

Animation files intended for the game's scripted sequences.

Ambush

heavy_ambush.max is an animation depicting a Human Sergeant jumping down from a high vantage point.

The animation is part of an older version of the ambush sequence where the player gets incapacitated by marines. The other parts of the sequence are not included in the SDK, but have been released separately as part of several leaks.

Bullsquid Barney Fall

c2a4_bullsquid_barney_fall shows a security guard trying to fight off a bullsquid that's crushing him, and then falling to his death.

The bullsquid's animations are not included in the SDK, but both animations were included in Half-Life: Day One and its .max file has since been distributed in subsequent leaks.