Modifying & Recompiling Source Characters with XSI, part of the Noesis Interactive™ MOD Your World™ training series, details specific methods for extracting, decompiling, modifying and finally recompiling character and prop models in Half-Life®2.  Using a powerful combination of the XSI Mod Tool, various third party apps and Valve’s own SDK learn to quickly ‘Adapt Your Character’ for use in mods and machinima.

Start by extracting either an Episode 1 or Orange Box model from the source game files, then learn how to easily modify the extracted information so that it can be correctly deconstructed and tailored to fit your needs. Once you’ve made any adjustments follow guided step by step instructions to gather your new assets and combine them  back into a prop or character model for use in game. You can even mash existing animation data from other characters onto your new one!

If you’re looking for a thorough and straight forward guide to modifying characters in Valve’s® Source engine this is it!

DVD topics covered include:
> GCF extraction procedures and tools
> Decompiling both episode 1 and OB game models
> Refining edges and fixing imported 3d meshes
> Re-rigging and weighting final models
> Exporting models
> QC Overview
> Compiling materials and models