[MODDING] - Client-Side to Server-Side Guide

This is a guide that explains and teaches you how to convert models from client-side to server-side.

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Before getting to the point, do keep in mind that the way I am going to explain is the way I did it. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a more effective way of doing it. If so, please let me know and I will include it to the guide.

Also, please do consider checking out the stuff I make.[allmylinks.com]

For other guides on MIGI, CS:GO, and MODDING, check out my guides page. I will be making a series of tutorials for people to learn from. You can find them here or by clicking on my profile and pressing guides. All of my guides will not work on mobile for the formatting.

Lastly, you can't get VAC banned for this. This is safe to do and doesn't interfere with Valve servers or VAC. If this still isn't enough, just launch CS:GO using -insecure when testing or whatever.

Custom-Strike & Zool's Discord Servers

Are you trying to find mods for MIGI, tutorials on topics, or other stuff related to modding? Well, the Custom-Strike discord server[discord.gg] and Zool's discord server[discordapp.com] have various categories such as client-side retextured maps, demo maps, weapon models, skins, agents, CSS, CS 1.6, help with MIGI and other general modding topics, and many more. Join Custom-Strike's discord server and Zool's discord server now to find it all.

What is Client-Side and Server-Side?

What is client-side and server-side? To best put it, server-side is where everyone can see it and use it where as client-side is just for you to see and no one else. The process of converting a file from client-side to server-side isn't that difficult than you think it is. This guide will explain how to convert a model, may it be weapons, arms, or player models, you'll get the same result in the end. This is usable for community servers only. (sv_pure 0)

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ YOU CANNOT USE IT ON VALVE SERVERS! (sv_pure 1)

Client-side = name is the same as CS:GO file names
Server-side = name is different from the CS:GO file names











The server that I demonstrated these models on are Karma servers.
Can be found here at:
⠀⠀ - Steam Group
⠀⠀ - Website[karma-gaming.net]
⠀⠀ - Discord[discord.gg]
⠀⠀ - AWP BHOP IP
⠀⠀ - connect 172.93.101.24:27027

These models have been credited.
You can find them here:
⠀⠀ - Freedom CODOL[gamer-lab.com]
⠀⠀ - MSR CODOL[gamer-lab.com]
⠀⠀ - Intervention[gamer-lab.com]

Programs (read before clicking on links)

There are various programs I use. The ones I am about to list will be needed you don't need the optional programs but they are there for you if you decide to do more stuff.

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀REQUIREMENT

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Crowbar

Crowbar is a very useful tool for decompiling models to adjust textures or even model stuff onto them. I use this a lot and you will have to do the same. This is a REQUIREMENT and it is a free program. I would use version 0.68+ as I do this in tutorial. It doesn't matter really.

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀OPTIONAL

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⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀GCFScape[www.tophattwaffle.com]

GCFScape is good to open up pak01_dir.vpk to view important files and paths. This is a free program that is OPTIONAL as it speeds up the process.

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⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀Model Viewer SDK

This is good for viewing the materials, models, and what is broken. Model viewer (hlmv) is your friend. Although it is not a requirement but OPTIONAL. I do recommend this as it helps a lot and speeds the process of stuff. Sadly, you need to buy prime which is $15 to unlock the SDK tools given. There should be an alternative for this, I believe so, but I haven't looked into it much.


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⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀VTFEdit[www.tophattwaffle.com]

VTFEdit is OPTIONAL. It it useful for opening VMTs and VTFs along with exporting the textures to images if you wish to go beyond with texturing stuff. It is a free program.


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⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀Blender

Blender is good for editing models and I also use this a lot. You'll need blender source tools[steamreview.org] for it to work with source engine models. I won't be explaining how to use blender however there are many tutorials for this. It is very OPTIONAL but useful for those willing to go beyond. It is a free program on steam and the official site[www.blender.org].

Finding The Model

You'll need to find a model, I will be doing a weapon model for this case. They can be found by downloading models off of servers, Gamebanana[gamebanana.com], Gamer-Lab (most stuff)[gamer-lab.com], and Counterstrike: Source[gamebanana.com]. They'll look like CS:GO's original file names. They usually look like this, v_rif_ak47.mdl, v_snip_awp, and other names. I'll be downloading this[gamer-lab.com] as the demonstration for now.

Setting Up

After getting the model you want, you should make a few folders to keep it organized or just be a mad person and not. This is up to you. I'll be making a few folders so I know where stuff is. It doesn't matter what you name it. Once you are done with that, open where the downloaded model's mdl or where ever it may be and open it with Crowbar. You can find the Crowbar tool in the "Resources and Programs" section of this guide.

Crowbar and Decompiling

Once you open up Crowbar, you'll need to set your games and Steam's right path in the "Set Up Games" tab in Crowbar. This part is important or you won't get the stuff that's needed. It's very simple to do so I won't be going over this too much.



Now that you have your paths set, go back to the "Decompile" tab make sure you have your model selected in your "MDL input" and your "Output to" a folder of your desires. Also I recommend NOT to check "Group into QCI files" as I won't be doing it this way but you can do that way if you wish although you will have to rename more files if you do. When you are ready, you can decompile the model.

QC(I) and Renaming

You'll be greeted with an smd file, v_weapon_name_here_anims, and a v_weapon_name_here.qc file in which I used weapon_name_here because the name may differ for whatever model you end up using. In short note, it's usually named the CS:GO's original weapon name. The smd in this case will not matter, you won't need to rename but you will need to keep it.

You'll need to rename everything from weapon_name_here in this case it's v_pist_deagle for me to something unique that isn't the CS:GO's original file name.

Animation Order

Sometimes the animations bug out so the firing is the reloading while the reloading is the firing. This is a very simple fix. You just need to re-order the order of the animations in the weapon_name_here.qc's file in this case for me it's v_pist_deagle.qc



The names don't matter, as long as it's in it's correct order as the original animations for the deagle. To check this, decompile the original weapon model you are replacing and not the custom one.

⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Regular Deagle vs Custom Deagle

⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Idle1 ✓ Idle1
⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ shoot1 ✓ fire1
⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀shoot2 ✓ fire2
⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀shoot3 ✓ fire3
⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀shoot_empty ✓ fire_empty
⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀reload ✓ ak47_reload
⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀draw ✓ ak47_draw
⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ lookat01 ✓ lookat01

If they don't match the other one in order, just cut the entire thing and paste it so it matches it. This fixes the animations that bug on the server.



Another important thing to note, if the animation cuts off because it's too long, change the "fps" number to high or lower values to speed it up or slow it down to the right timings.

Adding Sounds

To add sound to the model you are converting, navigate to the sounds folder of the model you downloaded "folder_of_model_you_downloaded/sounds/weapons/deagle" inside here should be some files named these (they will be different each time for each model you convert)



Rename the sound files to another name as long as they are different and unique instead of the default sound file names for the default deagle. You may if you wish change the folder names or add another folder name example would be deagle44 but I am keeping it as deagle for this tutorial.



Once you are done with that, go back to the v_44_deagle.qc file and navigate to here.



Change event 5001 to event 5004 for the firing sound in order for the firing sound to work. Do not change the firing empty sound UNLESS there is a custom sound for it. HOWEVER, the custom deagle firing sound WILL overlay the default deagle firing sound I have no idea how to fix this so be warned. I am sure there is a way but I haven't bothered to figure it out.



After doing that, edit inside of the "1" for the firing sounds and put the path to the sounds you are using. You do not have to put the sounds folder in the beginning of the path just the sub folder of the sounds folder that you are using so in this case it'd be "weapons/deagle/deagle44_01.wav" NOT "sounds/weapons/deagle/deagle44_01.wav"



Do this for the rest of the sections for anything that uses a custom sound, the draw sound for this model is the default sound so I am keeping it as the default sound. Once you are done, you are good to go that is all.

Compiling The Model

We are near the end, for this part make a folder and name it anything because that's where you're going to compile it to make it less cluster ♥♥♥♥ looking.



Once you are done this, go the "Compile" tab and select the qc, and compile folder you made. Once you are done, press "Compile" and let it do it's work.



If your compile has no errors than it's good to go, warnings do not really matter in this case.

Using it In-Game

Yay we reached the end. If you're a server operator, you should know how to do this part, I won't be going into deep detail but to short summarize it, drag and drop the model, materials, and sound (optional) to your server's FTP and use either the store[forums.alliedmods.net] plugin (recommended) or cw[forums.alliedmods.net] plugin (optional).







⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀(I do not have access to a server right now so this image is temporary)

Revisions and Updates

This section I will be updating any revisions and stuff I find broken, grammar issues, misleading, or new sections. If you catch any of these, let me know.

NEWEST UPDATE
7/20/2023 8:00 PM PST

- Fixed and changed more grammar
- Fixed information being in the wrong place in section "QC(I) and Renaming" (duplicated twice)
- Finished the "Adding Sounds" section
- WIP video is coming
- Updated links

LAST UPDATE
2/24/2023 4:50 PM PST

- Reworked entire formatting
- Fixed and changed more grammar
- Updated links
- Removed sections

Do consider checking my stuff out.[allmylinks.com] I spent a lot of time learning this and writing this guide for others to hopefully spread their creativity.

Thank you for taking your time to read the whole thing. Feel free to tell others.

[sashie]

updated guide to include the adding sounds section and other various fixes video is wip

[Matrix7689]

I got the model rename part to work! Thank you so much!
Could you add the "Adding Sound" part in this guide?

[sashie]

not sure

[GoldsrChloe]

does this also work for css?

[sashie]

updated formatting and a lot of other stuff

[sashie]

updated

[sashie]

smh steam slow to approve the last bits, should be done though