Half-Life 2 Hands (Evolution)

Through out the development of Half-Life 2, the hands of Gordon Freeman changed appearance several times. These hands span from being fairly complete and consistent across several weapons, to being broken or corrupted because of unknown circumstances. This page tracks the fingerprints of the past and lends a hand to those unfamiliar with the inconsistencies, trivia, and mysterious factoids of the hands that hold Half-Life 2's diverse arsenal across development.

Version 0: No Hands

Some view models existed during development but had no hands to speak of. This may be due to the weapons being cut very early in their production, or the model being replaced by a later variant before further work could be made on this iteration.

Weapon Used On	Evidence	Hands Condition
HKGR9[1]	Leak MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	N/A
HMG1[2]	Leak MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	Hands have bones but no mesh or animation
Jaytest[3]	Leak MDL	N/A
Physics Gun[4]	test1.SMD in "Work" folder in model sources	N/A
Manhack	Leak MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	N/A
Missile Launcher[5]	Leak MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	N/A

Version 1: Leather Suit

The first main iteration of Half-Life 2's viewmodel hands. Referred to as the "leather suit" or "Hyper" hands by the community. Their name comes from the fact that the original suit design for Half-Life 2 more-so resembled a leather gimp suit than the classic H.E.V suit from all other renditions. This iteration of the hands assumedly lasted from 1999 to some time in 2000, getting changed due to poor feedback from Gabe Newell.

The textures of this hand model were found in the 2003 Half-Life 2 leak's Flaregun materials folder. Despite them being long since obsolete, their appearance gives us insight on to the earlier stages of Half-Life 2's development from a long-gone era.

Weapon Used On	Evidence	Hands Condition
Flare Gun	Materials folder in Leak and Materialsrc, "Old" folder in model sources	Right hand presumably used a seperate unique texture
AR1[6]	Speculated, One of the first weapons added to HL2, hands match the same proportions as 2000 Physgun	N/A
Iceaxe[7]	Speculated, One of the first weapons added to HL2	N/A
SMG1[8]	Speculated, One of the first weapons added to HL2	N/A

Renders

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  Recreated model with both arms. Made using the leaked 2000 Physgun's hand remnants.

Textures

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  "hand"

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  "forearm"

Version 1.1: Flare Gun

The Flare Gun has it's own unique right arm texture, presumably used for a very old version of the Flare Gun model (Of which we have the animations for, but no trace of a mesh).

Renders

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  Recreated right arm model. Made using the leaked 2000 Physgun's hand remnants.

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  Ditto, side view.

Textures

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  "rightarm"

Version 1.2: Half-Life 1 Retexture

After the design of the leather arms was criticized internally at Valve, there seems to have been a brief period of time where the "Leather Suit" hands were quickly changed to make use of Half-Life 1 textures. We thankfully have this piece of history due to a left arm being present on a very early version of the Physics Gun model. Interestingly, the textures used on the hands are much higher quality than those used in the original Half-Life. Once stripped of it's textures, however. It seems that the arm's mesh is directly taken from the Leather Arm iteration, allowing us to make accurate recreations of what the leather arms would have looked like.

Weapon Used On	Evidence	Hands Condition
Physics Gun[9]	Leaked 3DS Max file, Leaked VRM file	Only contains left arm, mesh is baked into pose and unrigged

Renders

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  Isolated hand models.

Textures

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  "Hand_pak"

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  "gloved_sleeve"

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  "RubbergloveCHROME"

Version 2: "Red" H.E.V Suit

The longest-lasting iteration of the H.E.V arms, as seen on many viewmodels in the 2003 Half-Life 2 leak. It can be assumed that this version of the hands was used from 2000 to 2002, although we do not have concrete evidence to suggest exactly when these hands were fully phased out of development.

Weapon Used On	Evidence	Hands Condition
AR2[10]	Leak MDL, Reference SMDs in model sources	Left arm has no upper arm, right arm is only a hand with no back face
Binoculars	Leak MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	Only contains right forearm
Brickbats	Leak MDLs, Reference SMDs in model sources	Only contains right arm
Immolator	Leak MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	Only contains left forearm
Crowbar	Old in-game screenshots	N/A
Fire Extinguisher	Leak MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	Only contains right forearm
Flare Gun	Leak MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	Both arms have no upper arm
Gauss Cannon	Leak MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	Only contains left forearm
Grenade	Model thumbnail found in CSS 2003 beta build	N/A
Guard Gun	Leak MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	Only contains left forearm
Iceaxe[11]	Leak MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	Only contains right forearm
Physics Gun[12]	Leak MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	Only contains left forearm
Pistol	Old in-game screenshot, Model thumbnail found in CSS 2003 beta build	N/A
Rocket Launcher	Leak MDL	Only contains left forearm
Shotgun	Old in-game screenshots, e3 2002 trailer	N/A
SLAM	Leak MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	Both arms have no upper arm
SMG1[13]	Speculated	N/A
SMG2[14]	Leak MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	Both arms have no upper arm, right forearm is cut short
Sniper Rifle[15]	Leak MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	Left arm has no upper arm, right arm is only a hand with no back face
Stun Baton	Leak and retail MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	Only contains right arm

Renders

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  Full model with both arms.

Screenshots

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• 

Textures

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  "arm"

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  "bicep"

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  "finger"

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  "hand"

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  "hand2"

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  "handplate"

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  "inner"

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  "joint"

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  "thumb"

Version 2.1: Physcannon and Bugbait

In the leaked model sources for Half-Life 2, these more detailed versions of the Red H.E.V hands can be found in the older iterations of the Physcannon and Bugbait models. What makes these stand apart from the previous iteration is how their forearms contain more mesh detail, such as a thin metal rod and a modelled indent where the primary red metal is.

Weapon Used On	Evidence	Hands Condition
Physcannon[16]	"Old" folder in model sources	Both arms have no upper arm, UVs and textures are broken
Bugbait	"Source" folder in model sources	Contains full versions of both arms with correct textures

Renders

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  Physcannon hands, with referenced texture.

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  Ditto, untextured.

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  Bugbait hands.

Version 2.2: AR1

The AR1's view model has a unique hand mesh that is different from other iterations. Despite not having any fitting textures (instead just using the AR1's "TEXTURE2" that the main gun uses), the mesh has UV maps and it's shape resembles the grey forearms seen in early promotional artwork of Gordon Freeman.

Renders

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  AR1 hands, with referenced texture.

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  Ditto, untextured.

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  Unmodified hand UVs once relocated to not intersect.

Version 3: Grey Forearm

Although no models of this era of arm is known to exist, it has a destinct resemblance to the final game's H.E.V arms, but with the notable difference of not having any color to the forearms. This could either be an oversight by the artist or influenced by a design of the H.E.V suit that briefly existed.

Version 4: Orange Arms

The final iteration of the H.E.V hands before development concluded. This iteration uses the modern "Valvebiped" rigging in the viewmodels where it is present (Compared to all previous iterations that use a HL1-style "Bip01" rig) and the arms make use of a single texture sheet, as opposed to all textures being seperated.

Version 4.1: Pre-Final

This version of the texture can be found in the "Source" folder of the V_Hand model. The texture is an earlier version of what is found in both the 2003 leak and final game. The most striking difference is the white leather present on the inner thumb and fingers.

Renders

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  Texture applied to retail hands mesh.

Textures

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  "v_hand_sheet"

Version 4.2: Final

The final hands seen in the 2003 leak and the final game. The white leather is replaced with a more fitting grey tone and more shading detail is added across the texture sheet. The final game's texture has a lower resolution than the previous iteration, being downscaled from 1024x1024 to 512x512 resolution.

Weapon Used On	Evidence	Hands Condition
357	Final MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	Both arms have no upper arm, right hand has no rigging
Bugbait	Leak and final MDLs, Reference SMD in model sources	Only contains right arm, part of mesh are removed for optimization
Crossbow	Final MDL, Reference SMD in model sources	Only contains left arm
Crowbar	Leak and final MDLs, Reference SMD in model sources	Only contains right arm, fingers are unrigged and mesh is baked into a pose
Grenade	Leak and final MDLs, Reference SMD in model sources	Left forearm cuts off half-way, part of right arm mesh are removed for optimization
Gravity Gun[17]	Leak and final MDLs, Reference SMD in model sources	Only contains left forearm, arm is unrigged
Irifle/Pulse Rifle	Leak and final MDLs, Reference SMDs in model sources	Only contains left forearm, arm is unrigged
Pistol	Leak and final MDLs, Reference SMD in model sources	Both arms have no upper arm, right hand's fingers have no rigging except thumb and index, part of right arm mesh are removed for optimization
RPG	Leak and final MDLs, Reference SMD in model sources	Only contains left forearm, arm is unrigged
Shotgun	Leak and final MDLs, Reference SMD in model sources	Only contains left forearm, part of mesh are removed for optimization
SLAM	HL2 Deathmatch MDL, Reference SMD in HL2DM model sources	Both arms have no upper arm
SMG1	Leak and final MDLs, Reference SMD in model sources	Right arm has no upperarm, right hand has no rigging, part of right arm mesh are removed for optimization
Stun Baton	HL2 Deathmatch MDL, Reference SMD in HL2DM model sources	Only contains right arm, fingers are unrigged and mesh is baked into a pose

Renders

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  Retail hands.

Textures

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  "v_hand_sheet"

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  "v_hand_sheet_normal"

Comparison

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  Hyper

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  Post-Hyper

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  Red

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  Red (Higher Poly)

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  New Forearms

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  Near-Final

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  Final