Contribute to Team Fortress 2, Make Your Own Models

Valve is known for being the developer that still sides with the PC every time it gets the chance. The modding community is Valve's best friend, and it's a mutual and heart-warming relationship. To further demonstrate its love, Valve has prepared another gift for PC gamers, and it's once again brought to us through Team Fortress 2, which seems to be the teacher's pet. After the entire War update, and then crafting, followed by beta bots, TF2 will soon support a brand-new feature.

“Think you're good at making TF2 items and avatars? Better even than the people who design the game? Here's the thing: you're probably right. And believe us, this knowledge haunts us every day,” Valve posted on the official TF2 blog. To break things down, modders will now be able to submit their own designs for weapons, items and hats to Valve, and, as soon as they pass certification, they will be added to your backpack. But the coolest thing is that, if they do get approved, they'll also be added to general loot, so anyone out there could end up wearing an item you designed.

Balance won't be much of an issue, since there won't be any actually new weapons implemented in the game, just their models. The site also offers a few hints to help your items pass certification, as well as some of the needed requirements. Items should match the general theme and design style of TF2, as well as the same proportions. Hats should maintain the team colors, or, if not, at least they should have neutral colors, and, since character textures are simplified in regards to everything else in the game, hats should match the same style.

As for the technical details, you can view them below, or visit the official page here and do the entire research by yourself. On that note, get your thinking cap on and start modeling.

Requirements Item model formats: .QL, .OBJ, .DMX, .SMD or .MT; Materials formats: .VMT+, .TXT, and .TGA/.PSD; TF2 Official Group Avatar format: 184x184 pixels, .JPG.

Keep the polycount similar to what's already in the game. Try to keep hats under 800 polygons, and weapons under 8,000. Texture sizes should not be larger than 512x512. For hats, 256x256 is usually large enough.