The SkinView mod supports VWEP, showing the weapon models.  It works,
out of the box, for regular Quake 2.

* VWEP for mods - introduction

It is also possible to add VWEP for a mod.  We have done so for Action
Quake 2.  For a description, look in the AcrionQuakeVWEP.zip file. It
contains everything you must install to make it work for Action Quake
2 and a readme file with detailed descriptions.

In short - (1) you have to add the VWEP models to the baseq2/players/*
folders and (2) you have to add the skins the weapon models use in the
SkinView/models folder and (3) you have to write a cfg file setting up
the VWEP models.  Please take a look at the Action Quake 2 example,
and also further down for some hints.

* Behind the scenes

First - the SkinView mod *only* changes the VWEP you see.  Everything
else is identical to regular Quake 2.  So, you will e.g. see a blaster
in your own hand when the Model Viewer entities holds e.g. knives.

Second - not all folders in Quake 2 are made equal.  In the case of
mods, it is important to understand that you cannot see the
baseq2/players folder if you have a players folder in the mod,
e.g. SkinView.  So ... you have to choose.  Either you copy everything
you will be able to see to the SkinView/players folder or to the
baseq2/players folder.  Your choice ... for the Action Quake 2 mod our
choice was to put them in baseq2/players.

Third - when you start a new map, configuration strings are sent to
all clients from the server.  The names of the VWEP model files are
sent there.  The VWEP mod support in SkinView relies on sending a
modified configuration string.  You can modify the string to send with
server commands.

Fourth - you may or you may not be able to use your own maps.  Action
Quake 2 uses Quake 2 compatible maps, so there it works. 

* Hints how to add weapons for you own mod

I all depends on how near you have followed ID's intentions how to use
implement VWEP.  If you have added .md2 models in the players/foo
folders, you will probably succeed.  If you have placed the skins for
those in the models folder (or in a models folder in a .pak file) it
is a sure bet it will work.  So ... what do you have to do?

(1) Copy your .md2 weapon models, and possibly also player skins and
models, to the baseq2/players folder.  E.g., if you have a player
model called funky, copy yourmod/players/funky to
baseq2/players/funky.  You can also put them in
SkinView/players/funky, but ... then you will lose access to all
players in baseq2/players when running SkinView.  Then SkinView will
be useless for regular Quake 2, but ... that MIGHT be what you want -
a yourmod only SkinView.

(2) Extract all skins that your weapons models use, using some pak
extractor, and put them in the SkinView folder.  You must preserve the
paths - please look at the Action Quake 2 example zip file and you
will understand.  You can also put them in the baseq2 folder, but why
clutter your already crowded baseq2 folder?  You can also put them in
a pak file, in the baseq2 or SkinView folders ... your choice.

(3) Copy the config file from the Action Quake 2 zip file and edit it
for your liking.  If you have more than 11 weapons, you need more than
one configuration - SkinView only supports 11 weapons at a time - with
the same commands as the 11 regular Quake 2 weapons, e.g., "use
blaster".

(4) Test the port with regular Quake 2 files first.  There might
be some problems if you have special functions in your own files.
Then you can test with your own maps.

(5) When everything works and you have made a zip file, like the one
for Action Quake 2, please send it to us.  We really like to keep a
copy of all sucsessful ports of VWEP to Quake 2 mods.


Erik and Roland Karlsson (roland@cslab.ericsson.se)
