Game model file formats

Models stored in the exact form a game engine loads, built for fast reading rather than editing. Many hold their animation as a series of whole frames.

Formats

.MD2

Quake II model

id Software’s Quake II model: whole-frame animation with byte-packed vertices.

.MD3

Quake III Arena model

id Software’s model format, animated frame by frame and joined at named tags.

.MD5MESH

Doom 3 model

id Software’s skeletal text model for Doom 3, with separate animation files.

.MDL

Quake model (IDPO)

Quake’s animated model: palette skins inside the file and whole-frame animation.

.MDL

Studio model (IDST)

Valve’s skeletal model for Half-Life and Source: bones, sequences and hit boxes.

.SMD

Valve StudioMDL Data

Valve’s text source for models and animations, compiled into studio models.

.UASSET

Unreal Engine asset package

An Unreal Engine package holding one asset, such as a mesh, texture or animation.