Sometimes you find a good survivor model on the workshop but feel like one part of the outfit could be removed to make it a whole lot better. This guide will show you how to do that without having to recompile or do anything with the 3D model itself.

This is very dependant on what the original model is. Not every model will have all the stuff attached to it be in separate textures. But if it's something like a custom survivor outfit then likely it'll be separate and you can do this.

For this guide I will be trying to remove the scarf from Winter Season Rochelle.

You only need the Left 4 Dead 2 Authoring Tools for this.
You can find them in the tools section of your library.

The first step is getting the files themselves.

You first want to subscribe to whatever the mod is then open L4D2 and wait for your addons to load. Then you can simply quit the game.

Next find the workshop page for whatever it is you plan to do this to and then look for the long string of numbers at the end of the page link.


You want to then navigate to your L4D2 main directory by right clicking on it in your Steam library then going to "Manage" then "Browse Local Files".



Then go to left4dead2/addons/workshop


Now you want to look for whatever the string of numbers was in the folder. The file extension should be ".vpk"
Once you've found it you want to open a new window to your L4D2 main directory and simply navigate to the "bin" folder. If you have the L4D2 Authoring Tools installed, you should find "vpk.exe" in that folder.
Now drag over that string of numbers vpk over vpk.exe. If you did it right a new folder should be made in the workshop folder with the same name as the string of numbers as the original vpk.
Move that folder in the base "addons" folder instead of the "workshop" folder.

(Also make sure you unsubscribe from whatever the mod is on the workshop itself)

This is the part that will be somewhat different depending on what the mod is.
In the new folder that you dragged into your addons folder, you want to open it and navigate the materials folder and subfolder.
You'll have to use some common sense to find the texture for the thing you're looking for, but usually they're named after what they are meant to be.

In my case I'm looking for something scarf related.

Assuming you've found the textures for what you want, open the ".vmt" files for whatever it is in a text editor. It doesn't matter which one you use.
Inside these vmt files will be a bunch of text. Simply delete all of it and replace it with:

Now simply save the file

If the addon has an "addoninfo.txt" file in it, this step can be skipped.

Simply drag the folder you edited into vpk.exe like before but now this time it will be packed into a vpk file.

If you did it right, whatever the piece of clothing was should now be no longer visible in game.