Weapon Swaps

Weapon Swaps

This guide covers swapping weapon models — both the viewmodel (first person) and worldmodel (third person) are swapped in one operation.

For cosmetic swaps see Cosmetic Swaps.

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How weapon swaps work

TF2 weapons have two separate model files:

Model type	What it is	Path in VPK
Viewmodel	What you see in first person	models/weapons/c_models/
Worldmodel	What other players see	models/weapons/w_models/

Both are swapped in a single operation. Melee weapons typically have no worldmodel — this is expected, not an error.

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Step by step — interactive mode

Select option 2 from the main menu.

Step 1 — Class

Choose which class the weapon belongs to, or select "all (no filter)" to search all classes.

Step 2 — Loadout slot

Choose the slot to filter by (primary, secondary, melee, etc.), or select "all (no filter)".

Step 3 — Weapon to replace

Search for the weapon you want to replace. This is the slot that will show the new model.

Step 4 — Replacement source

Search for the weapon to use as the replacement.

Step 5 — Confirm and output

Review the swap. Warnings are shown here if there is a potential issue.

Warning type	What it means
Slot mismatch	Source and target are different loadout slots — may cause animation issues
No worldmodel	Viewmodel only — expected for melee, noted for other weapons

You can still proceed past any warning. The choice is yours.

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Command line examples

Basic weapon swap:

python3 tf2autoswap.py scattergun pistol --weapon

Preview without building:

python3 tf2autoswap.py scattergun pistol --weapon --dry-run

Search for weapons without building:

python3 tf2autoswap.py scattergun --list --weapon

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Notes

• Melee weapons typically do not have separate worldmodels — viewmodel only is expected behaviour, not an error
• Only one replacement per weapon slot can be active at a time
• Re-run the preloader install after any TF2 update
• Changes are client-side only — other players see the original weapon