--- title: "Half-Life 2: Episode Two support" description: "How far Evil Engine's passthrough modding support for Half-Life 2: Episode Two gets today. Mounts from your Half-Life 2 install, over Episode One and Half-Life 2's content it builds on. Nothing converts or shows on screen yet." url: "https://evil-engine.com/games/ep2" modified: "2026-11-01T19:00:00.000Z" site: "Evil Engine" about: "Evil Engine, the passthrough modding engine" --- [← All games](https://evil-engine.com/games) Mounts Source # Half-Life 2: Episode Two Mounts from your Half-Life 2 install, over Episode One and Half-Life 2's content it builds on. Nothing converts or shows on screen yet. - **Ticket**: #005 - **Checked on**: Steam, Linux - **Last checked**: November 1, 2026 - **Files**: 45,669 - **Mount**: `ep2/pc/9912070` ## Mounting 4 of 4 done - Done **Finds your copy** Picks up the install on its own, from Steam or wherever it lives. - Done **Reads every file** Every file reads straight from your copy, in the order the game itself looks them up. - Done **Matches players' copies** Your copy is fingerprinted from its own files, so a server can check everyone's match without sending any game content. - Done **Brings its mods** Folders and VPKs in all three custom/ folders it searches. Checked on test installs, since the checked copy had none. ## Converting 0 of 4 done - To do **Models** Source's model converter works for Garry's Mod. It isn't hooked up to Episode Two yet. - To do **Textures and materials** Waits on Half-Life 2's own shader table. - To do **Maps** Its maps are the same kind Garry's Mod's map converter already reads. - To do **Sounds** Its sounds turn into Evil Engine sounds. ## In game 0 of 3 done - To do **Shows on screen** Converted content actually draws in Evil Engine. - To do **In the spawn menu** Its props and models land in your spawn menu, no Plugin needed. - To do **Maps you can visit** Pick one of its maps from the menu and fly around inside it. ## Where it stands Episode Two lives in its own `ep2` folder inside the Half-Life 2 install, and comes from the same pointer as Half-Life 2\. It reads in the order its own `gameinfo.txt` lists, Episode Two over Episode One over Half-Life 2: their seven archives, then their loose files, a little over 45,000 files in 12 to 20 ms. That order matches the search paths the game itself prints when it runs. Your copy is fingerprinted as three parts, `ep2`, `episodic` and `hl2`, the last two the very same parts Episode One and Half-Life 2 have. Steam installs the episode’s files through Half-Life 2’s own app, and every file in all three parts matched Steam’s checksums for them. ## Known issues - `gameinfo.txt` names voice archives that Steam doesn’t install. They’re noted on the mount and skipped. - One sound in Half-Life 2’s English voice archive fails its own checksum. Garry’s Mod’s copy of the same archive does too, so it’s read as Steam ships it. ## Next up - Hooking Source’s converters up to Episode Two, with a shader table from Half-Life 2’s own shaders. - Garry’s Mod mounting the episode’s content from this mount, as part of Half-Life 2’s. ## About Evil Engine Evil Engine is a **passthrough modding** engine by Pushbar Interactive. Modding through the games you already own instead of around them: the content comes from each player's own copy and is never extracted, ported or redistributed. The term took off in September 2026 with mods that run two games at once and wire them together by hand, one pair at a time. Evil Engine comes from that lineage and makes the process repeatable: it learns each engine once, maps each game onto shared vocabularies once, and gives mods one API, so every mounted game works with every other. More: https://evil-engine.com/passthrough-modding - Every page, for agents: https://evil-engine.com/llms.txt - Wishlist on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3731310/Evil_Engine