diff --git a/llm/server.go b/llm/server.go
index c83bd5a40..578360210 100644
--- a/llm/server.go
+++ b/llm/server.go
@@ -146,6 +146,16 @@ func NewLlamaServer(systemInfo ml.SystemInfo, gpus []ml.DeviceInfo, modelPath st
 	if envconfig.NewEngine() || f.KV().OllamaEngineRequired() {
 		if len(projectors) == 0 {
 			textProcessor, err = model.NewTextProcessor(modelPath)
+		} else if len(projectors) == 1 {
+			var canMerge bool
+			canMerge, err = model.CanMergeProjector(modelPath)
+			if err == nil {
+				if !canMerge {
+					err = errors.New("split vision models aren't supported")
+				} else {
+					textProcessor, err = model.NewTextProcessor(modelPath)
+				}
+			}
 		} else {
 			err = errors.New("split vision models aren't supported")
 		}
@@ -479,10 +489,10 @@ type LoadRequest struct {
 	GPULayers      ml.GPULayersList
 	MultiUserCache bool
 
-	// Legacy fields - not used with the Ollama engine
 	ProjectorPath string
-	MainGPU       int
-	UseMmap       bool
+	// Legacy fields - not used with the Ollama engine
+	MainGPU int
+	UseMmap bool
 }
 
 type LoadResponse struct {
diff --git a/model/model.go b/model/model.go
index 0af16da80..ff3fbf882 100644
--- a/model/model.go
+++ b/model/model.go
@@ -37,6 +37,9 @@ type Model interface {
 
 	Backend() ml.Backend
 	Config() config
+
+	PostPopulate()
+	IsOnlineProjectorMergingSupported() bool
 }
 
 // MultimodalProcessor must be implemented by multimodal models.
@@ -90,6 +93,16 @@ func (m *Base) Config() config {
 	return m.config
 }
 
+func (m *Base) PostPopulate() {
+	// stub. This method can be used for redirecting tensors that
+	// has renamed by convert_hf_to_gguf.py from llama.cpp
+	// or any other model-specific logic
+}
+
+func (m *Base) IsOnlineProjectorMergingSupported() bool {
+	return false
+}
+
 var models = make(map[string]func(fs.Config) (Model, error))
 
 // Register registers a model constructor for the given architecture
@@ -115,7 +128,8 @@ func New(modelPath string, params ml.BackendParams) (Model, error) {
 
 	base := Base{b: b, config: m.Config()}
 	v := reflect.ValueOf(m)
-	v.Elem().Set(populateFields(base, v.Elem()))
+	v.Elem().Set(PopulateFields(base, v.Elem()))
+	m.PostPopulate()
 	return m, nil
 }
 
@@ -143,6 +157,25 @@ func NewTextProcessor(s string) (TextProcessor, error) {
 	return tp, nil
 }
 
+func CanMergeProjector(s string) (bool, error) {
+	r, err := os.Open(s)
+	if err != nil {
+		return false, err
+	}
+	defer r.Close()
+
+	meta, err := fsggml.Decode(r, -1)
+	if err != nil {
+		return false, err
+	}
+
+	m, err := modelForArch(meta.KV())
+	if err != nil {
+		return false, err
+	}
+	return m.IsOnlineProjectorMergingSupported(), nil
+}
+
 func modelForArch(c fs.Config) (Model, error) {
 	arch := c.Architecture()
 	if pooling.Type(c.Uint("pooling_type")) != pooling.TypeNone {
@@ -157,7 +190,7 @@ func modelForArch(c fs.Config) (Model, error) {
 	return f(c)
 }
 
-func populateFields(base Base, v reflect.Value, tags ...Tag) reflect.Value {
+func PopulateFields(base Base, v reflect.Value, tags ...Tag) reflect.Value {
 	t := v.Type()
 
 	if t.Kind() == reflect.Struct {
@@ -172,7 +205,7 @@ func populateFields(base Base, v reflect.Value, tags ...Tag) reflect.Value {
 			// make a copy
 			tagsCopy := tags
 			if tag := t.Field(i).Tag.Get("gguf"); tag != "" {
-				tagsCopy = append(tagsCopy, parseTag(tag))
+				tagsCopy = append(tagsCopy, ParseTag(tag))
 			}
 
 			if tt == reflect.TypeOf((*Base)(nil)).Elem() {
@@ -194,13 +227,23 @@ func populateFields(base Base, v reflect.Value, tags ...Tag) reflect.Value {
 						} else if len(childNames) == 0 {
 							// current tag has names but no children, create branches for each name
 							for _, name := range names {
-								fullNames = append(fullNames, []string{name})
+								if name == "" {
+									// If an empty alternate empty name exists, do not add it into the list
+									// as Go will create double dots in the name
+									fullNames = append(fullNames, []string{})
+								} else {
+									fullNames = append(fullNames, []string{name})
+								}
 							}
 						} else {
 							// merge each name with each child
 							for _, name := range names {
 								for _, childName := range childNames {
-									fullNames = append(fullNames, append([]string{name}, childName...))
+									if name == "" {
+										fullNames = append(fullNames, childName)
+									} else {
+										fullNames = append(fullNames, append([]string{name}, childName...))
+									}
 								}
 							}
 						}
@@ -218,14 +261,14 @@ func populateFields(base Base, v reflect.Value, tags ...Tag) reflect.Value {
 					}
 				}
 			} else if tt.Kind() == reflect.Pointer || tt.Kind() == reflect.Interface {
-				setPointer(base, vv, tagsCopy)
+				SetPointer(base, vv, tagsCopy)
 			} else if tt.Kind() == reflect.Slice || tt.Kind() == reflect.Array {
 				for i := range vv.Len() {
 					vvv := vv.Index(i)
 					if vvv.Kind() == reflect.Pointer || vvv.Kind() == reflect.Interface {
-						setPointer(base, vvv, append(tagsCopy, Tag{name: strconv.Itoa(i)}))
+						SetPointer(base, vvv, append(tagsCopy, Tag{name: strconv.Itoa(i)}))
 					} else {
-						vvv.Set(populateFields(base, vvv, append(tagsCopy, Tag{name: strconv.Itoa(i)})...))
+						vvv.Set(PopulateFields(base, vvv, append(tagsCopy, Tag{name: strconv.Itoa(i)})...))
 					}
 				}
 			}
@@ -243,7 +286,7 @@ func populateFields(base Base, v reflect.Value, tags ...Tag) reflect.Value {
 	return v
 }
 
-func setPointer(base Base, v reflect.Value, tags []Tag) {
+func SetPointer(base Base, v reflect.Value, tags []Tag) {
 	vv := v
 	if v.Kind() == reflect.Interface {
 		if v.IsNil() {
@@ -258,7 +301,7 @@ func setPointer(base Base, v reflect.Value, tags []Tag) {
 		vv = reflect.New(v.Type().Elem()).Elem()
 	}
 
-	if f := populateFields(base, vv, tags...); f.CanAddr() {
+	if f := PopulateFields(base, vv, tags...); f.CanAddr() {
 		v.Set(f.Addr())
 	}
 }
@@ -271,7 +314,7 @@ type Tag struct {
 	alternatives []string
 }
 
-func parseTag(s string) (tag Tag) {
+func ParseTag(s string) (tag Tag) {
 	parts := strings.Split(s, ",")
 	if len(parts) > 0 {
 		tag.name = parts[0]
diff --git a/model/model_test.go b/model/model_test.go
index f6d75b230..71b45de58 100644
--- a/model/model_test.go
+++ b/model/model_test.go
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ func TestParseTags(t *testing.T) {
 
 	for _, tt := range cases {
 		t.Run(tt.value, func(t *testing.T) {
-			got := parseTag(tt.value)
+			got := ParseTag(tt.value)
 			if diff := cmp.Diff(tt.want, got, cmp.AllowUnexported((Tag{}))); diff != "" {
 				t.Errorf("ParseTags() returned unexpected values (-want +got):\n%s", diff)
 			}
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ func TestPopulateFields(t *testing.T) {
 
 	var m fakeModel
 	v := reflect.ValueOf(&m)
-	v.Elem().Set(populateFields(Base{b: &fakeBackend{
+	v.Elem().Set(PopulateFields(Base{b: &fakeBackend{
 		names: []string{
 			"input.weight",
 			"blk.0.attn_q.weight",
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ func TestPopulateFieldsAlternateName(t *testing.T) {
 
 	var m fakeModel
 	v := reflect.ValueOf(&m)
-	v.Elem().Set(populateFields(Base{b: &fakeBackend{
+	v.Elem().Set(PopulateFields(Base{b: &fakeBackend{
 		names: []string{
 			"input.weight",
 			"nested.b.weight",
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ func TestPopulateFieldsPrefixSuffixName(t *testing.T) {
 		Blocks: make([]fakeBlock, 2),
 	}
 	v := reflect.ValueOf(&m)
-	v.Elem().Set(populateFields(Base{b: &fakeBackend{
+	v.Elem().Set(PopulateFields(Base{b: &fakeBackend{
 		names: []string{
 			"blk.0.a.weight",
 			"blk.0.b_weight",
diff --git a/model/models/gemma3/model.go b/model/models/gemma3/model.go
index e595f1863..1ae76651f 100644
--- a/model/models/gemma3/model.go
+++ b/model/models/gemma3/model.go
@@ -164,6 +164,10 @@ func (m *Model) Forward(ctx ml.Context, batch input.Batch) (ml.Tensor, error) {
 	return hiddenState, nil
 }
 
+func (m *Model) IsOnlineProjectorMergingSupported() bool {
+	return true
+}
+
 func init() {
 	model.Register("gemma3", New)
 	model.Register("gemma3_embed", newEmbedModel)
diff --git a/model/models/gemma3/model_vision.go b/model/models/gemma3/model_vision.go
index 8b1a8eb00..8cb6ac6d4 100644
--- a/model/models/gemma3/model_vision.go
+++ b/model/models/gemma3/model_vision.go
@@ -76,9 +76,9 @@ type VisionModelOptions struct {
 }
 
 type VisionModel struct {
-	PatchEmbedding    *nn.Conv2D    `gguf:"patch_embedding"`
-	PositionEmbedding *nn.Embedding `gguf:"position_embedding"`
-	PostLayerNorm     *nn.LayerNorm `gguf:"post_layernorm"`
+	PatchEmbedding    *nn.Conv2D    `gguf:"patch_embedding,alt:patch_embd"`
+	PositionEmbedding *nn.Embedding `gguf:"position_embedding,alt:position_embd"`
+	PostLayerNorm     *nn.LayerNorm `gguf:"post_layernorm,alt:post_ln"`
 
 	Layers []VisionEncoderLayer `gguf:"blk"`
 
diff --git a/model/models/mistral3/model.go b/model/models/mistral3/model.go
index 8230dde39..f14186ef8 100644
--- a/model/models/mistral3/model.go
+++ b/model/models/mistral3/model.go
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ func New(c fs.Config) (model.Model, error) {
 }
 
 type PatchMerger struct {
-	MergingLayer *nn.Linear `gguf:"merging_layer"`
+	MergingLayer *nn.Linear `gguf:"merging_layer,alt:"`
 }
 
 func (pm *PatchMerger) Forward(ctx ml.Context, visionOutputs ml.Tensor, size image.Point, spatialMergeSize int) ml.Tensor {
@@ -72,9 +72,9 @@ func (pm *PatchMerger) Forward(ctx ml.Context, visionOutputs ml.Tensor, size ima
 }
 
 type MultiModalProjector struct {
-	Norm        *nn.RMSNorm  `gguf:"norm"`
-	Linear1     *nn.Linear   `gguf:"linear_1"`
-	Linear2     *nn.Linear   `gguf:"linear_2"`
+	Norm        *nn.RMSNorm  `gguf:"norm,alt:input_norm"`
+	Linear1     *nn.Linear   `gguf:"linear_1,alt:1"`
+	Linear2     *nn.Linear   `gguf:"linear_2,alt:2"`
 	PatchMerger *PatchMerger `gguf:"patch_merger"`
 
 	spatialMergeSize int
@@ -164,6 +164,10 @@ func (m *Model) Forward(ctx ml.Context, batch input.Batch) (ml.Tensor, error) {
 	return m.TextModel.Forward(ctx, batch.Inputs, positions, positionsScale, batch.Outputs, batch, m.Cache), nil
 }
 
+func (m *Model) IsOnlineProjectorMergingSupported() bool {
+	return true
+}
+
 func init() {
 	model.Register("mistral3", New)
 }
diff --git a/model/models/mistral3/model_vision.go b/model/models/mistral3/model_vision.go
index 1de0412d5..d4750fac1 100644
--- a/model/models/mistral3/model_vision.go
+++ b/model/models/mistral3/model_vision.go
@@ -87,8 +87,8 @@ type VisionModelOptions struct {
 }
 
 type VisionModel struct {
-	PatchEmbedding *nn.Conv2D           `gguf:"patch_conv"`
-	EncoderNorm    *nn.RMSNorm          `gguf:"encoder_norm"`
+	PatchEmbedding *nn.Conv2D           `gguf:"patch_conv,alt:patch_embd"`
+	EncoderNorm    *nn.RMSNorm          `gguf:"encoder_norm,alt:pre_ln"`
 	Layers         []VisionEncoderLayer `gguf:"blk"`
 
 	*VisionModelOptions
diff --git a/model/models/qwen25vl/model.go b/model/models/qwen25vl/model.go
index 81296a81b..c1bb8fe2b 100644
--- a/model/models/qwen25vl/model.go
+++ b/model/models/qwen25vl/model.go
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package qwen25vl
 import (
 	"bytes"
 	"image"
+	"reflect"
 	"slices"
 
 	"github.com/ollama/ollama/fs"
@@ -190,6 +191,28 @@ func (m *Model) Forward(ctx ml.Context, batch input.Batch) (ml.Tensor, error) {
 	return m.Output.Forward(ctx, hiddenStates), nil
 }
 
+func (m *Model) PostPopulate() {
+	if m.VisionModel.PatchMerger.MLP0.Weight == nil {
+		if tensor := m.Base.Backend().Get("mm.0.weight"); tensor != nil {
+			model.SetPointer(m.Base, reflect.ValueOf(m.VisionModel.PatchMerger.MLP0), []model.Tag{model.ParseTag("mm.0")})
+			model.SetPointer(m.Base, reflect.ValueOf(m.VisionModel.PatchMerger.MLP2), []model.Tag{model.ParseTag("mm.2")})
+			model.SetPointer(m.Base, reflect.ValueOf(m.VisionModel.PatchMerger.LNQ), []model.Tag{model.ParseTag("v.post_ln")})
+		}
+	}
+	if m.VisionModel.PatchEmbedding.PatchConv0.Weight == nil {
+		if tensor := m.Base.Backend().Get("v.patch_embd.weight"); tensor != nil {
+			m.VisionModel.PatchEmbedding.PatchConv0.Weight = tensor
+		}
+		if tensor := m.Base.Backend().Get("v.patch_embd.weight.1"); tensor != nil {
+			m.VisionModel.PatchEmbedding.PatchConv1.Weight = tensor
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func (m *Model) IsOnlineProjectorMergingSupported() bool {
+	return true
+}
+
 func init() {
 	model.Register("qwen25vl", New)
 }
diff --git a/model/models/qwen3vl/model.go b/model/models/qwen3vl/model.go
index cb1ce8d2c..db10bf85c 100644
--- a/model/models/qwen3vl/model.go
+++ b/model/models/qwen3vl/model.go
@@ -2,7 +2,9 @@ package qwen3vl
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
+	"fmt"
 	"image"
+	"reflect"
 	"slices"
 
 	"github.com/ollama/ollama/fs"
@@ -170,6 +172,27 @@ func (m *Model) Forward(ctx ml.Context, batch input.Batch) (ml.Tensor, error) {
 	return m.Output.Forward(ctx, hiddenStates), nil
 }
 
+func (m *Model) PostPopulate() {
+	if m.VisionModel.PatchMerger.FC1.Weight == nil {
+		if tensor := m.Base.Backend().Get("mm.0.weight"); tensor != nil {
+			model.SetPointer(m.Base, reflect.ValueOf(m.VisionModel.PatchMerger.FC1), []model.Tag{model.ParseTag("mm.0")})
+			model.SetPointer(m.Base, reflect.ValueOf(m.VisionModel.PatchMerger.FC2), []model.Tag{model.ParseTag("mm.2")})
+			model.SetPointer(m.Base, reflect.ValueOf(m.VisionModel.PatchMerger.Norm), []model.Tag{model.ParseTag("v.post_ln")})
+		}
+	}
+	for i, deepstacks := range m.VisionModel.DeepstackMerger {
+		if deepstacks.FC1.Weight == nil {
+			if tensor := m.Base.Backend().Get(fmt.Sprintf("v.deepstack.%d.weight", m.VisionModel.deepstackVisualIndexes[i])); tensor != nil {
+				model.SetPointer(m.Base, reflect.ValueOf(deepstacks), []model.Tag{model.ParseTag("v.deepstack.%d")})
+			}
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func (m *Model) IsOnlineProjectorMergingSupported() bool {
+	return true
+}
+
 func New(c fs.Config) (model.Model, error) {
 	m := Model{
 		TextProcessor: model.NewBytePairEncoding(
diff --git a/model/models/qwen3vl/model_vision.go b/model/models/qwen3vl/model_vision.go
index 761281edc..76004d551 100644
--- a/model/models/qwen3vl/model_vision.go
+++ b/model/models/qwen3vl/model_vision.go
@@ -94,8 +94,8 @@ func (o VisionOptions) headDim() int {
 
 type VisionPatchMerger struct {
 	Norm *nn.LayerNorm `gguf:"norm"`
-	FC1  *nn.Linear    `gguf:"linear_fc1"`
-	FC2  *nn.Linear    `gguf:"linear_fc2"`
+	FC1  *nn.Linear    `gguf:"linear_fc1,alt:fc.fc1"`
+	FC2  *nn.Linear    `gguf:"linear_fc2,alt:fc.fc2"`
 }
 
 func (m *VisionPatchMerger) Forward(ctx ml.Context, visionOutputs ml.Tensor, postshuffleNorm bool, opts VisionOptions) ml.Tensor {
@@ -241,6 +241,13 @@ func (m *VisionModel) Forward(ctx ml.Context, pixelValues ml.Tensor, grid *Grid)
 // newVisionModel creates a new instance of the Qwen vision model
 func newVisionModel(c fs.Config) *VisionModel {
 	deepstackVisualIndexes := c.Ints("vision.deepstack_visual_indexes")
+	if deepstackVisualIndexes == nil && c.Bools("vision.is_deepstack_layers") != nil {
+		for i, flag := range c.Bools("vision.is_deepstack_layers") {
+			if flag {
+				deepstackVisualIndexes = append(deepstackVisualIndexes, int32(i))
+			}
+		}
+	}
 	model := &VisionModel{
 		Layers:          make([]VisionEncoderLayer, c.Uint("vision.block_count", 32)),
 		DeepstackMerger: make([]*VisionPatchMerger, len(deepstackVisualIndexes)),
diff --git a/runner/ollamarunner/runner.go b/runner/ollamarunner/runner.go
index a756cba23..a7e24302f 100644
--- a/runner/ollamarunner/runner.go
+++ b/runner/ollamarunner/runner.go
@@ -1171,6 +1171,7 @@ func (s *Server) allocModel(
 	mpath string,
 	params ml.BackendParams,
 	loraPath []string,
+	projectorPath string,
 	parallel int,
 	kvCacheType string,
 	kvSize int,
@@ -1302,7 +1303,7 @@ func (s *Server) load(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 
 		s.batchSize = req.BatchSize
 
-		err := s.allocModel(s.modelPath, params, req.LoraPath, req.Parallel, req.KvCacheType, req.KvSize, req.MultiUserCache)
+		err := s.allocModel(s.modelPath, params, req.LoraPath, req.ProjectorPath, req.Parallel, req.KvCacheType, req.KvSize, req.MultiUserCache)
 		if err != nil {
 			s.closeModel()