Black Mesa Update News

[Narvi]

Yes, they use self illuminating textures.

That's awesome. Any dark levels for us to fight them in?

 

[Dodo]

Looking good !! I just wonder why in a high tech lab the lamps still are linked together with a single wire going from lamp to lamp, it doesnt matter anyway... it still looks amazing !!

-dodo

 

[Tagaziel]

It's gonna rock.

As for the lamps... don't forget it's a decomissioned ICBM base first and a research facility second.

 

[poullos]

Awesome job, guys! Keep up the good work!

Any estimated release time?

 

[A.I.]

I'm gonna cry and bounce around :bounce: :bounce:

But the scientist texturing needs a little more polishing I guess. He could look a bit more reaistic. But that's maybe just me.

 

[Loke]

Fantastic shit.

 

[Apostle11]

Simply, wow.

 

[G-Dub]

Absolutely bloody gorgeous!

I creamed myself D:

 

[dogboy73]

Woot woot!!

 

[eraser]

This team has completely outdone themselves.

 

[Kadayi]

Looking good ;D

 

[jheaddon]

Thank you for the comments again, we will try to take all of them away so as to improve our work

 

[Evo]

Damn, knew going to bed was a bad idea!

Top work Kester et al, catch you on your forums later

 

[Asknoone]

It does look pretty good. I still can't stand the new Inbound - looks more like an air terminal than Black Mesa. One of my other criticisms would be Blast Pit, in that it looks as though you've gone with the 'abandoned silo' approach. I suppose Blast Pit always had that feel in a way, but either way it looks a little overdone here. Other than that, doesn't look shabby at all.

Shame you won't be throwing out some of the shitty chapters that popped up in various parts of Half-life.
Still, I'd imagine you’re going to alter/adapt the gameplay...I don't see the point in remaking Half-life in Source if you don't.

 

[atakgrbl]

Blasphemous - burn that man with a cigarette!

Thank you for the coop.

 

[Murray]

Wow, and stuff. (Bet you never saw that comming)

 

[jonesey2k]

Please can we have a demo????????:cheese:
The music samples are neat too. Liked track 7.

 

[Asuka]

This looks amazing. Seriously wtf.

 

[kupocake]

As I can't register on gamenode due to the image verification failing to load, despite whatever browser I use, I'll post my critique here:

---

Residue Processing: I don't envy whoever drew the short straw for this dull as dishwater level This outside area looks very nice so far. Brilliant textures and architecture. Just needs a smoother transition from the sand to the rocks (in places this seems to have been achieved already). The water in the pools should be placeholder. It doesn't look in the least bit right. Its presence in the original didn't strictly make sense anyway (surely is should have evapourated? the rocks around it are completely parched), but as it's there is should surely be fully of crappy overflow from the compactor, or the mud it is over. Consider putting some smaller pieces of debris in the area to keep things interesting: wrappers, small containers that have overflowed from the compactor and been washed about in this area. Try and give the area a little more life. Consider some kind of scripted sequence (planes fly ahead? birds circling around.) and a few other splashing of character (dead scientists, remains of murdered scientists. graffiti or cigarette packets / beers that suggest that employees took breaks out here.)

We've Got Hostiles: The G-Man in wgh_4.jpg isn't quite as good as his placement in the original. I appreciate the screenshot is taken a lot closer than the player in the comparrison, but that walkway isn't high enough. It would be very hard NOT to see him here, whereas people actually miss him in HL1.

Lambda Core: The Lambda labs look far too clean to me. I appreciate there is a good case for making them clean, that is that they're the newest labs in Black Mesa and thus very prettiful, but the lower corridors look like so nice I'd be expecting to find the painters still completing the job. I think even if Lambda had been open a year, it'd look dirtier than that. Also, are those bridges glass bottomed, untextured or is the player just too far away to see? If the later two, they obviously need fixing so you see they aren't broken. If the former, I don't think that's realistic. They would be very dangerous: vertigo inducing, and liable to break: and if broken how would employees know before they blunder into the water below? Also, they wouldn't be anything like that transparent, with dirty shoes on them constantly. Finally, the nuclear barrels in 1 or 2 shots don't look like nuclear barrels with the reinforcing on the outside, I think it looks like they're flimsy and not suitable for containing harmful waste.

HEV Hands: I assume these are placeholders. Need Three dimensions

Glock: The render looks nice enough, but it looks absolutely massive and completely bland in the FPS screenshot. The aim is totally off too, and the hand seems to be holding it wrong.

MP5: Don't really like the HL2 MP7's sight on top of it. I think it's important to not put such additions onto a weapon which is primarily in the game to serve those nostalgic for the early versions of HL.

Crossbow: Overall I like it, but that dial on the side is unnecessarily flat. Consider changing the colour of the grip, would give a little visual variation.

Ceiling Turret: A little too clean? Whilst internally you wouldn't expect too much wear and tear (would be surprising if they been used) could use a little dirt on those bits exposed to air.

Vehicles: Inappropriate camo? I know the HECU is famed for it, but these stand out a little too much? Also need to show dirt appropriate to the region, or regions they have been previously used because they look a little too like they've been pulled off the factory line and straight into combat.

Crates: The wooden borders on the smaller boxes seem rather too thick to me... yet that's more of a hangover from my impression of the HL1 boxes. As stupid as this sounds, there isn't anything "interesting" about these boxes. HL2 uses many different shapes for such packages and I think that works well. The crates also seem to stand out far more in screenshots than they do in HL2 where they seem to blend in... difficult to explain, perhaps a matter of level lighting rather than modelling (I think they're most prominent in Lambda Core).

Gargantua: I haven't quite fallen in love with him yet. The model seems to be good with a few issues... He doesn't seem hunched enough and his mouth isn't far enough down. It lacks the sense of his head kind of curling round on itself. I'm also concerned that you've given him two eyes when he only has one. The texture looks off to me. Looks like he is made of Stone, reminds me of an Unreal Titan rather than a Half-Life Garg! It loses a lot of its mechanic overtones, no wires running down the length of its arms, they've been replaced by more of the stone armour. Perhaps the texture was trying to be more synth like: I don't honestly believe this has been achieved. I think the blue needs to be greener. It's more stone than technical-cermaic... and then the lightmap kind of makes it all look like leather.

Consider whatever I didn't critique as very positive feedback

 

[DjBourgeoisie]

Looks pretty good, but I find the lack of any gameplay media kind of disappointing. I pretty much have said before the hard part is going to be recreating the halflife feeling in gameplay with all the scripting that is needed. No matter how many map screenshots or model shots they show I am still not convinced. But what they have shown looks good, I just wish they would show some gameplay footage.

 

[xirow]

Black Mesa looks amazing. Great work!

But I don’t like the colors on some of the screenshots. On some screenshots the colors are to gray. This might make the levels look more realistic, but I miss the Half-Life feel. Half-Life had a lot of brighter colors, which (I believe) where pretty important for the atmosphere.

Personally I would like to see (more) green crates, black/yellow dashed lines and red ladders and railings.

 

[tehsolace]

criticism 1: I agree with xirow: more yellow caution lines and red ladders in the appropriate 'gray levels'. And I'm not totally sure about the details on how the guys at BMS decided to do it, but breakable crates should look unique (just like the ones in HL with the green tops).

criticism 2: The only screenshot that didn't look absolutely amazing (and actually looked bad) was the one with the glock. The model just doesn't look good in game. I suggest trying for something like in CS:S, like someone suggested earlier. Its a better reference than trying to go for HL1's glock.

praise: I've never seen anything done so well in the source engine... even by Valve's standards. I am anticipating this mod more than the new HL2 episodes, honestly. I would definately pay to play this game. I suggest putting a price tag on it, and releasing a demo. And get it released on source.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

They can't put a price tag on it, and they can't release it on Steam (I assume you meant Steam, and not Source)

 

[Asknoone]

I'll never understand wanting to pay for something you've already got? Perhaps I'm being narrow-minded, but I'd never pay for a remake because ultimately, it’s never going to be better than the original in the first place. Of course, I’m sure they’ll enhance the gameplay, because various quantities of Half-life blew chunks.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

I wouldn't care, it looks so truly wonderful it's fully deserving of it's own podium and excessive praise. Good to see everyone is checking out the rest of the media, the pictures in this thread are only a tiny amount of the wonder.

Also, thanks to the BM team for putting up with me in your IRC channel last night, waiting for the update

 

[Kester^]

As Hectic says, there are plenty more shots on our website. There are 87 shots on their of which I'm told over 60 are brand new shots.

 

[Geronimous]

I am in agonising pain right now, because the website is being swamped and everything is timing out

any mirrors out there?

 

[PogoP]

I love the detailed shadows, they look almost as detailed as the model shadows do. However, they must send the bsp map sizes through the roof.

 

[Insano]

The HL2 content still hurts my eyes

Looking great for the rest.

 

[Dodo]

I wonder how they made that metal grill texture cast a grill shadow onto the stacked pipes and wall... because theres no such thing as raytrace rendering in the source engine. : o

-dodo

edit:

I love the detailed shadows, they look almost as detailed as the model shadows do. However, they must send the bsp map sizes through the roof.

ek-f**king-zactly.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

You could use a decal.

Or, if the metal grill is a model, you can have a complex shadow mesh.

 

[Evo]

As Hectic says, there are plenty more shots on our website. There are 87 shots on their of which I'm told over 60 are brand new shots.

And we get more in December eh

We hope to never again have a period of time where media and updates are scarce. And to prove it to you, we've got "Stage 2" of the current media release coming up before the end of December. Keep your eyes open for that!

:afro:

 

[Dodo]

You could use a decal.

Or, if the metal grill is a model, you can have a complex shadow mesh.

I started wrighting how impossible it was that they used model to create the shadow effect, ... but then i realised that it would actually work and not be that "expensive" on the engine (the renderd lightmap for that map must have been BIG.) mucho respect to the one that thought of doing that with the shadow. :imu:

-dodo

 

[Kester^]

It's done using the blocklight texture.

 

[Dodo]

It's done using the blocklight texture.

That makes the brush invisible and makes it block light. For just the grill effect for one of those metal plates you would have to make 46 stripes of that texture on brushes in hammer just to get the grill. Hammer wouldnt like it. making it a model would be much better in all ways, and no... polycount wouldnt matter.

-dodo

 

[Crispy]

Narvi, you'll be able to use whichever you choose. WE will have a cvar to choose between the two. So it's all down to preference.

Oh and I love how HL2.net are using one of my old We've Got Hostile shots =/

Yeah, I was about to say, that's not new!

As for the glock, it's probably the lighting in that screenshot and also the skin that make it not look so good. If the skin reflected a bit more light (was more shiny) it might look a bit more metallic.

I can't say I found fault with anything I saw.

 

[ríomhaire]

I for one would be wholy shocked if Valve hired the 20-30 man BM team and endorse BM enough to release it for cash. In fact, the only puplic info on any contact between the BM team and Valve has been distancing. The thing they have said to the team (that we know of) is "Take the word Source out of your name".


Edit:
Zombie is quite nice, a bit more HL1 style than HL2 and for some reason it reminds me of Doom. Just a few things about it:

• The sleeves lool too perfectly ripped, both at almost the exact same place and ripped in a fairly neat circle around the sleeve. Although this looks OK on 1 zombie it would seem very odd seeing the sleeves of a group of zombies ripped the exact same way (unless they're using multiple models)
• The headcrab seems to be on top of the vitim's head rather than resting on his shoulders like in HL1 and 2.
• Why is his lab coat blue?
• And his pants a shade of greenish-brown?
• The perfectly clean nametag sticks out like a sore thumb.

 

[2Fast4U]

Explosion effects looks awsome.

 

[Oppressor]

When I first play Black Mesa Source I really hope it will be the best day in my life, honestly

 

[SpotEnemyBoats]

I really can't wait for this mod, looks so incredibly awesome.
Anywhom, I would love to put that BM:S theme song on my mp3 cd along with all my other half-life music, rock, etc.