Black Mesa: Source media update

[ríomhaire]

http://www.blackmesasource.com

Once again, another media release has rolled around. This media release sparks a new style of updates that we will releasing hench forth: comparison shots. While feasting on the new, Source powered worlds, you will also see what the original location looked like in the top, right hand corner of the shot. Using this method, we intend to give the players not only a sense of the improvements we are making, but also how much we are keeping the game intact and true to the original.

This time we have some level shots for you from our level designers Jackar, Zyndrome, and Mendasp who have toiled endless (and are STILL toiling endlessly) on their assignments: Office Complex (SP), Bounce (MP), and Power Up (SP), respectfully.

We have also been featured in two gaming magazines: GameStar, Germany and Atomic Magazine, Australia. Both of these articles can be found on our media page under 'Press'. We would graciously like to thank Synchro & NemesisZero for the translation of the Germany article. I have also heard rumors that Black Mesa: Source has been featured/mentioned in other magazines across the globe. If you know of any, please get in touch with me so we can arrange some kind of mentioning of which issue/magazine we are in.

I continue down this list of items that we have to announce during this update and say we would like to send out a congratulations to supercanadaboy who has produced a very nice and catchy desktop background, thus winning the 'Design A Desktop' Community Project which was started in April and ran for a month. We would like to thank everyone who participated in the event and submitted work for the crucial vote at the end. His work will be featured on our media page. We will also be announcing the accepted entries from the 'Skin a Pop-can' Community Project shortly and we hope you will all take part in any more projects we conjure up in the near future. From there, we hope you enjoy our work and hope to see comments on them: good or bad. It's excellent to see good comments, and rewarding to see bad ones.

As an overall update, the modification is progressing well in areas excluding model skinning. We are also progressively seeking texture artists and model skinners. If you can and have free-time to work on a Half-Life 2 project, please contact us. For more information, please see the 'JOBS' page on this website.

Media Shots
Office Complex :: Office Complex 1, Office Complex 2, Office Complex 3
Power Up :: Power Up 1, Power Up 2, Power Up 3
Bounce :: Bounce 1, Bounce 2, Bounce 3

GameStar Germany Article
Atomic Magazine Article

The ingenious gameplay, the for those times overwhelming graphics and the thrilling story wooed fans and critics alike. Today, a rough six and a half years later, Half-Life is still a milestone of PC history. Valve Software even ported the classic to its new engine, but the graphics were left untouched. Many younger gamers therefore did not play the first installment of the Half-Life series. Numerous aspects of the story and a big part of Half-Life 2's thrill are therefore left lost to many of its fans. This is also known to the developers of the "LeakFree Source Engine Development Community", who update Half-Life with more timely graphics.

Return of the Classic
This is the motto the team labors under to completely re-tool the first chapter of Gordon Freeman's story. While there will of course be no changes to the actual content, the graphics will receive a facelift to suit today's Source engine in every way possible. The polycount of all monsters, characters, weapons and items is going to be multiplied and fitted to the level of quality of Half-Life 2. New hi-res textures are already in development. In the case of characters, weapons, or items appearing in Half-Life, the team's obviously going to go with the official models, new characters or weapons that did not appear in Half-Life will however not be introduced. The team has conciously decided against new elements in Black Mesa: Source: better weapons and driveable vehicles might increase the enjoyment in the short term, but would destroy the classical atmosphere in the long run.

Result
The developers have given themselves an ambitious aim and try to reach it with great euphorism. The remake of one of the most successful games of all time is a big and daunting task. What was shown so far is however impressive and make a success appear possible. The developers can however not name a release date due to the project's scope. One, maybe two years may pass. One will merely need Half-Life 2 to play Black Mesa: Source - a purchase of Half-Life: Source won't be necessary. Who wants to show his love for HL and can spare some time can apply at the official site. Maybe you can speed the process so that we can enjoy Half-Life anew within the year.

 

[i z 3 r]

Your disgusting

Translation

uhuhuuuh OMFG you rock! That looks sweet man! Thanks for the update news!

and just a weird question... Are you making these maps from scratch?

 

[ríomhaire]

I'm not part of the team, just a drooling fan.

 

[Asuka]

Damn, these guys are doing a great job remaking hl.

 

[Ennui]

I hope they actually finish :O

 

[Th30N3Cr0wbar]

I hope they actually finish :O

look how far they are!
i doubt that they would cancel when they're this far into the development process

 

[ríomhaire]

It's only 10-15% but they just got 2 new team members.

 

[D.E.A.D | Bambi]

i guess this will become a eye candy ...but where is the thrill in playing the same stuff again?

and sorry....but copiyng old stuff isnt that hard.

 

[Mith']

and sorry....but copiyng old stuff isnt that hard.

There are 3500+ textures, the snark, snark nest, houndeyes, bullsquids, remastered vortigaunts, agrunt, marine (3-4 varieties), the bradley, another tank, osprey, apache, controllers, tentacles, garg, remastered headcrabs, scientists, shotgun, gauss, egon, mp5/m4, grenade, tripmine, turrets, props, remastered crowbar (not much to do), hud, sprites, multiplayer levels, single player levels, coding, animations, ai programming, hornet gun, rpg, crossbow, glock, zombies... etc.

Almost everything from scratch..
It's a lot! And when "copying" you have to make sure it's true to the original, with all the Hl1 fans out there you can be sure they will spot any mistakes..

 

[D.E.A.D | Bambi]

Yea i know that its a shitload full off stuff that you guys have to re do....but what i mean is why you dont come up with your own storrys and map layouts? ....maybe something that happend at the same time but somewhere else ...like oposing force was.
Btw ....opforce was much better than the original hl.^^

And i also wonderd couse valve allready got hl1 source ....ok it looks crappy but what motivated you to redo this whole thing again?

Or will you modify the story?

Greetz Bambi

 

[ríomhaire]

Yea i know that its a shitload full off stuff that you guys have to re do....but what i mean is why you dont come up with your own storrys and map layouts? ....maybe something that happend at the same time but somewhere else ...like oposing force was.
Btw ....opforce was much better than the original hl.^^

And i also wonderd couse valve allready got hl1 source ....ok it looks crappy but what motivated you to redo this whole thing again?

Or will you modify the story?

Greetz Bambi

Opposing Source (On the same forum) is re-doing Opposing Force.
I would be replaying HL1 now if I had the CD. HL source is crap with no new features and not worth any money, but this is gonna have improved AI, better use of physics and will make the layout of BM alot more realistic. I would pay for BM:S, but it's free *wets pants*

 

[G-Dub]

Opposing Source (On the same forum) is re-doing Opposing Force.
I would be replaying HL1 now if I had the CD. HL source is crap with no new features and not worth any money, but this is gonna have improved AI, better use of physics and will make the layout of BM alot more realistic. I would pay for BM:S, but it's free *wets pants*

/me proceeds to wet pants... gush away!

EDIT: oooo, the /me command has gone again?!

 

[Ennui]

look how far they are!
i doubt that they would cancel when they're this far into the development process

they've gotten quite a bit accomplished but they've still got a huge mountain of work left, they're not looking at release for at least a year or two.

 

[Kalashnikov]

i guess this will become a eye candy ...but where is the thrill in playing the same stuff again?

and sorry....but copiyng old stuff isnt that hard.

We use the original's as reference, research design themes and styles of the 1960's as well as the early 90's. We have done conceptualization, extensive planning, heavy tweaking and much more. The workload ahead of us is very large, yes: but many chapters are receiving much larger overhauls then meets the eye to you in the media we have shown. Some chapters are being left "as was" while others are receiving a full overhaul.

Chapters are designed upon the level designer's taste and the team's reactions to the work. There was a large amount of time invested into Power-Up to have the map look smooth and authenticate to the time it was constructed in. While props, enemies and more will be added you need to remember that you are going to fight the Garg in that very main room. When designing levels we need to take into account enemy placement, props that would give depth to the environment, as well as what is to take place there.

 

[jheaddon]

What Kal said

Keep tuned for new info soon.

 

[ríomhaire]

I didn't know so many BM:S people were members. I thought most of ye stayed in leak-free

 

[jheaddon]

Mostly just me and Kal, being directors and all it helps to post around

 

[TheSomeone]

Yea i know that its a shitload full off stuff that you guys have to re do....but what i mean is why you dont come up with your own storrys and map layouts?

Because hundreds of mods are already doing that, and most of them are failing at it.

Plus, although Half-Life was pure awesomeness when it came out, the graphics are a little bit too outdated for most new and contemporary gamers. Not only this will please original Half-Life fans, but people who have never played the first game.

 

[Illegal Amigo]

I am very much looking forward to this mod. About what percentage done are you?

 

[ríomhaire]

I think between 10 and 15 but hopefull that will speed up during the Summer and when they fill the last positions.

 

[Beerdude26]

You better! *shakes hand violently*

 

[NJspeed]

I don't want to be rude but if you guys are only 10-15% done by now, won't it take forever to do the rest? I mean based on that timeframe we are looking at BM: Source somewhere in 2009-2010.. Even if you doubled speed and could do 30% every 6 months that's still looking at early 2007 release.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

They'll get it done. The beginning stages of a mod are always the hardest, it'll get quicker with time. And "percentage complete" things are, by default, innacurate, unless you define eeeeevery little thing that needs to be done, beforehand.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[kotik112]

How far along is this mod?

 

[Rafa 5.0]

i don't care how long this mod takes, it's going to absolutely rock when it's done.

 

[kotik112]

I agree, I havent played black mesa yet. So following the story on source graphics. Its gonna be awesome !

 

[Rafa 5.0]

you never played the first half-life?

 

[kotik112]

Wait a second, black mesa is the original half-life1? I thought it was an expantion pack :S

 

[Rafa 5.0]

rofl!! now that's funny! Black Mesa: Source is Half-Life 1 redone with all the pretty HL2 graphics, hahhahah

 

[jheaddon]

I don't want to be rude but if you guys are only 10-15% done by now, won't it take forever to do the rest? I mean based on that timeframe we are looking at BM: Source somewhere in 2009-2010.. Even if you doubled speed and could do 30% every 6 months that's still looking at early 2007 release.

We said that we were aiming for a 2006 release if possible, you have to understand that we are remaking an entire game here, plus, it has to look, play and feel like the original Half-Life, otherwise we have failed, which were not going to let happen.

The percentages we have given are complete guesses, we have no real way of telling how far along we are, it makes it easier for us to not think about it.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

BM:S will get done, unless there's some major catastrophy that splits the team, or something. I've seen mods come and go, and I've learnt which ones actually get made. And my money's on BM:S.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[theroadtonowhere]

Looks great, but the only complaint I have, is the outside... the outside of blackmesa was desert.. with cactus and was always bright. The outside map that they are doing is full of trees and and grass and ... where be the cactus:

 

[Kalashnikov]

Can we see a shot of this screenshot that we don't even know about? We haven't even modeled trees or cactus!

 

[theroadtonowhere]

http://www.blackmesasource.com/images/mr3_bounce1.jpg

 

[jheaddon]

lol thats DM_Bounce, a remake of the old Bounce Death Match level.

 

[Insano]

BM:S will get done, unless there's some major catastrophy that splits the team, or something. I've seen mods come and go, and I've learnt which ones actually get made. And my money's on BM:S.

-Angry Lawyer

Same here. It doesn't matter how long it takes, but it will get completed

 

[BeaverMon]

I must say the Source version of HLDM's "Bounce" map looks pretty good.

 

[Is This Tea]

Usually I try not to make superfluous posts but I have to say, “This looks *#!$ing incredible!” The Idea is great, the execution looks great, and most importantly your F.A.Q. reveales that you are making all the right design decisions such as your position on Barny etc…
I cannot wait to play. Good work!

 

[mrdark]

wow, this looks cool

 

[jheaddon]

Cheers