HalfMapper: A Tool for Capturing Unique Views of Black Mesa

[-smash-]

You may remember a video that popped up a couple of years ago that illustrated the size and scope of the Black Mesa Research Facility from Half-Life. Well, the software that allowed the cinematographer to capture the enormity of the facility has recently been made available for all to use.

The tool is called HalfMapper. gzalo, the tool's creator, says that it's "a renderer designed specifically to explore the world of Half-Life."

Basically, it does a couple of things. One, it increases the draw distance of the map, allowing you to see every corner of the world at the same time. And, it removes models, decals and other entities from the world, allowing for clean and crisp images. It makes great isometric views of areas, too.

According to the project's Github repo, there's work to be done. It doesn't exactly support some of the more complex maps in Half-Life. gzalo would like to add the ability to take top-down screenshots of the world, too.

The project is open source, so you can push some fixes his way if you'd like to help.

HalfMapper Download
HalfMapper Source Code​

 

[Spiderm4N]

Looks really nice

 

[User With No Name]

Wow this looks awesome, can't wait to try it out!

 

[-smash-]

Makes me want to play an isometric Half-Life so badly.

 

[Vegeta897]

Smash I'm a little offended that you didn't @ me in this post to get my attention. Come on. This is awesome.

 

[ríomhaire]

I would love this tool for basically every game.

 

[SteamEmpire]

its amazing how much half life loops on itself

 

[Red Slug]

Imagine Half-Life as an isometric action adventure game! Woah!