Black Mesa: Opening Level Screenshots

[Saxon]

I think you're all being overly critical. It's surprising.

I don't know of many mods that are a much higher bar in terms of attention to detail and aesthetics. Especially ones that are almost TCs like Black Mesa.

But apparently you guys do.

Well, IMHO Insurgency has much more detailed maps, and much better textures.
As stoopdapoop says, some of the BMS textures don't look too great - they lack polish, and occasionally aren't placed well together. I hate to say it, but some of the textures look no better than those seen in the HLS high res pack.

BMS does however have some of the best NPC models yet seen in Source, I'd say they look more or less on par with L4D models.

[Vilham]

Comon blink, insurgency, neotokyo, etc etc are all better graphically. I take my hate off them for remaking an entire game, but it does look incredibly dated now and they really do need to get on with it.

[Chrille]

The Xen you see blanked out is from AM where you are teleported to Xen for a brief second.
Also, the build orcone had was not up to date.

We have Xen locked down so leaks like the following wont show its progress.

- JamesKane

It's mostly that alot of the things shown are far from being polished to the standards we normally would show in media, like the whiteboard details which are best left to be seen in game.

- stormseeker

[Text_Fish]

The sad thing is if they'd added some cheap L4D film grain or colour correction half the critics would be gushing praise.

Personally I think it looks very professional, and the only reason it possibly doesn't look as amazing as it used to is because they raised the bar so high so early on. Really, who didn't secretly wish they'd mapped that dam when the first few screenshots emerged?

If this were any other mod there wouldn't be a dry pair of pants in the house.

[Surfa]

I don't think that is necessary true. If this was still 2006 I think you would be correct and saying that it would demand a lot of praise but today most of the models and textures look dated. I mean the characters faces look great but the bodies are somewhat of a let down. Most of the environments look low poly and some of the textures look less then half arsed.

But the worse thing from my point of view is the fact that the quality levels dips dramatically from asset to asset.

But I guess it could just be that there is no reflections/phong on anything (in the screenshots) and seeing as these are both mighty important when selling certain materials, it could get a lot better when reflection/phong are used.

edit:
Well I decided to look on the official forums to see if what stage in development they says these screens are from and apparently it is from a build that was leaked to that site and everything is still very much w.i.p. This makes a lot more sense because a lot of the screen shots did look w.i.p quality.

[YokaI]

You guys... I think this looks pretty awesome...

Sure it doesn't look -as good- as l4d2, but really it looks like it should. Plus, there's still things like wrinkle features and stuff that isn't made for the public edition of the source SDK which, since this is a mod, they cannot use.

If I were BM:S, I'd try to negotiate for a cheap source sdk license purchase. I'm sure valve would love what these guys have done to the classic half life asthetic and, honestly, the mix of nostalgia and classic FPS gameplay may make players want to come back to this classic that is half life 1.

My one problem, nothing seems to have any phong or specular maps on them. Maybe it's just the few screenshots I've seen (anybody have the old screenshots pre-shutdown?) but something about the models / assets don't feel AS polished as they could be. Maybe I've just been spoiled with UDK.


edit: Took a look at the screenshots that were removed, I think that those screenshots had more than a reason to be taken down because of quality. However, I'm sure they took them down BECAUSE of that.

[RefaelBA]

Well I tried my red / cyan glasses and it looks a bit off. I don't think they meant to make this image 3D. However you will probably be able to play Black Mesa in anaglyph mode, using IZ3D or something similar. After all if you can play HL2 with the driver:

You can probably play most mods with the same driver.

[joe_rogers_11155]

I like this little sign inside the tram car.

IN CASE OF FIRE, USE HAMMER TO BREAK ENGINE

EDIT: OMFG Rafael, I will be getting that right away. also, when will we be able to play your mod? it looks pretty good so far, even if i dont have my 3d glasses. I notice that you seem to flicker through walls or something at a few points in the underground area, is that a defect in the software or something?

[Knights]

Once you put something on the internet, that's it. You can't just take it back.

*cough-grin*

Very true statement.. I saw these before deletion, it's looking great can't wait to play, but could use a major clutter pass though just to mix things up seeing it's the source engine.... If the style they are going for is closer to hl1 then that could be ok but It'll look like they just ported all the maps from hl1 to hl2 (I know they didn't so relax) Some scenes though look really awesome but it's like those are the scenes they decked up for screenshots....

[RefaelBA]

OMFG Rafael, I will be getting that right away. also, when will we be able to play your mod? it looks pretty good so far, even if i dont have my 3d glasses. I notice that you seem to flicker through walls or something at a few points in the underground area, is that a defect in the software or something?

I have no clue what you're talking about. I'm not working on any mods at the moment, I might start something soon though, not sure how it'll work with Uni starting in a month. The YT I linked is just some random video showing Source in anaglyph mode. The IZ3D driver is free for anaglyph use, and it works will all source games and mods.

[joe_rogers_11155]

i thought i recently saw that map on interlopers map pimpage thread so i thought you were the one who posted/designed it.

[Plague]

Well I tried my red / cyan glasses and it looks a bit off. I don't think they meant to make this image 3D. However you will probably be able to play Black Mesa in anaglyph mode, using IZ3D or something similar. After all if you can play HL2 with the driver:

You can probably play most mods with the same driver.

Its just a combination of effects in what almost looked like a 3D ready screenshot.
I doubt they spent time trying to give the game 3D.

[ThePain]

I have it from a reliable source that the build shown is about 5 1/2 months old. Basically anyone who's a friend of a developer has already played that section.

[BaRRaKID]

If after 6 years of development this is all they've to show, I'm seriously disappointed. I sense that BM will have the same fate as NW.

[SotaPoika]

If after 6 years of development this is all they've to show, I'm seriously disappointed. I sense that BM will have the same fate as NW.

NW?