Happy Holidays!

The team remains, as always, hard at work on Xen! Currently our specific focus is on gameplay: crafting a fun and cohesive experience from start to finish. We want our version of Xen to feel like it really belongs with the rest of the game in terms of mechanics, cohesion and progression. But we also want to push the boundaries and explore this unique and varied setting; to build an experience that feels both fresh and familiar to players from all walks of Half-Life veterancy. While our Xen is certainly going to be gorgeous, we are first and foremost really committed to making sure that the gameplay works on every level.

To give a bit of an exciting tease into what we’re doing at the moment, and as our own little holiday gift to you lot, please enjoy our first ever publicly released screenshot of Xen!



We will have more media for the community in the coming months, as well as more detailed updates as to how we are progressing. Right now we are up against a tough deadline, but we are committed and excited to work towards it and to finally unveil the definitive Black Mesa experience for everyone to enjoy.

Be kind to each other out there, and again, have a happy holiday!

Happy Holidays!

The team remains, as always, hard at work on Xen! Currently our specific focus is on gameplay: crafting a fun and cohesive experience from start to finish. We want our version of Xen to feel like it really belongs with the rest of the game in terms of mechanics, cohesion and progression. But we also want to push the boundaries and explore this unique and varied setting; to build an experience that feels both fresh and familiar to players from all walks of Half-Life veterancy. While our Xen is certainly going to be gorgeous, we are first and foremost really committed to making sure that the gameplay works on every level.

To give a bit of an exciting tease into what we’re doing at the moment, and as our own little holiday gift to you lot, please enjoy our first ever publicly released screenshot of Xen!



We will have more media for the community in the coming months, as well as more detailed updates as to how we are progressing. Right now we are up against a tough deadline, but we are committed and excited to work towards it and to finally unveil the definitive Black Mesa experience for everyone to enjoy.

Be kind to each other out there, and again, have a happy holiday!

We have released the first hotfix patch for the Halloween Update! Enjoy! This addresses a few short term issues with the last patch.

• Displacement collision hitching: Fixed issue with collisions on displacements on Linux builds. This meant the player would hitch when walking on terrain surfaces, and also affected Linux multiplayer servers.
  
• ZECU crash: Fixed ZECU model from crashing the game/Hammer editor, due to duplicated vertices.
  
• Russian subtitle selection: Fixed Russian subtitles not showing up at all when language is selected.
  
• Black Mesa Publishing Tool: Publishing Tool fixed (for real real this time!). Will now launch properly and works correctly.

A second hotfix patch is in the works, and we hope to have that one out relatively soon too. The next patch has these things currently planned (but not set in stone):

• A fix for non-English characters displaying incorrectly.
  
• Updating the mapsrc folder to have the latest versions of our maps (including MP maps).
  
• Adding a VOIP icon to the HUD for multiplayer.

Edit: Additional small patch fixed .ain issue in the first map of Unforeseen Consequences.

We have released the first hotfix patch for the Halloween Update! Enjoy! This addresses a few short term issues with the last patch.

• Displacement collision hitching: Fixed issue with collisions on displacements on Linux builds. This meant the player would hitch when walking on terrain surfaces, and also affected Linux multiplayer servers.
  
• ZECU crash: Fixed ZECU model from crashing the game/Hammer editor, due to duplicated vertices.
  
• Russian subtitle selection: Fixed Russian subtitles not showing up at all when language is selected.
  
• Black Mesa Publishing Tool: Publishing Tool fixed (for real real this time!). Will now launch properly and works correctly.

A second hotfix patch is in the works, and we hope to have that one out relatively soon too. The next patch has these things currently planned (but not set in stone):

• A fix for non-English characters displaying incorrectly.
  
• Updating the mapsrc folder to have the latest versions of our maps (including MP maps).
  
• Adding a VOIP icon to the HUD for multiplayer.

Edit: Additional small patch fixed .ain issue in the first map of Unforeseen Consequences.

Happy Halloween!

We wanted to use the holiday and the sale to announce our rough timeline for Xen. We are currently targeting a summer 2017 release. We will keep you up to date on our progress and we plan to show off some media as we finish developing Xen to give everyone a glimpse at what we are working on.

Why so Long?
We can’t overemphasize how much work it was to get the game on Steam. Most of our effort before launching was put into porting to the retail engine and getting the game to work better than it did in the mod. Since release, the team has been focused on developing Xen. We even planned our updates to have features that would help improve the earthbound levels and Xen (for example CSM).

We want to do Xen the justice it deserves, and have it be the definitive climax to the Half-Life 1 story. To do this we have completely redesigned and expanded the Xen levels to what we think Valve would have done without the limitations of the time.

To help illustrate this, here are some comparison shots of our levels to the original Half-Life levels in Hammer. Not only are our maps substantially bigger than the originals, there are more of them as well.

Comparison of HL1 and Black Mesa's first Xen Map


Comparison of the first map of Interloper


As always we want to thank our awesome community for supporting us in Early Access and for being as passionate as us about Half-Life. We have been working really hard on Xen and we hope you are as excited as us to see the full release of Black Mesa. We’ll have more in game media to show off in the near future!

Patch
We also wanted to quickly mention that we have a patch coming for our latest update. This patch fixes:

-The hitching on Linux multiplayer servers and on Linux single player
-Russian closed captions
-UI fonts being broken for people that do not have Steam set to English
-Workshop publish tool not launching
-ZECU torso crashing hammer and the game

Thanks!
-The Black Mesa Team

Happy Halloween!

We wanted to use the holiday and the sale to announce our rough timeline for Xen. We are currently targeting a summer 2017 release. We will keep you up to date on our progress and we plan to show off some media as we finish developing Xen to give everyone a glimpse at what we are working on.

Why so Long?
We can’t overemphasize how much work it was to get the game on Steam. Most of our effort before launching was put into porting to the retail engine and getting the game to work better than it did in the mod. Since release, the team has been focused on developing Xen. We even planned our updates to have features that would help improve the earthbound levels and Xen (for example CSM).

We want to do Xen the justice it deserves, and have it be the definitive climax to the Half-Life 1 story. To do this we have completely redesigned and expanded the Xen levels to what we think Valve would have done without the limitations of the time.

To help illustrate this, here are some comparison shots of our levels to the original Half-Life levels in Hammer. Not only are our maps substantially bigger than the originals, there are more of them as well.

Comparison of HL1 and Black Mesa's first Xen Map


Comparison of the first map of Interloper


As always we want to thank our awesome community for supporting us in Early Access and for being as passionate as us about Half-Life. We have been working really hard on Xen and we hope you are as excited as us to see the full release of Black Mesa. We’ll have more in game media to show off in the near future!

Patch
We also wanted to quickly mention that we have a patch coming for our latest update. This patch fixes:

-The hitching on Linux multiplayer servers and on Linux single player
-Russian closed captions
-UI fonts being broken for people that do not have Steam set to English
-Workshop publish tool not launching
-ZECU torso crashing hammer and the game

Thanks!
-The Black Mesa Team

• Linux client beta!
  
• Added the ZECU - Zombie Marines
  
• Translations - Added Russian closed captions!
  
• Added new security Joop model
  
• Workshop publish tool is working again
  
• General workshop improvements (all workshop items must now be VPKed to work)
  
• VOIP works in multiplayer

• Added all new security Jeep models
  
• RPG and Tau weapon viewmodels can now have blood on them
  
• Fixed MP5 tracers originating from above the gun

• Fixed the ragdoll T-pose bug. There should be no more instances of ragdoll corpses standing up in the T-pose position when loading a save.
  
• Re-added the cool Tau and Gluon gib effects from the mod. Now the gibs get their fizzy electric effects, as they did before!
  
• Disappearing weapons bug is fixed in multiplayer. We believe we have resolved the bug related to your weapons sometimes disappearing in multiplayer when you respawn. Please report it to us again (with steps to reproduce, if possible) if you experience it.
  
• Fixed voice chat in multiplayer
  
• Fixed “double crouch” bug, aka “schrodinger’s crouch.” Fixed a hitbox bug related to rapid crouching that would make the player’s hitboxes always stay crouched, even while standing
  
• Reduced physical scale of player viewmodels to ⅕ their original size. This has no impact on the size of the viewmodel in game (as it’s a scaled projection), but means there will be no more weird lighting bugs on the weapons, as their scale is now accurately represented. We also rescaled all the particles and associated weapon drag cvars to match the new weapon scale
  
• Crossbow Bolt is now a simulated projectile with a speed of 8000 (from 2000). The old Crossbow bolt moved at the max speed allowed by the physics engine, so we switched it out for a tracer with a simulated speed. It is now far more useful as a long range sniping weapon, as intended.
  Cvar viewmodel_lag changed to cl_viewmodel_lag now using different scaling
  
• Fixed violence_hgibs and violence_agibs options
  
• Implemented SetPointsPerFrag for mp_gamerules
  
• Updated engine internals to Valve upstream
  
• Fixed multiple crossbow bugs
  
• Fixed multiple minor crashes and bugs

• Added Russian closed captions
  
• Fixed UI not displaying translated UI prompts and chapter titles
  
• Updated and fixed Finnish translation files
  
• Updated and fixed German translation files

bm_c0a0b

• Fixed lighting on the helipad

bm_c1a0a

• Fixed casserole explosion particle disappearing or not showing at all

bm_c1a1e

• The crates during the platforming section are no longer physics objects, and are now static. This is to compensate for a physics engine bug which made jumping around here very unresponsive.

bm_c1a4d

• Fixed airlock steam particle not appearing

bm_c2a2a

• Added blocks on the tram lift platforms to stop the achievement hat from falling through them

bm_c2a4a

• Hopeful fix for players getting stuck in the world after reaching the top of the ladder in the crusher

bm_c2a4f

• Made the door at the end of the agrunt trip mine hall solid until the sequence has been triggered

Surface Tension

• A minor foliage and rock overhaul in a few places throughout this chapter

bm_c2a5b

• Added a block to stop players getting stuck behind a rock near the start of the minefield
  
• Fixed a houndeye spawning under the ground near the start of the level
  
• Fixed misaligned sprites next to the storm drain console

bm_c2a5h

• Fixed pipe explosion not killing the player

Crossfire

• A prop fade distance pass has been done which should result in a frame rate improvement in many areas of the of map for users
  
• Fixed visible nodraw near the middle of the map

Bounce

• Fixed various texture issues due to CSM
  
• Fixed floating props
  
• Added extra details for jump pads including props and overlays

Known Issues

• Crossbow Zoom has weird interactions with FOV settings. This will be addressed in a later update by us overhauling how the Crossbow zoom works.
  
• Crossbow aims high
  
• Minor shadow errors on Linux.
  
• GUI hints for VOIP are missing

Note: This update does not contain Xen. We are working on Xen and hope to have some media to talk about soon!

• Linux client beta!
  
• Added the ZECU - Zombie Marines
  
• Translations - Added Russian closed captions!
  
• Added new security Joop model
  
• Workshop publish tool is working again
  
• General workshop improvements (all workshop items must now be VPKed to work)
  
• VOIP works in multiplayer

• Added all new security Jeep models
  
• RPG and Tau weapon viewmodels can now have blood on them
  
• Fixed MP5 tracers originating from above the gun

• Fixed the ragdoll T-pose bug. There should be no more instances of ragdoll corpses standing up in the T-pose position when loading a save.
  
• Re-added the cool Tau and Gluon gib effects from the mod. Now the gibs get their fizzy electric effects, as they did before!
  
• Disappearing weapons bug is fixed in multiplayer. We believe we have resolved the bug related to your weapons sometimes disappearing in multiplayer when you respawn. Please report it to us again (with steps to reproduce, if possible) if you experience it.
  
• Fixed voice chat in multiplayer
  
• Fixed “double crouch” bug, aka “schrodinger’s crouch.” Fixed a hitbox bug related to rapid crouching that would make the player’s hitboxes always stay crouched, even while standing
  
• Reduced physical scale of player viewmodels to ⅕ their original size. This has no impact on the size of the viewmodel in game (as it’s a scaled projection), but means there will be no more weird lighting bugs on the weapons, as their scale is now accurately represented. We also rescaled all the particles and associated weapon drag cvars to match the new weapon scale
  
• Crossbow Bolt is now a simulated projectile with a speed of 8000 (from 2000). The old Crossbow bolt moved at the max speed allowed by the physics engine, so we switched it out for a tracer with a simulated speed. It is now far more useful as a long range sniping weapon, as intended.
  Cvar viewmodel_lag changed to cl_viewmodel_lag now using different scaling
  
• Fixed violence_hgibs and violence_agibs options
  
• Implemented SetPointsPerFrag for mp_gamerules
  
• Updated engine internals to Valve upstream
  
• Fixed multiple crossbow bugs
  
• Fixed multiple minor crashes and bugs

• Added Russian closed captions
  
• Fixed UI not displaying translated UI prompts and chapter titles
  
• Updated and fixed Finnish translation files
  
• Updated and fixed German translation files

bm_c0a0b

• Fixed lighting on the helipad

bm_c1a0a

• Fixed casserole explosion particle disappearing or not showing at all

bm_c1a1e

• The crates during the platforming section are no longer physics objects, and are now static. This is to compensate for a physics engine bug which made jumping around here very unresponsive.

bm_c1a4d

• Fixed airlock steam particle not appearing

bm_c2a2a

• Added blocks on the tram lift platforms to stop the achievement hat from falling through them

bm_c2a4a

• Hopeful fix for players getting stuck in the world after reaching the top of the ladder in the crusher

bm_c2a4f

• Made the door at the end of the agrunt trip mine hall solid until the sequence has been triggered

Surface Tension

• A minor foliage and rock overhaul in a few places throughout this chapter

bm_c2a5b

• Added a block to stop players getting stuck behind a rock near the start of the minefield
  
• Fixed a houndeye spawning under the ground near the start of the level
  
• Fixed misaligned sprites next to the storm drain console

bm_c2a5h

• Fixed pipe explosion not killing the player

Crossfire

• A prop fade distance pass has been done which should result in a frame rate improvement in many areas of the of map for users
  
• Fixed visible nodraw near the middle of the map

Bounce

• Fixed various texture issues due to CSM
  
• Fixed floating props
  
• Added extra details for jump pads including props and overlays

Known Issues

• Crossbow Zoom has weird interactions with FOV settings. This will be addressed in a later update by us overhauling how the Crossbow zoom works.
  
• Crossbow aims high
  
• Minor shadow errors on Linux.
  
• GUI hints for VOIP are missing

Note: This update does not contain Xen. We are working on Xen and hope to have some media to talk about soon!

Note: This update does not contain Xen! We are hard at work on Xen. This is a small stability update aimed at lower-end users.

• Fixed a number of potential crashing issues on low-end graphics cards.
  
• Fixed an issue with the depth buffer that was causing the game to crash for some users.
  
• Fixed some instances of the "Disable CSM" option not working properly.
  
• CSM/depth buffer will now be disabled completely by default on low-end graphics cards that are not officially supported.
  
• Fixed mat_hdr_level & mat_tonemapping_occlusion_use_stencil convars not working properly. This will hopefully help to resolve a sporadic issue for some users where the game would turn dark after a few seconds. If your game turns dark after a few seconds, try setting mat_tonemapping_occlusion_use_stencil to 1 in the console.

Note: This update does not contain Xen! We are hard at work on Xen. This is a small stability update aimed at lower-end users.

• Fixed a number of potential crashing issues on low-end graphics cards.
  
• Fixed an issue with the depth buffer that was causing the game to crash for some users.
  
• Fixed some instances of the "Disable CSM" option not working properly.
  
• CSM/depth buffer will now be disabled completely by default on low-end graphics cards that are not officially supported.
  
• Fixed mat_hdr_level & mat_tonemapping_occlusion_use_stencil convars not working properly. This will hopefully help to resolve a sporadic issue for some users where the game would turn dark after a few seconds. If your game turns dark after a few seconds, try setting mat_tonemapping_occlusion_use_stencil to 1 in the console.