Happy December!

We've been murdering ourselves to get the Complete Black Mesa Beta out to everyone. We are really proud of what we have built, but there are still some rough edges we hope to smooth out. Like before, we wanted to mention some known issues, but first just some of the fixes we’ve implemented:

-Full pass on Xen and Gonarch levels for bugs and player guidance
-Fixed crash when player jumps on physics objects
-Fixed most crashes in the first map of Interloper
-Changed grenade aim point to be center screen for easier aiming
-Fixed sprint animation playing while swimming
-Fixed shotgun misfire after reloading
-Fixed RPG unguided mode in Earth levels
-Fixed having to press “shift” after each level load with “Always Run” enabled

Achievements. There has not yet been a second achievement pass. The team has a list to implement, and we would like to open it up to the community to crowd source ideas that we might not have otherwise thought of.

Performance. We have improved performance across the game, and targeted specific areas to increase the frame rate on all machines. Even with these fixes, there are still some areas we want to improve. For now, don't be afraid to lower your settings if you are getting low frames.

Floating Ragdoll Bodies. The NPCs still float in the air after dying in some sections. We’ve implemented some fixes, but they can still float from time to time.

Options Menu. Some options are being stored incorrectly. We will continue to make sure the settings work correctly on the new UI. The new UI will now be a focus for a post-beta update.

Factory Breaks. We are guessing players will be able to find creative ways to break the factory maps. We don’t expect any of them to be full blockers, but we are anxious to see what players can do to these complex setups, and how we can mitigate issues.

These are some of the fixes and known issues we have in the upcoming beta. Get ready to play the finale to Black Mesa. It’s been a long road, but we are so close. We’ll be back very soon™ with a release post!

Thank you to our community. Your support and testing has proved invaluable.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/

Discord - https://discord.gg/PSZfh8N

We worked hard to have a full beta ready for today, but we are still grinding on a few things. Here’s where we are at:

Interloper
-Fixing crash in first map of Interloper (Interloper A)
-Fixing performance in Interloper control rooms (Interloper B1)
-Fixing performance in factory maps and polish tasks (Interloper C and C1)
-Final art for Interloper D

Nihilanth is COMPLETE and we are reviewing it for release
Endgame is COMPLETE and we are reviewing it for release

We have a short internal timeline to address the list above. We are anxious and excited to get this last section of the game out, and see what the community thinks of it all.

In addition to the work we have completed on Interloper, Nihilanth, and Endgame, we have also completed revisions on all released maps based on feedback (mostly Xen and Gonarch’s Lair, but Earthbound as well). We hope this will be the most polished version of the game yet released, and will continue to implement feedback as we watch you guys play Xen!

Get ready for Endgame.


Discord - https://discord.gg/PSZfh8N

Happy (almost) Halloween! I can’t speak for the whole team, but this is one of my favorite times of year. I hope it has been treating everyone well.

We wanted to update everyone on our progress, and mention we are discounted 40% for the Steam Halloween sale.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/

We are dropping in art and final refinements for our LAST 5 MAPS. We can’t believe we are just 5 levels away from having a completed game. While it has been quite a challenge, it is surreal to be getting down to the last bits. We want to make sure the art and design in Interloper, Nihilanth, and Endgame are as polished as they can possibly be, even for a beta.

The team has a plan in place to go back and check the entirety of the game in preparation for some important upcoming dates.



Our major focus is of course making sure Interloper, Nihilanth, and Endgame are as good as they can possibly be, as well as:

• Fix crashing in the first map of Interloper
  
• Address bugs, performance, and refinements for Xen
  
• Address bugs, performance, and refinements for Gonarch’s Lair
  
• Address bugs, performance, and refinements for released Interloper levels
  
• Test and fix major issues for the Earth levels

Hope everyone enjoys the season. We’ll have some more spooky Interloper for you soon.

Discord - https://discord.gg/PSZfh8N

Interloper time!

We have pushed 5 maps of the Interloper chapter to Steam Public Beta. Give ‘em a play and let us know what you think!

The team has been crunching hard to release the last chapters, and the game has been fighting us every step of the way. We will be releasing the last 3 maps of Interloper shortly, after a final art and polish pass. Our current plan is to release Nihilanth and Endgame with those maps, but we may stagger the next releases to better refine the last fight and to get more concentrated feedback from the community.

While we've been focused on completing Interloper, we have also been making fixes to the previously released parts of the beta. Here are some fixes and known issues:

-Improved godray performance in all maps

Xen
-Increased performance in Xen B lower swamps (as you exit the door)
-Fixed zombie HEV flashlight sprite when turned on by I/O
-Model collision and material type fixes
-LOD fixes

Gonarch’s Lair Map A
-Fixed RPG not tracking Gonarch hitbox
-Slightly increased Gonarch hitbox
-Fixed black area portal
-Updated healing island particles
-Removed dynamic light god rays for performance
-Fixed a crash involving the Gonarch mortar

Gonarch’s Lair Map B
-Fixed flashlight and other dynamic lights not displaying in starting cave
-Tinted burnable webs so that the player can tell the difference between webs they can break and webs that need to be burned
-Fixed material types on textures and models so it no longer sounds like you are walking on solid glass
-Blocked web window that looked like the player could pass through
-Added lights and wires to better guide player on the critical path
-Player clipping pass
-NPC clipping pass (It should be much harder to get the Gonarch stuck or floating off cliffs)
-New and updated model collisions
-Lighting fixes for guidance and better Gonarch visibility
-Minor art fixes

Gonarch’s Lair Map C
-Fixed all breakable webs to break in ONE hit
-Fixed breakable web hitbox collision detect (it was too thin)
-Lighting and prop improvements for player guidance
-Fixed oil that was not slippery, allowing player to break start of final chase
-NPC clipping pass
-Player clipping pass
-Better highlighted player path in first chase
-Fixed columns in final fight being able to kill you in one hit
-Updated and fixed model collisions (still some objects missing collisions, like the crystals)
-Removed some player obstacles to make the first chase feel smoother
-Fixed players being able to long jump into start cinephys and get stuck
-Removed collision from certain ceiling props to make sure they do not stop the player
-Removed fire fumerol from final boss section
-Reduced screen shake caused by fire damage
-Lowered damage from Gonarch fire

Interloper Known Issues

Interloper Map A
-Occasional crashes in village
-Alien Grunt sometimes gets stuck in his animation sequence at the start of level

-Some models missing collision
-Dynamic lights are occasionally off map-wide

Interloper Map A1
-Sun shadows popping in at the end of the level
-Texture seams in water models


Interloper Map B1
-Waterfall particle early in the map ends too soon

-Elevator outside control room 1 sometimes shoots you into the death ceiling, causing a cheap death.
-Player occasionally gets stuck in "sucky vent"
-Bad performance in the control room 1 and 2
-Water missing refraction effect while underwater
-Seams between water models

We’re really looking forward to watching everyone play these levels. We will continue to polish and improve performance, as well as implement any feedback from the beta.

Thank you everyone for you patience and feedback!

https://discord.gg/PSZfh8N

We wanted to have the first Interloper beta out last Friday, but we ran into two bad crashes in Interloper map A and B that were not present in earlier compiles. We’ve fixed the crashes and are doing some final tests on Steam.

In the meantime, here are some other known issues for the upcoming beta:

• Alien Grunt sometimes gets stuck in his animation sequence at the start of level
  
  
• Some models missing collision
  
• Dynamic lights are occasionally off map-wide

• Sun shadows popping in at the end of the level
  
• Texture seams in water models
  

• Waterfall particle early in the map ends too soon
  
  
• Elevator outside control room 1 sometimes shoots you into ceiling causing a cheap death.
  
• Bad performance in the control room 1 and 2
  
• Water missing refraction effect while underwater
  
• Seams between water models

We’re really looking forward to watching everyone play these levels! We will continue to polish and improve performance, as well as implement any feedback from the beta once it launches.

Hello everyone,
Here’s a teaser for the upcoming Interloper release! (link to higher resolution). We are testing release candidates for Interloper A, A1, B, B1, B2. We’ll have news on Interloper C, C1, and D when we put out the first set of maps (they’re close!), as well as details for what is left on our to-do list for Nihilanth and Endgame.

We also want to use this mini update to highlight some of the work we have been doing to the already released chapters based on the beta feedback (still more to implement). We’ll continue to update the maps as the team and community finds issues.

Improved godray performance in all maps

Increased performance in Xen B lower swamps (as you exit the door)
Fixed zombie HEV flashlight sprite when turned on by I/O
Model collision and material type fixes
LOD fixes

Fix RPG not tracking Gonarch hitbox
Slightly increased Gonarch hitbox
Fixed black area portal
Updated healing island particles
Removed dynamic light god rays for performance, and because it wasn’t having the desired effect
Fixed a crash involving the Gonarch mortar

Fixed flashlight and other dynamic lights not displaying in starting cave
Tinted burnable webs so that the player can tell the difference between webs they can break and webs that need to be burned.
Fixed material types on textures and models so it no longer sounds like you are walking on solid glass
Blocked web window that looked like the player could pass through
Added lights and wires to better guide player on critical path
Player clipping pass
NPC clipping pass (It should be much harder to get the Gonarch stuck or floating off cliffs)
New and updated model collisions
Lighting fixes for guidance and better Gonarch visibility
Minor art fixes

Fixed all breakable webs to break in ONE hit
Fixed breakable web hitbox collision detect (it was too thin)
Lighting and prop improvements for player guidance
Fixed oil that was not slippery, allowing player to break start of final chase
NPC clipping pass
Player clipping pass
Better highlighted player path in first chase
Fixed columns in final fight being able to kill you in one hit
Updated and fixed model collisions (still some objects missing collisions, like the crystals)
Removed some player obstacles to make the first chase feel smoother
Fixed players being able to long jump into start cinaphys and get stuck
Removed collision from certain ceiling props to make sure they do not stop the player
Removed fire fumer from final boss section
Reduced screen shake caused by fire damage
Lowered damage from Gonarch fire

More updates soon!

Discord - https://discord.gg/PSZfh8N

We hope you guys are enjoying the latest beta. We've been watching and listening closely to your feedback, and we have pushed our first hotfix. This is a code patch to fix bugs and beta issues with the Gonarch and the new UI. We will have additional code and level fixes in future hotfixes/updates. Thank you so much for your continued testing!

• Gonarch AI now behaves differently and deploys different attack patterns based on Easy/Normal/Hard difficulty.
  
• Fixed bug causing Gonarch to do 250 damage on melee attacks
  
• Fixed bug causing Gonarch to spawn 60 bebcrabs instead of 15 in lower arena battle
  
• Gonarch shove damage in map B chase reduced by 50%
  
• Gonarch shove damage in map C chase reduced by 70%
  
• Gonarch shove view punch and knock back amount greatly reduced
  
• Gonarch AI tweaks for final lair arena battle.
  
• Fixed a crash related to Gonarch mortars
  
• Fixed a loophole where Gonarch could die/gib in map A and final upper arena
  
• Fixed Gonarch physics throw attack not respecting cool-down system under certain conditions
  
• Minor Adjustments to chase AI to make it more forgiving, reduce melee attack damage, and scale based on game difficulty setting
  
• Bebcrab jump height reduced to 20 units high, making it much less likely they clip one of your rockets
  
• Bebcrab damage reduced by 50%
  
• Bebcrab max count in final upper arena reduced by 33%

If you are interested in testing the work in progress UI, use -newgameui as a launch command.

• Fixed major performance drop when using new UI
  
• Singleplayer game is now paused when UI or Console is Activated
  
• Brought up default Qt behavior for key Auto-Repeat
  
• Game Console: Command Input now has history
  
• Game Console: Partial Autocomplete implementation (WIP, expect bugs)
  
• Game Console: Log Area now 1-2% faster than old UI
  
• Added "Enable Developer Console” to the Game options screen
  
• Advanced Settings Menu is now fully hooked up

• Bebcrabs can still be tracked by RPG. We are testing changes to have them not track/collide with RPG rockets. We think the change in jump height has addressed most, if not all of the problem. Let us know what you think!
  
• Columns in the final fight arena still kill the player in 1 hit. This will be fixed in a future level update.
  
• It is still possible to get the Gonarch stuck in certain areas of the level. We are testing level fixes to address this.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/

Discord - https://discord.gg/PSZfh8N

Twitter - @BlackMesaDevs

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BlackMesaDevs