Hey all,

We are compiling release candidates of all 9 maps for deployment testing. Unless we find a truly game breaking bug, it will be set live on Steam public beta August 1st. Just one of our levels can take up to 20 HOURS to compile, so it can be quite the process to test final maps. Major issues found by community testing will either be fixed in a later hotfix, or with the release of the rest of the chapters. Before you are able to jump in and help us beta test this Xen thing, please take a quick look at some of our known issues (to help avoid duplicate feedback on things we are already aware of):

-Linux is launching, but we are still working on getting the graphics to display properly. We apologize for this taking so long.


-You will see large black voids in the levels if you look back the way you came. These are the areaportals (a technique used for optimisation) not interacting correctly with the fog/xog. We have a simple fix for this that will go in for later patches.


-Some props have the wrong material properties. This is most noticeable in Gonarch where it sounds like you are walking on boxes instead of rocks.

-We have greatly increased performance across all maps, but there is still a noticeable frame drop in the Xen swamps as you leave the door into the lower swamp.

-Beneathicles (underwater barnacles) don’t respond to Gluon or explosive damage. This makes them a bit of a pain to clear, but will be fixed!

-Long jump sound effect sometimes plays on map load. We haven’t yet been able to pinpoint why this his happening or why it only happens on some computers.

-Knockback Houndeyes occasionally push you into and through walls, causing the player to get stuck.

-Occasional crash to desktop in Gonarch Chapter. We think it is something related to the mortar attack.

-In order to fix a crash, HEV crystal chargers temporarily do not have a dynamic light.


-Bebcrabs sometimes walk on 2 legs instead of 4… it’s hilarious.


-Gonarch can occasionally run past you in an important chase sequence. We have tweaked the map to fix this, but it may still happen.

We wanted to talk about these first, so players know what is out there before they dive in. As always, if you have any issues or crashes please go to our Discord or post them on the Steam forums (avoid questions in the news update as it is really hard to respond to them).

A personal thanks to all the devs who burnt some serious midnight oil getting this together. We will post another news update when the update goes live!

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

Discord - https://discord.gg/PSZfh8N

Twitter - @BlackMesaDevs

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

Greetings!

We are working on final polish for Xen and Gonarch’s Lair, as well as dropping in the final art, lighting, and fog for Interloper. In addition to that, here’s a quick update for everyone.

First we are pumped to announce the full Xen sound track will be released on August 1st. It will be available pretty much wherever music is.

Coming soon...


Bloom takes bright objects and blurs their color around the edges to create a softer image. When this was first implemented into the Source engine, the effect was in its infancy in video games. Since then, there have been lots of advancements and revisions to how bloom is done. We upgraded the bloom in Black Mesa to a more modern standard. We implemented a new bloom process and changed the values to work on both earthbound and Xen. The bloom values can be controlled through console commands per level.




This has been one of the longest running and challenging projects we set out to do, but we are really happy with how it is coming together. The goal is a better menu: removal of (irrelevant/out of date) options, clearer (preferences/selections/settings), and more controller support.




All the menus and text smoothly animate, which you can see below.
https://imgur.com/1ALygMo

We are not 100% sure when the new UI will be fully functional, but we are hoping to have it testable with the next beta on August 1st.

As usual, time is flying by! We hope everyone is enjoying their summer. If you would like to chat with us consider joining our Discord. It is the quickest way to get in touch with developers as we also use it for development.

If you are having specific game breaking issues, you can report them on Discord or on our Steam forums. As always, make sure to have a detailed description and your system specs (including your video card).

Thanks everyone!

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

Discord - https://discord.gg/PSZfh8N

Twitter - @BlackMesaDevs

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

Hope everyone in the states had a good holiday, and everyone is having a good summer overall. We wanted to give an update on what to expect for Xen.

Thank you so much to everyone that played the technical beta and reported bugs! It was extremely positive and motivating for us. We have already fixed a large number of the issues reported, including some we never would have found on our own. The amount of quality feedback from our community has prompted us to update our release plans.

On August 1st we will roll out the complete Xen AND Gonarch's Lair chapters to public beta. Soon after (think weeks, not months), we will release the concluding chapters, Interloper, Nihilanth, and Endgame to public beta:

The same rules apply as before: If you want to be a part of cutting edge testing and don't mind helping us squash some bugs, this beta is for you! Otherwise, we suggest you hold out a little longer.

We think this staggered release will allow us to more thoroughly test all components of this massive game, and catch bugs faster. Once we can ensure a smooth launch, we'll push the whole Xen campaign out of beta for everyone to enjoy.

Thanks again for the feedback and comments. We will be back shortly with an update showing off some new stuff!

We are still on sale for 60% off until July 9th. As far as we know, this will be the last major sale before the release of Xen, so now is a great time to grab it for yourself or a friend!

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

Discord - https://discord.gg/PSZfh8N

Twitter - @BlackMesaDevs

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

HAPPY STEAM SUMMER SALE! We have some big updates for everyone, and Black Mesa is 60% off.

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

We are excited to release our tech beta! It’s the first 3 maps of the Xen chapter (which has 6 maps total), continuing Gordon’s adventure from the cliffhanger ending of Lambda Core. With the full Xen campaign clocking in at 18 maps, the beta is only a taste of what’s to come.

The purpose of this beta is to collect bugs and feedback on a range of different computers. We have made significant improvements and changes to the Source engine, and we want the game to run as smoothly as possible. If you want to be on the bleeding edge of testing, opt into this beta. If you want the polished, complete Xen experience, you should wait. It won’t be long!

First right click “Black Mesa” in your game library. Go to Properties…


Then click the “BETAS” tab and select “public-beta” from the drop down...


It will download a bunch of stuff, then you will have access to the Xen levels for the beta!

If you have not unlocked all the chapters, you will need to enable the developer console and unlock them. Go to Options, Keyboard, Advanced, Enable Developer Console. Bring up the console and type “sv_unlockedchapters 19”.




From there, simply click “New Game”, then scroll over to the “Xen” chapter (the chapter images were intentionally left black).



The beta drops you in just after Lambda Core. A big part of the last fight in LC is teaching the player how to use the long jump. If you jump straight into Xen, remember the long jump is triggered by pressing the jump button (space) twice rapidly in ANY direction. You can then use the W, A, S, D to control Gordon in the air.


We are looking for specific graphical/technical/performance bugs, especially on lower end systems. If you have any issues, please report them on our Steam forums or on the “Xen-Bugs” Discord channel. Please include your graphics settings and system specs or we won’t be able to properly diagnose the problem.

Though our focus is performance, we are also interested in what was clear, and what wasn’t for the layout and design. If you got stuck somewhere or were confused by something, let us know.

Please unsubscribe from all workshop mods if you are testing!

Our Discord is live! Please join us, hang out, and chat. Make sure to check out the server rules. The TL:DR;, it’s a SAFE FOR WORK server about Black Mesa, Half-Life, and Games. Please keep discussions outside those categories to other servers and have fun!

PLEASE NOTE, we have heavy server restrictions at this time. We will dial it back as soon as possible.



-Linux has not yet been built. Windows only.

-We have not tested all of Earthbound or Multiplayer for this beta. If you find issues, feel free to report them in the proper channels.


-Running the game at 4k resolution at max settings may drastically lower your frame rate

-Ragdolls freak out in water. If you shoot an Ichthyosaur or Hoteye in water, their body and gibs may freak out. This is fixed on the developer build.

-Plant lights don’t retract when you are near them. This is fixed on the developer build.

-Laptop screens show shadows that are behind the screen. Fixed on the developer build.

-Missing collision on some of the plants and roots in the swamp

-Cookie lights (lights that cast on the ground) are broken on the HEV battery. Fixed on the developer build.

-Players occasionally gets stuck on small healing pools

-Probably a few things we are forgetting. Feel free to report any bugs and we’ll add them to our tracker!

We have a couple things planned for later this month, but we wanted to give everyone a mini update, so no one thought we had disappeared for the summer. Here are just a few of the improvements/fixes we have been working on alongside Xen.

One of the biggest issues we had in all of Black Mesa was the rocket launcher. It would track strangely, and made fights with helicopters harder than they needed to be. This was super apparent when we started locking down the Gonarch fights. We rebuilt the RPG tracking and re-added the cross-hair elements to give players better feedback for when it was in guidance mode.





This is a great feature in the Half-Life episodes. It adds a layer of immersion and strategy, so we implemented it into Black Mesa.



Like the stumble animations above, this is a small change that really helps the overall feel of the game. We increased the size of tracers fired by the player, and fixed a bug that blocked them from being fired by HECU and other NPCs.



That’s all for right now. We’ll be back later in June. Thanks!

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

Hello from the Black Mesa team! We have been GRINDING on this Xen thing, so let’s get right into where we are at:

We are driving though each of the six maps, capping off the final tasks, and doing little bits of housekeeping to make the levels shine. We are also taking a hard look at the performance of each level to make sure the game runs as smooth as possible on the myriad of machines out there. Thus far, we have made significant progress with deep engine optimisations, as well as several sweeping game-wide asset optimisation passes. We are also looking into other engine fixes, such as batch rendering for props and displacements to further increase performance.





We now have Gonarch arted and lit, with all the technical effects and animations implemented. All that’s left is to polish the animations and effects, and to make sure the player clipping is smooth throughout (as well as some water features). We are really proud of the many encounters, interactions, and fights with Gonarch throughout the chapter, and can’t wait to see how they play out there in the wild.

Show ‘em, Giphy...











We’re design locking the chapter while also building out the art and lighting. In order to get the art completed in record time, both the artists and level designers are creating placeholder assets so that we can detail the play space, then simply drop in the final art by overwriting the placeholders. We want to keep Interloper mostly under wraps, and the parts we do want to show off aren't quite ready for the spotlight. So instead, here is some art to give everyone a hint of what is in store for Interloper:

Old Concept for Interloper Exteriors By Eddie Hinestroza


Interloper Materials By Mark Foreman


Console Models Built with Modularity in Mind By Robert Chinner




This is how we plan to release in the coming months:

Technical Beta - This will be a couple of maps to test the latest engine, and test the performance of our maps. This will be public, but more or less of a stealth release for people who are interested in helping us test. This way we can test on a lot of machines quickly, and have time to implement any crucial feedback.

Open Beta - After we have implemented the feedback from the technical test, we will push the entire game to open beta. This will give us testing for the rest of the levels to again make sure the game releases as smooth as possible.

Release - Though we are expecting all the betas to run well, if you have been waiting for the full Black Mesa experience, this is what you want to wait for. Once we know the beta does not set people’s machines on fire, we will switch the full game over to the main Steam branch and announce its full release! After this, we will continue to monitor feedback and ideas from the community for Xen, and release periodic bug fixes and updates.


In addition to these staggered releases, we plan on launching a public discord to work in conjunction with our Steam forums. This will be a great place to chat, report bugs, and get mini updates from the team. We are not sure when we will be launching this, but it will probably be with one of the betas. This is one of the ways we hope to engage a bit more with the community, and provide more regular updates and interactions.



Soon! ™

Apologies for the silence over the last few months. We have been really diving into our work. Every once in a while we poke our heads up to see how far we have come, and how close we are to finishing this massive undertaking. We have more planned updates and fun stuff to show off on the way to the borderworld! Thanks!

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

Hope the new year started off great for everyone.

We are really happy with the progress we made this month. We wanted to show some of it off and keep the information flowing while we wrap up the last 5 chapters.

Gonarch
Our biggest effort went into getting the entirety of the Gonarch chapter arted. Now it is in the hands of our animators, who will take the artists hard work and destroy it!

Displacement/Sculpted/Arted - By Matt Young


Cinematic Physics - By Russ Briggeman


Nihilanth
No pretty pictures for this one, but we would be remiss if we didn’t mention we have made huge strides with the end boss of Xen. Our lead programmer Chetan Jaggi and lead animator Nate Ayres have worked together to build out an entire feature set of attacks, defenses, AI, as well as effects for the Nihilanth. Now we’re balancing all these features and building the planned finale. I’d normally say “more to come” but we probably won’t have any more updates on this last fight as we want to keep it a surprise for everyone.

Before and After
In October we revisited some of our released media and posted some #Blocktober dev diaries. Here is the comparison of how far these shots have come since when we first posted them (You can open the image in a new tab for better viewing). Full disclosure: I did some light Photoshop work to make them read better at size and because our sun effect is just a bit too hot in its current form.





We really enjoyed putting together the #Blocktober posts, and want to do more write ups like it in the future.

Again, hope the new year started off great for everyone! We’ll be back with more updates before launch.

-Crowbar Collective