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

Beta time! We’ve pushed all of Xen and Gonarch’s Lair to the public beta branch on Steam. The technical beta was just 3 maps, the complete Xen and Gonarch’s Lair is 9 maps.

Thank you to all who tested and who will test for us. We think the feedback so far has made the levels in the technical beta significantly better, and it would not have gotten there without the fresh eyes of the community.

Interloper, Nihilanth, and Endgame will follow after this beta and will double the map count to 18 total maps.

Earthbound has had a soundscape overhaul, fixes to game breaking bugs, and recompile of all the maps. If you take a trip through the earthbound chapters and find any game breakers, please let us know.

Also a reminder, the complete Xen soundtrack is available NOW. You can check it out here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqWbjZ_t9qDlY08FPwztA2wXoil0mzusM

Also available wherever you buy or stream music.


As we posted earlier, here are some known issues in the current beta. Please report any issues you find to the Steam forums or our Discord.

-The flashlight and other dynamic lights occasionally cut out, then return when you go into the next room. We are investigating.

-In the last map of Gonarch’s Lair, Gonarch might be frozen when he should be playing a stabbing attack. You’ll know it when you see it.

-DO NOT USE OLD SAVES. It will cause issues.

-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 (an optimisation technique) 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’s Lair 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’s Lair 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.

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Thank you again to all who have participated, or will participate in the public beta. We may be a bit quiet with updates as we grind and grind in order to wrap the rest of the game up. Hit us up on the Discord if you have any questions!

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

Discord - https://discord.gg/PSZfh8N

Twitter - @BlackMesaDevs

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

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