Black Mesa is a lot less illuminated in the mod, wouldn't you agree?

[MrHat]

@Eric Fong

Smartest guy ever.

Agree.

@waqwarrior

When you first get there, the scientist says ‘every other entrance has been sealed off to contain the invasion,’ so it makes sense that it would be less dilapidated.

You’re right. However, there ARE some aliens ravaging the Lambda Labs, and I can’t imagine that they just said “hello” to the scientists being around at the time of the RC. As someone else said: it was early in the morning, usually the area should have been a busy place - and when you enter it, there are no traces left?

@Ballsopt

shits blowing up in an underground facility, of course it’s gonna be dark.

Dark brown, indeed. However, that’s not necessarily one of the things I want to see in BM.

[Twinnie]

I totally agree that Black Mesa is too dim, I’ve worked in a few offices and government buildings and they’re never ever dark, they’re usually lit up so much that your eyes melt. I’ve seen a lot of that tired old graphics cliché where the lighting’s really sort of ‘short-ranged’ and a bright bulb will only illuminate a small area around it. From the comparisons that danialsangeo posted I’d say it’s too much like the FarCry one. People on here are trying to say that it’s been run over by aliens so it should be dim, but playing through HL, a lot of the areas seemed relatively untouched by the aliens and that seems perfectly fine, it’s not like the aliens invaded the planet then went running around hitting all the dimmer switches. If the lights are on then the lights are on, unless the power is down and the emergency lighting is activated I don’t see why it shouldn’t be as bright as it normally would.

That old FarCry lighting cliché was always used to make levels appear more exciting but that was the best thing about Black Mesa in HL, it wasn’t exciting, it was drab (I don’t mean brown). BM needs to distance itself from games like 2005’s Area 51 where secret underground labs are portrayed as ludicrously implausible facilities with unlimited budgets where they annually tear down the whole building and rebuild it with the very latest ‘shiny metal wallpaper with glowing blue lights’ and useless features sticking out of the walls that in real life would only serve as something to bump your head on or trip over. Crap like that was pretty prevalent in the 90s but then HL turned up with Black Mesa which looked almost exactly like what I expected one of these top secret labs would actually look like. A place where functionality was more important than aesthetics, a place they wouldn’t tour around with shareholders, where they worried about budgets and where the term ‘cutting-edge’ did not stretch to include interior design. I know BMS is far more like the latter but I’m just trying to emphasise my direction and the logic behind it, and why niggling little things like the lighting feel like a little betrayal.

[Ballsopt]

@MrHat

Dark brown, indeed. However, that’s not necessarily one of the things I want to see in BM.

where the hell did you get dark brown from.

[Mr_Someguy]

@Ballsopt

where the hell did you get dark brown from.

Because Real is Brown.

[Chrillen]

Everybody who claims that Black Mesa too dark has apparently only seen screenshots from Blast Pit, On A Rail and Aprehension.

[navand]

@Twinnie

I totally agree that Black Mesa is too dim, I’ve worked in a few offices and government buildings and they’re never ever dark, they’re usually lit up so much that your eyes melt. I’ve seen a lot of that tired old graphics cliché where the lighting’s really sort of ‘short-ranged’ and a bright bulb will only illuminate a small area around it. From the comparisons that danialsangeo posted I’d say it’s too much like the FarCry one. People on here are trying to say that it’s been run over by aliens so it should be dim, but playing through HL, a lot of the areas seemed relatively untouched by the aliens and that seems perfectly fine, it’s not like the aliens invaded the planet then went running around hitting all the dimmer switches. If the lights are on then the lights are on, unless the power is down and the emergency lighting is activated I don’t see why it shouldn’t be as bright as it normally would.

That old FarCry lighting cliché was always used to make levels appear more exciting but that was the best thing about Black Mesa in HL, it wasn’t exciting, it was drab (I don’t mean brown). BM needs to distance itself from games like 2005’s Area 51 where secret underground labs are portrayed as ludicrously implausible facilities with unlimited budgets where they annually tear down the whole building and rebuild it with the very latest ‘shiny metal wallpaper with glowing blue lights’ and useless features sticking out of the walls that in real life would only serve as something to bump your head on or trip over. Crap like that was pretty prevalent in the 90s but then HL turned up with Black Mesa which looked almost exactly like what I expected one of these top secret labs would actually look like. A place where functionality was more important than aesthetics, a place they wouldn’t tour around with shareholders, where they worried about budgets and where the term ‘cutting-edge’ did not stretch to include interior design. I know BMS is far more like the latter but I’m just trying to emphasise my direction and the logic behind it, and why niggling little things like the lighting feel like a little betrayal.

I agree with you.

@Chrillen

Everybody who claims that Black Mesa too dark has apparently only seen screenshots from Blast Pit, On A Rail and Aprehension.

I’ve seen all the media from the website and the wiki. But maybe you’re right. Maybe the devs didn’t emphasize on showing the brighter spots of the facility, maybe they wanted to show the darkish horror of post-cascade black mesa or the cool world shadows they made (from a technical point of view, I’m amazed by the shadows that the catwalks emit).

[flyaway888]

You are so unexperienced… black mesa looks better even than hl2 episode two

[Xappy]

wat

[Tom_caT]

yeah wat?

[navand]

Seriously, what?

@Raminator

I think some of you guys are missing the point that graphics in vidya games aren’t accurate representations of the real world; they’re artistic interpretations that are made with gameplay in mind. It wouldn’t work very well if every section of the game were illuminated realistically, it’d be pretty drab. You need contrast to draw the player’s attention, you need to enforce a colour triangle to make it aesthetically appealing, you need dark shadows or harsh lights to induce unease, etc.

We’ve made plenty of concessions to preserve gameplay over realism, I don’t see why this should be any different.

Yeah I guess you’re right.

I’m worried I sounded (read?) as if I was complaining. I wasn’t complaining. I just thought that it didn’t seem lit as it would in real life, and that the general illumination contrasted hl1’s a little. I felt the need to express it…

I do like the blast pit shadows!

[Maxey]

Ram, what lightmap size are you guys compiling the maps with? It must be pretty small, because the shadows are quite sharp. I bet it takes ages to compile any map.

[countfukula]

@Raminator

I think some of you guys are missing the point that graphics in vidya games aren’t accurate representations of the real world; they’re artistic interpretations that are made with gameplay in mind. It wouldn’t work very well if every section of the game were illuminated realistically, it’d be pretty drab. You need contrast to draw the player’s attention, you need to enforce a colour triangle to make it aesthetically appealing, you need dark shadows or harsh lights to induce unease, etc.

We’ve made plenty of concessions to preserve gameplay over realism, I don’t see why this should be any different.

That’s pretty obvious and you shouldn’t even have to say that. Imagine if the lighting in ‘Alien’ was realistic and the Spaceship was lit up like a shopping center.

[Angdraug]

@Maxey

Ram, what lightmap size are you guys compiling the maps with? It must be pretty small, because the shadows are quite sharp. I bet it takes ages to compile any map.

I think Ram is famous for using lightmap of 1. And if I recall correctly he said it takes him about 10 minutes to compile any map.

[Maxey]

10 minutes? That’s not so bad. I was thinking hours.

[Mr_Someguy]

@Maxey

10 minutes? That’s not so bad. I was thinking hours.

I thought compiling maps took days…

Boy was I mislead.

[Maxey]

In the HL1 days, compiling big, detailed maps did take ages.

[Chrillen]

He has probably optimized the shit out of them, and perhaps he has changed some compile parameters too.

[countfukula]

Lighting is so cool.

[_amp_955_dam]

Lighting and Lightning are two different things.

Oh, he edited it now.

[ar487]

Lighting is very well done, to the point of artistic. But the textures also add a very dark lure to the game. BM dev’s have a very real grip on psychology. If you haven’t read this give it a read, it’s interesting that so much research went into colors, textures, and lighting.