In HL2 I think all of the weapons reflected cubemaps, just to different degrees.
Sounds about right. I remember spinning around in scenes of HL2 (on my Xbox, thanks to the analog stick camera) and having the reflections on the weapon change. Fun times.
Yeah, and if you make a map in Hammer without building cubemaps every single gun gets that horrendous pink checkerboard on it. 
I was casually thumbing through screenshots on the media section when I realized that many of the maps that have been created in the opening sequence will never actually be used. You’ve spent so much time making them so wonderfully detailed, and realistic. It occurred to me that it would be a shame if they weren’t used for anything else, so I pondered the possibility of turning some of the initial maps into a death match arena. Examining the screenshots of Inbound fuel my curiosity and desire to explore, and maybe blow up some fiends on the way.
Maybe this needs it’s own thread, I wasn’t sure. Thought better safe than sorry.
I have always wanted to see someone mod the Inbound section into an Outboud section. You play as another scientist that got to work just before Gordon, grabbed one of the other HEV suits, do some work somewhere close by, all hell breaks loose, and you have to fight your way back through the tram areas to the dormitories.
I don’t know how to make it happen though 
sounds like Decay
Or one of the hudreds of mods using a similar concept
Just a subtle detail from the original I’m pretty darn sure someone has brought up, but that I want to make sure gets attention is the idea of the physical feeler into the world.
I’ve checked all of the videos of the project and can’t get a confirmation on this. Only the trailer shows some crowbar action, and it was actually what worried me.
Newell talks about it here around 3:05: Gabe Newell Interview
Basically, he talks about how the crowbar is the physical feeler into the world, and that when you swing at the wall, an object, or an enemy, it doesn’t just play its normal animation, but instead bounces off.
I thought it was a great example of a subtle, but important detail. I’m sure it has already been mentioned, and looking at the amount of detail you have in this thing, I’m sure you took notice of this ages ago.
My friends and I have been watching and waiting for this for the past year now and we know you guys will release a kick-ass product, no matter how long it takes. Take your time, Get it right.
They are used…you get to look at them while you’re stuck in the tram throughout the intro. They are not playable like a traditional level if that’s what you’re getting at though.
It’s something we can look into when we put together the multiplayer build.
The only difference between the HL2 crowbar and the Black Mesa crowbar is the textures. Animations are all exactly the same.
Well… the hands are different too, but, you know.
Barney gives Gordon his crowbar in HL2 (Got it from Kliener, who got it from Eli, who got it from G-man) so it’s the same crowbar.
The one from Blueshift is possibly the extra one in the episodes.
No they’re not. Look at the trailer.
The crowbar, or the hands?
The animation.
The animation. I’m not saying it needs to be the same, I just don’t want to see it play the same no matter what the condition.
Think about the animation:
When you swing at air, the crowbar should swing as expected.
When you swing at a wall, it should bounce off as expected.
When you swing to break glass, it should bounce as expected.
I don’t want to melee at some glass, watch it break, and still see my crowbar swing full.
Going more indepth:
What this emphasizes is the physical properties of the world. Sure you can shoot at a wall and be stopped by a wall, but you don’t actually feel its existence. It just stops things. The crowbar is our “physical feeler” as Newell calls it and it is the closest thing we have to touch in the game.
I have read that players feel more connected with the world they are playing in when it can be interacted with in as many sensual (har har) ways as possible. Touch is a hard one to achieve, and so companies get creative. Halo has melee, Gears of War has slamming against chest-high walls for cover, and Half-life had arguable the first example with the crowbar.
Anyway, this is an awful lot of write up for something small I was wondering about. All of this only spawned from watching the Newell interview and later watching the trailer again for Black Mesa and noticing that when the player hits the head crab, he still swings full. In reality, if one were to swing and hit a headcrab, one would still swing full.
I was just wondering if it this were a small detail that would be missed.
EDIT: Hey guys, looky what I found - Keresh has answered me FROM THE PAST!
how about a headcrab attacking a mannequin? perhaps as a part of the studying of the creatures
what about a mannequin attacking a headcrab and your radio goes all staticy
The crowbar does bounce off when you hit glass, but then goes through the full swing when the glass is cracked. This represents Gordon brishing away the broken fragments.
And the crowbar Barney gives you at the start of HL2 is not the one from Black Mesa. The famous line he utters is just another pun.
I’m so glad someone else got that. He even mentions in Episode 1 that he has a supply of them.
Besides, he didn’t leave his crowbar in Black Mesa, the Gman took it away from him. Gman could have left it in Black Mesa but he probably left it in Xen somewhere…