Lighting problem near the start of Blast pit (game breaking).

Black Mesa Archive In-game Issues (Mod)
#1

Hello all. I’m encountering an issue in Blast pit just after the tram crashes that is preventing me from progressing any further in the game. After climbing down the ladder that leads onto the walkway spanning over the lake of green waste, the entire map will go completely dark for seemingly no reason, and I am unable to use my flashlight to illuminate anything.

Climbing down the ladder from here: https://i.imgur.com/RBMML.png

Results in this: https://i.imgur.com/psfGc.png

The game is not performing oddly during this in any other way. No hits to performance, I can still move around, bump into objects, and fall into the toxins to my doom. This is what It looks like when attempting to use the flashlight; just a blue tinted screen: https://i.imgur.com/I4GzE.png

Firing my weapons will just barely light things up for a brief moment: https://i.imgur.com/PqzAu.png

Here’s the map and position:

The issue is also happening when I approach the green liquid from the opposite side of the tram, or am thrown towards it during the crash:
https://i.imgur.com/i8NuT.png

I tried lowering all of the video settings to their absolute bare minimum, thinking it would help, but alas it was not to be. Up until this point I’ve had the occasional bit of lag, but have mostly been running the game fine on modest settings.

What I have been able to play of the mod so far has been nothing short of fantastic, and I’m looking forward to being able to play the rest. Thank you all for your time, and keep up the good work.

#2

I have absolutely the same issue in this place, as well as some other people (see this thread)

#3

I have absolutely the same issue in this place, as well as some other people here (see this thread)

#4

You could use a workaround: right click Black Mesa in your Steam Library, then select “Properties”, click “Set Launch Options” and then type the following “-dxlevel 80”. Launching game in this mode will result in some glitches, missing textures, etc, but at least you will be able to finish your level. Then you could continue playing in the normal DX9 mode. Thanks to billiam here – https://forums.blackmesasource.com/showpost.php?p=496616&postcount=18

#5

Enable High Dynamic Range, found in video settings > Advanced.

#6

It work! Thanks!

#7

O, wow, thanks for posting the exact place you’ve got this problem happening.

Now it’s obvious that this one is caused by the noise fullscreen post-process shader kicking in - it should “hint” you that you’re nearing radioactive substance.

AFAIK there’s a bug in BM that do not allow to turn off this shader (while there’s an option for this in the Black Mesa options dialog tab). So you seem to be out of luck for now until devs would fix this option of community would find a way to disable this shader. OP, I’d bet you’re on a pretty old hardware, aren’t you? Something like Radeon 95xx or 97xx or 98xx or mobile versions of the above. Am I right?

#8

Here is a possible temporarily solution that would allow you to play through the problematic area:

  1. Quit the game.
  2. Navigate into \steamapps\sourcemods\BMS\bin
  3. Create a new folder named “Backup”
  4. Move the file named game_shader_dx9.dll into the “Backup” folder you had just created.
  5. Start up the game.

You should get a white line crossing your screen diagonaly and there’s no known way to get rid of it (yet?). But at least it might allow you to get through the problematic area. Be sure to move the game_shader_dx9.dll back in place as soon as you pass the place with radioactive waste which causes the problem to kick and bite you.

#9

Less intrusive way to workaround the issue:

  1. Quit the game.
  2. Navigate into /steamapps/sourcemods/BMS/shaders/fxc
  3. Create a new folder named “Backup”
  4. Move the file named bms_postprocess_ps20b.vcs into the “Backup” folder you had just created.
  5. Start up the game.

You shouldn’t get while line crossing the screen with this one but then again I do not know if this would work or not to heal your “lights off” problem. Test and report back.

#10

(wrong thread!)

#11

Thank you for this fix! It has helped me bypass the white screen issue I was having at the same spot. However, I later decided to run in DX8.1 mode for performance reasons (and DX9 was causing gray fog to render all over the place in some interior areas, obscuring my view). Unfortunately, some textures are missing, and the white line comes on the screen when the player is nearing radiation. Still, great fix for those with low-end/integrated GPUs!

#12

Great to hear this “workaround” really works. Yep, with dxlevels other than 90, 95 or 98 you would have gfx glitches due to a fact that BM is not expected to be played with a GPU that is not capable of doing at least Shader Model 2.0 shaders in hardware. It is possible in theory to provide all the necessary fallbacks to properly support DirectX 80/81 render paths but I doubt devs would like to spend their valuable time implementing this one.

Thus people with older GPUs would have to suffer a bit having visual glitches and having to use workarounds like I had posted above for removing incompatible post-processing shaders in order to play the game. And it’s not a big deal IMO as the fact that it is possible to play the game on the hardware that is THAT old is a miracle on its own.

#13

Please see here to continue the discussion on this bug.

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