Hello
I was wondering if, by modifying the Source engine to add new effects, the option of adding a PBR system to Black Mesa has been considered.
I had this doubt to see that the team that is developing Boreal Alyph, has managed to successfully integrate a PBR to the engine.
The same can apply to BM or could saturate your customized version of the engine?
As far as I know, that would require them to discard a ton of, if not all, assets and remake them from scratch to support PBR.
Probably not gonna happen when they’re in the final stretch.
New games can be made with PBR in mind from the very start and games still early into production can probably have an easier time transitioning to full PBR assets if they’re already using a PBR based pipeline to produce them in the first place. I’d reckon a lot of assets currently present in BM were made before PBR in games became the standard.
I’ve been using PBR in my animation work lately, and using it is really more of a decision that needs to be made at the beginning of a project rather than near the end.
Switching to PBR would require all the materials and lighting to be redone, and It is an entirely different workflow and way of thinking as compared to current rendering techniques. Also it doesn’t allow for certain visual effects to work without major processing power.
It is a headache and a half that the devs really don’t need on their plate at the moment.
Maybe one of their future projects they could look into it, but that would still require them to learn how to effectively work in that manner.
So as cool as it would be, I’d say don’t get your hopes up.
I had no idea, thanks for answering my doubts 
Now I understand, thanks for the response <3
Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.