Hey, I cannot seem to access the public beta- I had opted out due to problems with mods back when the modloader was under redevelopment, and now it will not allow me back in.
Well that cleared itself up pretty quickly! Never mind, then.
CSM PROBLEMS
Vaery hught option of CSM looks like Very LOW
Also it’s seems that CSM works only on ST maps
Here is example
Disabled CSM
Very Low
Low
Medium
High
And “very high”
I think it’s intended. Sun light don’t cast shadows with sharp edges, and very high simulates that well. However I doubt if we ever should see a shadows from wires.
I am currently living in Thailand, where none of their electrical cables are buried. In bright sunlight, wires cast very dramatic shadows. Can confirm, see them every day! Looks exactly like they do in game.
Regarding the Very High CSM setting, it is meant to make softer, more realistic shadows. But it is an experimental option right now and doesn’t work quite as we hope. Stick with High.
I can confirm this based on the fact that I’ve been outside in my life in the 21st century. Haven’t you people ever walked on a sidewalk beneath telephone poles?
I have some screens of a few specific issues I encountered that I’ll post later today (no time ATM). However, just wanted to bring this up sooner rather than later. I was having some serious performance issues on the Uncut maps (rest of Surface Tension was fine. Did a whole chapter play-though.)
Specific problem areas listed in spoilers for people who want it unspoiled.
[spoiler]The parking garage, but only when looking at the center area where the wreckage was (even happened when looking towards it from the outdoor area with the mounted gun and marines outside the garage. Can’t actually see it, but I still take a performance hit.)
The furnace room. Especially when the flames are on, but the rest of the time as well.
The helipad fight scene, especially when looking at the destroyed Osprey.
Fight scene outside the furnace building.
…I think that’s it?
[/spoiler]
I know most of these might be related to particle effects, but the strange thing is that the rest of the game runs buttery smooth for me. And these rooms will run between 50fps, which is perfectly acceptable, and as low as 24-30fps, which really isn’t. I have a i5-4460 and a GTX 980, so these really shouldn’t be issues for me, correct?
I’m hoping there just hasn’t been an optimization pass yet.
…On another note, FANTASTIC visuals and level design, guys. You all really outdid yourselves.
What is this “outside” thing you speak of.
Everytime I turn around there is a Black Mesa update, I continue to get my monies worth and more out of the game.
Great Work Crowbar Collective.
Okay so just downloaded the update and my verdict is: Woohoo, good stuff.
My only complaint is that I got confused after the pseudo-stealth portion because the guard didn’t follow me out the door immediately, so I thought the game was broken and I re-loaded a save point waaaay back to see if that would fix it (it didn’t). Because of this, the initial wave of aliens outside never spawned, and the only way to get the guy out of the door is to kill the second wave after mounting the .50 outside the security booth, thus triggering his next scripted sequence.
EDIT: Okay it seems that JeffMOD also has that issue.
I think it’s an issue with the choreo. We’ll have to debug it. It certainly isn’t by design!
I’d also like to point out that I absolutely love all the ways in which you guys showed the HECU getting their butts handed to them throughout the chapter. Absolutely fantastic.
Alright, I’ve got a follow up to one of the bugs I reported prior, and a couple general issues I noticed.
The hangar guard not following you outside the hangar seems to be caused by entering the trigger_multiple directly outside the hangar door before the guard has opened the door - hence any players who approach the hangar from the outside and try to get in at the start of the map will cause it to happen. Haven’t decompiled the map to look at the specific logic, but I assume something is being triggered once only in there. Easiest solution is probably to just disable that trigger_multiple until the player reaches a point where they can’t backtrack outside again. The bug also seems to right itself if you get close enough to the security booth to trigger the second wave of teleports, where the guard is given a new sequence to follow.
The general issues are both related to the options menu - on my machine (specs below) opening the options menu for the first time in a session leads to a rather long load time (upwards of 30 seconds) with audio stuttering - I seem to recall HL2 having a similar issue at some point, but it was a much shorter wait (around 5 seconds) and less noticeable due to the lack of menu music.
The second issue is that the god rays setting seems to keep turning itself off on game initialization, the way a few of the BM-specific settings used to in earlier builds.
PC specs:
Dell Latitude E5550
Intel i7 dual core @ 2.6GHz
8GB RAM
Windows 8.1 64-bit
NVIDIA GeForce 840M 4GB
I recorded an “initial playthrough” video last night (still processing ATM), though it was more of a “second playthrough” since my first attempt had some really annoying audio issues.
I’ll probably get around to digging deeper in search of bugs later today. Either way, fantastic job, guys!
In terms of bugs/issues I’ve noticed:
[spoiler]I can confirm I also had the hangar guard issue the first time around.
Also, one complaint - the part just outside the car workshop place (where the soldiers shoot out the vent) with all the Alien Grunts - IMO, that section is way too difficult compared to the rest of the chapter. When I was playing on hard, I spent an inordinate amount of time just trying to get past that section compared to the entire rest of the chapter because of how much damage the AGrunts do. I dunno if I’m alone on this, but I feel like it’s a bit of an excessive difficulty spike.[/spoiler]
I began to play Surface Tension and the place where u need to open the gate to walk into the mindfield. The truck is abit above the ground, also I see alot of blue, shadows on high.
Also in water the shadows make a weird appearance!
I had the hangar guard issue the first time I played through Surface Tension Uncut as well. Strangely, that didn’t happen to me when I played through it a second time. Maybe it’s just like what Jeff said that might be causing the issue.
It’s completely different than the mod version
Most of the time I just let the Xenians fight the soldiers, like at the helipad.
I did like the mod version alot, the Retail version is not so open, I mean it has alot of walls surrounding you
The helipad was better in the mod version, with a view on the hangarbay with fighters. Now the place is a square, helipad in the middle
Just my personal opinion!
Possible cause I played the Mod version alot in the past and a bit attached to it!
I’m agree with you about jets,Crowbar Collective designed such an amazing detailed vehicles and i really liked those jets in hangar and especially the take-off scene because you can see how much details they put into and you have an opportunity to see it closely.Also story-wise it’s a very significant moment that you can see how HECU are using facility hangars for bombardment and in retail version it seems like there are no fighter jets on airfield so they aren’t use the BMS property anymore like in the mod version i suppose?
Thanks for the debug. I have fixed this issue and it will be shipped out in the next patch. I think there’s more at play than just this specific thing, as there are issues inside the hangar too, but I’ll keep an eye out and try and sort it.
Don’t be blinded by nostalgia (god it sounds weird to say that about my own work). I’m not sure what you’re even playing but the retail uncut is outrageously more open than my mod uncut. Like…they’re not even close in terms of scale. Have you seen the retail skybox?! Have you seen the size of each playable area? I can’t think of even a single place except for the helipad which is more closed off or restrictive/walled than the mod version. Not one. Retail is considerably more open and large in scale. That was one of my main goals when I started working on it. This blows my old work absolutely out of the water, in every conceivable way. I’m incredibly proud of it!
Regarding the mod helipad - the helipad I designed for that made absolutely zero sense whatsoever. Why was it raised? What was the purpose? It literally achieves nothing except make it way more dangerous. Why is the helipad so close to the buildings? Look at the building surrounding the helipad and just the design of the surroundings. They make no sense. I had a cinderblock building flowing into a concrete bunker. I had a metal hangar connected to the same concrete bunker, with a bunch of other hangars to the side (which also made zero sense as well, because there’s nowhere for them to take off). Seriously, those hangars you feel so nostalgic about? They’re built around an enclosed courtyard that overlaps into the middle of H. There’s nowhere for the aircraft to go. They’re just sitting in a courtyard.
In retail we actually let the player go inside a detailed hangar, with a view of a properly designed airstrip. Have you actually looked out of the windows in the H hangar? The airstrip is ridiculously detailed and makes complete sense. Check it out, it’s one of my favourite details on the new maps.
On a side note, I’m curious as to how many players will find our different easter eggs, small details, alternate routes, hidden goodies, things like that. So far, haven’t heard any reports of any…
I already found
the alternate vent route leading up to the HECU shooting the vent out beneath you. Those goodies at the other end of the vent were bugging me way too much. 