dude we are Valve fans, you can take your time
What the HELL is going on!?! You keep on making promises and then you break them. You’ll fit right in if you become a BM Dev. You keep putting yourself ahead of all others, which is selfish as HELL! You’re an idiot… that’s right, a big stupid idiot. Why are you doing this to all of us??? We all thought that you cared. This kind of immature behavior has got to stop!!! Oh, sorry, I’m so very, very tired. Sheesh! You’ve never listened to us or done what we’ve asked. Do you know what this all means, huh… huh? It means that when we tell you to slow down and pace yourself, in order to prevent a potential burnout,… you should listen to us (Did I take this too far? Were your “nellies” binding up and contorting?)
Text, you don’t own us any apologies, but it’s very kind that you did so, multiple times, yet. Considering the monumental amount of AAA work and effort that you’ve poured into this project, you’ve more than earned entitlement to a take a break, which is fully deserved, to say the least. We all understand. Rest up and come out swinging tomorrow. You take care now.
You… you, it’s always about you, isn’t it. What about us, eh? We have feelings too, ya’ know! Suuure, go ahead and delay the release, again, what do you care. It’s no skin off your… um… er… ok… I’ll stop now and be on my merry way. Ta, ta.
I say take your time, if I could wait 7 years for Black Mesa, than this is nothing. On another hand, I wonder how much an update to Black Mesa will mess up your work…
Indeed take your time with it. I was honestly surprised you said you were going to release Thursday anyways it seems really soon after the last one. It’s great news that all of the major bugs have been overcome. This is exactly what I mean with things coming together in time. Hopefully things will go well and you can move towards an official release past beta soon and then take a much earned break for the holidays before possibly starting up an OaR uncut or rather additional content for OaR if that’s the direction you’d like to go next. Cheers
A couple of days of delay for a release here on the BM forum?
It’s nothing. Like others said, no need to apologize at all. You’re doing a great work and you’re doing it alone and fast! We are all going to be nothing but grateful.
[COLOR=‘Red’]Update: Released![/SIZE]
Latest Version: 0.95 Beta. Download here.[/SIZE]
Apologies for the delays guys, but this is a very big and nice version, hopefully to compensate.
Any serious issues please report clearly and immediately so I can get together a hotfix. As this version contains quite a few new/changed assets it’s possible I packaged it wrongly missing something out. So please let me know.
I’m hoping for this to be the final beta release, so ANY feedback left to give, please do so now, or forever hold your peace. Once the final version is out I do not plan on making any further changes to it, I will draw a line underneath it (except for serious problems, of course).
I also apologize if I miss errors you’ve pointed out previously - there was a tonne of feedback to trawl through and stuff can and does get missed. Please don’t take offense. Just re-iterate your criticisms and I will work hard to fix it for the final version. I appreciate all the feedback and criticism I’ve got from this community, and thanks for helping me along this wild ride guys!
If you still wish to help me further - here’s what you can do: promote me! Does someone complain about Surface Tension in the cafeteria? Point them in the direction of this thread. Let people know about this project! Now that we’re near the end of the development stage, I want this shit to get popular! I want people to pick it up and play it now, outside of this small mapping subforum on the Black Mesa site. Tell people on other forums about this, help me to spread this uncut goodness. I’d really love it if you helped me out with this. (Just don’t make thread postings for it - I’m planning on making a thread on Facepunch and ModDb once the final version is out).
08/12/12
==095b== <-- Surface Tension Uncut - What’s with this guy’s version numbering? Edition
Assorted/General
-Fixed many problems with clipping on all 3 maps. There’s still some in quite a few places, but often it’s necessary or unavoidable. I won’t mention all the instances of clipping I fixed as the changelog will be massive, but I fixed a lot.
-Added a few more hidden goodies around the maps.
C2A5G
-Miscellaneous cleanups to the Garage’s aesthetic, mostly involving lines.
-Changed all vending machines for the purple and orange soda machines, because I just love the purple/orange lighting combination. Moved Snack machines to by the side doors.
-Aligned parking bays much better, as well as the columns they were painted around.
-Aligned and fixed (increased resolution) of many of the lightmaps in the parking lot, to reduce the appearance of disjointedness. As a bonus, shadows should also be much clearer.
-Re-impaled the marine in a better position.
-Added an invisible blockLOS func_breakable around the window the player looks out of onto the street fight. It breaks automatically after 7 seconds, or breaks instantly upon receiving any damage. Allows the player to observe the fight without the enemies randomly attacking him, but is non-exploitable.
-Replaced the ladder leading up to the vent with some stacked boxes. Looks way better, and doesn’t have the problems the ladder had.
-Fixed an unreported bug with the Snarks in the vent where they all spawned facing away from the player, so then had to turn around to attack. Looked ridiculous.
-Made a few aesthetic changes to the garage. In particular moved the car-lift you use to jump out the window to be aligned with the garage door. Makes the jump tougher, but looks way better.
-Significantly fixed up the ambush sequence to actually look good now. Has a much nicer particle/smoke effect, and a smoother transition.
-One Free Man (Facepunch) fixed the UV mapping bug on the debris from the roof collapse caused by the ambush for me. Many thanks to him for squashing this persistent bug.
-Made the jeep outside the window destructible, just to keep things interesting.
-Removed the large pylon by the side of the TOW courtyard, which disappears later on in the level due to areaportals. A sad loss, but its replacement (some composting towers/coolant tanks) looks just as good.
-Finally fixed the damn Harrier take-off so it isn’t tilted prior to launch. The take off still isn’t particularly smooth, but it’s better.
-SIGNIFICANTLY adjusted the LAV fight in a large variety of ways:
-Moved the deployable sentry from the back of the earlier M35 over to the table by the sequence. Allows the players to use it at the end.
-Added an invisible BlockLOS func_breakable around the army tent, again with a timer to destroy it, or killed on damage. Allows the player to observe the battle relatively safely.
-Changed the method used to make the marines run to the Osprey, from scripted_sequence (very limited, overrides their AI, small pauses happen in transition) to path_corners (allows AI to operate while running). It looks far more natural and they now fight back while running to the Osprey.
-The Marine at the back of the group now stops by the cover on the helipad to protect his friends.
-Added a second AGrunt pursuing the escaping marines.
-Removed all but one AGrunt from spawning in the second wave of Aliens. It is now 1 AGrunt and about 5 Vorts.
-Made it so the Marines which emerge from the tunnel group together rather than splitting up. 3 of them run to the truck, the other one flanks.
-Added 2 AGrunts which spawn after the LAV has fully emerged from the tunnel. They will run up to it and melee it to death (fairly consistent, happens ~90% of the time for me).
-Aliens should now win the fight almost every single time.
C2A5H
-Lowered the window running around the tunnel at the beginning a bit just to make more sense.
-Fixed a potential problem with the Snark spawns which may have been causing “phantom snarks” to appear later on (normally in the furnace room). Not sure if this has fixed the bug or not, but I haven’t got it once since this “fix”.
-Switched the explosive barrels on the roof for explosive crates to make it more obvious that the sniper will shoot them.
-Finally, after many complaints from the community - relented on my design decision concerning the Sniper. There is now an invisible wall behind him, meaning a RPG shot straight into his bunker will kill him nearly every time. Wasn’t happy about doing this, so I hope it pleases you.
-Added a large pipe in the water tank, underneath the Satchel Pipe, which allows players to climb onto it to get an easy hop up into the Satchel Pipe. Makes getting into it WAY less frustrating now.
-Reduced the flame size of the fires in the gasworks a lot, reducing clipping. Also removed their smoke which caused a lot of clipping.
-Fixed lots of general clipping errors in the Furnace Room, and adjusted the layout a bit. The only serious bit of clipping left (which is the pipes through the girders supporting the water tank) is unavoidable, and I can’t really fix this.
-Fixed up a lot of the quantization errors present on the furnace (caused by Hammer being a buggy piece of shit, not me). There should only be one or two visible seams now.
-Added 2 batteries inside the janitor’s closet, to help players in the next 3 fights.
-Changed the gasworks pipe layouts significantly to reduce clipping and to make a lot more sense. All the pipes and tanks underneath the jumping puzzle should look WAY better now.
-SIGNIFICANTLY changed Barney’s choreography and opening dialogue, so it wasn’t a carbon copy of the one you hear on C2A5F. This required a helluva lot of work with Faceposer; a program I knew nothing of how to use when I did this. I hope you guys like it, I think it’s a lot better, even if it has its problems.
-Fixed the gasworks garage door in 2 ways - the buttons should now work properly every time (silly bug made them not work properly), and I gave it a “lip” - it sticks out a little bit when it opens so the door doesn’t appear to vanish into infinite nothingness once it’s open.
-Removed the second Apache crash. Having so much activity in this small airspace just wasn’t believable. I will miss it, but it had to go.
-Moved the 3 Osprey Evac to earlier on - when the player emerges from the gasworks. Should be more visible now.
-Made it to that Barney auto-follows the player after opening the doors for him.
-Added an MP5 grenade (FaF prep) to one of the boxes the player breaks near the end.
C2A5I
-Added a sequence where Barney says goodbye now, rather than you having to awkwardly leave him behind.
-Fixed some persistent clipping with the pipe near the end of the level.
-Changed the vent near the beginning of the map to have a proper cover.
-Made it so Barney shouts “good luck!” as you head into the vent. Goodbye pal.
-Moved the Snark nests to where the Snarks spawn so they don’t appear to spawn in thin air.
-Fixed it so the Garg sequence SHOULD NO LONGER happen while you’re still in the vent.
-Added some boxes under the 50 cal so they no longer appear to be floating.
-Added invisible blocks on top of the jump pads which only block physics objects, so that the Garg’s gibs don’t fall onto them and crash the game.
-Reduced the speed at which the doors at the end of the level open from 2 to 1.5.
I have been excitedly waiting for this update for the past several days. Thank you so much!
Oh, good to hear that a number of problems solved. Now surely will test the new version. Thank you, TextFAMGUY1!
Map I:
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Vending machines: Maybe, just place one candy and one soda on each level (change a soda with candy and remove the candy on the other wall)
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U add crates to those vent, but something is wrong when I’m on top of it, it seems I’m too low and I need to use crowbar above my head, when vent breaks I’m on normal level
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Did u change those light holes when marines shoot on u when u are in vent?
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Lower lifts on the two other cars, cause without ramps they look unrealistic
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Lift is indeed challenging, but succeeded the first time
Map II
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Maybe make a little challenge on landingpad, cause u don’t need to use landingpad of those destroyed chopper, u can just run to the door, maybe add an obstacle, so we need to use the ramp, run on landingpad and jump down to door (it’s more HL style like this)
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Maybe possibility to add an usuable door where those guard zombie is banging his head, to help him out of his misery
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Toilet door with headcrabs, in real they open to the inside, maybe possibility to change this?
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Maybe add rectal scanner for Barney at those door u cannot open urself (realistic, so only guards can open them)
[b]
That’s all, very well done, I hope u address this little things for final release…
THANKS![/b]
Just wanna thank you for moving the Snack Master to a higher floor, it’s provided some nice amusement. I managed to nudge it over the edge and the jump pad bounced it right back up to my level, where it was deflected by the soldier’s arm and fell down to bounce back up again and hit me in the face!
I don’t know if it’s just because Black Mesa is in a good mood, or if you optimized it super well, but I’ve been playing with this for nearly ten minutes and the game still hasn’t crashed. Bravo!
My only suggestion- can we please get a drink from the vending machines?
Gordon’s surely getting thirsty at this point from all the heavy lifting I’m making him do.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. So far I’m glad to hear nothing major has surfaced.
The feedback’s good mostly but I had to highlight this. While the typo is hilarious and I certainly would LOVE to have rectal scanners on C2A5H, the more serious point - that there should be a retinal scanner, is something I have objected to many times and will continue to. I’m afraid I won’t do this. I HATE escort quests. As it stands, having Barney survive and accompany you to the end is an optional goal - you can still reach the end without him. I hate having to rely on AI to complete a task and I just think escort quests suck in general. So I won’t change it, I’m afraid.
The Soda machines I don’t know exactly how Black Mesa made them dispense drinks, but I know my own way of doing it. I’ll take a look on Office Complex to see how they did it but I’m fairly sure I know how - func_button combined with point_template and env_entitymaker.
I’m Belgian, now I see the little mistake with great impact if this scanner would be used :lol:
Edit: The game crashed after retrying the tank battle a couple of times.
I think that was the most enemies I’ve ever seen onscreen in Black Mesa!
console.zip (32.9 KB)
gotta say, you are the sweetest man in the world for putting that pipe in the satchel charge scene
Alright just did my play through and noticed on C2A5G that the 3d skybox is an older from past versions and does not match the one in C2A5H. Meaning the one in C2A5G is missing the gas towers from the refinery.
Right at the start of C2A5H, When the alien grunt throws the soldier threw the wall the blood spatter is on the wall before the grunt throws him threw.
Now the major game breaking bug. I dont know if it was just me, hopfully more people can confirm this but was I was playing c2a5h, I quick saved, died, reloaded, came back and noticed everything had lossed its hit detection. From the abrams to dead bodies, boxes, crossbow bolts rockets, mp5 gernades that the player fires goes threw the floors and walls. Boxes floated threw the air in zero g and as I made it threw to c2a5I the bug had followed me there. I couldent destroy the tower with the mortor because it went right threw it. Anyone else get this, plz dont let it be just me.
The scene with the tank is where the game is generally most likely to crash due to the vast amount of AI in operation. I’ve never had it myself but it seems like it could hurt weaker systems (is your system “weaker?”). Shouldn’t happen too often though.
Heh thanks. It was always something I’d meant to fix but was never quite sure how. Then I realized a pipe within a pipe - pipeception, would be the best way, even if it looks a bit off.
The physics bug is a Black Mesa (and possibly Source engine, not sure) bug. It happens on default maps sometimes too. The only way to fix it is to restart the game. It will be fixed when you restart. It is not my fault, it’s either a problem with the game or the engine.
That’s part of the engine. Gotta reboot your client for it to go away.
TextFAMGUY1:
Indeed, the tanks and electrical transformers scene takeoff blocked and some players can focus on the irreversible rise of AV-8, but it looks better, much better. And yet, why not try to make a scene with the slow movement of take-off the field and the subsequent vertical take-off? This point still does not look too natural unfortunately, although it has great potential. Sorry to bother you with this. 
A good solution LAV, now aliens easily blow it up. Do you plan to publish the video with commentary to the new version?
Found this weird visual glitch…
By the way I made a walkthrough of your maps with net_graph 3 if you want all the pics I’ve done(61), tell me and I’ll send you the link via PM.
I downloaded and extracted the files from the latest version but they dont show up. Like the button on the door in the beginning isnt there. Help please