Surface Tension Uncut - Re-Adding Cut Areas/Scenes (Expansion Project)

General Development Source 1
#1881

Noticed a few in my first playthrough

  1. Ive read that you dont want to switch out the soda machines one each level with a candy machine and understand thats a personel thing. However, the candy machines in the corners are gone did you forget them or just removed them completly?

  2. Barneys death pose just looks a little wierd with his body behind the desk with his legs just sticking up.

  3. The new placement of the mantanice sign looks akward and before when it was one the valve ( it looked weird there to). Maybe it it could go one the mantanice hatch itself.

Other then that on my first playthrough, it looks perfect. Amazing job text.

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#1882

I keep noticing throughout all three maps that items that like health packs that are placed on top of something like a box, have usually fallen through it and landed below. I’ve also been getting an unusuall ammount of ragdolls and destroyed vehicals that fall through the ground upon destruction. This has never happened before in these maps. I have however had it happen to me in other areas of Black Mesa. The thing is, restarting the game, which is what I would usualy do to fix the problem, doesn’t fix it. I’m going to replay the maps from the beginning again and see if it’s simply a save file problem where the glitch got saved in a session and carried over to later parts of these maps. (To be clear, my first playthough on this newest version was from your first map. I am going to start over from your first again and see if this glitch returns again.)

Edit: It was a save file problem. It did happen a bit more but it was nowhere near as bad as before.

#1883

Regarding Ulrik’s bugs

  1. Early triggering of battle outside the garage-Probably doesn’t need fixing. I could not trigger this w/normal gameplay or noclip (unless noclipping into the 3rd floor, which did and SHOULD have triggered it).

  2. Floating guns in the TOW courtyard-A nonissue. There is no way to see this w/o noclip.

1.0 RC critique
Gonna make this one quick.

General comments/suggestions
If you are still going to add some aesthetic touch ups, try NOT to do it in the garage and gasworks as these areas have really shitty performance already; any final optimizations here would be greatly appreciated. If this mod is not integrated w/BMS, you’ll likely have to come back and adjust the AI battle balance and update any bug fixes (e.g. garg, crossbow aim disappearing w/quick saves, etc.). Surprisingly, the mortar is fixed in this version.

Green=ammo/health, Red=bad

C2A5G
.50 cal vort shootout
Smooth out the lighting effect at the first light by the bend (image 1); it’s very abrupt/rectangular compared to the natural appearance of the rest of the lights.

Garage
The new door on floor 1 has an incandescent lighting effect that gives it a warm reddish appearance. Give it a more fluorescent/cooler color to keep consistency w/the lighting in this area.

Re-add the second striped line by the Humvee parking space to keep consistency w/the other spaces in the garage (image 2).

[COLOR=‘red’]Cover the area between the floor 2 ramp and the disjointed road w/debris to mask the fact that there should have been a connecting road there, like on the lower floor.

Vent drop/car shop
[COLOR=‘red’]Revert to .95b settings for the vent lighting. Really not liking the new target effects by the lights and the changes in the long corridor…it looks like this area is covered w/a laser grid now. This is completely inconsistent w/BMS as well as your C2A5I vent which doesn’t have the effect. In addition the car shop vent is also internally inconsistent as 3 of the lights are lacking the new effect.

[COLOR=‘Lime’]Reduce health dispenser to 50 (75 is way too much, also medkits in the courtyard).

TOW courtyard
[COLOR=‘Red’]Add invisible barriers above the harrier fence, petrol station fence, the door near the large vehicle, and by the high ground marine to prevent players from chucking missiles over these areas (similar to the furnace room changes). This will mess up the TOW counter and prevent the failure message from appearing. If it’s not too much of a strain on performance, couple the failure message to appear more tightly w/improper detonation of the last TOW as it currently takes ~5 sec. If you activate god mode and time yourself from the moment of the car shop trap detonation to the firing of the last TOW (w/o engaging any marines), you can delay activation of the TOW counter by this time, as players cannot realistically fire all missile so quickly.

Add a takeoff sound for the harrier and give it a smaller angle of ascent. Currently the player can see the harrier abruptly switch to horizontal w/o cheats, which looks awkward. With a smaller angle of ascent, you won’t need to make the harrier horizontal which bypasses the problem.

Still not digging the power generator area, if something really needs to be there, maybe switch the large water drums for more power generators.

Give the top of the Agrunt silo door a “lip” as it’s destructible and the same door type as the gasworks exit.
.
Osprey/LAV courtyard
[COLOR=‘red’]The positioning of the camera does not correlate w/the image on the Barney monitor in C2A5H. The monitor shows the helipad when it is viewed facing the TOW COURTYARD. It SHOULD show the helipad when facing C2A5H to realistically account for the camera’s positioning/angle. Simply take the correct screenshot and re-add it to the monitor. This is actually a MISTAKE on your part and should be fixed.

Give the lightly colored metal plates sitting atop the bunkers and adjacent regions the same gray texture as the C2A5A building to keep consistency w/ST, as the area can be seen by the player.

C2A5H
Opening section
If any place needs an aesthetic touch up, it’s really the area by the destructible wall. There’s some minor texture problems on the newer floor (can see square texture delineations) and the area looks really clean and bare. Plus the crates are awkward. Maybe use the same textures here as the early tunnel and add some blood stains and a dead marine.

Tank battle
[COLOR=‘red’]Fix this texture by the marine spawn near the hut. It also looks weird when illuminated (image 3).

Rooftop
Vort still seems to stand there and look stupid if he survives.

Move the maintenance access sign to the BASE of the red valve and have the sign come in contact w/the base of the valve (no gaps). This is the most logical placement. The sign should be readable (not upside down) when the player is turning the valve.

Gasworks to end
[COLOR=‘red’]Move this flame and the invisible wall more to the player’s left to improve pathing of the Agrunt as it’s currently really awkward (image 4). The vort’s behavior here is also buggy. If he is stationary, he will only fire 1 shot and stop. He only fires additional shots IF he moves. Also, the low ground vort’s behavior is kind of stupid…he has trouble recognizing the player even w/line of sight.

Got a really weird physics bug shortly after the aliens spawned which may have been triggered by toggling godmode and noclip or possibly by repeated quickloads. The aliens were immune to crossbow bolts and would sink into the ground when they died. Several props and ammo/health pickups did this as well and the issue persisted into FaF, where I stopped playing. This only happened on 1 playthrough.

The view of the LAV courtyard as shown on the monitor is incorrect (see above). All other monitors are fine.

Once the road door opens, delete the first white door to your right (by the crates). Note that this door is supposed to lead to the new area behind the hut but when viewed from w/in the hut, there’s just a wall in its place. Again this is a MISTAKE.

[b]C2A5I
Garg chase[/b]
Garg’s patrol path is slightly better at the pool now but he no longer patrols the long section of the reservoir.

Adjust the physics of the falling ceiling debris to eliminate bouncing. At end of the corridor, the first set of debris that falls is LIGHT BLUE, which is inconsistent w/the corridor. It should have the same color as the rest of the debris.

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#1884

Feedback for v1.0-RC1

  1. Water moisture decal on ground below leaking pipes at start of C2A5G and in bay outside of security office with zombie.
  2. Lessen volume of hum for electrical panels in store room just before carpark main door.
  3. Reduce open-close speed of main carpark door.
  4. HECU bodies clip through main carpark door.
  5. Zombie shadow and body clip through carpark stairwell door, level 2.
  6. Thought you re-did the ramp walls to eliminate angled seams (re: suggestion from Conti).
  7. Can a wall vent be added, in support of exterior AC unit, to inside carpark wall on level 1?
  8. In courtyard with vent access, illuminate lights over doors 2 and 3 and turn off light over door 1, to lessen obvious directional hint.
  9. New illumination decals missing from various vent red lights:
  • One in first vent at top of ladder.
  • Two on far side of broken vent in service garage.
  • Several in vent leading to garg encounter.
  1. In service garage, move red tool chests for middle service lift towards rear wall, to avoid potential clipping issues with service lifts.
  2. Aren’t the vehicles in the service garage facing the wrong way? They should be driven forward onto the service lifts. The way they appear now, they were driven backwards onto them. Yes, no?
  3. Can asphalt texture be unified to one type in TOW courtyard? (see picture).
  4. Given up on “air-launching” curb in TOW courtyard. You win.
  5. TOW courtyard ground texture seam issue (see picture).
  6. Ground texture seam issue in heli-pad area (see picture).
  7. Ashes fall through heli-pad floor to ground below.
  8. Make Barney in leisure-break room more visible. Remove right-side desk, have him on floor with body exposed and legs hidden behind left-side desk. Re-insert removed blood decal on top of left desk. It looked nice.
  9. Can anything be done to improve broken black mirror shards in bathroom?
  10. What’s holding up this dead HECU body? (see picture).
  11. One more contorted HECU dead body: in gasworks, leaning against sandbags with body arched backwards - OUCH, my aching back.
  12. Top of stairs in gasworks on left side, rail footings hover above platform (see picture).
  13. In gasworks in upper floor of security office, tripmine beams at desks terminate in mid-air. Rotate position of desks 180 degrees?
  14. In furnace, reverse flames extinguishing sequence, lower flame first, upper flame second.
  15. Any luck with finding a solution for side-by-side doors having different colors in tunnels of C2A5I?
  16. Any luck with finding a solution for carpark stairwell window frames having different colored/shaded segments?

Loved all the changes playing through v1.0-RC1. Great job, Text. The new lighting effect in furnace is great. To accentuate the effect further, can the light emitted from the light above the door be reduced? If you turn that light off, does the area become too dark?

Otherwise, stellar work you’ve done. You should be very proud.

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#1885

Full Walkthrough of Surface Tension Uncut w/ Developer Commentary and Comparisons with Half-Life[/SIZE]

Video’s done. I’m about to shoot a commentary-less playthrough to complement what I have now, which is more of a documentary than a playthrough. The commentary and footage are fine, it’s not my best one, I was a tad nervous, so I hope it turned out alright.

  1. I removed the candy machines completely. I may re-add them if I can find a decent place to put them. I was considering putting them on the stair wells but it creates the same design issue as before - you have to go miles to get candy if you want soda AND candy.

  2. Already fixed that.

  3. Will fix that.

It’s a Black Mesa/Save Game bug. I’d hazard a guess that it happens on more full BSPs (both G and H have 140% entity data), but I’m not sure. Nothing I can do about it.

Not gonna lie Wangman, while I appreciate your dedication to providing me feedback, some parts on this post seriously grated on me a little. You have a way of stating opinions as facts that can be a tad irritating at times, particularly when you’re not necessarily right. But still, thank you for the feedback, there is some good stuff here that I’m already working to address.

Here’s an example:

It’s all well and good to state your opinion firmly, and then write in big letters that it’s a MISTAKE on my part and that I SHOULD fix it, except you’re completely wrong. I’m not a total idiot, you know.

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Camera

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Me sitting on top of the camera

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View from Barney’s office

I’ll cover most of your red points, though again I’ve noticed you have a tendency to say things were better in the previous version when I haven’t changed them at all.

I cannot cover that area with debris as there is a giant hole there. The only solution to that would be to move the hole and I’m not sure I’m willing to do that, it’s a lot of work. It’s a design flaw inherent in my layout of the garage, mostly the hole, and it’s one I’m happy to live with. Remember most people don’t play the game with the critical eye that you do, it’s not necessarily a huge problem. I agree it’s not ideal…but, I have to call it a day somewhere.

The vent lighting is identical to 0.95b aside from the lighting overlay by each light, whose inconsistency I have already corrected. I moved the lights to match up with the center of each vent panel and that’s it. All other effects and everything else are the same as the previous version. 095b’s was not better for any other reason. The “laser grid” effect was on other versions too and is a result of the cubemapping reacting to the specular map. I’ve toned it down a bit but cannot remove it without eliminating specularity entirely.

I don’t particularly want to add barriers around the TOW courtyard. Simply put, if the player starts throwing TOW missiles out the map, they’re a fucking moron. If they start complaining about it being poor map design that allows them to do that, I’ll already know that they’re a fucking moron and ignore them. Why would anyone do that? Even protecting against someone putting the valve in the furnace felt a bit too much to me, but that makes a lot more sense than someone deciding they should throw the TOW missiles out the map. The entity count is way to high for me to decide to add 10 or so func_clip_vphysics, to safeguard against a possibility that is ridiculous and dumb. I have to draw a line somewhere. The player could also stack satchels underneath a TOW missile, blow it sky high, and get it stuck ontop of the lamppost. Should I guard against that too? As for the delay, I added it on purpose, during testing you failed the moment you FIRED the last TOW missile, which was too abupt and jarring. I’ve reduced the delay from 5 to 3 seconds.

I will fix the texture by the Marine hut. I know what’s causing it, so that’s not a problem to solve.

I’ll attempt to address the buggy AI around the pipe jumps. I don’t really know what causes it.

Physics bug - been talked about. Engine bug - restart game.

The door? Eh. Already said it’s not a big issue for me. Might get rid of it, might not. I like the way it looks. I could shuffle the layout of the other room around and add a door to that one, rather than take away one there. We’ll see.

Cheers for the feedback. Will go point for point. Be warned, I estimate only 60% of your stuff is feasible.

  1. Can’t happen. The leak is present in the transitional area at the end of C2A5F, meaning as the level transition happens to C2A5G that stain will just appear randomly. I cannot edit anything early on in the level, for this reason, hence why I haven’t.
  2. Yep, though that’s the way BM had it.
  3. Eh. Seems alright to me.
  4. Can’t do anything about poor ragdoll collision.
  5. Shadow, might be able to fix, clipping, no. Aside from making him not able to go near the door, which would be even stupider.
  6. No. Read what I said again. I said it looks crap, and it does. You can clearly see the repeating texture. It’s better at an angle.
  7. Yeah, maybe.
  8. It didn’t look good. I tried it. The illumination reflecting off the top of the boxes you climb onto looks nice, too.
  9. The first missing decal was intentional, the rest were accidental. Have addressed it.
  10. Eh, the layout here’s the same as the garage in C2A5D. It’s consistent.
  11. Again, C2A5D.
  12. It’s consistent with the larger roads throughout the rest of ST. Take a look at C2A5D.
  13. I fixed it, though you clearly haven’t noticed. Clipping the top off stopped you from flying quite so high. I didn’t “win” anything. This isn’t a contest, that’s a bit of a childish comment really.
  14. Not easily fixable. Curved texture alignment is a total and utter pain in the ass. Might not even be possible.
  15. Yeah I know about that. It comes from using 2 different textures - one which blends sand and fine sand, and has no plants, and one which blends sand and rock. Not sure I can fix it without changing the texture, which I can’t do - or you’ll have plants growing through the army tent.
  16. I know, I keep forgetting to fix this one. It’s only supposed to happen for a few seconds after the Manta.
  17. Done.
  18. Nope. Consistent with C2A5F, too.
  19. The poor collision mesh of that desk is what’s holding him up. I’ll address it by making my own.
  20. Will fix. Though I’m sure back aches are the least of his concerns!
  21. Will fix.
  22. Another desk collision mesh failure. Will sort it out.
  23. Good point.
  24. Nope. It’s a bug present in Black Mesa by default too. I’ve noticed it on doors on We’ve Got Hostiles. It’s a lighting bug.
  25. Another lighting bug. They all use the same texture.

Cheers for the extensive feedback, hope my reply answers some concerns.

#1886

They fit perfectely those vending machines, but just add a candymachine to it, I really like them, but they seem to clean overthere, there is a big fight, alot of destruction, and u see two brand new candy machines…

I want a candy aswell, I’m hungry

#1887

Everything worked great. The only thing I really noticed is that when the security guard survivor says “that sounded bad” as you’re about to come down the stairs it sounds like it is coming from where he used to stand. Everything else looks great. I like the new vent lights and they fit in with ones you see in forget about freeman. Maybe you could make the sniper take more damage so it takes two rockets to kill him. Congrats on release

#1888

Re camera: the only one that was present previously was the one by the marine spawn, hence it was a mistake. This new camera addresses it…I just didn’t notice it.

RE giant hole in garage: if you don’t want to move it that’s fine. What I’m saying is that you can place more debris closer to the hole and use the debris to MASK the beginning of the disjointed road and over the areas where a road SHOULD have been. The hole is just a relic of the second jump pad and doesn’t need to be there anyway. You could remove it, add the road decal to connect the ramp and the disjointed road like in floor 1 and then re-add the hole if you still want it.

Re TOW: you already did the hard work of setting up the counter…might as well make it work effectively w/ barriers so long as it doesn’t affect performance. It might be possible to launch the missiles over w/explosives cast mid-battle anyway.

Re door: If you reshuffle the room, you can just mirror the white door and swap the non-functional blue door for a white one.

#1889

I can’t describe how thankful I am in words, but I better not cross past a verbal act of gratitude, right? :3 Ever thought about living from work in the videogame industry? I’m sure there’s some mapping talent on the other side.
And again, great extra game time for the game/mod, great British accent and nice to listen to video commentary (something BM lacks)

I don’t know what else, maybe just… do more mapping and I will like you even more :smiley: but of course it’s not like I won’t if you don’t do so.
Oh, and my dog’s name is… okay, gonna stop now.

Whatever you do next please be it with as much patience and passion for your art (art, not work) because sometimes people leave their hobbies behind for some reason (my friend is/was? good at drawing but he lost interest) and I wouldn’t want the same thing to happen in anyone’s case, especially talented individuals.

But not to eat too much sugar from your bottom (weird phrase for sure) I want to say that anyone who does a free stuff for us, the Half-Life community, deserves respect, but we shouldn’t forget that even more thanks goes to the Black Mesa devs as this wouldn’t have been possible without their sweat and lot of coffee spent as well, not to mention Valve for releasing some of their tools to modders.

There’s no such thing as too much Half-Life, so looking forward to more, like BM: Blueshift, BM: Uplink, BM: Hazard Course among others and other to this mod unrelated projects as well.
So hopefully this comment of mine will give to all of you some warm appreciation, but possibly (hopefully not) decaying teeth as well.
:freeman:

#1890

Great video TextFAMGUY1 ! Here’s mine about the bug with the early start of the script I talked. The qualité is not very good but I think we can clearly see the problem :
https://youtu.be/DNBCyPFy7tE

EDIT: Could you add subtitles to your map ? There is subtitles only for the guard speech in c2a5h but not for the radio or the “shh, quiet…” just before the garage.

#1891

Best Quotes of the Comm.[/SIZE]

Best quotes of previous comm video[/SIZE]

#1892

Here is my feedback for v1.0-RC1:

1)After tank destroying at the second map, there is broken asphalt but cables are untouched. Is its possible to cut them while manta ray passes by?

2)Soviet vehicle. Again.

3)Sometimes Barney stuck at the doors.

4)I think roof windows would looks much better if you would add frames to them.

5)Windows at the security office has different textures on the reverse sides.

6)Few words about columns. Valve used not only models for the same tunnel columns: undamaged columns was created by the brushes, and damaged was created by the models. Thats why you did not found them. Please, use also brush-based columns from the hl2 tunnel maps, because current columns looks ugly.

And about outside textures of the parking building… I have never seen variegated buildings. I think it is looks stupid and it is better to place here regular building texture.

#1893

TextFAM, first of all let me say you did a really good job in the maps. I watched again the very first video you did about the maps and compared with the last one, and the leap of quality is quite significant. Just see again yourself. Even you as the map developer will be surprised.

So, now that you are giving the finishing touches in the design, I can finally give you the aesthetics feedback I was waiting for. But for this, I ask you to hold the final release for a week. Yes… A week!

I know you want to release your baby as it is ASAP, but I was planning on doing this for a while and I promise: it is huge, with many screenshots. I’ll replay the whole game looking on how to improve even more your maps, comparing with the BM standards and looking for some aesthetics changes with sharp eye. Not only in design decorations, but lighting and ambient sounds too, to make all consistent and seamless with the main maps. And this, unfortunatelly, demands some time (oh how I miss my free weekends!). Don’t worry, I’ll not suggest big redesigns, just minor retouches; and you can do as you please and don’t need to explain me why you not adressed them (as you usually do) if you not want to!

Can you give me that time, please? If yes, I will begin my playthroughs right now and keep in touch with you until the deadline. If not… Ok, I’ll forget the idea and follow with my life considering your baby as final.

#1894

This pretty much all sounds about right. I’m guessing that I’m probably going to end up moving the hole anyway, though it’s a right pain in the ass because it’s made up of about 30 brushes. Everything else I guess I can agree with, I’ll get on it. I’ve been pretty good with feedback so far into this RC, pretty much every issue that I’ve agreed with that’s been posted since RC1 has already been fixed.

Wow, thanks man. You said lots of really nice things here and it certainly made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I actually would LOVE to work in the video game industry but I don’t have the first idea of where to start, and no prior experience outside of Source mapping as a hobby. I’m not sure it’s a realistic goal, as much as I’d like to do it. Still, thank you for the kind words. It’s helped to motivate me.

Thank you. I don’t know how to do subtitles, so I can’t really. Was the “shhh, quiet” bit subtitled in Black Mesa’s C2A5G? It’s done by an ambient_generic so I’d imagine it wasn’t. I still don’t have a clue how you’re managing to trigger the script on the street, but I’ve extended the playerclip to go even further into the garage.

Thank you for the feedback. Will go point-for-point.

  1. Not possible. I can detach the ropes from their start/endpoints but it will DEFINITELY end up looking like crap. I can’t cut them down the middle (not easily, at least). Logically, they’d be cut down the middle from the Manta beam.

  2. Fixed.

  3. Can’t do ANYTHING about this. This happens a lot on Questionable Ethics too.

  4. I’ve added frames. I’m not sure it looks a great deal better, but we’ll see.

  5. Fixed.

  6. I didn’t know about this, but looking at the column, it’s just a 6-sided half-cylinder on either side of a square column. So, I’ve made my own, and put it around the parking lot in places. Nice find. Thanks. Fixed.

That’s a very, very generous offer Conti, I appreciate you wanting to dedicate the time and the effort to making this project even better, I really do. Thanks, A LOT. I was hoping for a Wednesday FINAL release, now that you’ve mentioned that. I can definitely have RC2 pretty much ready by tomorrow. A week is a long time, and it’s a shame, because I’d love the detailed feedback from someone with as sharp an eye as you.

Another, perhaps unknown aspect to my desire to finish this up, which the community may or may not have picked up on, is that I’m getting close to burning out. I’d really like to draw a line under this, soon. Remember, this is the FIRST map I’ve ever made for a singleplayer game ever. I’ve had to learn so much and work so quickly. Perhaps 2 months doesn’t sound like “quickly” - well it really, REALLY is for someone who has been learning as they’ve gone along. Especially working on their own in terms of actual workload (obviously the feedback from the community has been a double-edged sword that’s gone a long way - without the feedback you’d probably have a much lower quality product but I might have finished it up A LOT sooner and still kept some of my sanity!) So, I really don’t know. I need to make up my mind.

One one hand, I’d really love to see your detailed feedback, I’m sure I’d learn a lot and take a lot in from it, improving this even further. On the other hand, I’m not sure how much more I can realistically handle. I’m one mapper, and I’m a mapper far less talented than the Black Mesa team, working on my own, in my spare time. And it’s consumed FAR too much of my spare time!

Weighing it up now, the extra feedback is just too good to pass up. I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas in detail, and assuming it doesn’t drive me over the edge, it sounds like you have a lot to offer to make this much better. I agree to it. HOWEVER, I will implement your feedback as I go along, meaning there’ll still be Release Candidates being fired out every couple of days. This is good - it allows me to keep the “finishing” spirit and momentum moving, whilst also simultaneously testing what sounds to me like a lot of small changes that you’re going to suggest.

So, my answer is yes, to an extent. Thanks again, Conti.

#1895

Somebody buy this man a coffee machine. :smiley:
Don’t want him to stop just yet. He’s almost there, and still there is room to improve on what is already awesome.

#1896

Naah, Text is a beer guy.

#1897

If I could send some quality liquor I certainly would. I liked seeing the old maps compared to the new in the latest commentary video and being reminded of where the general design ideas came from. It’s really interesting to see how far level design has come since half-life. If you showed the developers back then what one guy can do now while not even working for a studio they would have shat their pants for sure.

Thank you for all of the great work you put into this uncut Text. I used to make maps with hammer for half-life so I really do know how much work and time in the editor it takes to fix these things how frustrating it can be. Also I’m sure that not only has your mapping improved from this project, but also your experience in dealing with criticism and feedback. You’re actually better at addressing such things than most developers are.

You certainly deserve a break and I really hope you take one soon so you don’t burn out from mapping. After playing through the entire Black Mesa campaign over two days I can certainly say that your additions made the climax of Surface Tension all the better. It’s a breathtaking chapter and honestly has the best combat that BM has to offer.

If you do take a break after the final release of ST-uncut I really hope you decide to add on to ‘On a Rail’ in the future. I think with OaR it would be much more of an optional additional content type thing rather than something that simply makes the story make a lot more sense like the ST-Uncut project has been. The Black Mesa version of OaR is actually pretty good and works great for a streamlined version of the original. Even so, there’s A LOT of really cool content left out that could be re-envisioned and I’m absolutely sure that a lot of people would still download and enjoy a lengthened version. Cheers.

#1898

I think you’re selling yourself short. When you’re a developer, it’s easy to lose perspective because all you see are the bugs – the BM mappers probably view their own work just as critically as well. It always looks better to the users on the outside, and as an outsider I honestly don’t see a huge gap in the talent.

Anyway I noticed this little annoyance. Textures overlap right here, causing flicker if you move around while looking at it:

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#1899

Full Playthrough of ST Uncut - No Commentary (Normal Playthrough)[/SIZE]

Video released. It’s just a full playthrough from my perspective of the ST Uncut chapters. It’s for those who aren’t quite interested enough in my project to watch the 55 minute commentary video, but still want to sample it before an install or whatever. It’s just a clean, simple, unedited playthrough of the chapters from my perspective.

Apologies in advance for my insane twitchiness when I play. I play on 3200dpi with 12 sensitivity. I actually forgot about 1 minute into recording that I was recording, so ended up playing it how I would normally play it, which is very fast in terms of viewpoint movement. Sorry if you get a headache!

I won’t stop just yet, don’t worry. I still got another week or two left in me. I will make this the best it possibly can be, given my “talent” and limitations.

Damn straight! I don’t know quite how it is in the US, but here in the UK, university is basically a really expensive way to get drunk! I kid, I kid. It’s cool, alcohol makes my mapping more inspired.

I appreciate the kind words, and thank you sir. You’ve provided consistently excellent and thorough feedback, so you partly have yourself to thank for the product you’re looking at now. I’m dead serious! We’ve had our ups and downs, but the community’s been great for this one! Even though I’m the only actual “developer” in the traditional sense, I consider you all a part of the team, as corny as that might sound! I’ve tried very hard to engage with the community as best I can as I feel that is one of the most important things to do as a dev, something which I think modern developers have really overlooked in recent times. I fail to see any downside to doing so! ALL it’s ever done during this project (aside from frustrating me one or two times) is make my work 10X better than it would have been without.

I won’t burn out from mapping, I really love it. I’ve put this kind of attention and effort into my 3 CS maps, though that was with a skillset that was considerably more limited than what I’ve developed from this project. I’m so glad I did it! I am twice the mapper I was when I was doing CS maps. The effort isn’t the problem here. It doesn’t phase me.

I don’t know what the future holds for me, in terms of work for Black Mesa. OaR Uncut is just a concept at the moment, primarily because I too feel that it worked pretty well as a condensed chapter. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, you can tell that OaR’s “shrinkage” was a result of a refined and consolidated, but clear and obvious vision, unlike Surface Tension which was CLEARLY hastily (and poorly) cut. I’m more loathe to mess with that, as I quite like OaR in BM, even though it’s missing a few tones from HL1, it does considerably improve on it in some areas.

Regardless, I WILL say that I have MAD RESPECT for the BM Devs. As lacking as Surface Tension was in some areas, the areas which existed were still fantastic, and I know the kind of work involved in what they’ve done. I genuinely do think they’re far better mappers than I. I’ve only been able to get close to what they’ve done through emulation and hands-on learning, often using what they’ve done as an example. It’s been great, but I’m looking forward to moving on too. I am very proud of my work, I hope the it catches on with the wider community. Once the final final final final version rolls around, I will try and reach a much wider audience with it.

Thank you. It’s really nice to hear kind words from the community. I appreciate it. In all honesty my development ethic (in terms of workflow, I guess) is far less professional than most. I tend to map on a whim. I do whatever I feel like, whenever I feel like there’s no organization to what I do and how I map, and it kinda shows in the editor, and costs me a lot of time. Sometimes I’ll fully detail an area when I’ve JUST STARTED the map, because I was motivated and enjoying myself. I might then block out an area near the end when I get bored. I might then decide to work on scripted sequences (basically what I did with C2A5H, the street fight was scripted before I’d even blocked out half the map). But…that’s sadly how I operate in life. It does make me an inferior mapper in a sense, but it doesn’t necessarily produce inferior results. If that makes any sense at all. That’s how I like to see it. You can tell the Black Mesa maps were planned well in advance in many areas; not so with mine.

As for the texture overlap you mentioned, I can probably REDUCE it a little, but fixing it isn’t exactly easy. That’s one of the disadvantages of model based destruction, it’s a little less flexible in that sense.

#1900

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Could you make the shards the same as the shiny metal?:
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or reflective like a puddle if possible, the hand dryers are also still black

in c2a5i, the music needs more time to get into the looping beat, currently the player gets through the vents too quickly and when you drop through the vent it skips to the main chorus,
have the music start much earlier in the level so it can get into the loop somewhere during the vent, or make the vent sequence longer.

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.