It’s a specially made skybox texture; when you teleport, the Osprey turns 180 degrees, giving you a view of Xen. Up looks like this.
In Half-Life you could look around freely, so that wasn’t an option
I can think of at least one way to simulate that effect with a free camera in Source… although I’m not sure if it would work since I haven’t tested it yet. 
Okay, okay… why do these beta maps look 100% cooler than the final maps? The colors, the lighting, the overall design… it’s similar to the final designs… but it’s better.
These maps are indeed far better than the final ones.
Do you think the Black Mesa version of Xen should show…
… the lifecycle of headcrabs? Alien Grunts?
… the living conditions of the Vortigaunts in greater detail?
… antlions in their natural habitat?
… what the G-man meant when he said “Xen, is in our control, for the time being”?
… what happened to the scientists the xenians kidnapped?
… the ties between the Nihilanth and the Combine in greater detail?
… the Vortigaunts breaking free from the Nihilanth? (Vortigaunt uprising, some people talked about this)
… the origins of the crystal sample? (Valve had intended for it to have been taken from the Nihilanth’s chamber.)
Answering these questions brings the mod further into fanon territory, so it’s a risky endeavour.
I am looking forward to seeing the vast expanses of impossible space brought to life in a 3D skybox. Do they have clouds on xen? Do they have rain and thunder? There are so many options, and it can be done so brilliantly, if enough effort is put into it. I won’t mind waiting.
do, to the fact valve gave them the right to sell black mesa, something tells me what ever tehy do to xen will be canon. that being said they will have to watch their steps and consider the lore of half life before they do anything. 90% of the things we have talked about here might break the lore.
Things I know will not.
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the vort uprising, this happened, in fact Gordon was to lead it, but to do technical limitations, and probably the fact that players kept shooting the vorts, this was never done, yet it still happened.
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the origins of the crystal like mentioned above
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they could put remains of science team bases, and even some survivors on xen, this would not remove the lone man on a mission feel, as even the man on a mission needs a map.
It would be good to expand vorts’ liberation to show why vorts love freeman so much in HL2, especially EP2
don’t the colors and lighting look better mostly because it’s being run on Source?
That particular video was not running in Source. The original files in the leak were Source VMF files, but they were proted to GoldSrc for that particular video. So, clearly GoldSrc could handle those visuals. I think the art design and level construction are just better here. I hope the Devs take some cues from this… I’m really anxious to see what they do with it.
From the description:
I figured as much due to the flashlight behavior, but decided to double-check as to not make a fool of myself.
This is EXACTLY what I’m hoping for. These concepts provide a lot of awesome visual/story/gameplay opportunities for Xen without going waaay off the hizzy cannon-wise… It’ll be fresh and new, but still firmly seated in the Half-Life universe. 
Do you guys think that the Nihilanth fight should have a fluid soundtrack like Portal 2? Like, it lasts for the duration of the fight and changes based on what happens (Drops in intensity when you’re teleported away, stingers when you destroy crystals, launches into a crescendo or stops once you defeat The Nihilanth)?
Sure, why not? Nihilanth fight was lame in HL anyway, so anything is welcome to make it better.
Yeah, that could be really neat (though I have no idea how hard that could be to implement).
I think it would be good to add in any music there, because IIRC the Nihilanth fight was sort of silent. You only had the ambiance of Xen and the sounds of the battle itself. Music would be an easy way to increase the intensity of the moment, even if the battle stayed relatively the same as in Half-Life (which I doubt, anyway).
It depends on the engine version they are using. The portal 2 fork of source has dynamic music.
I doubt it would be that hard to code, unlike many other Portal 2 features. Actually, there are even af few examples of it in Episode 2 e.g. the Victory Mine Vortigaunt Stand-off and the map before the muscle car breaks.
The problem with the original fight is that it plays Traveling Through Limbo/Singularity when the fight starts, but the track is hilariously short and could be argued as being unfitting.
Oh wow, I don’t think I’d ever noticed there was any music track at all! But yeah, that seems way too short to last even a fraction of the battle. The feeling of “Traveling Through Limbo” certainly goes along with the eerie desolation most of Xen evokes, but for a final boss battle? Come on!
Joel will give us something cool to play while we fight, if the rest of the soundtrack is anything to go by!
Was the music there truly dynamic? I thought the Vort Fight music just faded out after the fight was done, and I don’t think Sector Sweep (Post Advisor Barn, pre Rebel Garage) was dynamic at all. It just started when you killed the soldiers that burst in the door, and got cut off at the next map-transition-tunnel. It’s one of my favorite HL songs, so I’d think I would have noticed it…
The songs are COMPOSED specifically for the scene they are used for most of the time, and that can make a song FEEL dynamic.
HOWEVER, to be more on topic: HECK YES I want awesome, dynamic Nihilanth-butt-kicking music! The original fight in HL was incredibly lame. There was no tension, no real suspense, and even hitting the Nihilanth with the Gluon Gun didn’t “feel good”. He was just a bullet sponge that barely even reacted to your attacks. A drastic change from the other enemies in the game which feel very ALIVE and SMART, and seem to react to… being shot with a quantum destabilizer.
Good music, and an overall better design for the fight would benefit Black Mesa perfectly.
Ouch. But you’re right.
HOWEVER, I just remembered that Counter-Strike: Condition Zero: Deleted Scenes has dynamic music, and that game was made in the GoldSource engine. Does that convince anyone?
GoldSrc could also have a song play between maps. Source can’t.
I’m certain dynamic music could easily be put into whatever version of Source the devs are using if it’s not in there already, and I believe that the end result would be worth it. However, I’m not optimistic that they’ll do it.
But, you never know! 
The reason GoldSrc could do that was because it was playing CD music, like a music player. It wasn’t really part of the game. The music in the media folder of Steam Half-Life doesn’t play through transitions, at least in my experience.
there was a way to make half life 2 play music through the transitions though I think that was a hack to the game.