Also about the ladder, you could use Mecha The Slag’s MDL Hexer. (If the new model does not use any more textures) Also, when using it, the vmt for the new texture must be in the old vmt’s location. (At least according to my experience with it)
As far as this goes, you can do what I did in changing the settings once you get into the vents themselves. Set up a trigger that turns the sun off and then change the color of the map’s shadow_control to match the settings on the A map. I can’t say what it is off the top of my head but I don’t think you should have any trouble finding out what it is.
That should fix your problem at least, and you’ll be able to put those cubemaps back in!
I quite like the new outdoor area. But I’ll be totally honest, it’s appearance is really the only positive thing I’m seeing, so far. It seems like most of this mod is just changes that weren’t thought through or tested, and only exist so that it can be said that the mod actually changes something.
The outdoor area’s coming along nicely in appearance, but it’s suffering the major flaw in that it’s only there to exist. There is absolutely no reason to go out there. No reward of any kind, just a sure way to find death. 
Anyway, some more concise points:
- You included a compile log again…
- I legitimately didn’t even last 2 minutes before crashing. dev pls fix
- Definitely put the music back during the elevator ride. It was specifically designed that way and builds suspense. The way it starts now, it just throws off any semblance of balance, nothing matches up.
- Some rail bits don’t lift with the elevator at the beginning.
- The mortars seem to be more irritating than ever.
- The yellow ladders stick out like a sore thumb. They don’t fit the area in my opinion.
- The shaft is waaaay too clean. It’s a ventilation shaft, I doubt white, clean bulkhead metal would be found there. I’d also say revert back to the model-based vents instead of these newbish grate ones.
Thanks I try this out as It’s something I just could not get to work. Perhaps that is the issue I have had all along as I had the files and was tring to compile from a different location.
Thanks Rk I will also look into this but I fear it could be more than that as I have seen error message about the loading default env_cubemaps. Not sure if there is an error with the skybox texture. Basically this needs looking into more and thanks for the heads up. But It may also mean that the brush faces need to be altered as the smoothing groups don’t work either to light all wall surface as the same face.
Well thanks for pointing out the lift segment I will be addressing that, but you seem to be missing the point of this release I have made. It’s not finished, but I am sharing what I have done so far. I know myself it needs work. But I felt a small milestone had been reached. There is no need to trash it until I say it’s final and if you still trash it then well then that will be just too bad, and sorry that it never made you happy.
I am trying to be very open about how I am approaching this, I value feedback need help too but If you don’t like something please try to keep it constructive. I am not a 3d modeller or texture artist or even a mapper it’s not what I do for a living but I am trying my best and improving and learning more for a fun project. you will just have to have some patience while I figure all this out. But like I have said I am having a break from it at the moment.
I’m not so sure that music was specifically designed for the elevator shaft ride as It’s called upon by faf - song 1 in the entity that calls it. But I agree with you it works well I wanted to float that idea and the added dialogue of the two marines in the warehouse who are now a permenent feature rather than a one off meeting. That means I lose the dialogue if I do that but I wanted feedback on this idea also.
Also if you recall the original Black Mesa map the 2 marines walk calmly while a huge explosion goes off over their head, I felt that needed changing and I wanted to embrace the idea that you were coming into the warehouse with the enemy being unaware of the player. I wanted to flesh out that first view I got when I went into the warehouse for the first time in Black Mesa.
If only you realise that this is quite complicated sequence I am dealing with here, and I’ll readily admit to be still a way off.
so far as the new view and gate is concernd I have taken inspiration from the original game on this as I also have on the vent shaft. Basically don’t look for a reason there is no reason to it apart from seeing a desert that if gordon could get the other side of the gate he would not be any better off running down the road to freedom while bombs are dropping around him and he would also have to cross the desert too even if the bombs were not there. It’s an impossible situation but I felt that this was something that was suggested both in the Original Half Life game but not translated well in Black Mesa. I wanted the player to get a sniff or a view of a possible freedom that would have not much in the way of better consequences than the bombs that were falling all around them. There is still only one way out and that would be back underground. It also feels more like an escape attempt if that view is there.
Seeing the artillary guns go off, that’s my little added in extra, if you don’t like it ok I’m not sure what there is not to like about seeing where the bombs are coming from. I think that really gives a plausibility and depth to the map that was never there in any version of half life yet. and the explosions are much better than what was there previously. At least that is my opinion on it so that’s not changing.
So far as the vent shaft is concerned yes it’s a poor copy of the original currently but I have openly stated I am having issues in this area I actually really wanted this area to be a lot darker than it is. It will look different eventually don’t count that texture as final for the shaft but it’s somewhat in the direction I am attempting to take the map in if I was not having lighting issues and I had rust decals as I am currently using dirt.
without question the crash issue is now my top priority, It’s probably a displacement that went bad, I have actually re-done much of the displacements in the map, which has been a hell of a lot of the work. I am going to find it and eliminate the triangles error which my gut feeling is telling me is the crash problem.
Ladders are going to be yellow and red like in the original, if I can make and complie a model for them you can chose between red and yellow or the purple checkerboard ladders or reskin them yourself.
The design theory is very simple for this project it goes as follows.
- escape attempt
- on the run
- another escape attempt
- Hiding
This is what I want to try and do and tell that story within the maps within this chapter.
You can safely ignore that warning. Since you’re building cubemaps anyways (at least I’m assuming you are), you don’t have to worry about any sort of default cubemap.
ah thanks for that… That’s saved me some investigation.
And thanks again for the heads up on that we are in the north of Black Mesa facility . Gate N1 is now the gate number. That’s an ambiguous N for north but yeah anyway I am trying to make this a more than copy of the original and one step further effort.
There’s a huge difference between trashing and giving negative feedback. If you can’t distinguish between the two then I guess I’ll just see myself out?
I value your feedback don’t get me wrong, but you are just telling it like “I don’t like that”
Which is fine you are entitled to your opinion and I don’t have a problem if you don’t like something I do but if you perhaps know a better way of doing something or you might know the solution to a problem I have I would appreciate some help, or a least a finger that points me in the right direction, or somewhere near to where I am trying to get to. Most of the things you don’t like funnily enough I don’t like either, but It’s because there are still hurdles to overcome.
That does not mean I expect anything from you or anybody here. I don’t know what to think perhaps you feel this is easy, or perhaps it might be easy for you. I don’t count your feedback as totally trashing but you need to first understand that I am not perhaps conducting this as you might find a normal modding team does.
That’s because there is no team 
It’s just me trying to get my head around this particular map which I honestly had no intentions originally of altering that much but because of the first bout of feedback this is where it is now. That’s a direct consequence of the feedback so don’t think I don’t value your opinions but you need to understand where I am at and what I am trying to achieve and how I am carrying out this, but don’t fret I am listening to you folks, I’m just a bit worn out by it.
My current feeling is that the vent shaft with the outside sky is going to be a huge prop made in propper. If I can’t get the lighting faces sorted out and the shadows.
Also the Osprey is going to need more dynamics in terms of movement.
I appreciate you being involved, but like I said It’s got to me currently having a small break and then going at it again.
The thing is, not only did he say that he didn’t like something you did, but he also told you exactly what could be done to make it better.
Something tells me that you (perhaps subconsciously) ignored his suggestions and just took his feedback as an unsubstantiated attack, which, as a third party observer to this discussion, I can tell you is not the case.
Anyway, as for your huge Propper model idea, don’t do that. Lighting on models is worse than brushes, and even more so when they’re huge. Brushes are always your best bet for lighting, because regardless of how finicky they are, models are worse.
Yeah I am basically having a bit of a meltdown over nothing.
Hammer editor has got to me not crypts feedback, I am listening and It was the problems that I am encountering that are the annoying thing not the feedback, If I did not care I would not have wrote a lengthy reply.
I am not upset with him and I hope he is not upset with me if so sorry but I do really want to do this well and I feel like I can only do so much with what I can do within my skills. I’d love to be able to churn out 3d models six to the dozen But this is something I cannot bring to the table. But I am listening and I won’t be defeated(by Hammer Editor).
I have rebuilt the original texture from the ground up. I am hoping that this can be shifyed on the x axis so It does not look too repeatable. If not I will make more of them. still needs a bit more work but I am going to go for this. and see if this works.
I do care see, but he might be pleased that I can see the prop vents that were originally used are going to go back in because I can see they will work already. I can’t just click my fingers but I am going back to the start on this part.
If I had not had put that shiny texture I would perhaps not have known or realised how bad the lighting issues were. So in a way it’s been a good thing as lighting was always going to be a big part of the main vent shafts. But it’s also one of those unseen issues until you build your cubemas and it all goes wrong.
I was going off target with it anyway. Thanks for the advice.
Small Update:
I have a confession to make that the map I uploaded was compiled on fast because I could not get the map to compile on normal. This has now changed and further optimisation was required to get it to compile on normal so that goal has been reached this may also sort out the crashing not sure need to test it personally. So anyway I am making progress on this and I am hoping that I can get this totally finished by the end of the week as in the stock remix. but what this means is that the extended version that links into ventmod won’t be far behind it. and this is really where my project starts proper rather than fiddling with Black Mesa maps, which in all honesty I have the up most respect for the work they did and don’t really want to change any of there other maps now but anyway I wanted to do this and I am getting closer still so there is the news.
Nah still crashing… what is it I don’t know.
map is much more stable but still the occasional crash could it be entities? The vent shaft I think looks good it was an Issue with the texture settings in the VMT this has sorted out the faces did not need to change the brushes. I like the new lighting here and I’ll post up a screenie soon, Redid the gate sign it’s now rusted metal.
Fixed the issue with the osprey getting bombed the mortars turn off when if the player goes to the area with the osprey as it is deploying grunts this limits the friendly fire and the grunts also now clear the relay points which was much easier than I thought. And makes death a lot more certain which is the main goal on the extension to the surface.
I hope to release this tomorrow and call it a day on tweaking and get on with the extended area which is all new. All in all it’s coming together I feel now. But the crash bug has escaped me of what it is and I am at a loss on it still unfortunately. Although it is nowhere near as frequent and is much more stable just now and again it will blip and crash normally with a mortar funnily enough but before it explodes. That makes me wonder what is it? as a trigger is firing there are a lot of triggers in this map and I need 90% of them.
So I did the surface and then I did the vent shaft and then the bunker started felling a bit less detailed so I re-did the bunker I should have been finished already with this stock remix by now but designing a new look for the bunker and getting the lighting looking good took a while.
Anyway heres some screen of the new Bunker “look”
I should be posting up a pre-final version tomorrow or the day after basically the only thing I can’t fix is a very occasional crash bug still unaware what this is and the piece of cinematic physics rock floating in the air which I’m not sure is there or not by default.
current
current
outdated
Running on empty now…but I will get the extension out that leads in to vent Mod but the extra map (have a week) I fear will have to wait to the summer. But I will come back to finish this as I had first planned my hopes have been foresighted and perhaps a bit ambitious for what I could achieve in a small space of time.
The bunker had to have 5 info lightings to get the props to light and the lighting here so far took a day I think it’s good eneough now but something tells me still it’s not quite there I wanted to create lines with the pipes that guide the player but the walls feel like they need a two brush look. But I am going to stop here and get on with the extension into vent mod.
Having slept on it I am going to make sure that bunker really looks the nuts! I have been checking out some old WW2 Bunker images and I think I have a good way to handle the wall and ceiling architechture which needs injecting to this area quite Badly. This is the only Bunker we get to go inside of although we see plenty from the exterior in Black Mesa. So this really needs to conjure images of what the rest of the Bunkers look like in the players imagination as this is the only taste of those bunker complex that we get to experience. this may mean It will take longer but there is no rush is there.
[COLOR=‘Lime’]Version 3 Prefinal
Please enjoy it and have fun.
Ok I feel I have finished with the stock remix now.
Here is the pre-final if anything get’s brought up about it then I am willing to try and fix any errors or mistakes. feedback, praise and slagging off are all welcome.
If you have a crash tell me why you had a crash. Not where or when but the actual reason why you had a crash according to the code and then we will have to try and find someone who understands all that. Because I have not got an inkling about it.
Pro tip: Turn you shadow detail down a notch and your ansiotropic filtering a notch. This seemed to help me out of not crashing is probably too particle intensive. from high to medium and trilnear to bilinear.
The vmf file is here below.
https://www.mediafire.com/view/wuv0o6m3evb549u/bm_c1a3c.vmf
If it’s something I did and If you want to poke around in there go ahead and tell me what I did wrong.
could not fix cinematic physics rock issue in the default stock map. Did not get around to trying to compile the model for the ladder texture yet so the rule still applies to delete the textures from the Materials/models/props_c17
and delete the files named metal ladder 002 and 003 to revert.
The Bunker has also been modified further but the shaft is as you see it. That’s not been altered from the screens I posted. If you spotted the flare in the screenshot it’s been deleted I was hoping to give the player the option to burn a HECU Rappelling down the shaft to death but If you throw one of those at him it just bounces off so I got rid of it.
On with the extension.
That alone is not going to work. I’ll show you why.
Here’s what the ladders normally look like:
In your mod, the ladders look like this:
When I deleted the files named exactly as you instructed, they turned into a pale white:
Not to worry though, I found a way to revert the ladders back to their normal color. Through entspy, I changed the skin setting on the models to 0 (the skin setting on your ladders were set to 1). Once that’s done, delete those textures as you instructed us to do and the ladders will be back to normal like this:
I am about to patch the link as there is a problem with the elevator at the start. Hammer did not shut down properly and it did not save changes there and I also made a mistake.
Yeah you are right about the Ladder but what I mean Is if you go back to the default map after playing this it won’t effect the game. I have to compile a model with that skin still. But this stuff takes forever and a day. quite frankly I am not touching this for the rest of this week after this hotfix. But I have included a little extra which I forgot about. Which is the return of the original Silo Door alarm. So that does not happen in this map but you can use it for the chapter.
Link Hotfixed.
Thanks for all you peeps help so far RK / Crypt / Deathmonkey /PCGC/ DKY and Faceless HECU but it’s time for a break again from this until I start the extension when I feel like it.
Funny thing about this is that despite fixing the texture of the ladders, it was still a bit messed up before getting on the ladder.
Edit: I realized that it was because I forgot about the top part of the ladder, which turned out to be a prop_static instead of a prop_physics_override like the the other 2 parts of the ladder.
Looking at your pictures I think the default ladders suit that area better so I will actually revert that back to it’s default skin but I really want the shaft to have the yellow ladders as in the original. That’s why I need to compile a model If that makes sense as I want to either give the ladder.
4 skins or 2 different models.
By the way if you find the Bug of walking away from the shaft door that blows up while HECU are rappelling that’s not my fault either where one of them they land on either the insode lip of the bunker or the outer corner. I don’t know why they deviate from the path track that they are meant to follow depending on the players position. But I did lower how far down they could rappell as they would stop and not see the player from behind the Hazzard cross beams.
can also see the pipes don’t link on the right. I kept having to change them and I had to swap that one for 2 seperate ones as It would just be black otherwise.
Edit: Never mind. I’m sure that you’ll handle it just fine.
mmm i just discovered this project and i dont follow, is this still a wip, a finished project…o what?
It’s currently at version 3 of the stock remix.
Any pick up or fixes that get pointed out to me will now be included in the extension in to vent mod.
There won’t be another release of the Stock Remix stand alone. All other versions from this point will link into vent mod If that makes sense.
Much of the problems of doing this map have been the Osprey and outdoor indoor areas that crossover. From this point in the mapping onwards I don’t have to worry any more about compiling the whole map whenever I make small changes which is taking around 30 mins every time I even make very small changes. Even with the Cordon tool It will not look like it does with the sky Box and lighting vs indoor / out door shadows. So It’s been a lot more time consuming than I realized it would be.