New Black Mesa trailer is out

[Aerox]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGlhgVz5r6E&fmt=22

[Luinbariel]

Awesome... I am definitely excited for this.

Whee!

[x]

That's the first Youtube vid I've seen to actually utilise the WS functionality. It was worth DLing the HD version though, looks real purdy.

Game could be cool I guess, if a little unnecessary. I wonder how the marines will turn out.

[KarthXLR]

I hope this is as good as it looks.


I really hated Portal Prelude.

[Spore]

This looks pretty incredible.

[Squishy3]

I personally think it looks better than any Valve game out currently.

[CaffeinePowered]

I personally think it looks better than any Valve game out currently.

Yes, $5 its taking so long because they are making the source engine look better than anything valve has ever done with it.

[cbre88x]

ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG

WOW. Holy fuckin' shit this looks good.

[Wedge]

Wow, I'm shocked it's taking so long because it's actually been in genuine development.  I wonder if they found a way to make the whole Xen part of the game not suck balls while they were at it?  And if it's really as good as the trailer makes it look, I can't believe Valve isn't going to want to sell this or something.

[CaffeinePowered]

And if it's really as good as the trailer makes it look, I can't believe Valve isn't going to want to sell this or something.

They can't, its a mod, legally they couldn't sell it, they could be ass-bastards and send them a C&D letter.

Internet would lite on fire too if they did

[Fail Medic]

Will this be the maximum ceiling of the Source Engine?  

I keep hearing "Source Engine", but aren't the more recent games like TF2 and Left 4 Dead using updated versions of that engine?  What's the fundamental thing inside the Source Engine that's making it get tagged with phrases like "old, but still looks good", "showing its age", and things like that?  Is it the physics guts, the modded Havok engine it uses?  Is something in Source holding it back or is it just media bias against things older than 3 years and a belief that an old "engine" can't be the foundation for good games beyond a certain age?

[Wedge]

[quote author=Wedge link=topic=1880.msg52323#msg52323 date=1228105372]
And if it's really as good as the trailer makes it look, I can't believe Valve isn't going to want to sell this or something.

They can't, its a mod, legally they couldn't sell it, they could be ass-bastards and send them a C&D letter.

Internet would lite on fire too if they did
[/quote]

Wat?  Valve can't make a deal with them to publish and sell the game?  How is that illegal?

[Squishy3]

[quote author=Wedge link=topic=1880.msg52323#msg52323 date=1228105372]
And if it's really as good as the trailer makes it look, I can't believe Valve isn't going to want to sell this or something.

They can't, its a mod, legally they couldn't sell it, they could be ass-bastards and send them a C&D letter.

Internet would lite on fire too if they did
[/quote]Like it's been said before, Valve's probably just going to hire them :p Valve fully supports this mod and is as excited as everybody else, it was on the front page of steamnews awhile back

also fail, they made a news post that they are using the orange box version of the source engine. they probably aren't using the L4D version either because Valve hasn't made it available yet or as far as I know the few new things they added are too bothersome for them to add in at 50% completion

[copulatingduck]

Will this be the maximum ceiling of the Source Engine?  

I keep hearing "Source Engine", but aren't the more recent games like TF2 and Left 4 Dead using updated versions of that engine?  What's the fundamental thing inside the Source Engine that's making it get tagged with phrases like "old, but still looks good", "showing its age", and things like that?  Is it the physics guts, the modded Havok engine it uses?  Is something in Source holding it back or is it just media bias against things older than 3 years and a belief that an old "engine" can't be the foundation for good games beyond a certain age?

I think that's mostly a reference to mods that use the initial iteration of the source engine. That and some mods that DO adopt the newer versions a la Orange Box, look like ass (see zombie panic). It all depends on how much the developer cares about making things look good. Some just don't seem to care. :-\

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

I am so stoked for this.  I haven't been keeping up with it, but I thought it had kinda gone the way of Duke Nukem Forever.  Glad it's actually looking like they'll make it.  Hopefully the date of 2009 is accurate.  This will def be the kind of thing I keep all files related to it so that in a few years I can turn aorund and play again on a beast of a rig

Wow, I'm shocked it's taking so long because it's actually been in genuine development.  I wonder if they found a way to make the whole Xen part of the game not suck balls while they were at it?  And if it's really as good as the trailer makes it look, I can't believe Valve isn't going to want to sell this or something.

Eh, I dunno if you could fix Xen   Not without changing it entirely.  It's still gonna have to be a bunh of lame jumping puzzles mixed with some fights and still having to fight Nilhanth's fat head

[cbre88x]

[quote author=Fail Medic link=topic=1880.msg52326#msg52326 date=1228105653]
Will this be the maximum ceiling of the Source Engine? 
I keep hearing "Source Engine", but aren't the more recent games like TF2 and Left 4 Dead using updated versions of that engine?  What's the fundamental thing inside the Source Engine that's making it get tagged with phrases like "old, but still looks good", "showing its age", and things like that?  Is it the physics guts, the modded Havok engine it uses?  Is something in Source holding it back or is it just media bias against things older than 3 years and a belief that an old "engine" can't be the foundation for good games beyond a certain age?

I think that's mostly a reference to mods that use the initial iteration of the source engine. That and some mods that DO adopt the newer versions a la Orange Box, look like ass (see zombie panic). It all depends on how much the developer cares about making things look good. Some just don't seem to care. :-\
[/quote]

Nope. I've even heard it referred to as an old engine when L4D came out..and that game looks pretty damn good. Hell, it isn't by any means a Killzone 2 or Uncharted...but it still looks very good.

It perturbs me though that Crysis is talked about for it's looks and it's sloppy performance on every machine..yet most people don't blame it on the shoddy Crytek engine. They blame it on the machines trying to run it.

[cbre88x]

Karrde link=topic=1880.msg52357#msg52357 date=1228113518]
Glad it's actually looking like they'll make it.  Hopefully the date of 2009 is accurate. 

Eh, I dunno if you could fix Xen   Not without changing it entirely.  It's still gonna have to be a bunh of lame jumping puzzles mixed with some fights and still having to fight Nilhanth's fat head

2009 has got to be accurate. Look at all the playable areas in the game. I'm guessing a summer release or maybe an anniversary release. I kind of hope for a summer release.

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

Well either way, they can have my left nut and my money if they gimme a way to donate

[copulatingduck]

[quote author=CopulatingDuck link=topic=1880.msg52346#msg52346 date=1228109786]
[quote author=Fail Medic link=topic=1880.msg52326#msg52326 date=1228105653]
Will this be the maximum ceiling of the Source Engine? 
I keep hearing "Source Engine", but aren't the more recent games like TF2 and Left 4 Dead using updated versions of that engine?  What's the fundamental thing inside the Source Engine that's making it get tagged with phrases like "old, but still looks good", "showing its age", and things like that?  Is it the physics guts, the modded Havok engine it uses?  Is something in Source holding it back or is it just media bias against things older than 3 years and a belief that an old "engine" can't be the foundation for good games beyond a certain age?

I think that's mostly a reference to mods that use the initial iteration of the source engine. That and some mods that DO adopt the newer versions a la Orange Box, look like ass (see zombie panic). It all depends on how much the developer cares about making things look good. Some just don't seem to care. :-\
[/quote]

Nope. I've even heard it referred to as an old engine when L4D came out..and that game looks pretty damn good. Hell, it isn't by any means a Killzone 2 or Uncharted...but it still looks very good.

It perturbs me though that Crysis is talked about for it's looks and it's sloppy performance on every machine..yet most people don't blame it on the shoddy Crytek engine. They blame it on the machines trying to run it.
[/quote]

My point was that a majority of games using the engine don't look very good by today's standards. Of course putting a lot of effort can make a game look gorgeous on an old system (see Twilight Princess) but by and large, most Source Games look like ass. I'm glad it was designed such that they can make incremental improvements on the engine over time, I just wish they would hurry up and get TF2 some dual-core lovin' already.

Also, Crysis looked like ass on my system, and ran even worse; so many graphical glitches and such a crap framerate it wasn't even funny.

[Wedge]

Source (at this point) has a competent HDR implementation and supports any kind of DX9 shaders you would want to do.  You don't tend to see a lot of super bumpmapped and shit characters, but I think that's for the best, as that generally looks pretty stupid to me.  I think it's mostly lacking in dynamic lighting and shadows and it's old mapping tech though.  The lack of being able to stream maps together makes HL2 and it episodes feel really dated when you hit those damn loading screens between areas.  That shit really has to go if they plan to make a lengthy single player game after the HL2 Episodes (I mean, it'd be nice if it was sooner, but I doubt it).  It doesn't really have much in the way of terrain/foiliage generators either, but most of the games that do have some of that shit outsourced to Speedtree or something anyways.  On the plus side, it's facial animation system hasn't really seen anything better come along since, though the characters in L4D (especially Louis) tend to look a little bugeyed and weird a lot of the time (probably the models fault mostly).

As for mods, most of that is simply the fact that this isn't the days of friggin' HL1, and coming up with artists to do work for free that is of the quality expected nowadays just isn't that easy.