Xen still isn't available in Black Mesa, but this latest update brings it a step closer for the fan-made re-imagining of Half-Life.
This latest update, which they're saying is mainly to give Black Mesa the latest version of their "Xen Engine" is mainly a bug-fix release along with performance improvements. The developers say the will do more more "Engine" release after this, but then the big Xen levels release should be upon us. I'm quite excited to play it through in full and see what they do with the end.
Here's what's changed:
- Fixed screen freezes / crashes on Radeon RX 3XX 4XX 5xx cards!
- Fixed most dynamic shadows flickering and improved the overall quality and performance
- Fixed most dynamic lights flickering on lower quality levels Nvidia GPUs (and some AMD GPUs)
- CSM quality and perf improvements
- Fixed CSM not working on some AMD cards
- Fixed decals flickering in some maps
- Fixed full screen blur when using dynamic light godrays
- Fixed zombie headshots with the crossbow. Now when you headshot a zombie using the crossbow, they will no longer spawn a live headcrab.
- Fixed assault points for Houndeyes
- Added texture scrolling for dynamic light cookie textures
- Fixed tilemap animation bug in light cookie textures.
- Fixed rim lighting not working with old light entities
- Fixed Phong/skin shader specular not working on static props
- Flashlight intensity and range increased
- Settings optimization for new deferred lighting and shadows
Sadly though, they seem to have broken the Linux version! They're aware of this and they're looking into a fix, hopefully it won't be too long. I was hoping to jump in and see if the bug where it crashes after the test chamber had been fixed, but seeing it completely broken now was a bit of a let-down. Still, it's Early Access and issues are to be expected.
Find Black Mesa on Steam, they've also put it on sale with 60% off although the sale won't last for much longer.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: WorMzyI can't wait to play Xen in 2022! \o/
Valve time :D
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Arehandoro May 1, 2018
Xen for Black Mesa is the new Half Life 3 for Valve. Oh, the irony...
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Quoting: Guest[...]The fact that it's (sadly) pretty common to release games without much bugfixing doesn't mean it's good practice. Or didn't I get your joke?
it's not good practice to bug fix games before everything is released [...]
Last edited by urlauber on 1 May 2018 at 1:51 pm UTC
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QuoteSadly though, they seem to have broken the Linux version! They're aware of this and they're looking into a fix, hopefully it won't be too long.Well, I'm glad it's not just me. I really don't want to be too harsh on the guys; I know it's a fan-made labour of love, but this is getting to be so frustrating. I have less than three hours on the game, and most of that is the same bit of Anomalous Materials over and over again in the hope that it won't crash this time.
(Edit: Not worth a new comment, but it just occurred to me. This is what goes through my head when considering what game to play of an evening: “Maybe Black Mesa... that was a joke, ha ha, fat chance”. I'm not sure that's quite what Johnathan Coulton had in mind...)
Last edited by Dunc on 1 May 2018 at 8:26 pm UTC
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To be honest, I've given up with this game long time ago.. Unfortunately it has been crashing for me as long I've owned it. It's nice to see bug fixes, though...
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ElectricPrism May 1, 2018
Lets just use square naming schema and call it Half Life 1.5 =O
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well I had zero crashes there when playing the first chapter. since then I've been waiting for the second (Xen). The game is surely worth the money and as far as I understand it, xen will not be 100% the same as it was in half life 1, but even longer and a little different, as the first chapter of the game.
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Quoting: Guestthey really should have release xen and then worried about bug fixing the gameI would actually argue the opposite. And as they improve their engine for Xen (which should be just a new map drop-in), I get that they might want to release their bugfixes and performance improvements. The good practice would be to have a beta, but that's probably the case already :)
it's not good practice to bug fix games before everything is released for said game since they still have no idea if xen might cause new issues
Quoting: PatolaI agree, though the Xen environment was quite imaginative and nice to look at. And it seems that The Crowbar Collective is trying to capture that impression of a lush and vivid, organic alien world, all for the better!Quoting: mirowell I had zero crashes there when playing the first chapter. since then I've been waiting for the second (Xen). The game is surely worth the money and as far as I understand it, xen will not be 100% the same as it was in half life 1, but even longer and a little different, as the first chapter of the game.The reason Xen will not be 100% the same as it was in half-life 1 is that the original Xen was horrible, it was the part that made Half-Life not be a perfect game. Suddenly a wonderful FPS-adventure turned into a dull 3D platformer with teleporters. The developers are very well aware of that, and I, for one, would be satisfied even if the new Xen has nothing whatsoever to do with the original, provided it is fun to play. I suspect that it is for the same reason that they are not shipping it yet for bug fixing and balancing - they might be reserving the "right" to make big last-time changes which breaks previous savegames.
I am prepared to wait, a couple more years if I need to. I've been following the project since the very beginning, and it's not like I don't have other games to play (and not enough time) in the meanwhile :D (/r/patientgamers has some pretty good suggestions :P)
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