Black Mesa, the seriously impressive recreation of the original Half-Life can finally be completed! Crowbar Collective have put up the big complete Beta. A great way to prepare for the Half-Life: Alyx release next year.
To get in, all you have to do is own Black Mesa on Steam and opt into the "public-beta" branch. Full release notes can be found here. So we're finally closing in on Black Mesa leaving Early Access!
If you just want to jump into the newer Xen levels, you can unlock all chapters quite easily. Go to Options, Keyboard, Advanced, Enable Developer Console. Bring up the console and type "sv_unlockedchapters 19".
A few quick shots of it on Linux:
In the Linux version, if you find it crashes on start try removing the "glshaders.cfg" file found with the game files usually in the "bms" folder. This will clear the Black Mesa cache, which can cause issues as it seems to stick between versions. That fully fixed it for me.
Still needs a lot of optimisations though, even my Intel i7 and NVIDIA 2080Ti went down into single digits a few times while it loaded some bits in and then suddenly super smooth again. This is what a Beta is for though. Xen is certainly visually impressive, Crowbar Collective have done an absolutely fantastic job on updating it.
You can pick up Black Mesa on Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Comandante Ñoñardo 7 Dec 2019
Imagine this with multi language voice overs...
C'mon, Valve! You can pay it.
C'mon, Valve! You can pay it.
3 Likes, Who?
I remember hearing of that project for the first time in ... 2004? :D
Amazing that it finally comes to an end.
And it was worth the wait.
Haven't played Xen but the stuff they release some years ago was top notch.
Amazing that it finally comes to an end.
And it was worth the wait.
Haven't played Xen but the stuff they release some years ago was top notch.
0 Likes
slaapliedje 7 Dec 2019
Sweet, I just finished last week what they had up to that point. Time to finish it!
0 Likes
Do you still need to crouch-jump on the Xen islands like in HL1?Yes, but not exactly. You jump, press forward and jump again in mid-air, and Gordon dashes. The game prompts to use Ctrl and Space, but I'm not sure if Ctrl does anything.
0 Likes
You jump, press forward and jump again in mid-air, and Gordon dashes.
Wow, that's... unexpected.
Well I guess I'll see for myself, as I've been waiting for the game to be complete before I start playing, even though I've bought it years ago.
0 Likes
I started a new game after updating to the beta. And in the opening sequence on the tram system, right up to the part where you get to the elevator, and exit to the valley where the Helicopter is, the game turns into a slide-show (1 frame every couple of seconds, at best) and the game uses three threads, one at 100% the other two at 10% CPU max, and no GPU utilization, really weird!
Alas, this is Beta and hopefully they will get these issues sorted out!
Alas, this is Beta and hopefully they will get these issues sorted out!
0 Likes
I heard that the native version has FPS issues and you get better performance by installing the Windows version with Proton and D9VK.
1 Likes, Who?
I heard that the native version has FPS issues and you get better performance by installing the Windows version with Proton and D9VK.
Last time I tried native with Xen update it didn't work at all. I did try briefly d9vk and that seems to run really well. I've been waiting for the entire project to be complete before I started my play through.
1 Likes, Who?
I heard that the native version has FPS issues and you get better performance by installing the Windows version with Proton and D9VK.
Last time I tried native with Xen update it didn't work at all. I did try briefly d9vk and that seems to run really well. I've been waiting for the entire project to be complete before I started my play through.
I was basing it off of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V58bfGoOWTo and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRkTzrPnvXs
Last edited by t3g on 8 Dec 2019 at 10:31 pm UTC
0 Likes
And in the opening sequence on the tram system, right up to the part where you get to the elevator, and exit to the valley where the Helicopter is, the game turns into a slide-show (1 frame every couple of seconds, at best) and the game uses three threads, one at 100% the other two at 10% CPU max, and no GPU utilization, really weird!Had the same issues. However, after the train scene the game runs well!
From then on it is actually runs well natively. I still have to reach outside again to see what happens...
0 Likes
orochi_kyo 9 Dec 2019
"Prepare for Half-Life: Alyx"
This is what I call a dark sense of humor, knowing Alyx was made only for the 1% of the Steam player base.
Cool to live in the first world, have 500-1000$ to buy a VR headset, while the rest of the world somehow PC gamers have to choose between buying that game on sale or paid food or medical bills.
Nice joke Liam, enjoy Alyx.
This is what I call a dark sense of humor, knowing Alyx was made only for the 1% of the Steam player base.
Cool to live in the first world, have 500-1000$ to buy a VR headset, while the rest of the world somehow PC gamers have to choose between buying that game on sale or paid food or medical bills.
Nice joke Liam, enjoy Alyx.
1 Likes, Who?
In the Linux version, if you find it crashes on start try removing the "glshaders.cfg" file found with the game files usually in the "bms" folder. This will clear the Black Mesa cache, which can cause issues as it seems to stick between versions. That fully fixed it for me.For me too! I was just starting a new playthrough (after how many years now?). This comes in fantastic! I am currently at the "Three Piston" Level of "Apprehension".
Save games ar no longer compatible, though...
Last edited by logge on 9 Dec 2019 at 6:30 am UTC
0 Likes
"Prepare for Half-Life: Alyx"Aren't Steam for Linux and Proton made only for the 1% of the Steam users too?
This is what I call a dark sense of humor, knowing Alyx was made only for the 1% of the Steam player base.
Cool to live in the first world, have 500-1000$ to buy a VR headset, while the rest of the world somehow PC gamers have to choose between buying that game on sale or paid food or medical bills.
Jokes aside, if VR gets more popularity (and HL: Alyx could definitely affect that), there will be more affordable VR devices. The first model of Oculus Rift was $600 three years ago, Rift S is $400 now. Two or three years more, and it will be $200-300.
5 Likes, Who?
I heard that the native version has FPS issues and you get better performance by installing the Windows version with Proton and D9VK.
Unfortunately this is true to most of opengl games for linux, because many devs don't know how to properly optimise it, and Vulkan is still an underrated god sent for us.
So even an Directx-Vulkan real time translation performs better than an messy opengl one.
0 Likes
I started a new game after updating to the beta. And in the opening sequence on the tram system, right up to the part where you get to the elevator, and exit to the valley where the Helicopter is, the game turns into a slide-show (1 frame every couple of seconds, at best) and the game uses three threads, one at 100% the other two at 10% CPU max, and no GPU utilization, really weird!
Alas, this is Beta and hopefully they will get these issues sorted out!
The exact same happened for me, the actual gameplay was completely fine but that outdoors valley part was 0.5fps (mesa/rx480)
0 Likes
On my system I7-6700, 16GB Ram, Geforce GTX 1060 6GB, it was looking good, solid 60 fps with v-sync on at the start of Xen level, looking around finding ammo, etc, then as i walked up to the point where the word XEN appears on screen, it drop to less then 1 fps for about 3 or 4 minutes, then back to normal, walked a bit more and had to jump down from a cliff edge and bang less then 1 fps again, this time i gave up waiting after over 5 minutes it was still under 1 fps.
Forced Proton mode (did not force D9VK) let it download, loaded up game and went to XEN Level, And now it runs without the drops to less then 1 fps, the lowest fps i saw was 48fps but most of the time sitting at 60fps, so yeah only the Windows version seems to run without problems, Linux and OpenGL is having some major issues.
yeah same for me with Ryzen 3700X, 32GB ram, Geforce GTX 1080Ti. runs 200-400 FPS mostly all maxed 1440p, but then suddenly drops either to 5 or 1 fps with GPU usage dropping to 0% and GPU going into idle clocks. First time it comes back after like minute or 2, but then goes back to snailpace and never recovers. Native is sadly unplayable atm :(
0 Likes
I hope you all with FPS drops reported to the devs. ;)
It's a beta after all.
It's a beta after all.
1 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje 11 Dec 2019
"Prepare for Half-Life: Alyx"Who needs food or medical care, just jack into VR and your troubles will fade away, as will your waistline! There are already people playing eSports games until they die, at least do it submerged in a different reality :P
This is what I call a dark sense of humor, knowing Alyx was made only for the 1% of the Steam player base.
Cool to live in the first world, have 500-1000$ to buy a VR headset, while the rest of the world somehow PC gamers have to choose between buying that game on sale or paid food or medical bills.
Nice joke Liam, enjoy Alyx.
Anyhow, it is what it is, if you don't have a VR setup, simply you won't be able to play the game and will be relegated to watching someone else play it on YouTube. Kind of the same thing if I find a game I want to play that only ever came out for the Xbox, I'm not going to give MS my money just for one game, I can just watch it on YouTube.
1 Likes, Who?
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