Two @ One Twenty Eight

I was doing some research on how geothermal plants work (research of course being a quick check on Wikipedia) and I decided to base the level archetecture around how the plant works. This is a turbine room. Seawater is pumped in from the shoreline to feed into the igneous rock covering the crater. When pumped into the earth, the water turns to steam, which is collected by a second pipe and sent here to a turbine to spin it. When the steam is piped through the turbine, it is cooled back down and the runoff is sent back into the system.


So this is my prototype for the combine-built turbine room. Obviously it still needs work, but the lighting definitely looks like a keeper. Problems I'm currently trying to fix in the existing layout are some door buttons that aren't functioning properly (despite having correct I/O) and attempting to fix the lighting in this room. As you can see in the first screenshot, the light only seems to detect the posts holding up the catwalk and not the catwalk texture itself. Since props can be alpha-channeled, I'm hoping the same can be done with transparent textures such as this- lit from below, it makes for very dramatic lighting.

Addendum

Worked more on the Geothermal Plant idea last night. Finally working up an exterior. Designwise I wanted a stealth-oriented take on the cliffs area in the original Half Life, with a ton more scenery porn due to the mountain's commanding view of the island.

As to the tower in this screenshot, I'll give you three guesses as to what that's designed after, and you won't need the last two.

Five @ Five

Shot one: Coastline of the blacklisted map that has been featured here so much I should stop blacklisting it. Still needs work.


Lately I've been working on this room. The general idea for this area of the base is an extension of the "Air Exchange" idea from Half Life 2's original story.

As you can see here, the variances in purpose for the facility allow me to experiment with some fog types, color combinations, and architecture in a manner different from the original game. The general idea is that the Combine's Air Exchange is going forward, but they're engineering with existing Earth fauna such that a large facility like the Air Exchange isn't necessary. Change the trees, let them grow around the world for a few generations, and you wouldn't need to spend exuberant resources on a problem that can virtually solve itself.

My other test has been on breaching tactics. Here, you can see the rather interesting effects of red phosphorous. I'll probably post a video of the breaching moves once they've been sufficiently scripted.

Five @ Five - The Geothermal Plant

I've started work on a completely different area of the island due to an in-progress overhaul of the island's basic architecture and game flow. Over the last two days I've been working up a nice interior.

I've been reworking some aspects of the island's security system. Floor panels were a bit buggy, so if they are used they will be used sparingly. In this case I decided to test out the laser grid system used in the Overwatch Nexus during Half Life 2. I changed up the logic to meet my needs, and this turret comes out of the floor and knocks over the barrels concealing it to surprise the player. A good stealth experience keeps things interesting by throwing unexpected situations at the player and that's what I intend to start doing with my level design. Bring your brown pants.

Credits due to Vecima of Type 3 Studios for the tutorial on fixing prop shadowing, I implemented it on some of the props in this map to test it. Looking great so far.

The island itself has a checkered history. It was a Soviet military installation for some time before being decommissioned after the 7 Hours War. Rebels briefly occupied the site before the Combine took over and established their training ranch for Combine Elites.

3 years in development and we didn't even do an anniversary post!

The inactivity on this blog is starting to resemble the Black Mesa Twitter feed. And for that I apologize. But I've had a lot on my plate- between school and a film project I've been working on for a long time, it's been hectic. Thankfully, the film is very close to completion so I can try to focus more on finishing this mod and overcoming the technical hurdles that have been messing with my progress on this project.

I've been working with a dockyard map lovingly donated by Nicadeamas lately, so keep an eye on this box, as I'll be trying to do more updates here and on the Twitter, which has been also sorely neglected.

-Kenny