>timecode
Oh i remember seeing it in Portal: Prelude.
That's probably what the artist had in mind, knowing the attitude of HL concept artists
Going off my (limited) medical knowledge I'd say they honestly probably all but perform a hemicorporectomy on inducted candidates for the Overwatch. The port above that is obviously a stoma/ostomy created for passing waste and injecting nutrient goo. The port in the throat is clearly for their vocoder (and probably even a respiratory bypass that enables them to breathe toxic substances). As for the actual black gelatinous shit I'd say it's just a very shittily rendered attempt at cybernetic black flesh, since you can clearly see that it's been cauterized to the flesh just below the ribcage, meaning it's likely bonded to the ribcage and bones as a whole. So I'd imagine it's part of the general internal reinforcement of a combine soldier's body,
The reason that model's waist looks gold is because that picture is from HLMV which uses a default wasteland cubemap whenever it renders envmaps, and it typically renders envmaps at a far greater brightness than normal. Here's the same model in SFM:
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/229956/f788474a-8df2-4fc3-90fd-12a851d744c8/Source Filmmaker Screenshot 2019.02.24 - 16.2131313242.36.20.png
As you can see it reflects the environment purely, the actual texture is a blackish blue and is completely flat. Since the model was only ever meant to be seen in one room, over a monitor, or from a distance for the brainwashed combine soldiers in the "beds" in the Citadel in Ep1, Valve never intended for the belly to be all that scrutinized. The 'memory replacement' concept art shows it as more detailed anyway:
http://combineoverwiki.net/images/5/59/Soldier_memory_replacement.jpg
So the real answer is the simple one: It's a shoddily-made texture for a one-time-use distance model, much like Male Cheaple. Don't read too much into it, I guess.
One of my favourite things about the Half-Life fandom is people having page-lomg discussions about an in-game model that you only see once from a distance.
I mean, not like there's much else to talk about these days.
The 2nd highest post on reddit right now is a picture of this box and a question of why it is so unique.
https://i.redd.it/lx1x9ft70ji21.jpg
I have never seen that box before.
I'm fully sure I saw a textured version of it, but is not on the leak, MI or Dark Interval. Maybe it was at the VCC archive. Crap, I really wish I hadn't amnesia.
As I said in that thread, it's probably a leftover from when the map was older. That map is one of the older maps in the game, going back several years and originally meant to be part of Route Kanal. Impossible to tell exactly where, since old Route Kanal maps are a disjointed mess in varying stages of development. I remember playing some of the Route Kanal maps (that did not make it in) and finding myself there. Another one of the Route Kanal maps in retail has a Combine Soldier in it, but he's off screen and doesn't do anything, he's just a silent forgotten remnant of an earlier iteration.
Gameplay of an earlier version of the map was shown at E3 2003 and recreated in this video here (linked because timestamp), also notable is the brush based box the player starts behind, showing they were part of the level at this point before being replaced with props. I personally doubt the drop to the Hydra was part of the original design though, since it's so abrupt.
https://uc73dba9621e97199ef71c4c00fd.previews.dropboxusercontent.com/p/thumb/AAWCZ-h07Y88PBF1LgQM55KlCIX6JhZt0UrSvDsThWiv8NaPo51rruN1QzP9Epe9MPdTP_tg66NDksFFS-dm2PUkN220t_sIQteH3RzkPfsXYXxabNOy-3rJ8rcymQIIfExmgVQU4yyCMuLvAPnfcjb7dDmebmoTq_PbtXTXNJNp2fTsfETJopUYwgrUSESetavAZN7sCRSLIJKlPZEmg6-u6p8kVAXw_a5jc71xLYSEY1ex2UjiMX3oi502fEl87WYFLPM8t4J84nTB_GHC_fza/p.jpeg?size_mode=5
It was one of these versions ( as this uncompressed one was part of one leak ) but I really don't remember where I saw it.
What Someguy said. It's from when props were considered to be expensive and brushes were cheaper. Oh ye, of early Source...
Note that GoldSource has very finicky prop model support too. Fuck me the trouble modders go through with that in earlier GoldSource mods. Afraid of Monsters Classic still has some garbage can models that creepily turn to face you because they use monster_generic.
Yeah like I say it's just a generic black in almost every version of the texture, the appearance of newer ones where it's all gold and gooey is literally just because that area has been masked for an envmap.
What I have must seen is an edit of these at this point, maybe in some sorta obscure pack in ModDB or FPSBanana.
It wasn't a lazy texture hack, it was so seamless and detailed it looked like if Valve did it first.
You might be thinking of this?
https://files.gamebanana.com/img/ss/skins/59cbe179549e4.jpg
https://files.gamebanana.com/img/ss/skins/59cbe178744bf.jpg
Yes, that was the one! https://gamebanana.com/skins/157499
Thank you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNCQ5Ye9qjI
Seriously though I have always loved when there is a unique sprite or model hidden in a game somewhere. I mean, scrapped models and stuff must happen all the time during developement, so why was it included this one time? Or in really old NES games where an area or npc has a unique sprite (but the npc is not a main character). What is so special about this place/person in particular. Often nothing, the sprite was just included because it fit the area but not really be part of the game apart from that.
nothing will ever eclipse this post
The Boreal Alyph mod team just posted a couple new pieces of concept art.
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/223736/ebfac303-fec7-492b-a980-cea15237d237/Fishing-Village-final-kiro-2v.jpg
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/223736/4af7d85a-505a-4019-a4bf-945c1df25b8e/Fising-Village-Street-view.jpg
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/223736/47e658ae-10d5-49bf-b6a2-a977d8b7dcd7/Mine.jpg
god i'd love to roll around the coast into that view with the ep3 jeep equivalent combine synth lada
Tbh i never imagined Episode 3 as anything other than a tundra so this looks really good, props to the people who came up with this.
Does this have anything to do with that one Facepuncher that was a voice doppleganger for McLain?
I thought the same thing, her voice recreation was fantastic. That was PelPix, wasn't it?
Haven’t seen them in a while, I can’t @ them either, maybe they left after the old forum shut down?
I remember there was some dumb drama between her and her ex because they were both facepunchers.
i love how inert panels are being replaced with white panels but if you use any of them, you'd probably just fuckin die anyway
She seemed to be under a lot of stress in general, and I remember there being so drama over people asking her supposed access to the Valve suppository because people kept asking her to give them shit even though she kept trying to explain that doing this is super illegal and a pinky promise not to tell anyone isn't good enough.
PelPix was a big revive for the leak community, and if I recall she confirmed there were models that existed for some things that otherwise were never public. The elite metrocop was one I think?
She didn't just confirm that, she got it released too. We've seen some cool stuff over the years, that never before seen Bullsquid comes to mind.
I wish Valve just let us on the stuff rather than go on vague replies ( and directly saying no when using the code ), other companies even directly release to their communities earlier builds.
But that requires Valve to actually exist rather than being in a permanent state of limbo.
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