• Black Mesa's Xen level has been delayed again, but you can see some new screens
    50 replies, posted
I dunno, Black Mesa looks fine to me. [t]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/847089467701607068/F531B4EB468E215C4359D15E5C283F1A051A0983/[/t][t]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/847089467701608483/5BCE9B7613CFE6E5F9C211F7C89A247DF609688A/[/t] [t]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/847089467701607300/1383F7992B555F354D1DAF4E10B778274F5495AC/[/t][t]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/847089467701608585/15F7D14CB7BBAB0E0B27FA1920F3D5C30F3B5EF5/[/t] [t]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/847089467701607205/C56F471AE3DFD95E6EC2076822DE33510474DA36/[/t][t]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/847089467701608905/5400A77C94DCBE99CDC3D436A63D1A03C46AB884/[/t] [t]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/847089467701607398/87DFF6671266F4393B7E05E77A7C2EAFAC6F19D3/[/t][t]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/847089467701608804/41300F4D43D2F164E1FA42FDC8ED6305067A307E/[/t] [t]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/847089467701607504/62060156E2D11DAA02F741B2B20A982A6993A531/[/t][t]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/847089467701608689/AABB37F3A751AD073131F2BD3A9EEAB0B02691A9/[/t]
[QUOTE=Rusty100;52384644]xen in hl1 looks like a genuinely alien world. very little about it is recognisable. wheras the black mesa xen looks like a cave you could find on earth. in fact i've seen real actual caves that look weirder and more alien than that bm xen. it doesn't have the bizarreness of hl1 xen which i feel was the point of it.[/QUOTE] Ah yes, the typical earth cave [t]http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/K2iqxpv7Wo7vQiJJoPPoyb.jpg[/t] Complete with giant glowing crystals and floating rocks. [t]http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/BqbrFGqKczcLgWzxGgULGc.jpg[/t] Here you can see the very earth-like flying manta monster, a common sight all over the world.
Tbh it kinda looks like an underwater cave. Carribean blue waters, bunch of red vegetation. Checks out to me.
[QUOTE=Furioso;52392736]The only thing noticeably different about my image compared to vanilla HL is the model for the hornet gun. The leggy things and the yellow shy-lights are slightly higher poly, but look pretty much the same.[/quote]The [url=http://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Xen_Hair]Xen Hair[/url] model is also now, for no reason whatsoever, cyan in color and partially transparent. I am familiar with these differences because I was there on the HIT Forums when these models were released 10 years ago. It was very clear even then which releases did and did not care about the game's art style, some instead aiming solely for higher poly counts and higher resolution textures to meet some unspoken "modern" quota. This is a completely irrational approach as bigger tech numbers are no substitute for a lack of visual style and art direction. (This FakeFactory in a nutshell, incidentally.) Yet, this is the kind of naive, backwards thinking that some players believe when it comes to "better" graphics. For example, once again in [url=http://cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1369/1369335.jpg]your Xen screenshot[/url], the user thought to download some random super definition model pack ostensibly under the pretense of improving HL1's visuals, yet he didn't even bother enabling any sort of anti-aliasing. That's just what happens when you can't see the forest for the trees.
[QUOTE=Ganerumo;52393004]Ah yes, the typical earth cave [t]http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/K2iqxpv7Wo7vQiJJoPPoyb.jpg[/t] Complete with giant glowing crystals and floating rocks. [t]http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/BqbrFGqKczcLgWzxGgULGc.jpg[/t] Here you can see the very earth-like flying manta monster, a common sight all over the world.[/QUOTE] Yes, it looks like Earth environment, because it looks like a coral reef and underwater caves. You will have a hard time finding anything similar to original Xen, because it is more abstract, you barely have a point of reference and therefor looks more alien, while the new Xen more or less copies existing environments and creatures like corals, sea sponge, etc... [QUOTE][IMG]http://cdn.blog.queensland.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/manta_ray_03-635-691x460.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.dive-the-world.com/images/gallery/pages/medium/183fb8e878-komodo.manta.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/scuba-diver-exploring-an-underwater-cave-in-a-tropical-coral-reef-picture-id452417827?s=170667a[/IMG][/QUOTE] Or if we would be more precise... it copies aquariums :v: [QUOTE][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/88tMZLK.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/63/8c/c8/638cc87103788c5154a1c90f85370838.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
It still looks nothing like Xen. I really hope it gets better. Pretty disappointing stuff so far.
They could do a better job at delivering the same kind of atmosphere, but i am not sure if a high fidelity rendition of xen is even something that [I]can[/I] exist.
Looks good. Seems like people forget that making an organic environment in the nineties was pretty much one hundred percent texture work, but nowadays there's a lot more you'd have to do to make an area convincingly alien, and that's really not what source was made for. If they made Xen a hard copy of the original it'd look like absolute dogshit. Also xen has always been heavily inspired by aquatic biomes, just because they made it a different color pallate doesn't invalidate that
Personally, I prefer HL1's art and graphical fidelity over BM's. Too much of BM's Black Mesa looks too clean and sterile to me whereas in Half-life it looks grimy and in some cases just less colorful than the BM counterpart. That's just the art part. I'm a huge fan of low-poly blocky looking games. Half-Life falls right in the sweet spot where the geometry is blocky, but everything is easily recognizable as what it's supposed it be. The textures are low-quality, but none of them are stretched and gross. Not to mention that BM just seems to be overall more poorly lit, looking at comparison shots. It feels dark and brooding even before the lights start going out. Sure, you can say that technically Black Mesa should look better because of the higher quality content used within, but I'll still personally prefer the original.
[QUOTE=Cold;52393217]They could do a better job at delivering the same kind of atmosphere, but i am not sure if a high fidelity rendition of xen is even something that [I]can[/I] exist.[/QUOTE] I think Scorn actually comes close. If it had foliage it would be very similar to Xen.
[QUOTE=Dr. Evilcop;52384656]IIRC the reason for the new look is because organic environments are extremely difficult in Source.[/QUOTE] They're difficult but given how much time they've allegedly spent making Xen, it's a bullshit excuse for laziness, doesn't matter if it's difficult, it looks better than blue xen.
[QUOTE=GHOST!!!!;52404741]They're difficult but given how much time they've allegedly spent making Xen, it's a bullshit excuse for laziness, doesn't matter if it's difficult, it looks better than blue xen.[/QUOTE] Not all of Xen is blue in BM.
Good, then they should show THOSE pictures, because Blue Xen looks a bit dull.
They're trying to keep most of it a surprise.
My guess is those pictures are the first few levels, and as you go on it changes and becomes more wild and shit. Or at least different in each stage.
[QUOTE=Tuskin;52404826]They're trying to keep most of it a surprise.[/QUOTE] I'd say showing people that Xen isn't going to be as disappointing to look at than it seems to be right now is more important than keeping it a surprise.
[QUOTE=IntenseBarney;52406426]I'd say showing people that Xen isn't going to be as disappointing to look at than it seems to be right now is more important than keeping it a surprise.[/QUOTE] or yknow, they could just show off some really gorgeous source work and save the rest of it for later/release yknow, what they did
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