Hello again, Scientist!
You’re just in time! We’ve released a new build to the public-beta branch on Steam, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to share the results of our ongoing research and field observations with you.
Since our update last April, the team has been laser-focused on refining stability, improving user-facing systems, and streamlining the experience for both new recruits and returning personnel. With this update, we’re drawing ever closer to promoting the build to the main branch for everyone to enjoy. How invigorating!
If you’ve been considering a return to Black Mesa, or if you've been waiting for just the right moment to tour the facility, now is a splendid time to enter the public-beta (see instructions below). We've optimized, debugged, and eliminated several anomalous behavior patterns that could’ve caused quite a stir in the wrong hands.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/
This beta represents one of the most stable iterations of Black Mesa to date. While the patch notes may appear modest in scope, rest assured: the changes improve compatibility with modern hardware and enhance support across Linux systems, both native and through Proton.
Your participation is, as always, invaluable to the facility's success. So don your HEV suit, calibrate your field instruments, and join us in pushing the boundaries of scientific fidelity once more!
And, if you can believe it, next month marks the 10-year anniversary of our initial release on Steam. 10 years! Oh, how the time flies when you’re refining interdimensional teleportation and recalculating resonance cascade probabilities... But I digress! We have grand plans to celebrate this milestone with the community, and we’re quite excited to share more very soon™.
Should you encounter any issues, particularly those of the game-breaking variety, please hop over to our Discord server and let us know. The sooner we can examine the anomaly, the better!
Thank you, as always, for your continued support and for helping us ensure the game is as scientifically sound as possible.
Onward, for science!
Superbus via Inscientiae!
Most Recent Fixes and Improvements
- Removed ALL false positive virus reports (according to VirusTotal)
- Refined conflict resolution logic for configuration overrides, especially when auto-configuration clashes with cloud-synced settings
- Shadow Quality Mode can now correctly be set to Ultra, without enabling unsupported features
- Updated bundled DXVK (Windows) to version 2.6
- Fixed secondary camera views rendering incorrectly on brush models
- Adjusted CSM depth bias to improve shadow precision on ToGL
- Enabled God Rays on ToGL
- Revised pickup and run mechanics for smoother player interaction
- Significantly improved ToGL binary shader cache, now enabled by default, resulting in faster load times after the first run
- Resolved Soft Particles rendering artifacts, which were especially noticeable on ToGL
- Fixed behavior of Environment Map Masks in ToGL, where all surfaces were forcibly marked as bump-mapped to reduce shader combinations and work around engine limitations
- Fixed auto-aim logic when the player is unarmed
- General auto-aim tweaks to improve accuracy and consistency
- Fixed certain 4-way blended materials appearing black in ToGL
- Completed a full validation pass to ensure all materials are well-formed and error-free within the Material System
- Reduced rendering path discrepancies between Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA for improved consistency across GPUs
- Added dismissable Rogue Point call to action at main menu
How to Opt Into the public-beta
- Right-click Black Mesa in your Steam Library
- Select "Properties"
- Navigate to "Betas"
- Select "public-beta" from the dropdown menu
Known Issues
- Switching from Fullscreen to Borderless while also changing the resolution may cause the new UI to display incorrectly
- Restarting the game will restore proper UI layout
- When using DXVK, the mouse cursor may disappear in the main menu. Pressing the console key (`) twice will restore mouse input
- Falling rocks in FAF currently have no collision due to referencing an incorrect entity name. This may be addressed in a subsequent beta
Cumulative Patch Notes From Previous Betas
Windows
- Reintroduced DXVK support on Windows.
- Upgraded DXVK to version 2.4.1 and removed the redundant custom Vendor ID from the configuration file.
- Improved the Qt runtime setup in the Windows Launcher to preload necessary libraries for ANGLE if needed.
- Restored throttling policies and their application to game processes under power management.
- Updated the launcher icon on Windows
Platform Independent
- Resolved an issue that caused the settings to crash due to concurrent exclusive access to the internal game save file during gameplay.
- Fixed the missing "_back" cable texture set, addressing visual inconsistencies.
- Thanks to npc_pigeon, narkvic, and the community for their efforts in identifying the solution. These additional files effectively mitigate the engine's error messages about missing VMT files, enhancing overall performance in scenarios featuring moving ropes. This is particularly noticeable during the rocket elevator sequence in "On A Rail."
- Aligned the Vertex Format in the Skin GBuffer shader with that of the Prop GBuffer shader to ensure consistency across shaders handling similar data.
- Updated backup code for statically lit bump-mapped props, ensuring that props are marked as non-statically lit if the static lighting checksum does not match, preventing lighting artifacts.
- Recompiled all Inbound Tram models using the newer Studio Model Compiler to resolve tangent-related issues and improve visual fidelity.
- Enhanced the Job Pool to support more than 16 threads, optimizing performance for multithreaded tasks.
- Updated DX Support Autoconfig to align Intel/AMD GPUs with NVIDIA, ensuring that the game launches at 1080p by default instead of a low 4:3 resolution like 640x480.
- Introduced functionality to automatically run auto-configuration if the configuration version differs, ensuring that every installation reconfigures itself on the first launch after an update.
- Addressed various issues within the game, resulting in improvements in several areas. Feedback from players who opted into previous beta tests indicates that the sporadic crashing they experienced has been resolved.
ToGL/Linux
- Updated ToGL/Linux shaders with the latest GBuffer changes to ensure the application of up-to-date rendering techniques.
- Cleaned up the shadow filter state in ToGL/Linux, resulting in more accurate and stable shadow rendering.
- Migrated ToGL/Linux to use the OpenGL 3.3 Compatibility Profile, enhancing compatibility with a broader range of hardware and driver configurations while maintaining access to modern OpenGL features.
- Introduced an optional experimental Binary Shader Cache for ToGL/Linux, accessible via the -glusebinarycache command line option on Linux and native Steam Deck builds, which improves shader load times on supported platforms.
- Resolved a half-pixel halo issue in the ToGL/Linux rendering pipeline, improving visual accuracy in rendered scenes.
- Added per-triangle and optional per-vertex validation for studio models to resolve issues in ToGL/Linux related to static and dynamically lit models. A second pass for per-vertex validation can be enabled via the +r_studio_validate_vertices 1 command line argument.
- Improved lighting buffer quality on ToGL/Linux to resolve a red hue in specular highlights, ensuring consistent visual output across platforms.
- Added a missing window icon on ToGL/Linux to address a minor visual issue.
- Configured default arguments for the Linux launcher to optimize display settings on Steam Deck, ensuring a better out-of-the-box experience for AMD/Intel GPU users.
- Fixed debug assertions in Havok that leaked into the release build on Linux, preventing potential crashes during runtime
Proton/Linux
- Forced the shipped DXVK configuration on Proton if no overrides are provided, enhancing compatibility with Proton 9.x and newer versions.
Tools
- Implemented proper support for mirrored UVs in the Studio Model Compiler, ensuring that newly compiled meshes do not introduce visual bugs due to incorrect tangent data.