As mentioned previously, we have some new tech in Black Mesa that both our team and HECU Collective (the team behind the Black Mesa: Blue Shift mod) are utilizing.
We've been testing these features and doing some initial work on the first 5 chapters. Our goal is to roll out these updates in stages on the public-beta branch. Once testing is complete, we will move the update to the mainline for everyone to check out!
As always, you'll still be able to restart from the chapter you were on (or from a specific map using console commands).
To recap, this update will:
Fix minor bugs, visual errors, and improve asset optimizations where possible
Add improved parallax-corrected cubemap reflections
Improve outdoor baked lighting and leverage new image-based sky lighting
Improve indoor baked lighting (better static prop lighting and bounce lighting overall)
Improve real-time Cascaded Shadow Map (CSM) lighting
Deliver significantly better performance across the game
Here are a few early examples:
These effects are subtle by design, but they still add a noticeable amount of depth. When we went back to capture some comparison shots, something felt missing without the new parallax cube maps and the new lighting. We're excited to get this in the hands of the public!