The Half-Life Saga

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Blackhawk
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The Half-Life Saga

Post by Blackhawk »

A while back I sat down to play Half-Life: Alyx (the recent VR title.) I heard that the events tie in to the events of Episode 2, but I haven't played Episode 2 in... 11 years? 12? I can't remember what happened at the end beyond some vague recollection of a train wreck. So I decided to put Alyx down and replay the series. I started with Black Mesa, because why not? I found that I didn't like the changes - not to the levels, but to the atmosphere. HL1 felt like you were traveling through an active R&D complex under attack. Black Mesa felt like you were returning there ten years later - it was dark, decrepit, and reminded me a bit of the Metro games. It was a good game, but it changed the feel too much to lead properly into the rest of the series.

I reinstalled HL1, Opposing Force, and Blue Shift. I did some digging, and found that the go-to for playing it on modern systems is Half-Life ReSrced. It is a combination of model/texture updates (based entirely on the original models/textures, nothing absurd) with a complete engine replacement. It turns out that there is an engine called Xash3d that is a complete modern engine replacement for the GoldSource engine (HL1/etc) and will, right out of the box, play Half-Life and practically everything using that engine (including most mods.) It also supports both HL1 expansions. So, that's what I did. Installing it took a few minutes and carefully following the instructions, but once I had it going I didn't have any issues playing through all three (save for a weird mouse problem in OpFor that was solved by adding a single .dll file to the mod.) Here's a comparison:



So, it held up fairly well. It's still a 20+ year-old game, and it shows in both the graphics and gameplay, but I had a lot of fun. I'm not that picky with graphics - looking out of date doesn't bother me. I've played HL1 many times, and Opposing Force two or three, but had only played Blue Shift once. I'm going to take a game off, then go back in with HL2/Ep1/Ep2 before heading back to Alyx.

As a side note, I did discover partway through that you can also use the Xash3D engine to play all of Half-Life 1 and both expansion packs in full VR (along with Quake, Quake II, various Dooms, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein.) I found out late enough that I didn't want to restart (saves aren't transferrable), but I may go back and try Wolfenstein at some point. I played the demo level and the controls and VR were actually really good.
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Blackhawk
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Re: The Half-Life Saga

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Continuing this, I just sat down and restarted Half-Life 2. I'm playing it was released, except for a couple of changes. One, there's a full 4k upscale for the textures linked here. For the other, that was Valve. They recently released a stealth update as a new HL2 beta branch. It improves the FOV and all sorts of other things, supposedly in preparation for the Steam Deck.

As an aside, while there are elements of several locations in play, what City 17 was before HL2 was never really stated or confirmed. There have been theories, but that's all. That's no longer true, thanks to the map of City 17 in Half-Life Alyx (the link shows the map, which pretty much a non-spoiler, but still.) Welcome to the home of the HL2 art director, Sofia, Bulgaria. And some comparisons.
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Re: The Half-Life Saga

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Blackhawk wrote: Fri Jan 14, 2022 2:17 pm Continuing this, I just sat down and restarted Half-Life 2. I'm playing it was released, except for a couple of changes. One, there's a full 4k upscale for the textures linked here. For the other, that was Valve. They recently released a stealth update as a new HL2 beta branch. It improves the FOV and all sorts of other things, supposedly in preparation for the Steam Deck.
That first link you posted, are you referring to "Peixoto's patch" or the ones listed below that?

I'll probably play HL2 again after I finish Black Mesa, and am really only interested in playing it in its best looking...version.
Last edited by Carpet_pissr on Sat Jan 15, 2022 5:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Blackhawk
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Re: The Half-Life Saga

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Carpet_pissr wrote: Sat Jan 15, 2022 3:52 pm
Blackhawk wrote: Fri Jan 14, 2022 2:17 pm Continuing this, I just sat down and restarted Half-Life 2. I'm playing it was released, except for a couple of changes. One, there's a full 4k upscale for the textures linked here. For the other, that was Valve. They recently released a stealth update as a new HL2 beta branch. It improves the FOV and all sorts of other things, supposedly in preparation for the Steam Deck.
That first link you posted, are you referring to "Peixoto's patch" or the ones listed below that?

I'll probably play HL2 again after I finish Black Mesa, and am really only interested in playing it in its best looking...version.
I think I parsed that right. ;)

Since I'm running with the beta branch, both that patch and the "Half-Life 2: Update" mod were either redundant (the resolution, scaling, etc are all handled via the beta) or likely incompatible. I just used Half-Life 2 4X AI Textures. As it's a new base game, patches that alter the content are going to be iffy, while simple texture replacers are unlikely to be an issue.
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Re: The Half-Life Saga

Post by Carpet_pissr »

Blackhawk wrote: Sat Jan 15, 2022 4:11 pm
Carpet_pissr wrote: Sat Jan 15, 2022 3:52 pm
Blackhawk wrote: Fri Jan 14, 2022 2:17 pm Continuing this, I just sat down and restarted Half-Life 2. I'm playing it was released, except for a couple of changes. One, there's a full 4k upscale for the textures linked here. For the other, that was Valve. They recently released a stealth update as a new HL2 beta branch. It improves the FOV and all sorts of other things, supposedly in preparation for the Steam Deck.
That first link you posted, are you referring to "Peixoto's patch" or the ones listed below that?

I'll probably play HL2 again after I finish Black Mesa, and am really only interested in playing it in its best looking...version.
I think I parsed that right. ;)

Since I'm running with the beta branch, both that patch and the "Half-Life 2: Update" mod were either redundant (the resolution, scaling, etc are all handled via the beta) or likely incompatible. I just used Half-Life 2 4X AI Textures. As it's a new base game, patches that alter the content are going to be iffy, while simple texture replacers are unlikely to be an issue.
Oops, sorry, fixed. Yes, you got it right. Side note to your side note: I searched for Xhash3d and Wolfenstein and came across mostly Android conversions. Is this for Linux only?

Do you know how it compares to iortcw, or specifically RealRTCW?
Real:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/realrtcw-realism-mod

ioRTCW:
https://github.com/iortcw/iortcw

Edit: Ha! Didn't even realize RealRTCW made it to Steam!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1379630/RealRTCW/
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Blackhawk
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Re: The Half-Life Saga

Post by Blackhawk »

Carpet_pissr wrote: Sun Jan 16, 2022 2:10 pm Oops, sorry, fixed. Yes, you got it right. Side note to your side note: I searched for Xhash3d and Wolfenstein and came across mostly Android conversions. Is this for Linux only?
*Tries to remember what he was talking about four months ago.*

I only use Windows. Those were all references to the VR conversions, located here. The Half-Life: ReSrced linked in the original also uses Xash3d in non-VR.
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Re: The Half-Life Saga

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And I crashed. I made it about halfway - up to Sand Traps, then realized how bored I was. It's been years since I've played it, but I played it multiple times before that. I still knew everything to expect, so I just felt like I was going through the motions - "There are rockets here. When I get to that building, it'll trigger a gunship, then I run back here and shoot it down." No discovery, no figuring out how to get through, just going through the process that I remembered.

So I sat and watched summaries of Episode 1 and 2 and I'll just move on to Alyx.

I've noticed that I have a lot less patience for repeated experiences in the last few years. I used to love to replay favorite games, but now I just can't stay interested. I enjoy revisiting them, but just don't stick around for the long haul.
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