Half-Life question

[Dacenguy]

In Freeman's Mind, I notice that the water textures and other visual features in general are different from the Steam version of Half-Life (noticeably better in any case). What version of Half-Life is being used to record Freeman's Mind, and where can I get it/ can I upgrade my Steam version to that one?

[Box Tactics]

It's called Half-Life Source. It's not like Black Mesa - the content of the game wasn't changed it all, it was just ported from the Goldsrc engine to the Source engine. It's sold separately, so you can't upgrade the original Half-Life, sorry!

[Dacenguy]

Thanks for clearing that up. I have no idea why Steam would have 2 versions of Half-Life. Well, I know what I'm giving myself for Xmas. No more bland, solid-looking water for me.

[danielsangeo]

Half-Life is the original game using the GoldSrc engine, which is a modified Quake engine, which was originally designed by id Software. Valve heavily modified the Quake engine to produce GoldSrc, which is what Half-Life originally ran on (and the original Half-Life continues to run on).

 

Valve, later, created their own 3D game engine, which they call "Source". While working on Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source in the Source engine, they decided to see the process mod-makers would have to go through with the new engine. They ported Half-Life over to the Source engine (a direct one-to-one transfer) including things like water effects and ragdoll physics along with a new 3D skybox rather than bitmap skies. They released this port of Half-Life and called it "Half-Life: Source".

 

Half-Life: Source garnered some criticism because some fans were expecting Half-Life to be re-done with Half-Life 2 style graphics and it wasn't anything but a straight port. As a result, some would-be modders decided to get together and make their OWN modification, porting Half-Life into the Source engine with blackjack and hookers--in fact, forget the mod!...no, wait. This was considerably more daunting than they were expecting. However, after years of waiting and a missed deadline in which they decided to re-look at the mod with fresh eyes and re-did a lot of things, the modification known as "Black Mesa" was released (at least up until the portal to Xen; Xen is still being worked on to this date for a future release).

 

Essentially, Half-Life: Source is a port of the original Half-Life. Ross is using "Half-Life: Source" for Freeman's Mind.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrL9evJpgzg

[Space Hunter M]

It's a lot like comparing Star Wars to its Special Editions, when you bring in aspects like the new sky boxes, the more Source engine oriented sound design, new map colorations, and plenty of tidbits/Easter eggs that were superior in their original form. I was actually working on a detailed visual list of changes in the Source version.

[Alyxx Thorne]

I prefer the original GoldSrc version or Black Mesa. Black Mesa feels more like a proper Source remake. I think the only reason Ross is using HL Source is because it's easier to work with as machinima since he's used to it.

[GordonFreeman]

You know, I wouldn't go with Star Wars for the example for black mesa

 

GoldSync: The Original starwars-Classic

Source: The special edition

Black Mesa: Star Trek (2009)