The Black Mesa team has just released a new beta update for Black Mesa. This new update adds five maps from the Interloper chapter. Moreover, the team aims to release the last 3 maps of Interloper shortly, after a final art and polish pass.

In addition, this latest beta update improves godray performance in all maps. It also improves overall performance in some Xen maps, and introduces LOD, model collision and material type fixes. This is definitely good news as we’ve already reported the game’s somehow questionable performance, especially in 4K.

It’s also worth mentioning that there are still some bugs and issues with Interloper. For instance, dynamic lights are occasionally off map-wide and some models are missing collision. Furthermore, water is missing refraction effect while underwater in Interloper Map B1, and players may occasionally get stuck in “sucky vent”.

In order to gain access to the public beta build, you’ll have to right click “Black Mesa” in your library and go to Properties. From there, you must click the “BETAS” tab and select “public-beta” from the drop down menu. Once you’ve selected it, Steam will download the new build and you will have access to the Xen levels.

Lastly, you can find below the changelog for Black Mesa’s latest beta update.

Black Mesa Interloper Beta Patch Release Notes

Xen and Gonarch’s Lair Fixes
-Improved godray performance in all maps

Xen
-Increased performance in Xen B lower swamps (as you exit the door)
-Fixed zombie HEV flashlight sprite when turned on by I/O
-Model collision and material type fixes
-LOD fixes

Gonarch’s Lair Map A
-Fixed RPG not tracking Gonarch hitbox
-Slightly increased Gonarch hitbox
-Fixed black area portal
-Updated healing island particles
-Removed dynamic light god rays for performance
-Fixed a crash involving the Gonarch mortar

Gonarch’s Lair Map B
-Fixed flashlight and other dynamic lights not displaying in starting cave
-Tinted burnable webs so that the player can tell the difference between webs they can break and webs that need to be burned
-Fixed material types on textures and models so it no longer sounds like you are walking on solid glass
-Blocked web window that looked like the player could pass through
-Added lights and wires to better guide player on the critical path
-Player clipping pass
-NPC clipping pass (It should be much harder to get the Gonarch stuck or floating off cliffs)
-New and updated model collisions
-Lighting fixes for guidance and better Gonarch visibility
-Minor art fixes

Gonarch’s Lair Map C
-Fixed all breakable webs to break in ONE hit
-Fixed breakable web hitbox collision detect (it was too thin)
-Lighting and prop improvements for player guidance
-Fixed oil that was not slippery, allowing player to break start of final chase
-NPC clipping pass
-Player clipping pass
-Better highlighted player path in first chase
-Fixed columns in final fight being able to kill you in one hit
-Updated and fixed model collisions (still some objects missing collisions, like the crystals)
-Removed some player obstacles to make the first chase feel smoother
-Fixed players being able to long jump into start cinephys and get stuck
-Removed collision from certain ceiling props to make sure they do not stop the player
-Removed fire fumerol from final boss section
-Reduced screen shake caused by fire damage
-Lowered damage from Gonarch fire

Interloper Known Issues

Interloper Map A
-Occasional crashes in village
-Alien Grunt sometimes gets stuck in his animation sequence at the start of level
-Some models missing collision
-Dynamic lights are occasionally off map-wide

Interloper Map A1
-Sun shadows popping in at the end of the level
-Texture seams in water models

Interloper Map B1
-Waterfall particle early in the map ends too soon
-Elevator outside control room 1 sometimes shoots you into the death ceiling, causing a cheap death.
-Player occasionally gets stuck in “sucky vent”
-Bad performance in the control room 1 and 2
-Water missing refraction effect while underwater
-Seams between water models

John Papadopoulos

John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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