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Half-Life Remake Black Mesa Gets Resonance Decade Update

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Crowbar Collective has released the Resonance Decade Update for its amazing Half-Life Remake, Black Mesa. So, let’s see what this new patch brings to the table.

Black Mesa is easily one of the best remakes of a classic PC game. The game expands some of its levels, especially in Xen. To be honest, though, I found some levels in Xen to be too big (and a bit boring). The factory level is one of them. But, overall, this is an incredible remake of Half-Life.

The Resonance Decade Update brings fixes to startup-related crashes, as well as to physics engine-related crashes. It also packs improvements for Steam Deck and Linux.

Moreover, this patch adds support for models with a total vertex count exceeding 65535, lifting the previous global limit. It also updates the bundled DXVK (Windows) to version 2.6.1. Plus, it improves stability of the Hit Sounds system.

And that’s not all. This new patch adjusts CSM depth bias to improve shadow precision on ToGL. Moreover, it enables God Rays on ToGL, and it resolves the soft particles rendering artifacts that were noticeable on ToGL. Furthermore, it improves ToGL binary shader cache, resulting in faster load times after the first run. It also reduces rendering path discrepancies between Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA for improved consistency across GPUs.

It’s also worth noting that the update introduces force limit on gibs from damage to prevent excessive speeds during explosions. It also introduces Vulkan layer exclusion rules to prevent certain startup crashes with DXVK. Oh, and it also addresses some display issues that could cause waterfall flickering in Xen.

Like always, Steam will download this update the next time you launch its client. Below, you can also find its complete changelog. So, be sure to check it out.

Black Mesa Resonance Decade Update Release Notes

  • Relaxed triangle vertex validation in ToGL to accept structurally valid input even when geometry is ambiguous, resolving various graphical issues in Studio MDL models
  • Resolved crashes in Hammer and HLMV when rendering high-quality models by increasing vertex buffer limits to match those defined in the original model format
  • Resolved a crash that occurred during the mortar sequence at the end of the Gargantua chase in the Surface Tension chapter
  • Fixed an issue where func_rotating entities would unexpectedly stop spinning after a certain amount of time on some maps
  • Recompiled all weapon models using the updated Studio Model Compiler to prevent visual glitches caused by incorrect or outdated tangent data
  • Updated bundled DXVK (Windows) to version 2.6.1
  • Added support for models with a total vertex count exceeding 65535, lifting the previous global limit
  • Added hit feedback sound effects during multiplayer combat
  • 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
  • Improved stability of the Hit Sounds system
  • Fixed incorrectly displayed blinking overlays on brush models in ToGL
  • Suppressed display of God Rays Disks appearing through walls in ToGL
  • Bumped shader cache version for ToGL
  • Added snd_mixahead to auto-config and updated auto-config version
  • Linux build now uses stricter floating-point math for improved stability
  • Improved IVP stability by introducing coordinate sanitization in key areas
  • Fixed Hit Sound system functionality under the Old UI
  • Fixed a regression affecting Model and Particle browsers in Hammer after the Secondary Camera fix
  • Addressed display issues causing waterfall flickering in Xen
  • Introduced a slight vertical offset on teleport to prevent instant ground collision
  • Fixed a crash occurring in the Nihilanth encounter on Linux
  • Improved overall performance on Linux, with noticeable gains in the Lambda Core teleport puzzle
  • Introduced Vulkan layer exclusion rules to prevent certain startup crashes with DXVK
  • StudioMDL now attempts to generate VTX files with legacy indexing for improved tool compatibility
  • Prevented crashes in the New UI when encountering unusual server names
  • Improved runtime stability by reviewing and fixing cases of unsafe use of short-lived data, including uninitialized variables affecting server-side ragdolls.
  • Introduced force limit on gibs from damage to prevent excessive speeds during explosions.
  • 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 640×480.
  • 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.

29 thoughts on “Half-Life Remake Black Mesa Gets Resonance Decade Update”

          1. No. You have no standards whatsoever. What you think is good is dictated by what others tell you. Big difference.

          2. You’re mad that I don’t like your favorite game, that’s it.
            it’s a sign of low IQ.

    1. I can't get this game to work with dgVoodo2 (I just get a black screen regardless of version of D3D API). I also couldn't get it to work right with DXVK-HDR unless I replaced the bundled version of DXVK with it. The HDR output I'm getting is also a little broken.

      Reply

      1. First of all, why on earth do you want to downgrade this game by using dgVoodoo2 when it already ships with DXVK for good reasons?

        And the reason why the HDR output appears broken when forced is because this game only supports SDR.

        Note that the in-game HDR setting refers to the internal calculation of light, and not to rendering the final image for output on an HDR monitor.

        Reply

        1. First of all, why on earth do you want to downgrade this game by using dgVoodoo2 when it already ships with DXVK for good reasons?

          I'm actually upgrading it to be compatible with the AutoHDR addon for ReShade. DXVK is a downgrade in that sense.

          And the reason why the HDR output appears broken when forced is because this game only supports SDR.

          I'm using DXVK-HDR (a fork by EndlesslyFlowering on Github) which upgrades the game's swapchain and changes the game's video output to scRGB HDR. It does require a ReShade shader in order to properly tonemap the output, but once you install and enable it the game output will be in proper HDR despite the game not supporting it.

          This appears to be broken in the game at the moment, but I just remembered that the issue may be related to an NVIDIA graphics profile setting that probably got reset when I upgraded the driver. I wish NVIDIA would stop doing that…

          Note that the in-game HDR setting refers to the internal calculation of light, and not to rendering the final image for output on an HDR monitor.

          That's clearly not what I'm talking about.

          github(dot)com/EndlesslyFlowering/dxvk
          github(dot)com/EndlesslyFlowering/AutoHDR-ReShade
          github(dot)com/EndlesslyFlowering/ReShade_HDR_shaders

          Reply

        2. I posted this list of links to HDR screenshots of the game so you could see what it looks like (assuming you have an HDR monitor to view them on), but it never got approved.

          @John (or whoever approves comments) AVIF is an image format. It uses AV1 video encoding for images. It supports standard 8-bit images as well as 10-bit HDR images, and Chromium bases web browsers (Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, Brave, Opera, etc) should be able to open them.
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVIF
          https://www.howtogeek.com/819161/what-is-avif-format/
          https://web.dev/learn/images/avif/
          https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000540.shtml

          Anyway, here are the links to the images. Disqus doesn't allow uploading AVIF images, so I have to upload them to an external website and link to them.
          https://www.gt500.org/images/black_mesa/hdr/bms_2025-05-15_21-01-35_869.avif
          https://www.gt500.org/images/black_mesa/hdr/bms_2025-05-15_21-00-08_656.avif
          https://www.gt500.org/images/black_mesa/hdr/bms_2025-05-15_20-56-39_834.avif
          https://www.gt500.org/images/black_mesa/hdr/bms_2025-05-15_20-55-14_235.avif
          https://www.gt500.org/images/black_mesa/hdr/bms_2025-05-15_20-53-28_519.avif
          https://www.gt500.org/images/black_mesa/hdr/bms_2025-05-15_20-51-57_724.avif
          https://www.gt500.org/images/black_mesa/hdr/bms_2025-05-15_20-50-54_798.avif
          https://www.gt500.org/images/black_mesa/hdr/bms_2025-05-15_20-14-30_179.avif
          https://www.gt500.org/images/black_mesa/hdr/bms_2025-05-15_20-43-12_697.avif
          https://www.gt500.org/images/black_mesa/hdr/bms_2025-05-15_20-43-06_879.avif
          https://www.gt500.org/images/black_mesa/hdr/bms_2025-05-15_20-48-35_685.avif
          https://www.gt500.org/images/black_mesa/hdr/bms_2025-05-15_20-47-12_108.avif
          https://www.gt500.org/images/black_mesa/hdr/bms_2025-05-15_20-45-43_238.avif

          Reply

      2. What's your reason for using dgVoodoo2 on Black Mesa? It's not an old game and its scales everything perfectly at higher resolutions.

        From my POV, I only use it for old games to scale the menus/HUD/UI, etc. at 4K or higher to avoid shrinking them.

        Reply

        1. The game isn't modern in terms of its graphics API, which is D3D9. You can't (on Windows 10 at least) play D3D9 games in HDR unless you use something like dgVoodoo2 and a ReShade addon or DXVK-HDR to change the graphics API and upgrade the game's swapchain. I prefer using dgVoodoo2 to do D3D9->D3D11 because the addon for ReShade supports HDR10, which is compatible with the majority of ReShade shaders. I only use DXVK-HDR as a fallback since it only supports scRGB HDR, which most ReShade shaders don't support.

          Note that I only use dgVoodoo2 as a compatibility layer for tools like ReShade and SpecialK to allow for more modern shader functions and graphics features such as HDR.

          Reply

          1. Oh no. No HDR that adds barely anything to an image that doesn't have wide color gamut. Why god why.

          2. That's why you use a ReShade shader to tonemap the game's output into proper HDR… Simply upgrading the swapchain obviously isn't enough…

            I posted some links to HDR screenshots in reply to our resident Linux fanboy. It's still waiting approval right now, but once it's approved check them out if you have an HDR monitor. You might be surprised.

            Here's a link to a YouTube video of Homefront where I used the dgVoodoo2 method to get the ReShade addon working so the game is in HDR10. I edited the URL to bypass the automatic moderation, so just fix the URL and paste it into your browser to check it out if you have an HDR monitor and want to see what it looks like:

            youtube(dot)com/watch?v=Z_zKwnfBUns

          3. Yeeeeah. You're one of those types who thinks a bare minimal improvement in image quality all of the sudden transforms the image entirely. Like people who try to tell you a sepia toned game looks terrible without WCG. Way too many so called gamers like you these days. Especially anyone obsessed with ReShade. Apparently artistic vision is something you don't get. Artistic vision includes color palette. Do take note.

          4. What do you think HDR is? The difference from SDR to HDR is significant (depending on the implementation). Granted it's a difference you can't see without an HDR monitor, so if you don't have one then you won't be able to see it.

  4. Meh, it's maintenance and under the hood stuff except for improving Linux and Steam Deck support, idk why they'd name the update like it was that hype. It's not.

    But also… EXPANDING anything in the fcking infinite slog that's Xen in this??! If anything they should have HALVED its length at least! It completely transforms and kills the game you had up to that point!

    Reply

    1. I'm kinda glad to see I am not the only one. I love Black Mesa, I hate Xen. At first it looks great and the design and atmosphere are really great, but repleaying it it got really annoying, in length as well as in ganmeplay. Nice to see that this seems to be a general opinion and not just me "not getting it"

      Reply

  5. God I miss good old FPS like that.

    I'm NOT talking about that stupid "boomer shooter" trend, where you face countless waves after waves of countless enemies. I HATE these arcadish FPS (not all of them, see below for a list of great games), and unfortunately, indie developers seem to think that this is exactly what we want. WHAT THE F***?

    No, for me, the best period of FPS games was late 90s-mid 2000s, when FPS started feeling like movies, except they didn't feel yet like linear interactive movies. (the dreadful late 2000s, ugh…)
    It was the best of both worlds, combing classic FPS + a modern movie-like experience.
    They had lots of interactions, platforming, huge complex levels to explore, NOT that many enemies actually, and felt like coherent believable worlds.

    Examples: No One Lives Forever, Kingpin, Far Cry 1, Unreal, Gunman Chronicles, James Bond 007 – Nightfire, Half-Life 2, Call of Juarez 1, etc.

    What the hell happened to that genre?
    Alright, we do get some open-world ones, like the Far Cry series, but gee, is that it?
    Almost ALL FPS games I have downloaded in the past 10 years are only remasters/remakes of old ones.
    Why did this genre die?

    And don't tell me about Dusk, Amid Evil, Ion Fury, Dread Templar, Selaco, etc.
    These games try to recreate the mid-90s era, which is completely different from the late 90s. In fact, these games (which ARE very good) represent EXACTLY the problem I'm having.
    Everybody focuses exclusively on that Doom/Duke Nukem era.
    NOBODY tries to relive the HALF-LIFE era.

    CULTIC is an interesting exception, I guess. It has the old pixelated graphics of Duke Nukem/Blood era, but with an exceptional level design like Half-Life, and manages to improve the gameplay in every way possible.
    And it doesn't feel like a damn arcade game.
    Top 10 best FPS ever.

    Oh well…
    I guess that now I should focus instead on the immersive-sim-LITE FPS.(And I really emphasize the "lite")
    Kingdom Come Deliverance 1-2, Fallen Aces, Shadows of Doubt, Thief Simulator 1-2, System Shock remake, Gloomwood, American Theft 80s, Ghostwire Tokyo, Enderal, Graven, Sniper Ghost Warrior – Contracts 2, Metro Exodus, Postal 4, Prey…

    Alright, I shouldn't complain.
    But that was just a rant to say that the very specific gameplay we had in Half-life/Black Mesa has literally vanished since almost 20 years now.😞

    Reply

  6. God I miss good old FPS like that.

    I'm NOT talking about that stupid "boomer shooter" trend, where you face countless waves after waves of countless enemies. I HATE these arcadish FPS (not all of them, see below for a list of great games), and unfortunately, indie developers seem to think that this is exactly what we want. WHAT THE F***?

    No, for me, the best period of FPS games was late 90s-mid 2000s, when FPS started feeling like movies, except they didn't feel yet like linear interactive movies. (the dreadful late 2000s, ugh…)
    It was the best of both worlds, combing the freedom and fun of classic FPS + a modern movie-like experience.
    They had lots of interactions, platforming, huge complex levels to explore, NOT that many enemies actually, and felt like coherent believable worlds.

    Examples: No One Lives Forever, Kingpin, Far Cry 1, Unreal, Gunman Chronicles, James Bond 007 – Nightfire, Half-Life 2, Call of Juarez 1, etc.

    What the hell happened to that genre?
    Alright, we do get some open-world ones, like the Far Cry series, but gee, is that it?
    Almost ALL FPS games I have downloaded in the past 10 years are only remasters/remakes of old ones.
    Why did this genre die?

    And don't tell me about Dusk, Amid Evil, Ion Fury, Dread Templar, Selaco, etc.
    These games try to recreate the mid-90s era, which is completely different from the late 90s. In fact, these games (which ARE very good) represent EXACTLY the problem I'm having.
    Everybody focuses exclusively on that action-focused Doom/Duke Nukem era.
    Yes, these games are freaking great, but why NOBODY tries to relive the HALF-LIFE era?

    CULTIC is an interesting exception, I guess. It has the old pixelated graphics of Duke Nukem/Blood era, but with an exceptional level design like Half-Life, and manages to improve the gameplay in every way possible.
    And it doesn't feel like a damn arcade game.
    Top 10 best FPS ever.

    Oh well…
    I guess that now I should focus instead on the immersive-sim-LITE FPS.(And I really emphasize the "lite" for some of them…)
    Examples:
    Kingdom Come Deliverance 1-2, Fallen Aces, Shadows of Doubt, Thief Simulator 1-2, System Shock remake, Gloomwood, American Theft 80s, Ghostwire Tokyo, Enderal, Graven, Sniper Ghost Warrior – Contracts 2, Metro Exodus, Postal 4, Prey, Deus Ex Mankind Divided…

    These are the only FPS games I can enjoy these days.
    And of all of these, I think only Fallen Aces fits exactly what I'm describing, plus the stealth element. The others feel much slower or tactical, which is a different type of gameplay. In fact, Fallen Aces is the FPS I have enjoyed the most in the past decade, I think. No surprise.
    So, yeah… Fallen Aces and CULTIC. The only two classic FPS I truly enjoyed.

    Alright, I shouldn't complain.
    But that was just a rant to say that the very specific gameplay we had in Half-life/Black Mesa has literally vanished since almost 20 years now.😞

    EDIT: just a thought, but I do appreciate that comeback of immersive sims since a few years.
    And I'm thinking, maybe immersive sims are just the natural evolution of games like Half-life? I mean, Half-Life 2 in particular did have some immersive sim elements. (the crates stacking thing)
    They were already slowly moving towards that genre back then.
    So maybe we won't see games like Half-Life again, but now we'll get more and more immersive sims…?

    Reply

    1. Halo and CoD destroyed it. Yeah. I said Halo. It isn't even as good as Half Life 1, and people call it a masterpiece. The sequels just made everything worse in comparison to the original.

      Oh and yes, boomer shooters are a joke. Mainly because of awful level design. Doom 1 and 2 are so phenomenal still, because of their excellent level design, which the vast majority of modern copycats don't even bother with paying attention to.

      Reply

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