About the Game
Relive Half-Life
Black Mesa is the fan-made reimagining of Valve Software’s Half-Life.
Black Mesa: Definitive Edition
Update 1.5 brings together all the improvements to graphics and gameplay across 15 years of development to create the final version of Black Mesa. There has never been a better time to pick up the crowbar and play!
Single Player Campaign
You are Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist at the Black Mesa Research Facility. When a routine experiment goes horribly wrong, you must fight your way through an interdimensional alien invasion, and a bloodthirsty military clean-up crew in order to save the science team... and the world!
Features
A completely reimagined and refined single player campaign, including all new and expanded Xen levels
19 chapters of fighting through top-secret labs, running atop harsh desert landscapes, sneaking into abandoned railways, and leaping across dimensions
Mind-Blowing graphics and effects, never before seen on the Source Engine
Face off against an army of classic enemies, updated with new features and engaging AI
Wield an arsenal of military hardware, scientific prototypes, and the iconic crowbar through incredibly detailed environments
The all-new soundtrack and voice acting create a more immersive experience than ever before
50 Fun and challenging achievements
Multiplayer
Frag your friends across 10 iconic maps from the Half-Life universe, including:
Bounce
Gasworks
Stalkyard
Undertow
Crossfire
Workshop
Create your own mods, models, and maps with the Black Mesa Source SDK, then share it with the community on the Steam Workshop.
Steamworks
Collect the full set of trading cards, backgrounds, emoticons, and achievements! Featuring Steam Cloud, Steam Workshop, closed captions in multiple languages and full controller support.
Screenshots
19 images
Version Information
Steam Patch Notes
Official update history
Hello Scientists! We've deployed a hotfix surrounding issues recently reported to improve your experience around the facility.
Changelist:
Resolved a rare issue that prevented the game from launching and triggered a 'Failed to load the Launcher DLL' error in specific scenarios.
Hello Scientists! We've deployed a hotfix surrounding issues recently reported to improve your experience around the facility.
Changelist:
Replaced old bone separation logic for ragdolls with a trace-based solver that resolves occluded or embedded bones:
Ensures hierarchy-correct traversal by sorting bones by tree depth before applying fixes.
Uses trace normals and parent-to-child constraints to reposition bones without excessive separation.
Scales inherited velocity by mass ratio and biases resolution based on contact direction.
Added debug overlay (r_debug_ragdoll_separation_solver) for visualizing correction passes.
Minor cleanup of redundant vector normalization and more consistent use of safe math.
Fixed incorrect animation state when unarmed in multiplayer.
Fixed grenade fuse continuing after the owner's death in multiplayer matches.
New DLL directory resolution functions are now enabled by default for improved security and compatibility.
Added support for the -disablenewdlldirectoryfunctions flag to disable SetDefaultDllDirectories and related APIs, allowing an alternative (legacy) DLL loading codepath.
Significantly improved Parallax Occlusion Mapping (POM) quality in applicable materials.
Enabled Parallax Occlusion Mapping (POM) functionality in ToGL.
Fixed normal mapping issues related to the dynamic lighting on Brush-based geometry,
Bundled a minimal set of required runtime dependencies from:
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (VC++ 10.0) SP1 Runtime
Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 (VC++ 12.0) Runtime
Microsoft DirectX End-User Runtime
LunarG Vulkan Runtime and Loader
Updated DXVK (Windows) to version 2.6.2,
Added -enableprocesspowerthrottlingstate flag. By default, setting the process power throttling state is disabled unless this flag is specified.
Changelist:
- Resolved IVP related crashes in the "Office Complex" chapter when resuming from a save file. This fix potentially safeguards other chapters from having similar crashes.
- Potentially fixed cases of Alt+Tab related crashes.
Welcome to Fall, and a Black Mesa beta patch post! We have pushed a build to public-beta that includes a bunch of fixes to some lingering issues, and WAY better Linux/Steam Deck support.
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Highlights
- Improved game start up for a smother first time launch and improved stability
- Fixed an issue that caused the game to crash to the menu when changing video settings during gameplay
- Fixed performance issue with moving wires (Thanks to npc_pigeon, narkvic, and the community)
- Re-added DXVK for Windows as a launch option
- Significantly better native Linux implementation and Steam Deck support
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Detailed Patch Notes
Windows:
- Reintroduced DXVK support on Windows.
- Upgraded DXVK to version 2.4.1 and removed the redundant custom Vendor ID from the configuration file.
- Improved the Qt runtime setup in the Windows Launcher to preload necessary libraries for ANGLE if needed.
- Restored throttling policies and their application to game processes under power management.
- Updated the launcher icon on Windows
Platform independent:
- 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 640x480.
- 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.
ToGL/Linux:
- Updated ToGL/Linux shaders with the latest GBuffer changes to ensure the application of up-to-date rendering techniques.
- Cleaned up the shadow filter state in ToGL/Linux, resulting in more accurate and stable shadow rendering.
- Migrated ToGL/Linux to use the OpenGL 3.3 Compatibility Profile, enhancing compatibility with a broader range of hardware and driver configurations while maintaining access to modern OpenGL features.
- Introduced an optional experimental Binary Shader Cache for ToGL/Linux, accessible via the -glusebinarycache command line option on Linux and native Steam Deck builds, which improves shader load times on supported platforms.
- Resolved a half-pixel halo issue in the ToGL/Linux rendering pipeline, improving visual accuracy in rendered scenes.
- Added per-triangle and optional per-vertex validation for studio models to resolve issues in ToGL/Linux related to static and dynamically lit models. A second pass for per-vertex validation can be enabled via the +r_studio_validate_vertices 1 command line argument.
- Improved lighting buffer quality on ToGL/Linux to resolve a red hue in specular highlights, ensuring consistent visual output across platforms.
- Added a missing window icon on ToGL/Linux to address a minor visual issue.
- Configured default arguments for the Linux launcher to optimize display settings on Steam Deck, ensuring a better out-of-the-box experience for AMD/Intel GPU users.
- Fixed debug assertions in Havok that leaked into the release build on Linux, preventing potential crashes during runtime.
Proton/Linux:
- Forced the shipped DXVK configuration on Proton if no overrides are provided, enhancing compatibility with Proton 9.x and newer versions.
Tools:
- Implemented proper support for mirrored UVs in the Studio Model Compiler, ensuring that newly compiled meshes do not introduce visual bugs due to incorrect tangent data.
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What We Need Help With
- Is the game getting flagged by any antivirus (Such as BitDefender)?
- On AMD GPUs (7 Series) is the game still crashing on public-beta when players go underwater?
We have not been able to replicate it on a number of machines with AMD GPUs, and people who have switched to our new test branch have not had the crash happen!
Please file a support log on Discord if you touch the water in Unforeseen Consequences and the game crashes - How is Steam Deck and Linux Working?
Is the “out of memory” crash still happening?
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Troubleshooting Virtual Desktop Installed
If you have Virtual Desktop and the game will not launch, please try the following:
- Check for a Windows update
- Validate the game files
- Install the following redistributables:
MSVC 2013
- https://download.microsoft.com/download/2/E/6/2E61CFA4-993B-4DD4-91DA-3737CD5CD6E3/vcredist_x86.exe
- https://download.microsoft.com/download/2/E/6/2E61CFA4-993B-4DD4-91DA-3737CD5CD6E3/vcredist_x64.exe
MSVC 2013 Update
- https://download.microsoft.com/download/C/C/2/CC2DF5F8-4454-44B4-802D-5EA68D086676/vcredist_x86.exe
- https://download.microsoft.com/download/C/C/2/CC2DF5F8-4454-44B4-802D-5EA68D086676/vcredist_x64.exe
DirectX Redistributables:
The game should now launch on the regular desktop.
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Launch Options
Some information on the launch options and what they do.
Black Mesa Default - This is the main option for people to use. This launch option uses DirectX 9C to render the game, and uses DirectX 11 to render the menus. Splitting the way we render the game gives a bit more performance, and gives us more support for rendering the menus.
Black Mesa No Workshop - This will not mount workshop content to help rule out issues or crashes. Note: it is not foolproof. The best way to rule out mods causing issues with the game is by uninstalling the game, deleting local files for Black Mesa in the Steam directory, unsubscribing from mods, then reinstalling the game.
Black Mesa DXVK - Renders the game through the DirectX to Vulkan conversion layer. This is a good option for certain cards that do not have great DirectX9 support.
Note: Some issues are not 100% solved.
Windowed fullscreen still acts as regular fullscreen
It is possible to lose your mouse while in the menu. Pressing the console button (`) twice will fix this
Black Mesa DX9 Fallback - There may be a situation where a specific hardware setup needs to be run in full DX9 (for both the game and UI in DirectX 9). We included this as a launch option to make troubleshooting even easier.
Intel Arc Cards
We have been testing on an Intel A750. The game seems to run fine on the card, but for some reason the new UI does not draw. You can hear the buttons when you roll over them with the mouse, but it is not displayed on screen. We will look into this to get the game 100% on Arc cards, but for the short term use -oldgameui as a launch command and let us know if there are any other issues that appear on Arc cards.
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Known Issues
- The monitor in AM is displaying four screens again :(
- DXVK Windowed full screen still acts as regular full screen
- In DXVK, it is possible to lose your mouse while in the menu. Pressing the console button (`) twice will fix this
- Linux does not have sun lens flares
The best place to post feedback is in the Discord server so that our community manager, Cybrfox, can sift through it and get it to us for fixes!
Thank you for all your support. Happy Halloween! 🎃
Well this has been excruciating. We apologize for any scares and the inconvenience of having the game get reported as a virus.
We have fixed the issue and also put up a number of other patches! Here are the patch notes:
Antivirus False Positive FIXED!
We’ve implemented a temporary fix to stop antivirus programs flagging bms.exe as a false positive. We have a permanent fix in the works, so that this issue will not happen again.
Downloading the update is all you need to do to have the game NOT get reported by your antivirus or Windows Defender (sometimes you have to restart Steam).
Temporary Removal of DXVK
As a result of our antivirus hotfix, we had to temporarily disable DXVK as a launch option. We plan to bring this back online as soon as possible in a future patch.
Improved Controller Support
- Fixed an issue which prevented some Steam Deck users from climbing ladders or using trams
- Fixed an issue where custom controller bindings were not persisting
- Fixed an issue where controller camera movement would not obey iron sights sensitivity
- Reworked Gyro Aim which is now handled separately in accordance with Steam Input best practices
- Also added “in_gyro_look_yaw_sensitivity” and “in_gyro_look_pitch_sensitivity” console commands for controlling gyro sensitivity.
- Revamped default controller layouts:
- Official Layout for Black Mesa - Standard Controls. Our official bindings for devices without gyro support
- Official Layout for Black Mesa - Standard Controls. Our official bindings for devices with gyro support
- Official Layout for Black Mesa - Steam Deck Controls. Our official bindings for Steam Deck, adding trackpad support for the main menu
- New Steam Input Game Actions:
- “Quick tripmine” - for quickly placing tripmines.
- “Quick frag” - for quickly throwing frags.
- “Use crowbar” - for quick crowbar switching.
- “Quick tripmine” - for quickly placing tripmines.
- Added a console command, “steam_input_show_bindings” which will bring up the Steam Input configurator via the Steam Overlay.
- A helpful guide on controller troubleshooting with Steam can be found here
Gameplay
- Fixed an issue where auto-aim would aim at items the player was holding (like ground sentries)
- Adjusted auto aim values in skill.cgf to have a longer range and be more magnetic
Dedicated Server Fix Soon
- Still testing internally but we did fix:
- Build process for dedicated servers (a compile switch was missing)
- This should resolve some crashing issues with dedicated servers
Auto-Aim
As mentioned in the patch notes, we completely overhauled the auto-aim feature within the game. This can be configured by changing console settings in the game. Details here.
If you would like to change the settings for the auto-aim permanently, all you have to do is go to Black Mesa\bms\cfg\skill.cfg and edit the numbers at the bottom of the text file.
{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/8672783/98517dc2a112094de272bd117c08e3fedd0d580a.jpg
We are interested to hear what people think of the auto-aim (most of us are terrible at playing the game with controllers).
Known Issues
Video Settings Crash
We are aware that if you change certain video settings WHILE in game, it can crash the game to the main menu and not let you resume the autosave it just created. We are looking into this!
Some UI Elements Need Localization
New HUD elements and controller options need to be localized
Invalid Game Configuration
If you get a message like below, simply restart Steam and re-launch the game.
{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/8672783/f7939bb3e51f0c489d0bd109d6b02b7a0936fa32.png
Previous Necro Patch Notes:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/362890/view/4174347361777844150
Thank you for your patience and understanding. Thanks to everyone who helped us test AGAIN.
GREETINGS!
We’ve pushed a patch to public beta. In this beta we are looking to confirm that:
- Nothing that was working before has broken
- Save files are intact for all players
- The Interloper A controller crash is fixed
- Graphics options are set, and stay set in the options menu
We’ve also:
- Fixed Moss shaders and direction control for both vertex lit shader and skin shader (for props with/without phong)
- Fixed halflambert/warp/specwarp related problems across all the shaders
- Unlocked the even higher graphics setting in options menu
- Fixed video settings not staying set
- SpotLight cookies should now work on any orientation. Cookie sprite sheet no longer needs to be square.
- Local lights shadow sampling optimized. They now look better & should be faster on the highest settings.
- Deferred lighting and NewPostProcess stability and support improved
- Lots of misc graphics fixes
- Updated translation files with community fixes
- Added missing Italian translators Riccardo Rapuano and Andrea Franceschi
You can access the beta by right-clicking the game on Steam, going to Properties > Betas > select “public-beta” in the dropdown menu.
Sorry for the time away, but we have been focused on other things, and it was a massive effort to overhaul our deployment system. This centralized the source control and build systems for the game, and allows us to better maintain and release builds of the game.
Our goal is to get a “safe” mini patch up on beta and thoroughly test it. We will push it to the mainline once we know it won’t break anything.
After that we may do a more involved patch that might break saves due to level edits. We’ll make sure to let everyone know if we release a more dangerous patch (remember you can always restart the chapter if something breaks).
So with that, some questions:
- What are some high priority issues with the game you would like to see fixed?
- What should we call the mini patch and its follow-ups? Internally, we are calling it the
Necro Patch…
Thanks for all your support! Be good to one another!
-Crowbar Collective Team
Current Release
Not available
System Requirements
How to Install
setup.exe
Troubleshooting tips
• Run Redist/_CommonRedist installers if game won't start
• Add folder to Windows Defender exclusions
• Run as administrator
Download
Direct link available
9.2 GB
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Download Black Mesa for PC with a direct link or via torrent. Get the full version of Black Mesa for free. Black Mesa is a Action released by Crowbar Collective.