Lost in Black Mesa

for Half-Life

29th December 2009

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

Start in a lobby and explore the Black Mesa Research Facility.

Of course, you will find plenty of enemies and obstacles in your way, so move carefully and pay attention to the signs.

Only the smart and fearless will succeed!

Basic Details

  • Title: Lost in Black Mesa
  • File Name: hl1-sp-lost-in-black-mesa.7z
  • Original File Names: lbmfx-setup-2.exe, lbmfx_english_patch.exe
  • Size : 57.7Mb
  • Author: Chain Studios
  • Date Released: 25 December 2009

Storyline (Author’s version)

Many people were missing during the Black Mesa incident. Only a few, a mere handful of people succeeded to reach the surface, where they were being awaited by armed troops of marines with an order to annihilate any witness of the catastrophe.

You are Alex Jones, a young scientist that by a lucky chance worked in an HEV suit when it was an accident. When leaving your laboratory and entering an elevator you could not even imagine that the way out will be so long and difficult. Kindred and friends have already considered you a missing person. But can it be true that a person lost in a huge underground complex will meet them again and tell the truth about what was happened in the Black Mesa Research Facility?

VERY IMPORTANT NOTES

YOU MUST READ THESE BEFORE DOWNLOADING AND PLAYING THE MOD

Please launch the mod only with the supplied launcher lbm_fx.exe located in the “lbm_fx/system” directory! Otherwise game may not work. If you need to run the game with additional parameters, add them to the short cut for that launcher. Please note that the game uses a modified opengl32.dll that is copied into Half-Life directory on game startup.

When game shuts down this file is left in the game directory. In this case some anti-cheats may consider you a cheater and ban your CD-key. Therefore either disable anti-cheating software or manually delete opengl32.dll from Half-Life directory before running multiplayer games or mods. Chain Studios has no responsibility for a probable ban and frankly warns you.

Features

  • Static diffuse and specular bump-mapping
  • Dynamic bumpmapping for a flashlight
  • Parallax mapping
  • Shader script system
  • Refractive glass
  • Projective soft shadows
  • Projective flashlight
  • High-resolution textures and decals
  • Anisotropic texture filtering
  • Detail textures
  • Light bloom effect
  • Heat haze effect
  • Particle systems
  • Interactive physics elements
PlanetPhillip Download Servers

Installation Instructions

Run the main file executable and follow the instructions, then run the English patch and do the same.

Please see the Technical Help section if you need help.

Screenshots

Click on the thumbnails below to open a 800 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots may contain spoilers.

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3
Reader Recommendations
Avoid It!
Think Twice
Maybe
Play It Later
Play It Now!

9 recommendations, average score: 4.11 (out of 5), standard deviation: 1.43 (what's that?)
Total Downloads

Please note: These statistics are valid from December 2010

  • 2,486
    Overall
  • 0
    Today
  • 0
    Last 7 days
  • 5
    Last 30 days
  • 85
    365 days
Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 1 comment(s) with meta review data.

Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 1 Users

Time Taken:
Average: 2 Hours, 5 Mins
Shortest: 2 Hours, 5 Mins by fleetlord
Longest: 2 Hours, 5 Mins by fleetlord
Total Time Played: 2 Hours, 5 Mins
If you believe this release is missing important tags, please suggest them in a comment?
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Phillip says Play It!Play It Now!Think TwicePlay It Now!Think TwicePlay It Now!Play It Now!Play It LaterPlay It Later

48 Comments

  1. Phillip says Play It!

    I am not going to write a properly constructed review for one reason; I can’t finish the game. On the first computer I played with Steam and the mod just kept crashing, on the second I played via WON and although it never crashed the movement never worked correctly. I would start to move forward and just keep moving. The mouse worked sometimes and not others.

    Now, I know I say you must finish playing a mod before you use the recommendation images and I have finished, I just haven’t completed it!

    I would have liked to have given it a Personal Favourite because what I did play was fantastic but I really don’t think the problems are to do with my system.

    In addition the music volume was way too loud and kept stuttering.

    So what I am trying to say is that if you don’t have any technical issues then I am pretty sure you will really enjoy this mod, if you do, then I empathize with you.

  2. Play It Now!

    Well done fx on this mod.I had a couple of crashes when the gun fights got intense and over loaded my vid card.I cheated and used “no target” in those area’s to eliminate a couple of the enemies then turned it back off.Music was ok and didn’t stutter but the sound level was not adjustable.When playing with headphones its really loud.Love playing on the tram cars.I give it a PIN just because it was fun.

  3. Think Twice

    As much as I would like to play this mod I’m not going to YET. Even looking at Chain Studios website doesn’t inspire me with confidence due to its non-standard way of launching. When a mod/map is released it should be idiot proof and not telling people that their CD-key could get banned if they run it. If Chain Studios want people to play this then they have got to make it SAFE to run. Not everyone who play’s HL1/HL2/EP1/EP2 has enough knowledge or confidence to follow non-standard ways of launching.

    If Chain Studios want to showcase their latest creation with all the bells and whistles that this promises, then don’t put the fear of cod (yes, I said cod) into prospective players. In some ways this is like the Windows/Linux debate, most people want software to just work and not to fiddle about with work round’s.

    In some way’s this harks back to Poll Question 151 — Would you prefer new content or more maps?

    The team have added
    * Static diffuse and specular bump-mapping
    * Dynamic bumpmapping for a flashlight
    * Parallax mapping
    * Shader script system
    * Refractive glass
    * Projective soft shadows
    * Projective flashlight
    * High-resolution textures and decals
    * Anisotropic texture filtering
    * Detail textures
    * Light bloom effect
    * Heat haze effect
    * Particle systems
    * Interactive physics elements

    But have Failed to make the install idiot proof (and yes I know not everyone here is an idiot)

    If Chain Studios are reading this, FIX IT NOW!!!

    Phillip, with all the problems you have had it seems as though the the visuals have swayed your opinion. I don’t know the rig you are playing on, but some will have lower specs and some players will have far less knowledge than you (or I).

    1. It wasn’t the visuals that swayed me, just my feeling that this would have been really good without the glitches. To be honest I am not impressed by the updated graphics and wished they would have had made a longer but more stable mod.

      I would say my rig is at the lower end of the scale regarding desktops.

    2. Kyouryuu

      It’s goofy that someone would go through the effort of sticking all that tech into HL1 and not just develop for HL2 which does pretty much all of it right out of the box.

    3. Play It Now!

      Sorry, but I just have to say this to you: You didn’t understand the purpose of this mod at all. It’s not the average mod where the goal is the playability or to reach many people or even to entertain them solely. Of course all of that is nice – but only as a side effect. This mod is only a demonstration (and a rather short one also) of the Half-Life FX Engine, it’s a tech-demo.

      And seemingly it’s not intended for people who call “copy all that stuff to that place and launch the custom launcher”-installations “difficult” or “not-idiot-proof”. You never used linux, did you?

      These guys are changing the way the engine works, bumpmapping, working particle-system, on-projection flashlight – in Half-Life goldsource-engine! Unbelieveable!
      The only purpose of this is to show off what is possible, even after the engine is 11 years old now.

      Because you can’t judge this mod for his story (there is none) or the level-design (most parts taken from the original game and put together in new fashion) but only for it’s graphical innovations and things like the puzzle to get the generator working, first level), my rating here is more like a “out-of-the-line”-rating.

      (btw: I tested it on a “99 WON version 1.1.0.0 without any problems, on a rather mediocre workstation with Intel Core Duo 3,5Ghz, 3Gb RAM and 896Mb videoram.)

  4. Mel

    I won’t bother with this one; it seems too problematic for my liking. If the team cleans up both the mod and its installation then I will give it a go. From past experience, if others are having problems with in-play crashes then my rig won’t cope.

  5. BayTheMoon

    I played this today with no problem at all, and on very low-spec kit. It launched and ran in software mode and was fine until the end, where I entered a tunnel after killing the gargantuan and the game just with an on-screen message saying “no comment’. I’m sure there is more to it. Does anyone know? Could it be because I didn’t find all of the hidden secrets? I missed just one.

    1. The garg is the end.Mine went to credits screen thou.

  6. Play It Now!

    I had no problems with installation or running of this mod (I installed it into the default directory under Steam using the supplied executable). It’s a decent mod of above average length and with some nice touches, though as Kyouryou says above those nice touches serve mainly to make HL1 play and look more like HL2 – a strange thing to do. There doesn’t seem to be much of a story apparent in the actual gameplay, but some non-obvious routes and the use of secrets make it consistently interesting. For me too, it rolled credits just after the battle with the Garg so I think that is the intended end. All in all, a very solid PIN.

  7. Barnz

    I thought it was a map to demonstrate features made by FX Team until I played it. There were some interesting puzzles, but it was short – some parts were recreations of original Half-Life maps. I don’t really mind about visuals, but I have to say: high-res textures on an old engine simply does not work. I didn’t had any problems either.

  8. I’m going to refrain from playing this mod. It sounds interesting, but I don’t typically play multiplayer, which puts me at the biggest risk from this mod, as I’m most likely to lose track of the fact that I need to delete a file after playing in order to not get vac banned.

    Thanks, but no thanks. While multiplayer isn’t the biggest priority to me, I’m not going to risk the chance of losing access to it just when it might become more important. There are plenty of other mods out there that don’t carry that type of risk with them.

  9. DanDare

    Phillip, please help!!!
    I really love the new look of this mod but I am stuck: how can I activate the generator? It’s really frustrating. I am talking abut the generator in th front right side of the no.12 picture, who opens the door we can see in the no.13.
    Thank you!

    1. DanDare

      Sorry for the error:

      “I am talking abut the generator in th front right side of the no.12 picture…”

      I mean “…front left side of…”

      1. clunkfish

        You have to go back the other way, past the pool of radioactive liquid, to turn on the power and activate the door switch in the picture.

  10. ~Jazz~

    Sorry, Skipping this mod.

    I don’t play mods including “Paranoia” That can “Potentially” ban me from VAC or Steam I don’t care how awesome it is, That’s just the way I play my games.. If you can’t find a safe way to make third person mods then don’t try.

    Sorry!

    P.S Visuals look great though.

    1. I played it and when done could not find the file they are refering to in the readme.I dont think it even installed it.

  11. Barnz

    It’s a short, decent mod. I mean, it doesn’t even come with any additional *.DLL files (except client data, you need it to run the game), so there’s absolutely no risk.

    [This comment has been edited because it broke the comment rules – Phillip]

  12. Anon_215120

    Clunkfish,
    I am not so stupid, I passed the flack of radioactive liquid, I entered in the little room with the generator, I discovered the secret place behind the two big pipes on the wall, but when I press “E” on the generator a little window opens, called “Dashboard – Power Managemenet” and I can not modify anything. I tried ALL my keyboard buttons. What should I do?
    Anyone else?

  13. DanDare

    Sorry, I forgot to write my ID, so the previous message is mine.
    Can anyone help me?

    1. Oh OK – I misunderstood. Apologies! On that power management dashboard you have to left click the bits of green wiring to rotate them and thus connect them together in such a way that there is a continuous circuit from the power cell at the top to each of the switches at the bottom, via the meter. Don’t make a short circuit (ie a closed loop) or it will reset and you’ll have to start again.

  14. DanDare

    Thanks my friend, at last you touched my problem. The only thing is… I don’t have any green wiring to rotate, as you can see in the image bellow:
    http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/ae208/LostInBlackMesa/1.jpg
    In that screen none of my keyboardand/mouse buttons have effect. No matter what I push – no changes… What I missed/ what am I doing wrong?

    1. You are not doing anything wrong, looks like a bug.

      BTW, please just leave the URL field blank.

  15. DanDare

    Ok, what should I do? Reinstall the game? Where should be the green wiring?

    1. Try quitting out of the game, then restart the game, then load a save from before you got to the wiring panel. When you open the wiring panel you should see a load of little green shapes that rotate when you click on them. Fingers crossed….

  16. Think Twice

    i gave it a good try, on open gl, and software. I used the authors shortcut to load. first glitch at breaking box,s, 2nd glitch shooting a alien slave, 3rd glitch someone coming down out of the skylights.
    so that’s three gitch’s you out. but, I can say it really looked good in open gl. please make another patch. ya know one where it works. hehe.
    i played it via steam, and really aint in the mood to reload won hl.
    so, sad… wanted to play.. sniffle sniffle”

  17. DanDare

    I quitted the game, rebooted my computer, restarted a new game from the beginning, same problem.
    Where should be that “load of little green shapes that rotate when I click on them”? On the dashboard-Power management (I mean after pressing “E” on the geneator) or they are on the generator ( before pressing “E”)?

    1. After pressing E on the generator – it’s a mini-game that you have to play to proceed. Sounds like you may have to noclip through that door 🙁

  18. DanDare

    Sorry, my english is not so good. What is “noclip”?

    1. “Noclip” is a cheat – it allows you to pass through walls and doors as if they aren’t there. To use it:

      1. First enable the developer console. Go to Options > Keyboard > Advanced and check the box for the console (if it isn’t already).
      2. Whilst in game, hit the key above the Tab key to open the console.
      3. Type sv_cheats 1 then hit Return.
      4. Press the key above Tab again to close the console and return to the game.
      5. Save the game.
      6. Load that save.
      7. Open the console again and type noclip, then Return. It should say “noclip ON”.
      8. Once more exit the console by hitting the key above Tab, returning you to the game. You should now be able to fly through all obstacles, including the door blocking your progress.
      9. As soon as you have done that, position yourself just above the ground and away from any walls or objects and repeat the noclip process (step 7 above), which should result in the message “noclip OFF”.
      10. Exit the console. You’ll drop to the floor right where you want to be and can continue playing.

  19. Read about all the potential problems above, but apart from the installer putting it in C:\Sierra\Half Life I had no problems at all. Just moved it to my Steam folder and played it. Sometimes I got splash screen at loding saying that I had started it wrong, but I just cancelled it, and it played OK.

    And it IS worth playing! I had some very slow framerate in one section of the trainride, but a detour fixed that. Play it and enjoy.

  20. DanDare

    Thanks, I did it at last! Good idea!

  21. derBene

    [ **** Play it! ]
    Everything worked fine after the installation and it ran okay on my broken GeForce6600GT (lost its fan).
    It’s short but entertaining for the time you play. The new fx and high textures look good even though there is a gap between the new models and the low poly count of the HL1 engine.

  22. Filthy McNasty

    I’m stuck on the train where there is a gate that has a switch that doesn’t work. I went down the tunnel on foot and there is a elevator for you and the train to travel down on so you must be able to ride it to that point. What do I do??? Pls help.

  23. Robspace1

    Too much trouble to play!-I loaded it like the authors said and went to the folder and used their launcher and still had problems. Every time I was killed It tipped my screen sideways and I had no way to restart the part over. There was no save system in this. I also loaded the patch and still had trouble and I can not tell anyone to try this one. It does look fun though. I just finished Call Of Juarez Bound In Blood and it played flawless-great game!

  24. Play It Now!

    I would like to play this mod in 1998! It would be awesome. But and today it looks great(for HL1 engine). No doubts. About troubles. I’ve got just 2: too low framerate at secret place upwards on a ladder and impossibility to load the same level twice in session. About opengl32.dll. I’ve save it preliminary and then restored.

  25. Pingback: Episode #64 » Podcast17

  26. Can somebody send me some SAVES from just after the train elevator section, please. TIA

  27. Igge

    As much as I’d like to play this it’s impossible. It keeps crashing with the message “sv_sound 257” or something similar during the crawl through the vent after picking up the crowbar and killing some headcrabs. Really annoying.

  28. Igge

    “fatal error sv_startsound ***” where *** is any threedigit number. I get this every 5 minutes and the gamecrashes.

  29. Hardcore

    It was good Nice experience.. but it gets kinda of laggy in big fights

  30. Mel
    Play It Later

    I quite enjoyed this one, but then I’m a lover of all things HL1, more so then HL2.

    I thought in the main that the mod was well done and I appreciated the unique stuff with the textures. The transit-rail was much inline with the original HL1 sequence but nevertheless it was a fun re-run, one that had me back-tracking a few times. I guess the only disappointment was that the mod never got topside, plus the fact that an English translation of the scripted stuff may have been helpful, I never did find the code numbers for the last of the keypad doors, I don’t mind if someone tells me the 4 digit code as a may play through again. I never managed to beat the end Boss without cheating; I found the charges ok but never could kill the Boss without going God.

    I think I will try again to see if I can get through the end sequence without a cheat. In the meantime it’s well worth a play though; I had no trouble loading and running the mod, and what errors the mod had were minor and in no way spoiled the playing experience.

  31. Anon_226338

    Посетите официальный сайт BLACK MESA RESEARCH FACILITY: http://blackmesaresearchfacility.com/

  32. Play It Later

    By this time I assume the mod got updated & fixed; I had no tech issues. It was ok mod, didn’t stand the test of time. Not much story…@ the beginning I shot barney to give the soldiers dropping in later a target to shoot at while I shot the soldiers…

  33. alex tex

    Error game OpenGL!

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