From Black Mesa: Wiki

The hallway at the opening of the chapter.

Chapter Summary

Gordon enters a largely abandoned Cold War rocket test facility. In the Rocket Test chamber, he finds a large Xenian alien obstructing the path to the surface. A dying scientist informs him that he must find a way to activate the rocket engine in order to destroy the creature. Gordon must avoid the tentacle beast in the Test chamber in order to seek out the machinery powering the engine.

Blast Pit is the sixth chapter of Black Mesa.

Gameplay

Gordon encounters mostly Xenian aliens such as headcrabs, zombies, houndeyes and bullsquids. In order to defeat the Tentacle, Freeman must first turn on the fuel and oxygen pumps, and then turn on the power generator that activates the rocket engine.

Screenshots

One of the various bridges to access the silo. Another view of the bridge. An old in-game screenshot of the player encountering a pack of bullsquid. An old shot of the bullsquid in-game. More The elevator shaft (formerly drainage pipe) leading to the fuel and oxygen controls. The control room for the rocket. Prepare for an epic scripted sequence as seen in the Black Mesa Trailer. Oxygen and fuel backup control room. Broken elevator shaft, originally a ladder. Walkway over some pipes after the fuel/oxy wing of the chapter. Giant fan room entry. One of the various bridges to access the silo. Corridor to access the power control of the silo. Radioactive drainage channel ceiling detail. A generator that must be started by the player in the chapter.

Redesign History

Level Design

06-12-05 - Daniel Junek --------------------------------

Okay, I recently picked up the Blast Pit chapter and after playing through the original a couple of times, I've got a start on the basic geometry for the exterior of the silo. All criticisms are welcome (except on the lighting which is just a rough guide, of course).

I am planning to expand on the original and add a few additional areas and walkways and such, but not to the extent that the gameplay will be significantly changed. I've added two additional enclaves (there were originally three), with the intention of setting one up as a parts delivery elevator, and the other as a maintenence area (in addition to fuel/oxygen, power and control access).

So far it's a lot taller than the original silo, with obvious effects on my compile time: VRAD took 44 minutes for this. VVIS times are still under one second since I've constructed it with optimisation in mind.

Also, as attractive as the dev textures are, I'm thinking of finishing it largely in bare concrete with colour-coded painted details and signs for each section. I think I'll also need some models for the railings (standard ones won't fit) and for the rocket engine of course. I'm not concerned about those yet, though, I'm just trying to get most of the brushwork done first.

More

07-12-05 - Daniel Junek --------------------------------

Anyway, I had a little extra time to work on it today, and I'm just trying out some concrete in place of the sexy orange dev textures to see what it might look like when it's complete:

It's an improvement on before, but does still look a little like a dildo. Though I don't imagine a 300 foot concrete dildo would be too much fun... (edit YOUR NOT JON! bkd..)

Anyway, as far as the railings go, I can't use any default ones because of the curve; it's impossible to get them to fit. As such, I think it'll need a set that closely matches the curve of the silo's walkways, so I'll need to get in touch with a prop modeller regarding dimensions and whatnot. I'm not too worried about it yet, though. I'd like to get the basic geometry done for all of my levels in the chapter before I start trying to organise custom content for it.

As for stealing this chapter from Mendasp, I didn't know it was assigned to him. RabidMonkey gave me a choice of Blast Pit and On A Rail, and since Blast Pit was one of my favourite sections in the game, I took it straight away. As far as I know, though, Mendasp hasn't done any work on the chapter, so it's not like I'm stealing anything from him.

12-15-05 - Daniel Junek --------------------------------

Yeah, I'll definitely be requiring some pipe and railing models. Anyway, I got some more work done, and after a compile lasting 2 hours, 21 minutes, 35 seconds I've got some more screenshots. I'm not sure about the bright lighting I've got here, so criticise away:

I'm not used to these two and a half hour compiles, though. It's all VRAD, too; VBSP takes 10 seconds, and VVIS takes under 1 second.

More

1-6-06 - Daniel Junek --------------------------------

Okay, here's what I was trying to post yesterday, but the forums didn't want to co-operate.

So I've taken everyone's advice and sharpened up those shadows. And, my God, was it worth the eight and a half hour compile time. Take a look at these:

Shots show the newer, sharper shadows

The Blast Pit Generator

Brushwork, model and textures made by Mark Foreman [2]. The Generator was created to increase the visual fidelity of the area. Because of its size and function in the game, the prop was split into 6 parts:

• Generator Body: 12,708 Triangles: 2 2048^2 Textures for the doors. Diffuse and Glow (Alpha), Normal and Specular (Alpha).
• Body Magnet Ring: 2,130 Triangles: Shares the Generator Body textures.
• Generator Top: 1,430 Triangles: 2 1024^2 Textures for the doors. Diffuse and Glow (Alpha), Normal and Specular (Alpha).
• Top Magnets: 5,328 Triangles: Shares the Generator Top textures.
• Support: 2,286 Triangles: 2 1024^2 Textures for the doors. Diffuse, Normal and Specular (Alpha).
• Column: 456 Triangles: 2 1024^2 Textures for the doors. Diffuse, Normal and Specular (Alpha).

The generator high-poly render.

Generator wireframe.

The textures of the generator.

Ditto.

Miscellaneous

More Example of Valve's self-shadowing bump mapping used in the mod. This technique replaces the parallax mapping, due to its comparable effects with low performance overhead [1].

This article is a stub. You can help the Black Mesa Wiki by expanding it.