Gib System

From Black Mesa: Wiki

Overview

Gibs are controlled via a gib spawning system. A central manifest is used to control how gibs spawn per-model.

This system features:

Entries for gib "systems" that are re-usable (ie; "xen torso" gibs used for multiple models).
Ability to define maximum gib count per-model.
Ability to define random-chance of spawning on a per-model level.
Ability to define and standardize gib health and fade times.

These aspects can be edited or totally disabled by using specific convars.

Technical Details

Black Mesa doesn't support the partial gibbing (for example blowing off a head, cut off an arm etc), as it happens in Left4Dead [2]. The Black Mesa's gib system works similarly to that of Team Fortress 2.

An entity will gib if and only if the following conditions apply:

Will never gib if damage type is DMG_NEVERGIB, DMG_DISSOLVE or DMG_BULLET
Will always gib if damage type is DMG_ALWAYSGIB or DMG_BLAST
Will never gib if it does not have the appropriate gib models
If the above conditions do not apply and the entity's health is less than or equal to -20 then it will gib

When an entity gibs, it will gib with torso, left leg, right leg, lower torso, left and right arm with a random amount of small to medium generic gib chunks. Each of the gib pieces like the arm, leg, and torso will gib into upper and lower portions which those will gib into meat chunks. It is also possible to gib corpses. [3]

Both xenian creatures and humans have their own kind of internal organs gibs.

Some entities like the Osprey handle gibbing differently. The blood effects are summoned in the QC, so the osprey's gib will have flaming parts instead of bleeding. QC also defines which organs will be spawned from the entity, this way preventing, for example, an human NPC spawning two hearts when gibbing [4].