Ichthyosaur
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Overview
The Ichthyosaur is a Xenian species encountered at the Black Mesa Research Facility after the Resonance Cascade, first appearing in the chapter Apprehension. It is named after the extinct terrestrial reptile group the Ichthyosaurs, but only resembles them in size and carnivorous ecology. Black Mesa's Ichthyosaur is reddish-brown, with two scythe-like front appendages and a mouth full of long, razor-sharp teeth.
When it is first encountered, a nearby scientist tells Gordon Freeman that he was told the Black Mesa Research Team had hauled in the species for research from the Challenger Deep, but that he was certain that the species had "never swam in terrestrial waters until a week ago."
Behaviour
Ichthyosaurs are very aggressive, and will attack organisms which enter the water and/or irritate it by attacking it. They swim faster than the player, and use that to their advantage. Ichthyosaurs are easy prey when attacked from outside the water, and are best dealt with accordingly whenever possible. A disadvantage to killing it with this technique is that the Ichthyosaur will swim to lower depths once the player leaves the water. This will at least give the player a little space to jump into the water with a few seconds spared of being attacked. [1]
Media
Redesign History
An application to the team
The Ichthyosaur was James Kane's application to join the BM Team. He made two test videos to show to Paul Peloski his ability to program the Half-Life 2 artificial intelligence [2]:
Model Rework
The Ichthyosaur model is the same used in Half-Life 2, but reworked to fit in the Black Mesa standards.
Because it is only seen once, from the front, the Half-Life 2's Ichthyosaur has a stumpy tail and a disproportionately large head, with many gaps in the model. After the rework, the model, texture and material for the monster have all been updated by the BM developers. They removed the gaps in the model, added normal map and exponent map, made use of phong shading, and improved the detail and resolution of the diffuse textures. Also the Ichthyosaur movement has been improved: now his fins move dynamically based on how fast he is going, and his caudal fin turns based on his direction relative to the position he wishes to move.
Asked why they chose to re-use the HL2 model even with all its flaws, Carlos Montero stated: "The original model and texture are beautiful, in my opinion. Sure there were some problems, but it fufilled it's role in hl2 as a game and aesthetically kicked ass in fufilling it's purpose of updating the original model. The anatomy, musculature, and texture details are all REALLY well done, to a level that would challenge most any professional digital artist. I honestly believe the problems with the model are due to them not investing the time to make it "perfect" and fix the issues that came up, but that in no way makes it "horrible", just more like "not quite finished". The first time I looked the model and texture over I stood in awe of how well done it was, and I was honored to have a go at making it even better." [3]
