Half-Life Improvement Team

Good news, everyone! We now have a presentable About page. And even better, we also have a semi-useful Downloads page. You'll notice that we've put together a copy of Half-Life: Uplink, just because. We've also updated the Half-Life menu theme with keyboard controls that are less 1998 and more 2008 (or 2010, but that doesn't rhyme). Now, if you don't mind, I have crawl back into my cave and get back to work.

Hey everyone. We've been up to no good again. Our website is now spiffier than ever. While we don't have anything major to show you, we've been building up the site so that we can easily show off new media and info. For example, take a look at the Half-Life project.

If anyone sees anything wonky with the site, post it here and I'll see if I can fix it. Make sure you include your browser and version. If it happens to be Internet Explorer 6, I've already done all that I can for that broken mess.

I've also been busy setting up a blog for my good friend Jonas. Anyone interested in the intricacies of narrative design in games should definitely check out Playthroughline. If you thought to yourself that it'd be the best thing since sliced cat if someone would do something like The Editing Room's scripts, but for games, he's done that too.

When I decided to create something that resembled the Half-Life background art for the website, it was immediately obvious that it would be a multi-use sort of thing. Couple that with a menu theme that's been gathering dust on my hard drive for a while, and you've got a mini-release. We've replaced the dated green window scheme with a stylish slightly transparent grey. The theme and background are provided separately, and can be used with or without the other. To install, just point your ZIP program (such as WinZip, WinRAR, or 7-Zip) to your Half-Life directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\<USER NAME>\half-life), and make sure you preserve the folder hierarchy stored in the ZIP file, or you'll just be dumping the files in the wrong place.

Part 1: Download the launcher menu theme (without background).

Part 2: Download and install the background that's closest to your Half-Life display resolution.

Source files
If you want to use this background for something, we've got a plain version, and a titled version available as JPEGs. To seriously mess around with it, we recommend you grab the full, layered Photoshop files (151 MB). Just remember to give us credit or we'll come after you with a sharp stick.

Enjoy!

So here we are again. You might notice it's been a while, even since our last minor update. First off, if you've got any sanity about you, you should ignore my previous optimism about releasing stuff. Matt and I are unfortunately really busy with Real Life^TM, so we're operating under a highly dilated version of Valve time. I honestly wish I had more time to work on this stuff, because I still love Half-Life just about as much as I did a few years ago. We're still here, but things are going to be pretty slo-mo for quite a while, like I've said in the first announcement in November. I'm hoping I'll have more time at some point, but I really can't say when.

So, with that out of the way, I think it's about time you guys had a look at a few things that are pretty much done:

A few notes:

• The crowbar is pretty much final - it's unlikely to undergo any big changes. This our baby.
• The ammo and health pickups are mostly final, but there are a few things I might be changing:
  • I'll be editing the RPG rocket to more closely resembling the original model, with this new realistic version being optional. Same goes for its ammo box.
  • I'm thinking of adding a few more details to the medkit faceplate so it's less boring.
• Pop cans! Some of these are based on the original skins, and some are new. I've probably spent too much time already on this small model.
• The HUD is meant for high screen resolutions, generally above 1024 by 768 pixels. We've done Half-Life, Opposing Force, and Blue Shift (which requires Blue Shift: Unlocked because Valve's version won't load custom content...). They're as close to the originals as possible, with the exception of the Blue Shift suit, which now looks like the security armour (was the hazard suit).

If you guys have some constructive criticism on any of these, fire away.

Hello everyone. This must be a bit of a shock to most of you. Yes, the Half-Life Improvement Team is still kicking. Sort of. Actually, it's more complicated than that. Work on our projects has been fairly slow for a long time, and most of the original people have moved on to bigger and greater things. So why is this new site here? What's going on? I thought it was all dead? What's happened in the last few years of silence?

Here's what's happened in recent years. Work on Half-Life: Enhanced has gone through some rollercoaster rides, sometimes coming off the rails. For the most part, little work was done. Once in a while Matt and I (Ambient.Impact) would check in some significant changes: little edits or silence, punctuated with points of activity. During this, Black Mesa was picking up speed. At first, we started to doubt there was any point anymore in continuing our projects. We were under-manned and would never attain their popularity or scale. And then a variety of other, external factors, such as real life, started to take time away from our projects, until things barely moved. This is where the silence really started, and continued for a long time. Then we reminded ourselves that, primarily, our projects (including HL:E), are, first and foremost, something that we want to pursue, regardless of whether or not we have a large following. It's more important that we work hard, and end up with something that we're proud of, rather than being popular. That is secondary to the goal, for us. That's not to say we don't appreciate feedback from you guys. In fact, it'll become much more important now that we're out in the open about where we are. So, where are we?

At this point, our team consists of Matt and me, and the tireless forum team, who shovel the crap into the sewer on a regular basis. We'll add more people as time goes on, but not too soon, unless plans change. And it's all about planning. (My segways suck, I know) We're starting to lay out a plan that involves everything, from our upgrade content (models, sprites, etc. for existing games, starting with Half-Life), to an updated version of Blue Shift: Unlocked, to eventually getting Half-Life: Enhanced going again. Without proper planning, even relatively simple projects can go horribly wrong. That's what happened with HL:E, everyone we brought on had their own ideas of what the project should be about, and started adding stuff in that clashed with the rest. There was no real central plan as to what our goals were, and everything was fairly vague. That won't be the case this time around. I've taken on the responsibility of planning and managing our projects. We're serious this time.

So, what are you going to see in the near future? Well, first and foremost, this site is incomplete at best. Hell, you can't even view anything on our current projects. That'll be the first priority: fixing this puppy up all nice and proper. Then, we'll start to release a few bits of content (models, sprites) as time goes on, along with a much-needed update to Blue Shift: Unlocked. We'll probably be making some inroads on Half-Life: Enhanced in the meanwhile, but I should stress that work on that will be slow for a good while, as we get our bearings, work on internal planning, and organise ourselves.

A giant cookie to those of you that know the significance of today's date.

Now then, to answer what's certainly going to be an avalanche of questions:

Who's behind all this? Who's in charge now?
Matt and Ambient.Impact are currently the only ones involved. For the time being we're not going to add anyone else to the team. When we will, it'll be only to fill a position neither of us can carry out, as less people means less cats to herd. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

Who created the website? Why doesn't it look very good in ancient browsers? The fancy animations are choppy and are slowing my poor computer down!
I (Ambient.Impact) created the website. This site has been a work in progress for several years, and has gone through several major revisions. Old browsers, like Internet Explorer 6 aren't capable of rendering some of the advanced features used in this website, and that's all there is to it. You'll need a modern browser, such as Firefox (or another Mozilla browser), Opera, Safari, Google Chrome, or a recent version of Internet Explorer. If the site is running slowly for you, try turning off the title animation. You can also switch over to the HIT Classic theme, which looks very much like the original site and is fairly light on the visual effects.

Is that crowbar on the main page a real model? Can I have it? Who created it?
Yes, it is, and not yet - patience, young grasshopper. It was fully modelled and textured by me (Ambient.Impact) this summer (2008). It'll be released at some point soon, once we create a new HEV hand model to go with it.