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Scornkeeper

@scornkeeper.bsky.social

A profile dedicated predominantly to posting Dark Interval facts and some Source Engine things. SFW. See https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhbfQEaWd5MPiSEm4Ll23inE7ClMBWpYG for a collection of Source Engine shenanigans.

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Scornkeeper@scornkeeper.bsky.social · last mo.

Took a couple minutes and added heat transfer to portals. Very simple, <30 lines of code. Portals just scan the environment for heat sources and transmit it to the linked portal. HL2's fire system is pretty old but still quite neat and, dare I say, underused.

Scornkeeper@scornkeeper.bsky.social · last mo.

Gunship Bays were cut from HL2's Nova Prospekt/Depot chapter, and E3 2002 has the gunship near the Depot. Valve's late 2002 whiteboard mentions "Strider production (vista)" for the Depot, and the "e3_depot_2003" map from the leak mappack includes a Strider. Wonder if there's a connection?

Valve's concept art for the Gunship Bays that were to be located at the foot of the Depot. Image from Combine Overwiki.The Gunship featured in the E3 2002 map, Depot. Image from the Half-Life 2 20th Anniversary documentary.The late 2002 whiteboard featured in the Half-Life 2 20th Anniversary documentary. The "Depot" section includes the line "4. Strider production (vista)". The e3 depot 2003 map from the leak's WC mappack. A lone Strider, included in the hidden by default visgroup, stands in the wasteland outside the Depot.
Scornkeeper@scornkeeper.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Also, please comment here if you use Source Level Editor at least, say... once a month? Or just however often do you use it. It feels there's barely any userbase, would be happy to know it's not the case.

Scornkeeper@scornkeeper.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Ah, freezing displacement vertices been on my mind for a long time and it's very worth it. This allows for more precise geo painting, avoiding detaching from edges, easy creation of things like tarps or domes - very glad it came together (and was easy to add). New version update should come soon.

Scornkeeper@scornkeeper.bsky.social · 2mo ago

DI Trivia. Building a custom menu hasn't been the simplest road ever, but it allows for much wanted flexibility. Ex., having main & alt keybinds. This was the case w/ HL1, and I'm not sure why they took it out of HL2. It wasn't hard to bring back either. I think it just makes sense to have, do you?

Screenshot of Dark Interval's settings menu, showing the added column for alternate key bindings (two buttons can be assigned to the same action through the UI, as opposed to HL2 only assigning one button).
Scornkeeper@scornkeeper.bsky.social · 3mo ago

HL2/DI Trivia: The Xbox 360 version of the game shortens the Scanner flash duration by a lot, from standard 3 seconds to just 0.5. In DI, to lower the frustration caused by scanners, we similarly lowered the flash duration from 3 to 1 second.

Excerpt from the source code of Half-Life 2. If the game is running on Xbox 360, the scanner flash duration is set to half a second instead of the standard 3 seconds.
Scornkeeper@scornkeeper.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Do you have 'superstitions' when mapping/modelling? I've a few. Ex. when I want to rotate a brush, say, 90° but accidentally let go early and it puts it at, say, 82.5 (I usually use 7.5° snap), I'll rather undo and redo it. As if two 'non-round' rotations will secretly worsen the verts or something.

Scornkeeper@scornkeeper.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Always felt like this fence did a disservice to the vista at the Radio Tower in Ep2. More so when compared to earlier versions which either had nothing or used HL2 fence models. Replacing it with the thinner fences feels better, even if they look flimsier against the car - just will have to do.

A screenshot of the fence at the Radio Tower settlement in Episode Two. The tall fence uses logs for posts and due to overall thickness obscures the Portal Storm vista in a way that always felt unsatisfying to me.Same place with a different fence model, a thin barbed wire fence with narrow metal posts. The fence is tall enough to stop the player without obstructing the vista.BildBild
Scornkeeper@scornkeeper.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Using decals/overlays for blending between displacement terrain and brushwork is really great. I suggest every mapper to try it, and to learn various info_overlay tricks in Hammer - dragging corners, setting U/V tiling manually, using render order, and scaling.

Example of using info_overlays for blending terrain and brushwork in Hammer. Left images are without overlays, showing sharp edges of displacements, right images are with the same overlay texture using to blend the edges.
Scornkeeper@scornkeeper.bsky.social · 8mo ago

In Idyllic for Map Labs, I gave the thermometer 4 bodygroups so that I could set its temperature for 1) daytime, outside; 2) daytime, in the greenhouse; 3) night-time, outside; 4) night-time, greenhouse. I doubt most people noticed but I don't consider this a waste of time, never.

The four thermometer variations in Idyllic (Map Labs - Eye Candy 2). They show the temperature outside during the day (~-15°C), outside during the nihgt (~-21°C), inside greenhouse during the day (~-3°C) and night (~-17°C).
Scornkeeper@scornkeeper.bsky.social · 8mo ago

HL2 EP1 Hackfraudery: This background map in Ep1 depicts the Kleinercast with several bullet marks on the glass surface. Yet, once you approach it yourself, no damage is visible. I shall patiently await the fix for this inconsistency in time for the upcoming Ep1's 20th anniversary next year!

BildBild
Scornkeeper@scornkeeper.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Trying Valve's Commentary Editor was underwhelming. Having in-game tools is pretty cool but it's cumbersome. You can't drag a placed node around, only replace it/set its coords by hand. Audio records at 11KHz, which sounds bad. Unless the map is loaded manually before the comm. file, it will crash.

Screenshot of Valve's Commentary Editor with Dark Interval's level ch05_under loaded, displaying one of the commentary nodes, and the editor's interface.
Scornkeeper@scornkeeper.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Did you know November is the most Half-Life filled month of the year? Besides HL 1&2, November in different years saw the releases of: HL SDK (25.11.98) Opposing Force (19.11.99) Decay (14.11.01) Source SDK (5.11.04) HL:Source (16.11.04) HL2:Deathmatch (30.11.04) As well as Garry's Mod (29.11.06).

A composite of the covers of all the games/software listed in the post.
The Tax Collector Man@coolgoblinzone.bsky.social · 9mo ago

It would mean a lot to us if you posted it around, told your friends, etc. We've got another game coming down the tubes and it'd be neat to have some walking-around money for it! Help us make more stuff like this... Early investors will be rewarded... store.steampowered.com/app/2467100/...

Chiaroscuro Imago on Steam

A short piece of horror fiction about honey and lies; entomology and etymology; murky secrets and stark realities. Find out what happened to the moths.

store.steampowered.com

Scornkeeper@scornkeeper.bsky.social · 9mo ago

As mentioned, Lost Coast's 20th anniversary is soon (tomorrow). But I'll give everyone a head start and post now: My Lost Coast Anniversary Update! It fixes bugs and oversights and adds more detail. Readme: pastebin.com/S2ubYcxU Moddb: www.moddb.com/mods/half-li... GB: gamebanana.com/mods/629540

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast: 20th Anniversary Update mod

This fanmade update fixes numerous mapping flaws in the original Lost Coast and gentrly improves detail and lighting quality while staying true to the original. Can be installed on either modern Anni...

moddb.com

Scornkeeper@scornkeeper.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Lost Coast's 20th anniversary is near. For years it made it a little sad that it's filled with these small but noticeable flaws that'd take very little work to fix. The 2025 Anniversary Update mostly didn't touch LC. The flaws remain. But, and I have it on good authority, this is about to change.

A sheet showing a number of flaws in Lost Coast's mapping. Top row: 1) missing faces on an arch outside the church entrance; 2) missing faces above a column inside the church; 3) visible areaportal cut-off when looking outside the church windows. Mid row: 1) missing brush inside the arched ceiling of the staircase tunnel; 2) missing face inside the church; 3) missing deck faces on the shipwreck model. Bottom row: 1) missing faces on the ruins outside the courtyard; 2) clipping canister models inside the church; 3) missing top of the bridge leading to the village. All these are taken without going out of bounds or using console commands.
Scornkeeper@scornkeeper.bsky.social · 10mo ago

DI query: How many people 1) notice in the first place, 2) appreciate or hate, that DI doesn't stop fall damage in liquids? Unlike HL1-2, you can land in a meter of water and still die from impact in DI. This is one of the times 'realism' was attempted as its own goal. How well did it work?