iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Scornkeeper

Jane Thrace @ladyjanethrace.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

A look at a new menu background map for SIGNAL LOST, inspired by the Very Large Array. A proper development update on ModDB is coming soon, hang tight. There's some big things coming.💙

48032

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Tried it in WON and 2009 builds of the game. Different results but looks like the bug already existed in some form. (sorry for the Discord links, uploading to Bsky doesn't work for me) cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/... cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/...

110

Reposted by Scornkeeper

a-shift.bsky.social @a-shift.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

So I was thinking about Valve's Prospero recently #y2k #art #illustration

a landscape of flowing purple shapes dotted with shiny glassy spheres and trees with airplane-shaped leaves. On the hazy horizon there is a city destroyed by sharp angular shapes of red and black stretching into the sky. On the foreground, a giant black woman with rocket engines in her hair locks is half-lying down, her face is a shattered void, and on her chest is painted a blood-red hexagon. She is surrounded by levitating monks with red hexagon prisms instead of heads, and is approached by a small human figure

23719

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

I made it so inspired by Doom 1's shotgun, which is unironically a sniping tool, as a matter of fact! Plus HL2's shotgun has a bit of that already, as 1 of its 7 pellets is programmed to always go to the crosshair. So I kept that and further tightened the spread.

110

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Natural spaces with greenery such as parks, extra navigation options (like stealth paths, bypasses), and at least 1 cool destruction sequence like there was with the explosive tanks in Act I.

000

Reposted by Scornkeeper

Monster Urby 🇬🇧 Level Designer @monsterurby.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I've posted a new article over on ModDB about The Core and the small details we've included, as well as a brief explanation of the optimisation work that has been done in response to tester feedback. Check it out here: www.moddb.com/mods/the-cor...

Some side by side comparisons of old assets and textures, as well as a selection of whiteboards and calendars for the Half-Life mod, The Core.

0174

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I think there's truth to it, I've certainly felt it at times that I don't want to go into a new game without familiar faces. Happened with Anthem and Squad for me. It's not about "but you can talk to them in Discord", it's about whether they'll be playing with you, and since not, I hesitated.

000

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

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.

0142

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Try either of two things: 1) copy the regular Hammer's gameconfig.txt from bin\ folder into bin\level_editor\cfg, replacing existing one, then edit the config if needed 2) just delete the bin\level_editor\cfg's gameconfig file, after which SLE should load the generic one by itself.

010

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

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.

1151

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

I tend to always do lighting, because fullbright is slower to render, and if the previously loaded map had lighting, the switch to fullbright during map load costs extra time. It's often enough faster to compile than waiting that out.

000

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Thing is, if something like Adobe adds AI, a lot of people now resent it, but a lot [more] don't; the userbase is huge and varied. With projects like TB it's not quite so, you risk alienating probably the big majority of your users. You made so many people happy with TB and now it gets reverted...

020

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

There's also BSP Editor for Quake 1-2, Hexen1-2 and HL, created by Valve's Yahn Bernier who made most of Hammer after it, and he opensourced it years ago so fans are updating it. The last version is from 2022. Packed to the brim with features but quite complex. www.bspquakeeditor.com/index.php

bspquakeeditor.com

BSP Headquarters

Home of the BSP Quake Editor

041

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

I get that it sucks a lot, but couldn't you just keep using the version of TB that's yet to be tainted with ai PRs, and just stay on that version? It's pretty feature-full already, no?

100

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

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.

171

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

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.

1103

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

New Map Labs - Mega Mania, themed around megastructures, is available. My map in it is "The Deep Afar". Special, huge thanks to @makkon.bsky.social and @a-shift.bsky.social for the textures, couldn't have done it without them. www.moddb.com/mods/map-lab...

211623

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

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).

081

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Continuing with miscellaneous map updates. #halflife

Screenshot from Half-Life 2's d1 canals 11 water lock storage room.

Same room with new prop detail, decals, and lighting.

0131

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Going to plug this here. This video by @elephantsdocrack.bsky.social sheds new light on cancelled HL2 Episode 4 by Junction Point Studios. Includes interviews with developers and the project's history. youtu.be/hwMJtQ0fZxY

youtu.be

CANCELLED [Vol. 1] // Junction Point’s Fall of Ravenholm

YouTube video by Elephants Doing Crack

052

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

HL2: Episode 1 turns 20 tomorrow. I've prepared a little add-on to celebrate it (I'm releasing it a day early because it's a Sunday). You can get it on Steam Workshop, Gamebanana, or ModDB. Enjoy! steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/... gamebanana.com/mods/681987 www.moddb.com/games/half-l...

steamcommunity.com

Steam Workshop::Ep1 Evac Replacement

1132

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

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.

0131

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Another one is typing any chars in Latin even if unnecessary. As in if I accidentally typed in underscores or plus/minus/etc while not on Latin, I feel safer redoing it. Shouldn't make a difference, but what if. Source should be fine with & or @ or . in entity names but I'm used to avoiding them.

020

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

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.

590

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

If overlays consumed edict I'd perish long ago... No, they're baked in by the compiler and their entities are removed during compile. They hardly cost anything; the most perf hit, if it can be called that, are those on disps as they duplicate the triangles they touch. They also have fade distances.

110

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

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.

0140

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

dirtartifacts01a and 02a are just so useful, may be my #1 most often used overlay. I also often use garagegroundmarking01l and 01m for sprinkling around this sooty texture, works well for covering up floor textures repetitions.

010

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Couple examples. Subtle, but I believe it enhances the scene.

1112

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

HL2 Trivia: D3 c17 13 - the Striders maps - has 'lo' and 'hi' versions of the final street's geometry, that get switched as you jump down from the central building.

The 'lo' version of the street geometry. The corners are straight and there're far fewer brushes composing the street intersection.

The 'hi' version of the street geometry. The corners are round, the 'hi' version is composed of nearly five times as many brushes.

180

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

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.

2326

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

There's a known bug that makes the New Game dialogue fade away when clicked. As a workaround, open the console (~ by default) before using New Game. Other dialogues (settings, loading) should work fine either way.

040

Reposted by Scornkeeper

a-shift.bsky.social @a-shift.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

I contributed multiple in-universe movie posters for this, and I recommend playing.

Poster for a movie "Terror of the Hyperons" with an orbital view of Earth as background. There is a blonde woman with a displeased expression, wearing shimmering violet clothes and pointing a sci-fi

blaster at something off-screen. Next to her is a man with a grey beard, wearing a blue hat and an orange survival suit, poiting a tiny welding torch in the same direction. The two figures are framed by icebergs, and above them are looming three figures of alien warriors.

Movie poster in cherry-red, white and black colors. It depics an angry moustached man with a hat, a suit and a red rose boutonniere. He is shooting a tommygun, while torn newspapers fly off in all directions behind him. The title font proudly states the name of the movie is "CITIZEN KANE II", and the tagline is "Time to make NEWS". Director and screenplay are as Alan Smithee and Robin Bland respectively.

Poster for a movie titled "Glory of Progress" in painterly colors of soft orange, blue and pale yellow hues. A row of same-faced workers in rubber overalls and gasmasks is marching, looking to the left.
Behind them are abstract building shapes bristling with spikes and antennas.

Movie poster with closeup portrait of an aged scarred 50s gangster and a burning 1930s car. Title is "The Last Job" in bold red letters.

22810

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

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).

0122

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

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!

070

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

This made placing nodes very routine and already saved me time. This can potentially even be expanded into exporting Mapadd files. Plus, DI's commentary nodes have some custom features that wouldn't show in the Commentary Editor but do get saved by SLE.

070

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Since the commentary file is a plain txt with entity keyvalues, I decided I could export them in SLE. It was indeed very easy. Commentary nodes and other entities can be placed the usual way, selected, and saved as txt; the game reads and plays it same as a regular commentary file.

160

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

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.

160

Reposted by Scornkeeper

a-shift.bsky.social @a-shift.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

New DI article with new media (that doesn't preview in embed for whatever reason😑) www.moddb.com/mods/dark-in...

moddb.com

2025 Status Update news - Dark Interval mod for Half-Life 2

An update on the status of things, work in progress, and the future.

1137

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

I've updated SLE to 2.108, can be found at the Releases link. github.com/Cvoxalury/so... It also comes with the full source code now. github.com/Cvoxalury/so...

github.com

096

Scornkeeper @scornkeeper.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

Finally done marking & commenting all the changes in SLE's codebase against original Hammer in preparation for source code release. Had to diff each file separately due to past lack of diligence. There's ~1800 changes. The number is fuzzy bc some are clustered together. But that's the rough idea.

151