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Leet Rebake - HL2 Maps Polish (Replacement)

It's like HL2 OCD edition with primary focus on lighting trying to get the best out of backing

Anniversary update was awesome, but it could have done more. Here all hl2 campaign maps are either recompiled or patched with bspentspy fork or patched with lump files. And rebaked in order to perfect visual fidelity, fix artifacts, inconsistencies and bugs while staying true to the original artistic vision.

Its a slightly outdated (will update) version replacing original maps. Version with renamed maps is here https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3437059847

In this one map names are same as original. This causes conflicts with other mods and official updates. But in return it's better integrated with possible valve's hardcode, produces saves with chapter titles for names and does not hijack episodic chapter selection

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GENERAL FEATURES
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- Remove or tone down some of the ghost lights and instead increase tonemap range to better utilize prebaked ray tracing achieving more realistic lighting.
- Vertex Lighting enabled. But only for props what look better with it, moving light sources where necessary to prevent light bleeding through the lampshades
- Texture Shadows enabled, particularly for fences
- Enable shadows of some props which were disabled
- Better fog blending between sky_camera and env_fog_controller
- Tonemap range adjusted to better blend sun with the skybox
- Align sun with the skybox better
- More cubemaps
- Tone down reflectivity for some textures and up for others
- Add missing sprites of light sources, better align existing
- Water in dark locations made darker to emulate volumetric lighting
- Adjust some lightmaps to reduce artifacts and maximize physical accuracy
- Fix lightmap and texture stitches
- Fix light bleeding

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MAP SPECIFIC FEATURES
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rd1_trainstation_05
- fix HEV suite lighting
- add a little more violence for a lab crow bringing Closer to pre-update values

rd1_canals_03
- fix pathfinding of manhack trapped behind the bars and fix lighting of the bars at the same time

rd1_canals_10
- fix powerline cuts and add power towers to skybox preventing them from (dis)appearing before your eyes

rd1_canals_11
- fix visibly clipped terrain

rd1_canals_13
- better terrain modelling in the skybox around BME

rd2_coast_07
- fix endlessly repeataing combine spawn trigger

rd2_coast_07 & rd2_coast_08
- fix windmill breaking because of level transition

rd2_coast_11
- fix spotlights glowing before being turned on

rd2_coast_12
- increase fog density closer to pre-anniversary values. Its cool we can see whole map now, but actually doing so makes map feel smaller
- add missing sound of the first flare being fired

rd2_prison
- replace all occurrences of combine soldiers with common uniform to Nova Prospect uniform

rd2_prison_06
- dont stop camera stream in the grenade room, allowing player to watch the approaching combine squad behind the corner while blowing them up
- use actual combine camera model for the camera

rd2_prison_08
- fix softlock with Alyx not entering the teleport

rd3_c17_01 & rd3_c17_02
- fix dog buzzing sound not following him

rd3_c17_02
- reduce awkward delay before dog starts following player

rd3_c17_03
- remove trainstation clocks from the plaza for consistency with rd1_trainstation_02

rd3_c17_13
- have you ever noticed there are rooms with lighting but no source of it ? I didn't see it for 20 years. Now there are lamps.

rd3_citadel_04
- cell_array_01 now sounds like metal when strider hits it

rd3_breen_01
- hide disarming beam sprite previously seen before its on
- better hide Mossman previously seen awkwardly waiting behind the door
- you can finally guillotine Breen's bust with the elevator 1793 style

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COMMENTS
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I didn't remove all the fake lights, because frequently they have a purpose.

1) Lighting simulation in source is imperfect. Fake lights may help with that.
2) Dynamic objects often need those as hints, to not get lit terribly wrong
3) It may get unplayably dark without them.
4) They might be needed to create a certain lighting temperature and proper mood for narrative reasons

But sometimes they are too noticeable and I tried to fix that aiming for "vanilla but better". And some locations look just so much better without them.

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ISSUES I COULD NOT FIX
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There is a number of things, that I was unable to fix in the current version of the engine

- Lightmap stitches in areas with too many dynamic lights, caused by a limit of lightmap pages
- Lighting in smooth corners of concrete pipes in the canals is an example of geometry source cant properly handle, but I tried my best to hide it
- 3d skybox disappearing in the final gman cutscene, known engine bug
- Water reflection switches when several water planes are visible
- Some maps I was unable to recompile, so it limited the types of issues that could have been fixed

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INSTALLATION
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Workshop installation is preferable because its more stable and updates automatically. If it does not work, check the load order. Or go to Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\220\3437059847 and copy or unpack workshop_dir.vpk into Steam\steamapps\common\Half-Life 2\hl2\custom . Manual installation should also update background maps unlike workshop installation. Though that may cause occasional crushes in the main menu.

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COMPATIBILITY
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- Incompatible with other map mods
- Should be overwritten by asset mods, but might not look good with texture mods for the environment.

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TROUBLESHOOTING
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- Try restarting map, old saved wont work most of the time.
- Be sure to enable HDR.
- If everything is pink try rebuilding cubemaps Only works with manual install.
- If it does not help, or crushes the game, try `mat_specular 0`

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RECOMMENDED MODS
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Other mods you can see on my screenshots

Best Foliage https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3438884379
Enhanced Fire Effect https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3366961769
Fixed Combine Thumper https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368259440
Fixed Grenade World Model Texture https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3366417070
Edited Airboat https://gamebanana.com/mods/500948
Leet Manhack https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3437493516

Slight difficulty bum for another playthough
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3438202402

My collection
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3438209509

Replacement version
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3443977433