Improved Xen was a great mod released sometime after the 1.0 release, and it works on the latest version (Definitive Edition), but it does have some flaws, most noticeably is that some of the HL1 sounds are used in this mod and Black Mesa mostly uses their own sounds, so I took it upon myself to make these changes to make this mod more enjoyable.
Zloikot currently doesn't plan on releasing the .vmfs for these maps, so I edited the entities in the .bsp files using EntSpy to replace the HL1 sounds along with other tweaks.
General Fixes:
- New UI is updated to use the UI from the latest version of Black Mesa.
- New startup screen, text changes for English and Russian languages, background, and chapter icons for the mod.
- All maps were edited to replace HL1 sounds with Black Mesa's sounds (I had to create a few new ones) except for a few because they sounded different in the mod than the HL1 counterpart.
- This mod now uses the custom folder and the custom folder from the main game.
- Optional addons for this fix pack are included. (Scroll down the description for directions)
- Boid, Hacker Tree, and Plantlight models are replaced with official ones, but they behave the same in the mod than in the official Xen levels.
Xen:
- The player now draws the Crowbar instead of the Crossbow.
- Gibbing sounds used for breakables remain unchanged as Black Mesa has this sound by default.
Gonarch's Lair:
- "xen-gl2bx.wav" was replaced with a high-quality version of The Hunting track.
Interloper:
- Mantis Flyers laser beams were altered to be slightly similar to the official maps. I couldn't change the beams to be consistent.
- The Tentacle NPC sound script was edited so that it now sounds like it's hitting rocks than metal.
End Game:
- "ixen_credits.wav" was replaced with a high-quality version of the Border Worlds track.
Notes:
- Some images are included when you subscribe to this addon.
- The edited maps were saved and optimized, breaking the checksum for these maps. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but I don't want the maps to crash the game.
- I didn't delete the sound entities that I don't want, so I have it play the null sound instead.
- There could be a random chance that the game could still crash. An addon that I created for the fix pack may solve this problem for some.
- The shine and reflections seen in some maps may look bad unless you increase the graphics in the settings menu.
- I couldn't fix the double doors seen in End Game.
- The HL1 and HL2 breathing and heartbeat sounds from the End Game map are what I wanted to change the most. Don't know why.
Download my fix pack, and put the "xen" folder from my fix pack to the mod's directory folder also named "xen". Replace the files.
The Workshop version of Improved Xen had one change over the ModDB version (I could be wrong though) and if you are subscripted to it and have the fix pack installed, find the directory in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\362890\894282258" and replace the files from there.
Link to the Workshop Version of the Fix Pack
Thank you for the support and thanks to Zloikot for making the Xen levels with HL1 layouts.
Black Mesa Xen, but awesome.
More like, Black Mesa: Improved Xen, but better.
Is this fixes compatible with the 0.51 version? Or not?
I'm using bms classic with improved Xen. With the patches. After I defeat Gonarch and go through the portal I arrive on the next level and it just crashes. I've tried it with and without patches. On the auto load there is a lot of enemy's firing at me a lot of action. Maybe thats the issue? Anyway considering. Awesome, excellent game. Best game i've played for a long time. I bought Definitive Edition too. cheers.
The Improved Xen maps were outdated as the mod reached 1.0 status when Black Mesa was still at version 1.0. My fix pack doesn't include a fix for this. Sorry.
( Sorry my bad English ). There are problems in the Interloper's first map, i have noticed the Mantis Flyers wing get clipping through those "Pillar" and the rock too. I hope someone fix it, thank you.