How To Enjoy Half-Life: Source WITH Mods

Yeah, the sequel dequel to enjoying HL:S without mods (but with mods)

Half-Life: Source Fixed

The most obvious of the many mods to improve this cesspool of a remaster is HL:S Fixed.
You can go find it on moddb here
Make sure you read the installation instructions and make a shortcut.

While not compatible with all mods, HL:S fixed is still compatible with plenty so long as they don't change around the maps or something similar. Take this with a grain of salt as I have no idea how to mod.
Fortunately for you, all mods in this guide are fully compatible with HL:S Fixed and should not cause issue.

Half-Life: Source Resized Maps

Half-Life has a ton of loading triggers, and while loading times are short, wouldn't it just be nicer to have less? Fortunately, there has been a port of the GMod HL:S Resized Maps to base HL:S.

GameBanana download can be found here![gamebanana.com]

Moddb download can be found here!

How to install:
[YOU DON'T NEED TO DO STEP SIX IF YOU USE THIS WITH HL:S FIXED AS IT ALREADY HAS A SECTION FOR IT]

AI Upscale for Half-Life: Source

Half-Life's a great game, but it lacks the graphical fidelity to fully pull you into its atmosphere. However, Black Mesa changes a lot of Half-Life, some good, some bad, some... Dear God.
But if you've got the machine to handle it, you'll likely be interested in this AI Upscale for HL:S.

This is the 16x upscale, if you go into files you can get 4-8x if you fear 16x is too much. If you fear it ruins the aesthetic of the game, just take a look at some of the screenshots, and I can safely add that it doesn't ruin the aesthetic of the game.

You can download the mod here. Just note that some files can cause issues with HL:S fixed, but I've only tested the 16x one, which shouldn't cause any issues. Remember to turn on HD textures for it to work!

Hi-Res Human Gibs

Whilst the AI Upscale Texture pack does do its job of enhancing the game, it didn't upscale the blood nor the gibs.

Note that this section assumes you have installed the HL:S AI Upscaled Texture pack, the installation guide I put below may differ if you don't have it.

You can install the mod here.[gamebanana.com]

However, the mod doesn't come with any install guide and modboy won't cut it, so to all my fellow people who are as slow as I am, here's a quick install guide to make sure you don't mess things up.

Installation

Step one; extract the file.
Step two; go into said extracted file and go to models, gibs, and then hgibs. You should see something like this \/ \/


Now, select ALL files within the folder and copy them to clipboard.
Now you'll wanna go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Half-Life 2 or wherever you may have your Half-Life 2 folder. In it, go to your hl1_hd folder. If you're confused, the image below may help.


In your hl1_hd folder, go to the materials folder, NOT the models folder! Then you should see something like this, and now go to your models folder. I know, it's strange.

Now in your models folder, scroll until you see hgibs. Seem familiar? Open the folder and paste everything from earlier. If it asks you if you want to replace anything, select replace all.


Now with that all out the way, the mod should work correctly.

Lens Flare

Dear game developers, our eyes are not camera lenses, please stop adding so much lens flare that it puts most gmod realism videos to shame.

However, that doesn't exactly mean all lens flare is bad, just like bloom. It's just that people need to keep it lower and not up it to 11 all the time.

Here are two mods that add lens flare, one moderate and one more insane if you really want.

Low lens flare: Link[gamebanana.com]
High lens flare: Link[gamebanana.com]

Installation Guide

No worries, this one's a lot shorter.
All you need to do is extract the file, go from materials > sprites > [File contents :)], head back into your materials folder, go into sprites, and just copy paste the items in there. Here's where you need to go if you're confused.

Conclusion

So with that, this concludes a little guide featuring some mods that I feel improve the game. Half-Life: Source still isn't perfect, but I hope this can greatly improve your experience with the game, especially if Black Mesa turns you off too much or if you simply can't afford it.

I'm just some potato on the internet, so until next time, farewell!

[CrusadingDoomguy]

i know i'm a year late, but thriver, what did you do to make them work? i'm having the same issue. no biggie if you don't remember.

[TheLazyPotato]

Oh alright, glad it's working for you

[thriver]

nevermind, I got it, just had to do some things to get it to work.

[TheLazyPotato]

Unfortunately, I haven't modded HL:S in ages, if you want help, please go to HLS resized's modpage and post something in the comments, sorry.

[thriver]

hls resized maps dont work, even though i followed their instructions (made a custom folder, put hslu inside the custom folder, blah blah blah) and it didnt work at all.

[O_Draws]

I downloaded HL:S Fixed 2.0 and the 2.1 patch, but can't figure out how to properly install it. Further, I can't find any clear instructions (there's not even anything in the ReadMe file). The folder hierarchy in the Zip files between the mod and the patch don't even seem to match each other, let alone match the file hierarchy of the HL:S install on Steam. How can I get this to work?

[TheLazyPotato]

Unfortunately that's just Half-Life: source for you.
There's a bunch of shine once HD models are enabled for some reason, so sometimes it'll look good and others... Not so much.

[Some Polish-Hungarian Guy]

I decided to give the HD upscale thing a shot, I noticed there's a bit of shining on surfaces, as if the fix wasn't there in the first place. Any suggestions?

[TheLazyPotato]

Yeah, it's real strange

[Dingus]

One thing that I find really strange is that the original Half Life's HD models were on by default but in source they aren't maybe it's just something I did. i just find it interesting.