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Project Borealis, the fan-made Half-Life 2: Episode 3 is still continuing along, with the release of a second performance to test so we can stress-test their work.

For those who didn't see the previous article, a proper reminder of what this is:

Project Borealis is a fan-game aiming to create the long awaited 3rd episode of the Half-Life 2 episodic trilogy based on Marc Laidlaw’s Epistle 3.

The Project Borealis performance test is a comprehensive analysis of a system's performance under our current working environment. Though this test shows our progress on performance so far, we hope to make more progress before releasing the Ravenholm tech demo, and will continue to make improvements up to the release of the full game.

They've managed to get Linux support in early and the latest release 2.0.0 (and a minor fix with 2.1.0 just recently) has added quite a lot of new bits. They've updated to Unreal Engine 4.21.2, there should be reduced hitching and microstuttering in OpenGL and Vulkan, CPU particle multithreading for simulation and collision, optimized audio performance, improved texture store and streaming and a whole lot more.

As far as fan creations go, Project Borealis could end up becoming quite a big thing in the gaming community especially considering how badly fans want a proper end to Half-Life 2.

Considering how Valve are perfectly fine with the Black Mesa fan game, I can't see them having a problem with this either.

See more on itch.io.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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17 comments
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Xpander Jan 7, 2019
hmm Vulkan perf seems worse but is a lot smoother than OpenGL one.

OpenGL 1440p

[

Vulkan 1440p

[

edit: ahh now i see why, OpenGL is High instead of Ultra somehow


Last edited by Xpander on 7 January 2019 at 1:27 pm UTC
rubii Jan 7, 2019
Hmm getting a lot of flickering for some reason, however the performance is somewhat expected for my RX580.
Mountain Man Jan 7, 2019
I just wonder if this game is going to have the right "feel" being on the Unreal Engine. It might look like a Half-Life game, but will it feel like one?
Arehandoro Jan 7, 2019
QuoteConsidering how Valve are perfectly fine with the Black Mesa fan game, I can't see them having a problem with this either.

Though true, not quite the same I think :)
Liam Dawe Jan 7, 2019
Quoting: Arehandoro
QuoteConsidering how Valve are perfectly fine with the Black Mesa fan game, I can't see them having a problem with this either.

Though true, not quite the same I think :)
What makes you say that? Put it this way, has Valve ever gone after a fan game?
Dunc Jan 7, 2019
Quoting: Mountain ManI just wonder if this game is going to have the right "feel" being on the Unreal Engine. It might look like a Half-Life game, but will it feel like one?
There's a section about it in this Half-Life documentary (highly recommended, by the way). They seem to have spent quite a lot of effort in making sure it does.
Arehandoro Jan 7, 2019
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: Arehandoro
QuoteConsidering how Valve are perfectly fine with the Black Mesa fan game, I can't see them having a problem with this either.

Though true, not quite the same I think :)
What makes you say that? Put it this way, has Valve ever gone after a fan game?

They haven't, and hope they never do, but it's not the same the remake of their first game that a new iteration of their most hyped/expected game. Obviously I don't want Valve to cancel any fan-made game but I would rather understand more the cancellation of Project Borealis than if they had done it with Black Mesa. If that makes sense :)
Cyril Jan 7, 2019
I've got some errors with the Vulkan test...

Leopard Jan 7, 2019
Quoting: Xpanderhmm Vulkan perf seems worse but is a lot smoother than OpenGL one.

OpenGL 1440p

[

Vulkan 1440p

[

edit: ahh now i see why, OpenGL is High instead of Ultra somehow

Minimum fps is waay better on Vulkan.
MayeulC Jan 7, 2019
Only Vulkan works for me, with some flickering (random). There was quite a bit of stutter on my first run, with a high number (>100, maybe > 1000) of sub-60 frames, which I attributed to shader caching. No stuttering in the next runs.

OpenGL crashes after the first corner, Vulkan low-en doesn't show a single window before crashing.

Quite good results with Vulkan
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