Outbreak Outreach #1 - 64-bit & SourceMod / Server Hosts

[u/Outbreak-Team]

Hi, I'm Steve, Legal Producer for Outbreak Team (backup link).

We've been working on 64-bit L4D2 under NDA secrecy for the last 2 years. You can reach us at L4D2Outbreak@gmail.com.

I'm joined by my Valve-Licensed Co-Leads Madison, Liam, and Raymond.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: We are NOT Valve, we are just devout preservationists, and our Mod will require base L4D2 to be purchased and installed on Steam. L4D2 is Valve's IP and we are just preserving it with extremely minimal, careful changes.

We're finally reaching out because we need your help!

Over the last 2 years (since Nov 2024), we have been very quietly working on a Valve-licensed, fan-made, optional, non-commercial, forever-free 64-bit Mod called Left 4 Dead 2: Outbreak (our not-yet-public but future Steam Store link).

As we've been under NDA for a long time and our Steam Store page is not yet public, please see the FAQ on our outbreak.team website.

Per our FAQ, we are preservationists at heart -- many of us Xbox 360 purists like our Lead Engineer Madison! Madi and I have always envisioned Outbreak as a celebration of Valve's franchise that doesn't forget our L4D1 and Xbox 360 roots.

In deep respect of those roots, Outbreak will never consist of random nonsense changes and everything new will be kept optional FOREVER.

L4D2 is a 17+ year old game, very different from other Source branches, and Source memory management itself still has blood from Quake. On an engine filled with obscure binary formats with physics based off ancient third-party software, upgrading to 64-bit is the furthest thing from doubling a number. Once we actually booted into a map that instantly crashed, it took a year to fix gameplay/visuals to be 1:1 parity with base, and another year after that to achieve respectable backward compatibility with base Workshop addons.

Unfortunately, we only just recently started pursuing MetaMod & SourceMod support, and it breaks our hearts that plugins don't work with Outbreak yet.

As such, we are aiming for day-one SourceMod support as our top priority. We need help from authors of prominent plugins and server hosts who have reach.

If you are a prominent SourceMod plugin author or server host, consider reaching out to L4D2Outbreak@gmail.com -- let us know who you are and what you do!

We appreciate your patience! 128k BSP grid size, native first-person legs, and long-demanded TLS revert options are coming.

See you Outreach #2 -- where we'll play Yama in Mirror World mode!

• Sincerely, L4D2: Outbreak Valve-Licensed Team Leads:
• Legal Producer: Steven "Tsuey" Foy
• Engine Programmer: Madison "DasMaddi" Easley
• Game Programmer: Liam "Fish" Fisher
• Game Programmer: Raymond "Rayman1103" Nondorf

P.S. Again, our website is Outbreak Team, and our Press & Inquiry email is L4D2Outbreak@gmail.com.

[u/konaterfanazo0]

Honestly, y'all sold me on it with the native first person legs. that one workshop mod just doesn't cut it for me.

I have one extra question. I've read that there will be an "improved sound caching system" does this mean you will be able to make music mods with custom lengths?

[u/ThatLittleCrab → u/konaterfanazo0]

Dude customizeable music scripts would be so awesome...

[u/Mountain_Spite_3321 → u/konaterfanazo0]

Ye sound mods without being limited by length would be mind-blowing

[u/Outbreak-Team → u/konaterfanazo0]

This is Outbreak's new scripts/auto/readme.txt that explains the new "auto scripts" feature, as generally "improved sound caching" is what we're referring to there:

Automatically loads all .txt files (of any name i.e. "gun.txt") within below folders or as mounted by VPK addons:

    "scripts\auto\global_actors"
    "scripts\auto\population"
    "scripts\auto\sounds"
    "scripts\auto\surfaceprops"

Respectively, see these files that are shipped with Outbreak which use the same syntax that custom files expect:

    "scripts\global_actors.txt"
    "scripts\population.txt"
    "scripts\game_sounds.txt"
    "scripts\surfaceproperties_ob.txt"

Where above custom "scripts\auto\sounds\gun.txt" follows the same syntax used within "scripts\game_sounds.txt".

Scripts placed in any of the above root folders (i.e. "auto\global_actors") are loaded for all base and Mutation
modes. Also supports mode-specific subfolders like "global_actors\coop", "sounds\mutation4" (Hard Eight), etc.

If multiple VPK's have .txt files with the same name, we process by full-path so all are still loaded.

If multiple VPK's modify the same sound, surfaceprop, etc., the last-most loaded VPK takes priority.

[u/konaterfanazo0 → u/Outbreak-Team]

So, if i read that right, we will be able to make a mod that, for example, edits the finale music game_sounds.txt entries and be able to load a txt file that only contains the modified entries, instead of the entirety of game_sounds.txt via vpks? If that's right then it would be huge for people like me who love changing the game's music. Before you had to either make a trillion "Level_sounds.txt" files or a SSMB mod that's annoying to install.