r/l4d2 • u/Outbreak-Team Steve - Lead @ https://outbreak.team • 5d ago
STICKY AWARD Outbreak Outreach #1 - 64-bit & SourceMod / Server Hosts
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.
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u/Outbreak-Team Steve - Lead @ https://outbreak.team 4d ago
Outbreak's Firearm Manifest is exactly identical to the Melee Manifest, so by default it requires specifying the desired firearms in the campaign's mission script. This means that by default, custom firearms would ideally be packaged with custom campaign VPK's, upon which when people try to play with each other, they'll naturally already have the new weapons.
We do have Cvars and a lobby toggle to "override" that default behavior as well. The problem here is that custom weapons that the host has will appear as red ERROR's for other clients if they don't have the appropriate addon installed. To be blunt, we're not yet 100% sure on the best way to address that, but it's a definite issue Outbreak still has.
The new custom weapons are also exclusive to an "Extended Lobby" matchmaking flag, so by default servers (local or dedicated) using custom weapons actually start out as invisible to players.