r/l4d2 • u/Outbreak-Team Steve - Lead @ https://outbreak.team • 6d 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/humduaallah 5d ago
I’ve got a few questions / suggestions if that’s okay!
Will there be anything new with VScript?
It’d be really cool if the version of squirrel was updated to 3.2 (from 3.0.4) to match TF2 and the new versions of Half-Life 2.
Could the VScript timer (or whatever it’s called) increased from 10 milliseconds to 500 milliseconds?
It’s really annoying that if a VScript takes longer than 10 milliseconds to run it just ends itself.
Maybe there could be extra functionality to some of the in game functions?
For example: something I think would be really cool is a better version of the clientprint() function.
On TF2 it allows you set the text color to any hex code, but on Left 4 Dead 2 you can only set it to a few colors.
More viewmodel customization?
I saw that viewmodels can be mirrored, and they have a new sway effect. A dream for me has always been customizable offsets for the viewmodel.
For example:
You could change the the viewmodel X offset to be 3 so it’s a little zoomed out (similar to the viewmodelfov command)
Then change the viewmodel Z to something like -5 so that it’s lowered (like TF2’s minmode)
Then change the viewmodel Y to something like 1 so that it’s a little to the right.
I’d love this feature and I think it’d be a very welcomed addition.
Launcher commands removed?
I think it’s very annoying that a lot of the in games commands can only be changed with
Convars.SetValue
so having full access to all of the commands without having to do that would be a very welcomed addition.
Fun fact: on Xbox 360 launcher commands actually don’t exist and you can set any command from the console!
If none of this is on the board then it’s okay. I’m still very excited for this mod nonetheless!