Blue Shift: Unlocked (make BShift an HL mod)

So for everyone who had Half-life when Steam came out, we were all lucky enough to get a free copy of Half-life: Blue Shift out of the deal. Only problem is that Blue Shift used a slightly tweaked HL engine and duplicated a crapload of content from the original game. It's bloated and has some annoying bugs that didn't get fixed with the regular HL updates. Additionally it came with the 'High Definition' pack that upgraded all your models to nice high-poly ones, but that content only made it in a half-assed form over to Steam (as a separate download - not included in the standard Blue Shift Steam release).

Here are a couple fixes for your problems. First, you'll want to grab the 'fixed HL high-definition pack for Steam' from here:
http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/fullstory.php?id=105708
Install that and get your high-poly models in game. This is better than Valve's own version because it includes a number of animations Valve left out, so HL mods that try to use them won't crash.

Next, you'll want the Blue Shift: Unlocked tool from http://www.hl-improvement.com/downloads.php (use the installer, it's easier). This tool takes the Blue Shift data files (either from a Steam install that you do first, or from a retail CD), patches them up to work with the HL engine instead of the tweaked Blue Shift one, and then gives you a shiny new mod on your Steam window. At this point you simply uninstall Steam's 'official' Blue Shift. Net result: a savings of about 130 MB, a host of bugfixes, and some high quality player models.

Might help people struggling with this old topic: http://www.snarkpit.net/forums.php?forum=1&topic=3037
or this one: http://www.snarkpit.net/forums.php?forum=1&topic=7878

Post if you have questions, I've successfully done this procedure.

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Thanks for that Hornpipe2. This will be helpful.

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Aaron's Stuff

i've always wondered what exactly the engine modifications were

Do these tweaks apply to those who got Blue-Shift before the days of Steam?

It should... The tool has an option to get its content from a CD instead of a Steam install. The steps would be:

• Download and install the hi-def pack from the first link above.
• Put your Blue Shift CD in, but don't install anything yet.
• Run the Blue Shift: Unlocked tool. When you come to the page that asks if you want to install from a Steam install or a retail CD, choose the option for CD. Browse to your CD location and then follow the rest of the on-screen instructions.

Let me know how it goes!

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