Do all the NPC men have the same head model? I’ve been trying to study game models for creative inspiration and learning, and I swear all the guys have the same basic head (looking at the jaw, nose.) Is it just me? Was it the same situation with Half Life 2’s humans? Or am I crazy? I’m putting this in modding because it’s regarding models and graphics in the game for the sake of 3D modeling experiments and learning. (Also no discussion tag which would be cool to have…)
As far as I'm aware, you're right. Black Mesa uses a custom "Face Creation System" that is meant to randomize the faces a bit so they don't all look the same, but the overall basis is presumably the same. The apparently long-gone Black Mesa wiki pretty much detailed the process: wiki.blackmesasource.com/Face_Cr… PS: Don't hate me, Black Mesa devs, but I have always absoluted hated the Black Mesa faces. They just feel like a step back from Half-Life 2.
Yeah, I think all the NPCs have the same default head shapes, it's just they've got a large variety of different hair styles, glasses, skin color, and many alternate face textures in general. Half-Life 2 doesn't have this problem, as they're all modeled after different people. Refugee, rebel, and medic variants of citizens do have slightly different face textures though, but in HL2 it's never randomized.