Valve Reused The Code For Flickering Lights in Alyx 22 Years Later

Alyx launched 22 years after the release of the original Half-Life game but it turns out the team used some pieces of the original source code. Reddit user CrazyGiaky posted a gif showing the latest part of the series using the same flickering light found in the original Half-Life.

Reddit user lazermaniac continued the thread with the code and explained how the light works.

"From what I can see, the effect is handled by assigning a string of letters that indicates the sequence of brightness changes, with a being fully dark and z being fully bright," lazermaniac said. "The fluorescent flicker effect is defined by the string 'mmamammmmammamamaaamammma', m being the default brightness setting without any changes. It kinda blows my mind to think that single string of letters defined lighting effects in my favorite games for almost 25 years now."

The thing is that the first game was based on an overhauled version of the Quake engine, and the flickering light code was actually written by John Carmack for the original Quake. How cool is that?

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