reUpdate - HL2: Update with Anniversary Update

THIS PATCH WAS MADE FOR **Fillip Victor's **HALF-LIFE 2: UPDATE (AppID 290930) ONLY. IT IS NOT MEANT FOR VANILLA HALF-LIFE 2. NEW MAP CHANGES ARE STILL WORK IN PROGRESS.

UPDATE 10/23/2026: CANARY 3.0 PART I has been revised with a hotfix. This fixes missing texture on d1_trainstation_02.

ABOUT REUPDATE PATCH reUpdate is a patch for Fillip Victor's HL2: Update, a standalone mod of Half-Life 2 designed to fix bugs and enhances visuals. However Half-Life 2: Update has never received any new updates since it's release in 2015. Over time, in 2019-2021, 2022 with Steam Deck and then 2024 with 20th Anniversary Update to vanilla Half-Life 2, some of which brings new major bug fixes that HL2: Update itself never get pretty much made HL2: Update itself mostly obsoleted.

However, HL2: Update, simply didn't exist just for bug fixes, it also had some unique visuals & map changes (some of which still looks better than HL2 even with 20th Anniversary Update, like the Ravenholm map using different skybox, additional particle effects, changed fog color, and more...), uses separate app ID, meaning achievements are separated from vanilla HL2, modifications to maps to made some Lambda Locator achievements much harder to miss.

What reUpdate do is to patch up Half-Life 2: Update, replaces the outdated 11 year old (2015) version of the Source 2013 engine to latest one from Half-Life 2 (20th anniversary version), while also adding the following new features and improvements:

From HL2 20th anniversary:

• Almost all of them below except map changes (currently being worked on).
• Bicubic lightmaps (works on all maps, even those that haven't been updated yet)
• 2004 blood & fire particles

From Steam Deck Update:

• Increased FOV from 90 to 120

** VGUI menu has been unofficially updated to allow FOV up to 120, compared to 110 in original.

• HUD Aspect Ratio (4:3, 16:9, 16:10)
• Vulkan renderer (-vulkan)
• Fixed vibration support for Legacy XInput controller support.
• Switch between 2004/Old Engine and New Engine particles effects (blood, fire)
• Gamepad UI (-gamepadui)
• Steam Input (must be enabled on Steam client first, Steam Input API is also required for controller support with Gamepad UI enabled)

From reUpdate patch:

• Customized Gamepad UI to have the thumbnail on "New Game" chapters match the in-game (aka HL2 Update) itself.
• Improvement and new Gamepad UI features, restored some missing options, including:

Keyboard Advanced Options: Fast Weapon Switch - Disabled (0), Enabled (1), Controller-styled (2), Horizontal scroll/Postal 3 style (3) Enable Developer Console directly via Gamepad UI Mouse sensitivity on Gamepad UI can be increased up to 20.

Video - Advanced (VGUI) Removed non-functional "Use 'bloom' effect when available" option, which does nothing and uncheck itself after saving advanced video options, this is likely a leftover when Valve was testing revamped HDR rendering and bloom features back during Source 2007 & Orange Box development.

FOV options increased to 120 without using Console command.

• Optional: Orange Gamepad UI scheme with Verdana & Trebuchet MS font included.

Other mods support info & Additional notes

Experimental MMOD support is now available (as of reUpdate BETA 2.5). But because MMod are built on older SDK 2013 code, some features from 20th anniversary becomes non-functional (including Classic Particles, HUD aspect ratio, new autoaim and Steam Input controller sensitivity setting), plus MMod post-processing features are also broken aswell, which can be only fixed if Valve release the new Source 2013 SP SDK containing changes from HL2 20th Anniversary Update.

Additionally for those using MMod, it's highly recommended that you installing the official MMOD 20th anniversary fix first before installing the MMod fix included on reUpdate zip.

reUpdate support any type of mods, as long it's not map-related. Maps related mods are incompatible since it would overwrite reUpdate changes (if the mod replaces reUpdate's .bsp) and potentially break stuff (if the mod replaces a .lmp (lump) file (which only work as intended on vanilla .bsp, either 20th anniversary or pre-Anniversary, or the 2015 HL2's Update) and the reUpdate .bsp would worked poorly with it).

Map changes is also included with the BETA, with currently only 6 chapters, from Point Insertion to Ravenholm (and d2_coast_10) have map changes.

This patch is made (and tested) for Windows only for now. The patch ships with 20th anniversary engine build 9912070 (July 23, 2025).

Linux version is currently based on older version and currently has limited support since I never use Linux as my main OS due to being unfamiliar with it.

This patch currently available on GameBanana, and GitHub (also hosts previous versions). Older versions are available on Internet Archive and PCGW.

NOTE (10/10/2026): The latest public beta version of the patch currently were based off the 20th anniversary version (July 23, 2025 update).

MAP CHANGES (WORK IN PROGRESS)

Originally reUpdate plan is to simply combine HL2 20th Anniversary map changes with the 2015 Update's visuals and Update's specific map changes, but since then, reUpdate now focus on partially updating most 2015 Update maps with 20th Anniversary Update changes, while other maps would not only combines 2015 Update with 20th Anniversary changes, but they also get reUpdate custom enhancements including fixing map inconsistencies or add details in certain places including 3D skyboxes, while making sure it's still looks near vanilla. On top of that, maps are now being recompiled using ficool2's VBSP++, VVIS++ and VRAD++ for improved performance & optimization and slightly enhances lighting &