Female Assassin (Evolution)

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Although most characters documented survive in the final release, they aren’t necessarily the only ones to undergo a great deal of evolution. Thanks to 2 new releases, there is a great deal more known about the female assassin’s development, from its roughest to its final state before being cut (and later reused).

Version 1: Repo Leak /work/

Animated PNG available here

The earliest set of textures shows a unique style not seen in the other earliest texture sets. It's a strange combination of a UV grid and direct vertex-lit lighting. Every one of the textures ends in "mesh", with a couple of newer ones included without this convention. What, if anything, was used for the eye is ambiguous. There are 2 miscellaneous textures - blah.tga and specmask.tga.

Eye is speculatively using blah.tga.

Version 2: Pel Shot

Fass3 v3.png

With the UV grids swapped out, we can see the intention of Valve being more Hl1-esque, with a primarily black color scheme. The Fassassin has a tendency to incompletely change. For example, this reuses "footmesh" from the prior version - it has the same UV grid. While some textures for this are 'unreleased', it can be recreated with little compromise.

  • As aforementioned, foot.tga from v1 is reused.
  • v1's newer Chest2.tga and belt.tga match.
  • The Leak's unused legdiffuse.vtf serves perfectly as both a leg and arm texture.
  • This version's hand.vtf, pouch.vtf and neck.vtf are still used in the Leak.
  • The head can be recreated, at the top, from the alpha channel of the normal map, and the bottom from the Leak head with no modification.

Oddly, the belt texture here is heavily vertical (as is the normal map for v3), but the UVs between version 1 and 3 are identical.


Version 3: Leak

Fass3 v4.png

The leak contains a version which appears to be an attempt to make v4 before a reUVing was performed. This is more incomplete than the prior version, with 3 of v2's textures still used, and plenty left over.

The .vmts contained have many interesting qualities - they are transitioned from the older shader approach, manually. The nonexistant heightmaps maps have .vmts (which point to the normalmaps). None of such being necessary - they are normally pointed to by the normal texture's .vmt. The one remaining heightmap implies that the normalmaps are probably heightmap conversions. Curiously, the hand's normal map is a painted over Gasmask Citizen hand.

Glove comparison gif.gif

Version 4: ‘Final’

Fass3 v5 2.png

The final version. It is available in the repo, but the sheet was also available in the Leak - just not the model with the new UVs for it. Despite the radical changes to the textures prior, this is the only one to make model changes; the head is slightly larger. It doesn't include a normal map, despite its prior version. This has the closest resemblance to the one piece of available concept art.

In the final QC, the assassin-specific animations are commented out in favor of reusing Alyx's - albeit, certain Fassassin-specific animations were reused for Alyx's animation set in turn.

Version 4A: HL2: Survivor

Fass3 v6 1.png

A modification of the model used for HL2: Survivor. The model is shorter, bizarre black shading is added below the breasts, and the middle part of the vest is emphasized. Curiously, the Portal-esque long fall boots are replaced with high heels.

Version 4B: Combine Elite

Fass vb.png

In creating the final Combine Elite, a quick modification to the Combine Soldier was made by adding the head to it, and the head texture over the normal one. This one possesses a uniformly red eye.

Bonus

Model Comparison

Sheet Comparison

Texture Table

Red border means it’s a recreation.

Arm Belt Chest Eye Foot Hand Head Leg Neck Pouch
v1
1 armmesh.png
1 beltmesh.png
1 chestmesh.png
1 footmesh.png
1 handmesh.png
1 headmesh.png
1 legmesh.png
1 neckmesh.png
1 pouchmesh.png
v2
3 legdiffuse.png
1 belt.png
1 chest2.png
2 eye.png
1 footmesh.png
3 hand.png
2 head.png
3 legdiffuse.png
3 hand.png
3 pouch.png
v3
3 arm.png
3 belt.png
3 chest2.png
3 eye.png
3 foot.png
3 hand.png
3 head.png
3 leg.png
3 hand.png
3 pouch.png