Mapbase

Mapbase
Released!
Wiki
Type	Single Player Modification
Developers	Blixibon, Assorted open-source contributors
Engine	Source
Based on	Source 2013
Release Date	September 30, 2019
Last Version	8.0 (July 29th, 2025)

Mapbase is a base mod for Source 2013 which expands and improves the toolset available to modders, augmenting other maps and mods for development purposes. It's designed to be used as a platform for mappers to build their maps on and for larger mods to draw code from. Mapbase is generally used as a large package of utility features and general-purpose fixes.

Mapbase is NOT an improved version of Hammer or an improved version of the engine itself. It is a fork of the Source 2013 SDK which acts as a regular sourcemod. Maps using it must be played in Mapbase or a mod running its code in order to function correctly. Mappers would create their maps based on this mod and larger mods with their own unique changes would draw from Mapbase's code and assets. Mapbase does not use any content that originates from leaked or unauthorized sources.

Mapbase is currently only built around Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode Two via Source 2013 Singleplayer. Other games are not yet supported, although a Team Fortress 2 branch (formerly Source 2013 Multiplayer) version of Mapbase is currently in development, which will extend Mapbase to sourcemods of Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and Team Fortress 2.

Most of Mapbase's changes are quality-of-life improvements that could largely only be noticed in the editor. The original goal of this project is to improve the mapping experience without changing too much of the game itself.

Features

• 80+ new entities (mostly logic-related), including new filters and entities ported or replicated from newer engine branches.
• Hundreds of new inputs, outputs, and keyvalues added to existing entities.
• Custom implementation of VScript.
• Heavily revised and reworked FGDs.
• Custom shaders which focus on fixes and "objective" improvements.
  • Swaying trees
  • Parallax corrected cubemaps
  • Phong shading on brushes and displacements
  • Radial fog (in Half-Life 2 since 20th Anniversary Update)
• Projected texture fixes
• Dynamic RTT shadow angles, enabled through shadow_control.
• More map-specific file capabilities (actbusy files, talker files, etc.)
• Countless miscellaneous fixes and improvements.

Half-Life 2

Mapbase also has a few new features mostly specific to Half-Life 2 mapping:

• Player-usable weapon_stunstick and weapon_slam ported from Half-Life 2: Deathmatch.
  • weapon_stunstick can only be picked up as weapon if "Stunstick Pickup Behavior" is set in hl2_gamerules.
• NPC animation fixes and expansions, allowing any humanoid NPC to use effectively any weapon
• Other optional gameplay features (e.g. more NPCs capable of using func_tank, throwing grenades, etc.)

Source Code

Mapbase's source code is capable of being compiled with modern versions of Visual Studio (from VS 2015 up to VS 2022), toggled through \vpc_scripts\newer_vs_toolsets.vpc. It also supports modern versions of GCC on Linux.

History

Mapbase technically started in February 2018 as a prototype, but the project as it exists now began in August-September 2018.

Mapbase was created by Blixibon from a set of FGD improvements and various code changes previously brought from project to project. Mapbase's original goal was to use Source 2013 code modifications to allow mappers to do more things with their maps. The February 2018 prototype mostly contained a few basic code changes and an early version of the map-specific file system.

The project was revisited several months later at the end of 2018. At this point, Mapbase started to gain traction, forming a wider scope as well as its own following. Mapbase started to become a heavily augmented (yet relatively vanilla-looking) version of Source 2013 as a whole, introducing custom shaders, additional NPC animations, and more.

Mapbase was released at the end of September 2019. Mapbase has continued to receive large periodic updates with new features since its release.

In May 2020, a custom implementation of VScript running in Source 2013 was created as a contribution, being introduced in the v4.0 update.

The most recent release, Mapbase v7.3, was released in January 2025 with minor bug fixes, some quality-of-life features, and notably a major rewrite of CScriptNetPropManager which elevates the abilities of entity manipulation in VScript.

Mapbase is still being maintained as of May 2025. A port to the Team Fortress 2 branch is currently in early development on a separate branch, but is still missing some features compared to the stable version of Mapbase, and is partially blocked for singleplayer mods due to saves being broken on the new SDK.

Release Information

Mapbase's release build and source code were first released on September 30th 2019. Other kinds of files can be found here.

Documentation

Mapbase uses its own wiki to hold most of its information and documentation, although some changes may be put on the VDC for reference purposes. For example, Mapbase documents some of its entities on the VDC and may be mentioned in other articles.

Relevant fixes and features originally created for Mapbase have occasionally been added to the VDC for general-purpose use as well.

Mods using Mapbase

• 2014 Team Fortress 2 Classic (added since patch 2.2.0)
• 2017 Entropy : Zero
• 2018 Map Labs
  • Originally released before Mapbase. It was later based on Mapbase after updates.
• 2020 Amalgam (added since patch 2.0)
• 2022 Entropy : Zero 2
• TBA Half-Life 2 RTX (Demo released on March 18, 2025.)

Credits

Mapbase was started and mainly created by Blixibon, but it couldn't have been done without contributors, community repositories, and the VDC itself. The full credits page can be found here.

See also

• Mapbase Mods
• Engine branches

External links

• A video on how to use Parallax cubemaps
• Mapbase's original trailer
• Images of Mapbase on the ModDB gallery
• Mapbase Videos Playlist on YouTube
• Mapbase 7.0 Content Article