Fans find real human corpse in Half-Life 2

The in-game model was based on a grim photo in an actual medical journal

A subreddit dedicated to sharing harrowing images and videos has accidentally uncovered an 18-year-old secret - one of the corpse models in Valve's Half-Life 2 was modeled after a real dead body. 

The "gnarly" forensic photographs were initially placed on the r/eyeblech subreddit, which you shouldn't visit and I won't link to. 

Someone in the replies to the original post noted how it looked the same as Half-Life 2's Corpse01.mdl, which is described in the game files as a "charred partially skeletonized face with teeth visible".

The model is also popular in Garry's Mod, where people make their own sandbox games. 

Game developers have previously come under fire for using real gore photos for research, with some developers developing PTSD. That's why studios like Striking Distance stuck to using movies for research for The Callisto Protocol's gore. 

Studios clearly felt differently about subjecting their developers to horrific images 18 years ago. 

Over on Steam Workshop, there are already mods to remove the corpse model from Half-Life 2. 

Thanks, Richter Overtime and TheGamer.