Half Life 2

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2004-05-18 04:40pm

I hope this thread didn't get fucked up ("Error: No posts exist for this topic.")

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2004-05-18 07:08pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:How is Unreal's physics engine better than the Source engine, exactly?

How well is HL2 going to play on a low-end machine?

UT2k4s physics might be a dodge-o patchwork, but at least it ain't all preset :p

Anyone like far cry's physics? Didn't think so

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2004-05-18 07:10pm

Shinova wrote:
InnocentBystander wrote: Now then, who wants to put down bets?
A)Pre-orders
B) 1-week sales
C) 1-month sales
D) Steam sales 1-week
E) Steam sales 1-month

Mine:

A) SOLD-OUT
B) SOLD-OUT
C) SOLD-OUT
D) SOLD-OUT
E) SOLD-OUT

Cheap, yeah, so what.

I didn't know they could sell out on preorders

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-05-18 07:12pm

Stark wrote: UT2k4s physics might be a dodge-o patchwork, but at least it ain't all preset :p

Huh?

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2004-05-18 07:25pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:
Stark wrote: UT2k4s physics might be a dodge-o patchwork, but at least it ain't all preset :p
Huh?

Regardless of what valve says, much of the physics work in the videos looks scripted to me. The alternative is an excellent physics system, the likes of which the world has never seen - and I don't need any more reasons to buy HL2

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2004-05-18 07:30pm

What parts "seem" scripted to you?

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2004-05-18 07:36pm

Is there an SDK or an editer out at the moment that will be able to create stuff for the source engine? I wouldn't mind having a go at some modding.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2004-05-18 07:41pm

Not as of yet, though I recall a new clip from planethalflife saying it would be out "soon", as of a couple months ago at least. To my knowledge it is not yet available.

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2004-05-18 07:57pm

Stark wrote:How well is HL2 going to play on a low-end machine?

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2004-05-18 08:08pm

Not really. The Original Half Life was designed specificaly to be scalable from very low end machines on up. And it WAS. You could go from video resolutions of 320X180 to 1600X1024 with various 3D or software modes.

I ran Half Life originaly on a PII 400 with no 3D card and while it hardly looked as preaty as it did when I got my upgrade, it was very playable and still extreemly enjoyable.

Valve have said this is a top priority for them with Half Life II as well. Granted if you have the equipment, you can turn it into the most amazing graphical experence you've ever seen. But they a while back made a promise that if you have a 1Ghz PC with hardware supporting that level, you'll still be able to play it fine, though without a lot of the graphical tricks of the higher end machines.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-05-18 08:11pm

Stark wrote: Regardless of what valve says, much of the physics work in the videos looks scripted to me.

So cite specific examples.

Executor32 · Post by **Executor32** » 2004-05-18 10:54pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:
Stark wrote: Regardless of what valve says, much of the physics work in the videos looks scripted to me.
So cite specific examples.

Yes, please do. I've played the beta, and as far as I could tell the physics were all done on the fly, things were never the same twice.

Mad · Post by **Mad** » 2004-05-18 11:06pm

Stark wrote:Regardless of what valve says, much of the physics work in the videos looks scripted to me. The alternative is an excellent physics system, the likes of which the world has never seen - and I don't need any more reasons to buy HL2

I'm confused as to what makes you think this... After all, the ragdoll demo basically expresses how much is possible without scripting. There's certainly nothing scripted about that new manipulator gun. Dynamic model deformation is nothing new. And then a lot of the restr would most easily be implemented with flags (magnet/affect by magnets, flammable, etc).

So what's left to be scripted in terms of physics? (Arguments about the AI or timing events I could understand... but about the physics, of all things?)

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2004-05-18 11:14pm

Executor32 wrote:Yes, please do. I've played the beta, and as far as I could tell the physics were all done on the fly, things were never the same twice.

You've played the beta?!?

/me turns green

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2004-05-18 11:29pm

Crayz9000 wrote:
Executor32 wrote:Yes, please do. I've played the beta, and as far as I could tell the physics were all done on the fly, things were never the same twice.
You've played the beta?!?

/me turns green

Provided though with the more than half-year of tweaking they've done, the final product can be expected to be far greater than the leaked beta.......me hopes.

So no need to turn that green.

Executor32 · Post by **Executor32** » 2004-05-18 11:49pm

Crayz9000 wrote:
Executor32 wrote:Yes, please do. I've played the beta, and as far as I could tell the physics were all done on the fly, things were never the same twice.
You've played the beta?!?

/me turns green

Is that an envious green, a sickened green, or a little of both?

Playing with the physics test level (the one with the pachinko machine) was fun, though, especially using the "physics gun" to "staple" things together and toss them around the room. I once even stuck as many barrels as I could together, then attached them about half-way up the wall. The resulting "barrel-wang" drooped all the way to the ground.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2004-05-18 11:54pm

Executor32 wrote:Is that an envious green, a sickened green, or a little of both?

A little envious, although since you were playing with an unfinished product it's not that bad. But you still got to play with it

Executor32 wrote:Playing with the physics test level (the one with the pachinko machine) was fun, though, especially using the "physics gun" to "staple" things together and toss them around the room. I once even stuck as many barrels as I could together, then attached them about half-way up the wall. The resulting "barrel-wang" drooped all the way to the ground.

Heh. Now I want to make a mod, whenever the game is released, that allows you to use the physics gun in the game

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-05-19 12:15am

Now I do want the beta... I never wanted it before, because I don't feel that hot about playing a not-finished product... but this physics test level sounds fun.

Companion Cube · Post by **Companion Cube** » 2004-05-19 02:58am

I remember Doug Lombardi (IIRC) saying that it would be possible to make a level made almost entirely out of breakable material, like a wooden ship sitting in a huge indestructible box half full of water. That's one mod i'm waiting for.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2004-05-19 03:02am

3rd Impact wrote:I remember Doug Lombardi (IIRC) saying that it would be possible to make a level made almost entirely out of breakable material, like a wooden ship sitting in a huge indestructible box half full of water. That's one mod i'm waiting for.

Heh

*a group of deathmatches fire their guns at each other, punching giant holes in the ship. All of a sudden, there's a giant groaning sound and the deathmatchers stop.

A collective "Oh shit" goes around, then the ship explodes into hundreds of pieces of wood, sending the poor players into the ocean.......filled with lots of underwater shark-like creatures.*

Comosicus · Post by **Comosicus** » 2004-05-19 05:30am

Shinova wrote:
3rd Impact wrote:I remember Doug Lombardi (IIRC) saying that it would be possible to make a level made almost entirely out of breakable material, like a wooden ship sitting in a huge indestructible box half full of water. That's one mod i'm waiting for.

Heh

*a group of deathmatches fire their guns at each other, punching giant holes in the ship. All of a sudden, there's a giant groaning sound and the deathmatchers stop.

A collective "Oh shit" goes around, then the ship explodes into hundreds of pieces of wood, sending the poor players into the ocean.......filled with lots of underwater shark-like creatures.*

Your imagination is great

. Yeah, ... I'd like to see that too.

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2004-05-19 06:54am

Stark wrote:Regardless of what valve says, much of the physics work in the videos looks scripted to me.

Its a clever combination of scripting and the use of a reasonable physics engine.

The Havok physics engine(effectively the same version) has aready be used in released games(Painkiller, etc).

Its the integration of the physics into the AI/scripting which is the great part from what I can tell. Yes there is scripting, you've got NPCs which interact for one. But the physics engine is an integral part of the scripting.

Its also probably easy to break it too.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2004-05-19 12:25pm

3rd Impact wrote:I remember Doug Lombardi (IIRC) saying that it would be possible to make a level made almost entirely out of breakable material, like a wooden ship sitting in a huge indestructible box half full of water. That's one mod i'm waiting for.

Bwahaha, I'll re-create UT's DM-Galleon. Big old wooden ship sailing on an alien ocean, filled with such niceties as rocket launchers

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2004-05-19 02:58pm

Stark wrote: How well is HL2 going to play on a low-end machine?

IIRC a previous Gamespy article said that it was aimed to run on at least a 700mhz processor.

Executor32 · Post by **Executor32** » 2004-05-20 12:26am

And, just because it reveals a couple of minor details about HL2's multiplayer, here's my email to Gabe Newell from last year and his reply:

1) Yes
2) Shouldn't be different than HL-1
3) Yes
4) We haven't tried to push this yet, so I can't tell you the edge. We've had 15 vehicles running in a map.

-----Original Message-----
From: Executor [mailto:executor32@comcast.net]
Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2003 9:37 PM
To: gaben@valvesoftware.com
Subject: A Few Questions about the Source Engine

Hi Gabe,

I was browsing the Desert Combat forums at BFCentral.com, and in one of the threads people were arguing back and forth about whether the mod should move from the Refractor 2 engine (Battlefield 1942) over to Source. The main draw of Source was the fact that the SDK would be made available some time before Half-Life 2's release, since as far as the public knows DICE has no plans to make an SDK for Refractor 2. Examples used by both sides varied from whether or not it could support 64 players, to how good the performance would be with 32 players, to whether it could render large, open environments like Battlefield's El Alamein smoothly, to whether fully controllable vehicles that could be entered and exited were possible. My questions are derived from these examples, and they follow:

Can Source support 64 (or possibly more) players?
How much lag is present with 32 players?
Can Source render large, open environments smoothly?
Finally, are fully controllable, enterable vehicles possible? If so, how many (both total number and number of different types) could be supported in a map?

Answers to any or all of these questions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time, and I hope to hear from you soon.

-Matt Sweger