Half-Life 2 : All that glitters has a high refractive index

[Jazar]

UPDATE: The FULL Final Hours of Half-Life 2 article @ Gamespot:

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6112889/?q=1&tag=gs_hp_topslot_click

Since Doom 3 is now out and about there's one more PC FPS behemoth that will soon (hopefully) show it's pretty head into the scene. Thought you might enjoy some new media to pass the time. (thanks to gaf)

First d/l this high resolution trailer: http://www.filerush.com/

Now some shots:

http://www.planethalflife.com/features/articles/sigg04/phl_c17_Slide15_hi.jpg

http://www.planethalflife.com/features/articles/sigg04/phl_c17_Slide16_hi.jpg

http://www.planethalflife.com/features/articles/sigg04/phl_c17_Slide17_hi.jpg

http://www.planethalflife.com/features/articles/sigg04/phl_c17_Slide24_hi.jpg

http://www.planethalflife.com/features/articles/sigg04/phl_c17_Slide02_hi.jpg

http://www.planethalflife.com/features/articles/sigg04/phl_c17_Slide13b_hi.jpg

more here: http://www.planethalflife.com/features/articles/sigg04/index8.shtm

Finally there's a Q&A session with the devs which is somewhat intereting

http://www.planethalflife.com/features/articles/hl2qa/


Doom is DOOM3D!1two
look ma, no flashlights!

[Joel]

Xin looks a lot better this time. This must be after the war, when they built the railroads.

[Thrrrpptt!]

It's amazing to contrast these great outdoor shots with the dark, claustrophobic feeling of Doom 3. That's not necessarily a dig on Doom 3; I'm glad these two games have such a different look and (presumably) feel.

[Charles]

IMO, Half Life 2 looks better than Doom 3 because it's far more believable. And I'm just talking about the art and levels taken by themselves. Not the story or the setting.

[Rywill]

What I'm really interested in is how HL2 will run on real-world machines. The amazing thing about Doom 3 (IMO) is not that it looks so good, but that it looks so good on a middle-of-the-road rig. If HL2 could give me screens like these on my computer, I'll be psyched as all hell. If you have to have a 64-bit Athlon and a $500 video card to get that, it doesn't really help me.

[Jason McMaster]

Xin looks a lot better this time. This must be after the war, when they built the railroads.

But they make such bloody good cameras

[Shiroko]

The artwork in HL2 seems to be top notch since the first screenshots. The europian city style is excellent and in some shots almost reaches photo-realistic quality.

Lets hope unlike Doom 3 the graphics won't be the only good point.

-Shiroko

[Wholly Schmidt]

Wait, I lost track, we're back to "Half-Life 2 will be great!" this week?

[Shadari]

Wait, I lost track, we're back to "Half-Life 2 will be great!" this week?
Amazing what a few pics will do. But pics or no, I'm confident HL2 will be a good game.

[Derek Meister]

What I'm really interested in is how HL2 will run on real-world machines.

I don't think it will be as much of a problem as the screenshots might suggest on first look.

Take a look at the portion of one of the screenshots above that I highlighted here:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/dmeister/qt3/halflife2-screenshot-notched-building.jpg

This makes me believe that the majority of the "photo-realistic" detail comes from excellent texture use, and that the numbers of polygons pushed aren't impossibly high.

Sure, you're going to have to turn the details down on slower hardware, but I'd be willing to bet that Valve, much like Id, knows that quality 2d textures can do the work of 3d polygons when properly executed.

[noun]

That's some pretty coloring and lighting all right, but what's up with all the buildings tilting like the Tower of Pisa? The angled windows look especially goofy.

[Derek Meister]

Side effect of setting the FOV to greater than 90 degrees?

[BaconTastesGood]

Sure, you're going to have to turn the details down on slower hardware, but I'd be willing to bet that Valve, much like Id, knows that quality 2d textures can do the work of 3d polygons when properly executed.

Sure, as long as you're willing to have everything look like photographs wallpapered onto flat surfaces.

[Thrrrpptt!]

Wait, I lost track, we're back to "Half-Life 2 will be great!" this week?
Wait, there was a week where we were saying it wasn't?

[Nick Walter]

Wait, I lost track, we're back to "Half-Life 2 will be great!" this week?
Wait, there was a week where we were saying it wasn't?

It doesn't take a prophet to predict a "Fuck Half Life 2" thread on QT3 after the game is released.

[Derek Meister]

Sure, as long as you're willing to have everything look like photographs wallpapered onto flat surfaces.

A good number of the above background objects qualify as that.

My point isn't that Valve is going to make featureless boxes with artwork slapped on them, but that they will know when a bit of artistic trickery in terms of the 2D art in areas where you can get away with it will go a long way in terms of making something look really good, while reducing poly-count.

If you look at the wireframes for a room in Doom 3, you'll find that in many cases there are less polygons than some similar spaces in UT2004 maps, yet look just as good.

[stusser]

It's not just good texture work, it's also multitexturing, bumpmapping, shadowing, and normal mapping that adds a three-dimensional feel to the low-polygon environment. Doom3 does the same thing, just more so since it's inside.

[Jim Preston]

It's funny how just the screenshots from Half-Life 2 are more interesting then the entire 15 hour experience of Doom 3.

[Derek Meister]

Probably because those 15 hours are really just three hours worth of experiences repeated five times over.

[quatoria]

It's funny how just the screenshots from Half-Life 2 are more interesting then the entire 15 hour experience of Doom 3.

It's funny how that's ridiculous hyperbole. Well, not really funny, actually.

[Shiroko]

It's funny how just the screenshots from Half-Life 2 are more interesting then the entire 15 hour experience of Doom 3.

No it's quite sad how much those screenshots are more interesting than Doom 3.

15 hours? I'm convinced I played it for like a week, seemed like a week....

[Jakub]

What I'm really interested in is how HL2 will run on real-world machines. The amazing thing about Doom 3 (IMO) is not that it looks so good, but that it looks so good on a middle-of-the-road rig. If HL2 could give me screens like these on my computer, I'll be psyched as all hell. If you have to have a 64-bit Athlon and a $500 video card to get that, it doesn't really help me.
Doom 3 is mostly CPU-dependent and anything above a Athlon 1GHz can run it decently. A video card helps with high resolutions and FSAA, but in general it's not so great a factor. Most of the detail options are CPU-related. I have a great card for Doom 3 - GeForce FX 5950 Ultra - and can run the game at 1024x768 with 4xAA without noticeable loss of speed compared to 800x600 with no AA. Why is this? Because my anemic 2GHz P4 Willamette processor can just barely manage high quality mode at playable framerates. If I turn detail up higher, I assume the light counts, shadows and whatever else in the game simply crushes the life out of my P4, because no amount of resolution swapping improves performance.

HL2 will require a good CPU (I think 1.6GHz P4 is minimum? Someone correct me on this), but it's more likely to need a good video card to scale properly.

What's a "good" video card for HL2? Almost anything made by ATI in the past 2 years. 9700 series, 9800 series, 9500 Pro, X800 series. I'm not so sure about the 9600 Pro and the 9500 non-Pro. Also, I doubt the SE versions of the 9800 will be all that great.

NVIDIA cards, with the exception of the 6800s, are expected to run like crap and not even with full features. Yes, this includes the aforementioned GeForce FX 5950 Ultra.

[Sean Tudor]

Will Half-Life 2 force us to install Steamshit on our PC's just to play the single player game ?

[stusser]

No.

[tronnc]

Will Half-Life 2 force us to install Steamshit on our PC's just to play the single player game ?

Yes.

But really Steam isn't that bad anymore. Its just gotten a bad rap because when they first released steam, it simply didn't work.

[stusser]

Actually, no. You aren't forced to install steam to play singleplayer.

[Ergo]

Steam works pretty much as advertised, now. I have no problems with it.

[Sanjuro]

So I should infer that wedohave to install Steam for multiplayer? I'd be willing to try; Stardock's TotalGaming is of the same vein and it works fine for me.

[Gary Whitta]

Wait, I have a GeForce FX 5950. Is this really true about HL2 running like crap on it?

[Jakub]

So I should infer that wedohave to install Steam for multiplayer? I'd be willing to try; Stardock's TotalGaming is of the same vein and it works fine for me.
Yes, you do.

In fact, I think it'll probably install itself regardless with HL2, but the difference is that you'll no longer need to be connected for singleplayer (though multiplayer obviously still needs a connection). Originally the plan was that you'd need an active internet connection to play singleplayer.

I think Steam's true test will be the HL2 launch. If it survives that, it can survive anything up to and including a strategic nuclear strike by id-Quaka terrorists on Valve's offices.

[nutsak]

Can we see where this info is confirmed so we don't wind up with "yes it is" "no it isn't" style responces?

[Jakub]

Wait, I have a GeForce FX 5950. Is this really true about HL2 running like crap on it?
Perhaps not "crap" like GeForce 3 "crap", but certainly nothing comparable to a 9800 Pro.

The game supposedly runs 30% slower on a 5950U than 9800 Pro, and also some features would be disabled and/or run at a lower setting. I know Valve went to put more effort into GeForce optimizations before and during the delay, but the extent of the improvements is unclear.

I know AA didn't work in earlier versions of the game, but it may now. I don't understand why it didn't work earlier when it has in every other game so far, but maybe that's an engine/nvidia quirk.

[Gary Whitta]

Hmmm... maybe I'll switch back to ATI. This is my #1 most anticipated game of the year and I don't want to take any chances.

[John Reynolds]

I think there was a fairly recent statement from Valve that reiterated that the X800 boards are the best currently available for HL2.

[Uncle Larry]

More good news re: Steam - they recently doubled the bandwidth to like 8GB/sec.

[Jakub]

Hmmm... maybe I'll switch back to ATI. This is my #1 most anticipated game of the year and I don't want to take any chances.
If you can get a 9700 Pro or 9800 Pro/XT cheap, go for it. Guaranteed to run HL2 very well. If you have more money, an X800 series card is a better choice, but XT or PE models are difficult to find while the Pro is generally being regarded as somewhat of a disappointment relative to NVIDIA's similarly priced 6800 GT in most games.

[ciparis]

The artwork in HL2 seems to be top notch since the first screenshots. The europian city style is excellent and in some shots almost reaches photo-realistic quality.

Lets hope unlike Doom 3 the graphics won't be the only good point.

It wasn't. Sorry you missed the game bit.

[Ibbz]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/graphics-cards-2004_26.html

Benchmarks of HL2. (Next page has Stalker benchmarks.)

[stusser]

The benchmarks are from the leaked alphas of both hl2 and stalker, both around a year old. Xbitlabs is really scummy.

[Kevin Grey]

I know AA didn't work in earlier versions of the game, but it may now. I don't understand why it didn't work earlier when it has in every other game so far, but maybe that's an engine/nvidia quirk.

AA didn't work on Splinter Cell (at least on ATI cards). Enabling would cause the lights in the game to be seen through the walls. Pandora Tomorrow disable AA support althogether IIRC.

[Jakub]

I know AA didn't work in earlier versions of the game, but it may now. I don't understand why it didn't work earlier when it has in every other game so far, but maybe that's an engine/nvidia quirk.
AA didn't work on Splinter Cell (at least on ATI cards). Enabling would cause the lights in the game to be seen through the walls. Pandora Tomorrow disable AA support althogether IIRC.
Wow really? I've never heard of ATI cards having AA problems.

I know games can choose to disable AA, like Deus Ex 2, but I never imagined ATI would be unable to produce proper AA with its later Radeons.

[Kevin Grey]

I know games can choose to disable AA, like Deus Ex 2, but I never imagined ATI would be unable to produce proper AA with its later Radeons.

A quick check of Ubi's tech support states that the problem isn't limited to ATI- Nvidia cards evidently have this issue too (or at least "certain" cards according to the FAQ). It sounds more like something unique to SC's lighting engine vice a problem with the video cards.

[John Reynolds]

I know AA didn't work in earlier versions of the game, but it may now. I don't understand why it didn't work earlier when it has in every other game so far, but maybe that's an engine/nvidia quirk.
AA didn't work on Splinter Cell (at least on ATI cards). Enabling would cause the lights in the game to be seen through the walls. Pandora Tomorrow disable AA support althogether IIRC.
Wow really? I've never heard of ATI cards having AA problems.

I know games can choose to disable AA, like Deus Ex 2, but I never imagined ATI would be unable to produce proper AA with its later Radeons.

Anti-aliasing (at least multi-sampling) doesn't work in the Splinter Cell games regardless of the IHV.

Edit: D'oh, Kevin beat me to it.

[Jazar]

Check out the high res Tenements video. It shows some great atmosphere.

http://www.filerush.com/download.php?target=03_HL2-Tenements.exe

Damn Valve when are you going to announce a release date and give some info on the deluxe edition?

[Jazar]

http://img31.exs.cx/img31/3428/Image526.jpg

[Jazar]

Thanks to DSN2k on GAF, here are some quotes from the Edge review:

"Yes, it's a linear shooter: a magnificent, breathtaking paragon of the form. Half-Life 2 takes squad based elements, the vehicles, the physics, the gorgeous good looks, the whole sedimentary block of genre conceits and carves out a masterpiece. This isn'tabout doing things differently to anyone else, it's about doing them better."

"Half-Life 2 never lets up: it's a high bandwidth cascade of challenges. There is no time for repetition or monotony. The sheer urgency with which the player is propelled through the game sees to that. Few games have such a qualified sense of drama. Half-Life 2 tells a story in which you are swept along without feeling helpless."

" The intensity of chase scenes, the gut-wrenching loss of friends, the grim brutality of killing - all these experiences are delivered with astomishing vitality. The characters win hearts and raise suspicions. The acting, their movement, their facial expressions, all seem imbued with humanity. The city itself, awe-inspiring, oppressive and terrifying in equal measure, is flawlessly designed. You are embedded in this world."

"Half-Life 2 is a first person shooter. But in action, storytelling, technical achievement, atmosphere and intensity it has far outdone its peers. Valve just hit the top note no other pc game developer could reach."

"10/10"

[Kevin Grey]

Thanks to DSN2k on GAF, here are some quotes from the Edge review:

"Yes, it's a linear shooter: a magnificent, breathtaking paragon of the form. Half-Life 2 takes squad based elements, the vehicles, the physics, the gorgeous good looks, the whole sedimentary block of genre conceits and carves out a masterpiece. This isn'tabout doing things differently to anyone else, it's about doing them better."

"Half-Life 2 never lets up: it's a high bandwidth cascade of challenges. There is no time for repetition or monotony. The sheer urgency with which the player is propelled through the game sees to that. Few games have such a qualified sense of drama. Half-Life 2 tells a story in which you are swept along without feeling helpless."

" The intensity of chase scenes, the gut-wrenching loss of friends, the grim brutality of killing - all these experiences are delivered with astomishing vitality. The characters win hearts and raise suspicions. The acting, their movement, their facial expressions, all seem imbued with humanity. The city itself, awe-inspiring, oppressive and terrifying in equal measure, is flawlessly designed. You are embedded in this world."

"Half-Life 2 is a first person shooter. But in action, storytelling, technical achievement, atmosphere and intensity it has far outdone its peers. Valve just hit the top note no other pc game developer could reach."

"10/10"

That's pretty impressive coming from Edge. They rarely give out 10s and are probably better about using the full review scale than almost any site or mag out there. Best gaming magazine out now too IMO.

[Erik]

the grim brutality of killing

Not sure about that part. One of the canned phrases that friendlies occasionally say after a firefight is, "That was brutal." Maybe that's what he's talking about.

[Wobbo]

Thanks to DSN2k on GAF, here are some quotes from the Edge review:

"Yes, it's a linear shooter: a magnificent, breathtaking paragon of the form. Half-Life 2 takes squad based elements, the vehicles, the physics, the gorgeous good looks, the whole sedimentary block of genre conceits and carves out a masterpiece. This isn'tabout doing things differently to anyone else, it's about doing them better."

"Half-Life 2 never lets up: it's a high bandwidth cascade of challenges. There is no time for repetition or monotony. The sheer urgency with which the player is propelled through the game sees to that. Few games have such a qualified sense of drama. Half-Life 2 tells a story in which you are swept along without feeling helpless."

"10/10"
Shit. Were doomed

[BobJustBob]

I'm suddenly worried. That sounds a lot like reviews of the Call of Duty or Medal of Honor "games".

[asspennies]

You're the guy who obsessively loved Black and White of all games, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're fine.

[Tim Partlett]

From these quotes, translated from German magazine PC Games, it sounds like it will be more like Call of Duty kind of scripted entertainment.

“First hour is really cool, we skip from one scripted event to the next, better than whole Doom 3”

“Scripted events leave no time to take a breath, I love it”

[Kevin Grey]

From these quotes, translated from German magazine PC Games, it sounds like it will be more like Call of Duty kind of scripted entertainment.

“First hour is really cool, we skip from one scripted event to the next, better than whole Doom 3”

“Scripted events leave no time to take a breath, I love it”

The same could be said about the original Half Life which arguably started the whole scripted craze that CoD and MoH jumped on.

[mono]

You most definitely will need Steam and a Steam account to play Single Player HL2 or LAN HL2 on your PC. Even if you buy the retail Box. Only goes online during install, but I'm sure you cannot uninstall Steam and still have HL2 work, even after authentication.


Q. Will the boxed versions of HL2 require any sort of Steam installations?

Doug Lombardi: During installation the user will be prompted to authenticate the copy and create a Steam account. After that is complete, the single-player and LAN games do not require an Internet connection.

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/half-life-2/558931p1.html?fromint=1

[BobJustBob]

You're the guy who obsessively loved Black and White of all games, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're fine.

I did not "obsessively" love Black and White. I did love it, however. It was a great but flawed game. And many of the flaws took the form of oppressive scripting, so I think I still have much to worry about.

[Jazar]

UPDATE: The Final Hours of Half-Life 2 teaser article @ Gamespot:

http://www.gamespot.com/features/finalhoursofhl2teaser/index.html

Full article tomorrow.

[DennyA]

I sure hope you can install it on more than one PC as long as you don't try to play it on multiple machines simultaneously. I want to install it on my HTPC so I can try it on the HDTV, but most of my play will be on my office rig.

[nutsak]

Won't it work by binding the licence to use with your Steam account? So you could just log in somewhere else and play...

[Pishtaco]

I got the impression that you could log in to steam on any computer, and start playing.

But suppose you already had the game on another computer, which you kept in offline mode. What's to stop someone still playing on that one as well? Will they make you log off steam on your old computer, before you can log in on the new one?

[Alex Handy]

This makes me believe that the majority of the "photo-realistic" detail comes from excellent texture use, and that the numbers of polygons pushed aren't impossibly high.

Sure, you're going to have to turn the details down on slower hardware, but I'd be willing to bet that Valve, much like Id, knows that quality 2d textures can do the work of 3d polygons when properly executed.

Normal Mapping. It's a wonderful thing.

[Jazar]

Multiple copies of HL2 can be played while in offline mode IIRC.

[Jazar]

FULL article for the Final Hours of Half-Life 2 here:

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6112889/?q=1&tag=gs_hp_topslot_click

[nutsak]

Wow, that was a pretty bloody good article. It's actually made me more excited for the 16th.

3 more days. Just 3 more days.

[Moore]

That is a pretty good article. I'm impressed. Their GTA:SA guide isn't too shabby either. All the orange drives me nuts, but I read that articvle straight through, at work, while busy. I don't want to say "I couldn't put it down!!" but, I guess I actually couldn't, heh.

Tempted to uncancel complete before it runs out and the ads make me hate the site again.

[stusser]

Geoff basically kicks ass... good stuff.

[Jazar]

hah I love this quote

In retrospect I probably should have just said, 'When it's done.'

[Quaro]

I must admit I feel just a little bit bad for the hacker. Here he is willing to give up his evildooer ways. A job at valve! Life on the straight and narrow! Mom and Dad are beaming, and they're coming with me to America! And then Gabe devours his soul. And brags about it on the net.

[Matthew Gallant]

Turnabout is fair play.

[nutsak]

He deserved everything he got. I loved that bit. How ever it will make people think twice next time a company wants to hire someone with the same set of skills.

[Jazar]

Turnabout is fair play.

I prefer the phrase, 'payback's a bitch'.

[Gendal]

I felt bad for him (the hacker) too. I just don't like taking advantage of people even when they really deserve it. Then again he didn't personally fuck me over.

Great article though. I pretty much guessed everything that was in it minus the hacker resolution, I figured he would have been smarter than that.

[steve]

"Today is March 21, 2003--the start of the second war in Iraq, which is a fitting parallel to the battle Newell is about to start with the announcement of Half-Life 2 and its release date. "

Um, yeah.

"It's September 30, 2004, and Gabe Newell is looking to the heavens. "OK, what now?" he asks the gods above, wondering aloud how the forces of nature will next conspire against Valve."

Yikes.

"Half-Life 2 was the buzz of the show. In the weeks following its debut, the Game Critics Awards: Best of E3 2003 awarded it the highly coveted Best of Show award. "

Is it bad form not to mention that this "highly coveted" award is given by the writer of this piece?

[mutt]

That was a good article and a good read, but Gabe Newell comes off looking like a bit of a dope if you ask me--nothing like the visionary auteur he's generally been portrayed as to us outside the industry (not that that's his fault). In re the whole September 30 thing, he comes across as a deer caught in the headlights who decided to stand there and get hit instead of act.

Anyway, I'm sure he's a nice guy and I don't mean to slam him. I just thought the difference between his usually adulatory press clippings and the reality was striking. (I'm not a Halflife nut, so I've never followed any of this stuff in detail while it was happening.)