Info received from Valve ONLY - NO questions/discussion

Q: Will there be dual weapons? Like 2 pistols?

A: no

Q: Will there be bullet penetration like in counterstrike?

A: Yes
 
Erik Johnson says:
It will be similar and somewhat familiar, but there will be some changes from things we've learned.

The VGUI system in place with Steam and Counter-Strike 1.6 will be used for Half-Life 2.

Me: Can NPCs and/or multiple players travel in the same vehicle?

Erik Johnson says:
Not sure about that.
 
We use DX9.

-----Original Message-----
From: -me-
Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2003 4:58 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Half-Life2: OpenGL or Direct3D?


Hi Gabe (I hope I may call you so),

I just have a very simple question regarding Half-Life2:
Does the Source-engine use OpenGL or Direct3D for rendering?
I case of Direct3D: why did you switch from OpenGL (used in HL)?

thanks in advance and best regards
 
My Question:
-----Original Message-----
From: Aric Morelez [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 9:36 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: A Question about Half-Life 2, yea thats the game :0


Y helo thar Gabe,

With much anticipation for Half-Life 2, do you like green eggs and ham?
Also, during the E3 demo, we heard humourous comments, we will be seeing
more comedic sequences as well in-game?




Much Thanks,


Erik "meowza" Morales

Gabe's Answer:
Not in a box, not with a fox.

The humor in HL-2 is fairly dark.
 
Gabe:

Dell XPS, 2.8 GHz P-IV, ATI Radeon 9800 128 MB RAM. Anti-aliasing off, anisotropic filtering off. 60 FPS.

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2003 1:09 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject:


Hi Gabe,
A lot of people seem to be arguing over what system the game was run on at E3. To end all the confusion, could you please tell me the systems specs? Also, if you had FSAA or AF on, what detail setting, and the fps you were getting. Thanks for clearing this up, and great work on HL2.
 
Ok, first I set this e-mail to Gabe, put he told me to send it to Marc Laidlaw. I e-mailed Gabe back asking him to forward it since there isn't an e-mail address for Marc on valvesoftware.com.


-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 3:17 PM
To: 'David Frazer'
Cc: Marc Laidlaw
Subject: RE: HL2 Video/HL2 Forums


You should check with Marc.

-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 1:53 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: HL2 Video/HL2 Forums


Hi Gabe,



First, I'd like to say how truly incredible you and your team at Valve are. Instead of following the status quo and just pushing the envelope on graphics technology, expecting that to sell a game (hint, ID Software), you actually put thought into the games you make. Half-Life was such an incredible game, that it single-handedly dropped my GPA in high school from a 3.5 to a 2.2. All I could think about all day was Half-Life and after school I'd completely ignore my homework to play Half-Life for 8 hours straight. The effort you and your team put into your games is astounding. Whenever I would describe Half-Life to someone, I'd always end it with how ID Software told you to make a B title, just to get your name out there, and you produced a AAA title and to imagine what (you'd) do if you tried to make a AAA title. I think Half-Life 2 will perfectly illustrate my point. You and your team are gaming gods!



Now for my question. =) Many people on the Half-Life 2 forum how studied the HL2 movie in great detail, specifically the images and colored text that flew past at the end of the movie. I read the e-mail that you responded to saying that it was put there for a reason, so obviously you knew that the fans are so interested in the title, that they'd dissect every piece of information given. Several theories have been formulated around the text that we have managed to clear up, some of which seem to make some sense (i.e., the "combine" being a combination of human's and aliens). I'm not going to ask if this is correct, because I know you can't answer that question. What I'm wondering is if we, the fans, are reading to much into this, or was the half-life story in reality created to be so complex, that we can analyze every piece of information and still not have the whole story. And one last thing, if you could maybe release the original text that flew past in the movie, the text that speaks of Freeman's "muscular catatonia" and such it would settle some of the argument. Currently there are a few words we can't agree on.



Thank you for all your hard work.

Marc's reply:

Dear David,
Thanks for your nice comments. I always figure that our fans will look very closely at whatever we release, especially in the absence of outright mundane explanations (which I'm opposed in principle to giving); so yes, whenever possible, we try to make all the little details meaningful instead of just random. I'm afraid I can't release any further information prematurely, but I suspect the textures you're studying will be easier to see in the near future. Also, I'm not sure the "full" text is very helpful...some of the words and sentences are lopped off at one end or the other. In the long run, as well, I believe all the in-game textures will be available to mod makers.

I wonder if you or anyone on the forum can identify the equations that fly past. (There are clues in the set of demo movies.)

Yours,
Marc Laidlaw
 
Q: As much experience i have with games, and how much i play them and for what i felt for HL....do you believe from YOU creating HL2 as if you were a gamer that has only seen alittle of it and then remembering how you felt for HL1, what would your feelings be towards HL2 when you start playing it?

A: Alot of people actually dont really know how good this game is going to be, for your question it would be for what anyone felt while playing the original hl X 10. It's a whole new way of gaming and its new, so of course everyone will have feelings for it. Like i said though im really curious to how you or other people will react towards the characters ingame.
 
Q: Hi, sorry to disturb, but I hold a plea from most frusterated HLers.
In HL2 will there be some sort of optional server-side compression system
which will make server-client map downloads smaller and faster?
It's currently frusterating to have to download a 5mb BSP file at 5kb/sec
because the map in question is nowhere to be found on the net. Whats more is
that these maps can be taken down in size considerably just by using a
simple zip or rar compression method... Will HL2 support this? I think it
would be a much better way to get HL2 maps rather than exiting, googling
<mapname>.zip, installing, getting back on the server, etc.

A: Steam completely replaces this with a more efficient map propagation
approach.
 
The green splat is placeholder art.

-----Original Message-----
From: Saul
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 8:22 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: A HL2 Question.


Sorry to bug you-- I know a million other people are. I just had a question
about the e3 movie that I haven't seen answered anywhere yet:

When Gordon hits the zombie on the pier with the crowbar, there is a little
"green goo" effect to show he's been hit. Will this effect be in the final
game, and if so, will it be togglable? My feeling is that the blood effects
and the physical reaction of the zombie (or whatever else) is enough for the
player to know they've caused him damage, and the little green swirl only
takes away from the reality of the scene. Thoughts?


Thanks in advance. Really looking forward to the game.

Saul
 
We'll use the Steam distributed file system approach, so you can set the hard drive cache to whatever you want.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jake Boniface [[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, July 06, 2003 10:15 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Hard-drive requirements


Hey Gabe,
I wanted to ask ya a question that I know doesn't matter for a lot of people, but it does for me (perhaps a few others too). You've mentioned all the other basic requirements in many of your other responses interviews etc. But I was wondering a ballpark range on how much space this will take on a hard-drive? Reason I ask is because I'm on a 800 mhz, GeForce4MX440, 384 MB RAM, but I have a 9.5 Gig harddrive (Win XP takes up most of it). Many older games allowed different installation options, running from CD, etc. But not many dev's now days take into account that some people dont have 300 GIG harddrives. I have a 52x Cd drive so if I could run it even in part from CD it would probably help me... or at least i'm hoping it doesnt force me to take off original Half-Life, =(...

any response would be appreciated, thanks in advance
 
Soem perosn e-mailed me aksign to post this in this thread....


-----Original Message-----
From: Maurizio Pianta [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 11:53 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: International Version


Hi Gabe
I am italian and here we are questioning about a localized version of HL2 dubbed with italian voice , can you tell us if there will be ? and if yes , it will be published on the same time frame of the usa version ?

thx a lot

Maurizio


----- Original Message -----
From: Gabe Newell
To: 'Maurizio Pianta'
Cc: Doug Lombardi
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 9:01 PM
Subject: RE: International Version


Yes, and yes.
 
-----Original Message-----
From: df fsd [mailto:***@hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 3:22 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Question about hl3


Hi,

Are you making Half-life 3 atm?



No. We're kinda busy on Half-Life 2.
 
Gabe it too cool

Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 5:51 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Obligatory HL2 question #958334 :)


I know you get literally tons of these, but on the off chance
that you bless this e-mail with a reply, I do have a few
questions. :)

1: Lets say someone blows up a box with a grenade. It will
obviuosly splinter into smaller pieces. Will the pieces
stick around and be interactive, or will they simply
evaporate?

2: Is it possible to set up a teeter-totter type of device
where the player jumps on one side of a board, and doing this
makes something on the other end of the board fly up in the
air?

3: Not really a question, but a suggestion. Please dont
restrict the inventory. I want to be able to hold all my
guns and switch through them at will. :)



1) It's up to the level designer (it's an optional behavior).

2) Yes. The player is physically simulated.

3) That's my preference.
 
Q: -----Original Message-----
From: BZ [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 8:44 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Questions about physics...


If something collapses under you, like, if you stand on some rotted old decrepit table, and it breaks under your feet, will you magically land on your feet when you fall, or will you fall on your ass and have to take a moment to get back up? Will standing on barrels for an extra boost be ruled out because they'll wobble and fall down when you stand on them? And, of course, I'll have to ask if the water effects are DX9, ultra-next-gen (FX, Radeon 9800) card-only? Because FOR THE LOVE OF GOD those water effects are the pride and joy of this game (next to the physics engine) and the artists/coders deserve serious accolade for achieving it.

...at first I wan't going to mail you, because I was almost certain it wouldn't be answered, but the many replies on the forums of people e-mailing you and getting responses gave me hope :)

Thanks,

-BZ

A: Gabe: You land on your feet. We tried other effects and we decided they were silly. We're still looking at what happens when you are blown off your feet.

You can stand on barrels and do the circus trick of walking backwards to move it forwards or whatever else makes physical sense. The player is physically simulated. Water effects actually scale back reasonably well.
 
hello Gabe i was wondering i have steam 2.0 and when HL 2 comes out on september 30 will i be able to buy it on steam?

Gabe says: Yes.
 
i was on irc yesterday and ErikJ was there
i don't remember how i worded this but i asked if hl2 will have a maximun fps ammount like hl1

and he said no
 
Is a linux dedicated server gonna be released w/ hl2, gonna be released
after release, or not avail at all?
also, any word on a linux client?

Yes, there will be a Linux dedicated server and a 64-bit server.

We aren't planning on a Linux client.
 
-----Original Message-----
From: ****** ****** [mailto:*******@doin.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2003 2:47 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: HL2 and Violence


hi Gabe,
Quick Question.

Is Half-life 2 going to have content lock like half-life1 and Counter-Strike to disable visuals inappropriate for younger players?
---
Yes. In addition to personal and parental reasons for controlling this, there are also countries that have legal requirements for this.
 
Some of us were tossing around some ideas about maps ideas and I wanted to make a Rube Goldberg map, where the player would start a simple reaction, like rolling a barrel or something, which would set off a chain reaction into a whole bunch of stuff (check out this link for a very cool short vid of a car commercial that did it http://home.comcast.net/~bernhard36/honda-ad.html) Someone brought up the possibility that if your physics engine wasn't deterministic, it would use random numbers in some instances, essentually making this idea hard to pull off (if the ball is catapulted at a different angle everytime even if the scenraio is the exact same, it would be much harder). So I guess my question is: is your engine determinisic and would a Rube Goldberg-type chain reaction thing be possible? Here's the link to the forum we are discussing in if you are interested http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1873&perpage=15&pagenumber=1 Thanks for your time!

The physics engine is fairly deterministic - and can be made (with code) to be nearly 100% deterministic. There is one random number used to distribute the cost of an expensive periodic check. But that generator can be seeded if necessary.

So given exactly the same initial conditions the results should be 100% the same.

The other issue is timing. By "exactly the same initial conditions" I'm including the clock. If you start the sequence at a different time or create/delete objects at slightly different times during a sequence, then the results will be a little different. You may have to write code in a mod to guarantee this level of synchronization, but it can definitely be done. It may not be necessary depending on the system of objects & constraints you're simulating. The interaction of AI controlled entities (i.e. game logic, not forward dynamics) with such a system is not guaranteed to be deterministic because the timing of the interactions between AI and physics varies continuously based on the framerate of the server running the simulation. A mod author writing code could synchronize these effects as well, but it would be non-trivial.

Jay
 
Worldwide Release?

Question:

Hi Gaben,

Hope you don't mind me emailing you but I have been trying to find out if when Half-Life2 is released if it is going to be a simultaneous worldwide launch or staged (US first then Europe etc)? Being from the UK I really hope it's worldwide...would hate having to wait longer for such an awesome game J

Cheers

Reply:

That's certainly the plan. We have less control over Sierra's box manufacturing, but they are planning on it. Half-Life 2 via Steam will definitely be worldwide simultaneous.
 
I have this picture from e3 someone took of all the boxes on display and
one of them is silver with just the HL2 logo on it, i believe when
someone questioned Eric Johnson asking if the silver one was a Special
Edition, he said yes. Can you tell me if it is a special edition(
limited edition, what do you call it anyway?) and if you are going to
release it the same time as the game? And possibly what might be
included in the box (i have to try!)?

Yes, there will be a limited edition. It should be out at the same time as
the game. We are still working with people to finalize what will go into it
(we want it to be cool).
 
I got a reply from somebody called Julie Caldwell. Cool :)

-------------

Will it be released through Steam at the same time as it appears in retail stores or will Steam users get it quicker? If so, will Steam users be provided some sort of a coupon so that they could purchase a physical copy at a discount?

Thanks for writing to us. HL2 will be released at retail and via Steam at the same time.

Best Regards,
Julie Caldwell
Valve
 
Q: -----Original Message-----
From: BZ
To: Gabe Newell
Sent: 7/9/2003 6:28 PM
Subject: any chance of being released ahead of schedule?

Say, if you finish the game before September 30th, would you continue to
add more features, or would you call it good, make the gold copy, send
it to be produced?

-BZ

A: Gabe: We'd keep testing it. You don't really add features at the end.
 
-----Original Message-----
From: C de Jong [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2003 5:08 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: HL2 Question


Hello Mr. Newell,

In HL2 Will you be able to scale the weight limit on the manipulator, so that you can lift cars and such? And will it be possible to make parts of buildings be manipulated with the right proporties ( and the adjusted weight limit ofcourse)

Thank you in advance,

Kind Regards,
Joost

Joost,

We set these kinds of constraints for gameplay reasons. There are console settings where you could change them or it would be a trivial MOD. It would be more interesting to build levels around the altered physics (e.g. a superhero MOD).

PS: i guess it's from gabe, but no -Gabe beneath the message.
 
-----Original Message-----
From: brettt [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, July 06, 2003 12:43 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Half Life 2 question

Greetings Sir Gabe Newell,
Like almost everyone around the states and probally the world, we all have
questions about Half Life 2.
My question is pretty short and easy so, it should not give away any major
story parts and what not.
Question: Will there be a secondary fire buttom on the new pistol that does
rapid fire like the old pistol in Half Life 2?

There it is..
Good luck on Half Life 2 and thank you for bringing me the world's greatest
game,

brettt

Answer: We're still messing around with with ways to make hit-scan weapons (e.g.
pistols and rifles) more fun, which includes looking at alt-fire modes.
 
It's up to the designer. They can be created as a single contiguous model for physics, or created as a group of models and attached together with various breakable constraints. Or you could swap out a single model for multiple parts on breaking, which is more like what we did in HL1. The break points are where the constraints are, so unless you have additional constraints up and down the leg, the best you'll probably get is the entire leg breaking off and the table tilting over/falling, etc as expected.

Yahn

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 12:45 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Here's a new question for you!


In the tech-demo movie, we all saw those wooden planks that were shot to pieces, and the structure fell very realistic.
I wonder if all, or maybe just some of the wooden objects in the game, like for example tables and chairs and so on, are build up of individual wooden planks, or are they completely solid objects?
That is, could you for example shoot two legs off at any position from a table, making it slant/tilt a little or very much depending on how much you cut those legs, or maybe shoot a bit off from all legs on a chair and thereby lower it.......OR do they react as in other games, that is they break apart as a solid object? Or is it somewhat inbetween, that you can cut off a leg, but only at one specific position?



I guess this means real-time physics really don't exist in source. :( Looks like you can't shoot it anywhere and it will splinter anywhere.:( Major let down #1.
 
See below.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Jones
To: [email protected]
Sent: 7/10/2003 1:16 PM
Subject: Just a few little questions. I know you get alot so i will make it
quick :)

Just a few simple questions for you.

1. Is it possible to make bigger maps in mods by simply shrinking the size
of the player and world models or does this affect the physics. This is just
to clear a few things up with the community. I suspect its not
possible. And to be honest it doesent mater they are huge enough as it is.
:) Neway i said this would be quick

It should be possible to do what you're asking, but you'd have to adjust the
physics for everything accordingly. This would be more applicable to a mod
like Half-Life Rally (which uses this shrinking concept in the Half-life 1
engine).

2. When the player looks down, will he see his own feet/legs or nothing at
all. Out of interest from a moders point of view.

No, but again, this is a design decision, not a technical limitation.

3.The buildings in the E3 Demo. Are they all made so that you can enter them all? or Just some.

Only some of them are enterable, as was made necessary by the flow of the
demo.

4. Can i confirm with someone official that the Direct feed E3 videos are now going to be released simply as soon as they are ready. :)

Yes, the movies will be released on Steam as soon as we are ready.

5. Will there be a partical effect tool and tools for applying techniques such as bump and specular mapping included in the SDK.

The composition of the SDK has not been fully decided yet, but we plan on releasing tools and resources for all areas of modding.

6. Can a camelion type effect be used in the source. Useing one of the new texture mapping technics or other. Just a question from a friend of mine who wants to start an interesting mod :)

You could make a character comprised of glass, or some other effect that would allow the background to show through. I'm not sure if you could make a character dynamically take on the texture of its surroundings.

Jay Stelly (cc'd) may be able to provide more information.

For more information on Half-Life 2 modding, check out the Half-Life 2 / Source Mod FAQ:

http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?go=source_mod_faq

Chris.
 
From: Graham Hunt [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 8:04 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Some Questions About HL2


I know you get tons upon tons of these. I'm just curious though. BUT before I ask I just need to say that Half Life 2 looks like the best game I see in development. There are just so many technological innovations it just blows everything else out of the water, INCLUDING DOOM 3. This isn't to say that I won't play Doom 3, because as SOMEONE from your fine team put it...we are all game players and good games make us want to play more and more good games. But from what I've seen Half Life 2 is the best by far.



Alright on with the questions!!



1. I noticed in the E3 video that the spark effects were coming through the cars. Will this be fixed in the final version and if not is there some way to?


Yes, the sorting bug will be fixed

2. Say you jumped on a barrel or it got hit hard with something or it fell a long distance as in the E3 video, would the barrel deform and bend under the pressure or remain as is? If not in the final version could I make the barrel do this without much effort?

No, you would need to have special logic for that, our physics simulation is based on rigid bodies. You could always swap it out with a bend/crushed version.

3. I know that Half Life 2 will mostly be in an urban setting but in the E3 video I also saw a bit of foliage. Will there be other foliage besides this such as bushes and different kinds of trees? Some things I want to know about this. Will it look good, in your opinion? And will these bits of foliage sway with the wind or if one of those huge alien flying machines come around?

Yes there'll be foliage, not sure on the final specs on this though wrt blowing in the wind, etc. It'll probably do something appropriate.

Will the player take damage if in an open vehicle? Will vehicles take damage from certain weapons?


Yes & yes, unless we change our minds.

I know you probably can't disclose this but I'll ask anyways. Will HL2 multiplayer have vehicles?

Can't say :)
 
probably nothing new...


Fifty7var says:
is it [steam] a distributed p2p client, or are all downloads coming from the 12 content servers?

johnc says:
it's all coming from the content servers, we don't use your upstream bandwidth

Fifty7var says:
i was just curious, it would seem like a good idea

johnc says:
that feature will be added at some point

Fifty7var says:
cool, thanks a lot


-Adam
 
Hey.
I have a P3 733Mhz, 384MB RAM, GeForce 2 MX 64MB and about 2 gigs of free HD space.
Think I can run HL2 decently? Could I get away with just buying a new video card to run it well or should I go the extra mile and get a new(er) PC all together. Finally, what are your personal recommendations for the minnum amount of juice to run Half-Life 2 well?
Thanks.


We haven't decided on the minimum spec yet, so I can't give you an answer. Personally, I think you'll want more juice if you can afford it.

Yahn
 
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 8:22 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: YAY! Another couple of HL2 questions. ;)

Will the SDK include a number of generic skeletons (including the facial musculature system), or will mod developers have to create that on a per model basis. I bring this up because in an interview it was mentioned that random citizens wouldn't have the same level of facial animation as main characters. If it's per model, how will this work in conjunction with the facial anamation system?

Chris Bokitch: This isn't my area - Bill can provide some information on this.

Bill Van Buren: We will release some sample content and some generic skeletons and animations (in XSI format). The facial animation system is based on keyshapes (morph targets or vertex animations) so they tend to be unique to each model. Random citizens will have the same capacity for facial animation (the same 35 keyshapes) but we don’t intend to invest as much authoring time for their facial animations as on our ‘star’ characters.

In the Source tech demo section of the E3 movie, the output from a camera was displayed on a screen wall. Is it possible to run a pre-recorded animation on a screen (such as an .avi), or in terms of, say... a television broadcast, would it be simpler to have a camera set up displaying a scripted sequence in another unaccessable area of the map?

Chris Bokitch: No to the AVI, yes to showing a scripted sequence in progress. You can also do things like "attach" a camera to an NPC and see it's view while it walks around. I expect people will be doing creative things. :)

Do single player Half-Life 2 maps have loading points where the game halts momentarily in order to load the next section of map or does the next section load on the fly in a similar fashion to Grand Theft Auto or Mafia?

Chris Bokitch: It is similar to Half-Life 1, where there is a brief pause. We are working to make sure there is very little disruption.
 
(whoa, he replied in 2 minutes!)

Could you (if you are allowed) tell if physics work realisticly underwater? Stuff floats around slowly? Muffled sounds? Bullets leaving bubble-trails?

Physical objects have buoyancy to they float/sink/etc. appropriately
The sounds system has a global DSP for muffling sound under water and in other circumstances
Last time I checked we do a bubble effect for shots under water... then again, we did this in HL1.
Yahn
 
With manipulator, can you pick living creatures (say headcrabs) up in the air and smash them against walls or their friends? They take damage from this? Can they somehow "resist"?

Yes, it's possible, but I'm not sure if we'll ship that though. A mod could do it for sure.
yahn
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Sean Bryan [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2003 5:34 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Questions from one game designer to another :D


Hello Mr. Newell

(1)Is there going to be a 64bit client for half-life 2?
[Gabe Newell]

yes



(2)Is the HL2 engine capable of rendering large battle scenes of say 2000 characters something like lord of the rings except with guns and tacks and not as grand a scale for interactive story purposes

no



(3)I have heard that the crow bar is simulated as a bar swinging through space. Does this mean that we could have mealy weapon fights were you could block

Your opponents weapon with your own or bat objects out of the air.
[Gabe Newell]

yes



(4) Is the hl2 single player lip sync technology utilized in multiplayer communications in hl2

Simply put does the in game models mouth lip sync with yours when you speak
[Gabe Newell]

Yes. We use a cheaper algorithm in multiplayer.



(5) If i was making a mod would it be possible for my lead character to have the ability to speak not just pre determined lines but seamlessly from a scroll weal of more intelligent phrases so he can engage in expressive communications in the game world and choose how the relationships evolve with the game characters around him

: Examples have a conversation with a fellow soldier about his family and then go into battle with him if he is injured you will fight for his life to save it. Lame Example
[Gabe Newell]

You'd need speech synthesis, not just th emeotional component and phoneme generation. If you are comfortable with current speech synthesis quality, then you'd be fine. You'd have to generate the sentences yourself.



(6)Will you be able to create flash inter faces similar to what doom 3 is doing with in game interfaces
[Gabe Newell]

We use VGUI-2, which lets you build components that work in Windows, in the UI plane, or in the 3D world.
 
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2003 5:30 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Questions (yes another)


Hey Gabe,

I know you're sick of reading these so I'll get right to it.

1.)Will we be able to flip over vehicles, and if so, will the player take "damage" if he gets into a real big accident. (say he flies off a cliff)
[Gabe Newell]
yes, yes :)eek::eek:)

2.)Will ragdoll physics be incorporated into multiplayer as well as SP?
[Gabe Newell]
"ragdoll" physics is a term used to describe physics being used to animate dead bodies. It is physics reduced to a simple presentation of one client behavior, and is usually implemented client-side (i.e. it can't affect multiplayer or game state.

In Source, the whole point is to incorporate the physics into the game. Physics works in single player and multiplayer.

3.)How will you handle the huge amount of downloads via Steam on release day?
[Gabe Newell]
Hopefully by having a lot of capacity.

Thanks again, HL2 looks great!
:eek: :eek: :eek:
 
Chat from Steam 1:50PM EST (About Bullets)

Plopfish says:
are bullets actuall objects in the game with mass and velocity or are they like in HL1 (and most games) where they can travel across the map instantly? Thx, keep up the great work guys.

more exactly , will there be travel time of a bullet, and thus have to lead long range shots?

Greg Coomer says:
i think it's some of each. i'll check with someone who's more involoved with the physics code.

Plopfish says:
wow thx a lot! this is a current discussion over at the hl2.net forums and im looking to reslolve it ;-) thankyou again

Greg Coomer says:
For the most part, individual bullets are not physically simulated - at least, they don't use the physics system in the same way that barrels etc. do. They travel instantly. There will be exceptions, but I can't get more specific about this now. Hope this helps.

Plopfish says:
This helps a lot. THanks for taking the time out of your busy day to find this out for us. THanks again, have a great one!
 
First one:

<Killerlagger> ErikJ : info question : how big is the media file in question?

<ErikJ> It's about 70MB.

<ErikJ> That's just the first one.

<ErikJ> We broke the movies up the corespond to the different parts of the demo.
 
Chat with John Cook:

JohnC: TF2 will be a standalone game

I was going to ask him something else but...

JohnC: You can stop now, I have to work

:cheers: He's a busy man, natch.
 
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