Firearms: Source Update

[Evo]

There is a very big update from the Firearms: Source team which is primarily showing off ps_forest which is a new map from the team. ps_forest has 100% Firearms: Source made assets. There is not a touch of Valve stuff in there.[br]

Today's post is our official showcase of Airwolf's ps_forest. But before I get into that too much, I want to post something that I've been meaning to hit on for a few months and just keep forgetting about - and that would be the interview the current Firearms: Half-Life Team Leader did with our art lead, Shinobi, and I. Actually, it's a little more than an interview; it's an interview with a lot of extra information and a few screenshots. He took a lot of time out of his day putting this together and I'd be doing his efforts a disservice if I didn't make a link for our fans to read. Firearms: Source, Anatomy of a Mod.

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<div align="center">[url='http://www.halflife2.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/forest01.jpg' ]

 

[dogboy73]

Nice. looks like Crysis ...... done on 5 year old technology! The poor old Source engine is looking visually very tired these days isn't it. Still got just about the best physics system out there. But visually it's starting to look terribly dated. Same thing happened with the original HL engine, which was a modified Quake engine. By the time the decent mods started appearing the engine was looking visually a bit long in the tooth. I'm wondering how far the Source engine can be modified (Valve seem to be bastards for modifying engines) before it's to far behind the competiton to have any sort of impact visually? Would it be better for Valve to write Source 2 from the ground up rather than keep modifying what's there?

 

[undertone]

its hard to believe that source is already that old. wow.

 

[Lucid]

It seems like only yesterday that I got Half-Life 2 for Christmas in 2004.

God damn.

 

[Crispy]

It's a free mod and it looks better than a lot of commercial PC games being released at the lower end of the scale. For me TF2 doesn't look particularly dated.

 

[Shinobi]

here's hoping that valve eventually implements a single sheet SSS shader, that would sex up those trees like crazy (and also most likely brutalize performance)

 

[Dodo]

Source isnt that dated, its how you use it, its basicly up to the artist how dated it looks.

All i want actually is A: the engine limits to be gone (1024 entities max in a map) and B: a beter lighting model.

-dodo

edit: firearms looks like its coming along nice btw : apart from those black pieces on the guns, FINISH THOSE TEXTURES !

 

[ríomhaire]

Is this the evil one or the non-evil one?

 

[Shinobi]

Is this the evil one or the non-evil one?

non..





here is what's left of the original firearms mod for HL1 website

www.firearmsmod.com

Source isnt that dated, its how you use it, its basicly up to the artist how dated it looks.

All i want actually is A: the engine limits to be gone (1024 entities max in a map) and B: a beter lighting model.

-dodo

edit: firearms looks like its coming along nice btw : apart from those black pieces on the guns, FINISH THOSE TEXTURES !

word

at some point I belive we'll move to the ep2 engine which has a better shading model for tree models

 

[highlander]

Lookin' nice


One again sorry about your mod Shinobi

 

[Shinobi]

nm, I misunderstood the post

 

[cyborgguineapig]

Nice. looks like Crysis ...... done on 5 year old technology! The poor old Source engine is looking visually very tired these days isn't it. Still got just about the best physics system out there. But visually it's starting to look terribly dated. Same thing happened with the original HL engine, which was a modified Quake engine. By the time the decent mods started appearing the engine was looking visually a bit long in the tooth. I'm wondering how far the Source engine can be modified (Valve seem to be bastards for modifying engines) before it's to far behind the competiton to have any sort of impact visually? Would it be better for Valve to write Source 2 from the ground up rather than keep modifying what's there?

I will tell you this, from my experience as a game developer building levels. These screen shots aren't the greatest but they also aren't THAT horribly dated as you say. The reasons for them looking dated aren't the fault of the engine... I could begin to list the reasons why as I see many things off the bat that could greatly be improved but I'd rather just keep my humble opinions to myself in respect of the community wanting to see news rather than rants. TF2 uses the Hl2 engine and it came out only months ago. Maybe you would disagree but TF2 is an extremely beautiful game in my opinion. A mod community has the capability to produce art on par with that of TF2, most of the tools are there to do so. Like Dodo, said, its how you use an engine. Everyone can use a pencil, not everyone draws with one. ..

 

[OmegaX]

Yeah I don't quite think its the engine. The source engine can look much better than that. It's just the textures and things they've used.

 

[StandingCow]

Gameplay > Graphics

Hell, I still play NES games.

 

[Shinobi]

well it's not the engine per-say but their shading on flat planes (used for low poly trees) in the EP1 engine is ugly as sin, so we took a different route.

plus like the write up said, the point of the map is to have so much foliage on screen that you can really hide in the bushes etc so...

 

[undertone]

Yeah I don't quite think its the engine. The source engine can look much better than that. It's just the textures and things they've used.

those textures would look a lot better if the engine supported better lighting for models.

 

[Shinobi]

sorry,just a mini update, dont mean to necro


we heard your comments on the waterfall and airwolf has redone it


shots here

http://forums.firearms-source.com/showthread.php?p=171429#post171429