HL2 physics vs Honda Accord commercial "cog"

The Dark Elf

The Dark Elf

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Ok apologies if this is in the wrong thread and/or has been mentioned before. Thought I'd post something different and that isn't to do with stolen code etc.

Just saw this commercial again after a long time and it got me to thinking. Do you suppose someone will try something like that with the HL2 engine just making use of the physics. Obviously some things it wont be able to do, like the water part.. But something similar, all setup to behave correctly, no cheating, just using what the engine can do with physics. What do people think? The simplist variation of this would of course be lots of dominos, which I think I heard someone else mention. But I'm thinking just how complex could it become before the engine wasn't capable of doing it

If Valve are reading, it could make for a fun section of the benchmark too :)

If anyone hasn't seen what I'm talking about, you can find it here
http://www.videoclipstream.com/akamai/h-l/honda/

Cheers
 
It'd take a hell of a lot of effort. And it might slow down...

who knows?

That's what I love about HL2 modding. There will be a lot of mods that will just experiment with the physics and make all kinds of cool crap like this. Can't wait... :)
 
It's been talked about before, but don't worry ;)

The reply from Valve was it could be done with physics and minimal scripting, but there is something with the physics engine which would make the same simulation slightly different each time it was run. That would have to be disabled.
 
Just a side note, one or two sections of the honda advert were improvised because it wasnt quite possible with realistic physics, so you'd need to impliment helpers into hl2 too.
 
very cool, as soon as i heard about the physics engine, i imaged myself creating something like this in hammer.
 
alco: yeah, lots of effort, a big challenge, but as you point out with the mods and the experimenting, seems a lot of people love a good challenge, I'm sure there's people out there who will come up with stuff that'll have us thinking "damn why didnt I think of that". It's gonna be a lot of fun :)

qckbeam: Ahh right, ok thanks :) I did have a look before I posted but well, lots of posts to get through, by the time I think I'm done there's hundreds more turn up lol, so much for getting my work done :D The bit where you mention something makes it different each time its run, its variables like that which I imagine caused them to do 600+ takes on the commerical. hmm.. actually did you mean with recording a demo and the demo would play out differently each time, ok yeah if you meant that I can see what you mean, it would need to be turned off. It's good to know it would be possible though. That's kinda well, really cool :)
 
Remember when HL2 was first announced, Valve told us of an engine that they built that really worked, using the physics engine. They said if you dropped a wrench into one of the openings, it caused the entire thing to get stuck and stop working.

Can't wait for stuff like this...
 
azz0r: I heard the only bit they ended up using CG for was the spark because it hadn't shown up or something in the take that everything worked in. I could be wrong though

Hudson: Yeah, I think when the game is out I'm gonna have a go, atleast something a bit like it. foremost just to mess around with stuff like that and secondly it could be really good practice to get used to how things work, I imagine there's a lot there which will be new and different than how we've edited things before for HL1
 
Also the tire going up the ramp, because it simply didnt have enough force.
 
The wheel was also weighted inside to allow it to seemingly roll uphill.

As well people say about the wood through the window yet the window goes down. It doesn't really go through the window. It's two different pieces bumped up on either side of the glass.

The final take is the 306th take. No computer manipulation whatsoever. All 1 take.
 
This is off the website posted above:

This is the incredible chain reaction commercial created by Wieden + Kennedy that took 606 takes and uses no computer graphic imaging.
Click to expand...
 
yeah, what iamironsam and kincaid said: over 600 takes, 1 continuous shot, no cg, weighted tires, and the window winsheild wipers and stuff working by themselves are features built into the car that they used.
 
Originally posted by azz0r
Also the tire going up the ramp, because it simply didnt have enough force.
Click to expand...

the tire was weighted so that the slightest bump would get it rollnig up hill.
 
I love that add, its so cool :')

With the tires they were filled with "helium" (spelling?)
 
The first thing I'll do when I start up the new Hammer editor is build a see-saw, stand on one end, and drop a car on the other end. Liftoff! :E
 
Originally posted by Bedwetting Type
The first thing I'll do when I start up the new Hammer editor is build a see-saw, stand on one end, and drop a car on the other end. Liftoff! :E
Click to expand...

LOL thats not a bad idea, how about setup something far above that you knock just enough before falling back down and look up to see a grand piano falling above you... or do a Road Runner and have a large Anvil instead of a car, have it send you up, then back down, sending the Anvil up and in a way so it lands on your head :D

gonna be lots of silly but fun mods coming out :)
 
Hmm that just made me think of something, I bet this one has been said before.. how about roller coaster rides? or something like in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom with the ride above all that fire and molten lava. instead of it being a set train ride sort of thing it would be driven by the physics alone so not the safest of rides and there's that thread elsewhere in this section about scary games. I imagine such a section of the game could be pretty tense if you had to depend on real physics and not see it as some gentle safe ride on a track that you couldn't fall from.. Maybe add the danger of enemies with weapons, perhaps a lucky shot will manage to knock the vehicle enough to send it careering off the next dip straight into beautifully real time rendered lava, throw in some cool lighting and audio, it could be pretty neat don't you think? :)
 
Originally posted by Fenric1138
LOL thats not a bad idea, how about setup something far above that you knock just enough before falling back down and look up to see a grand piano falling above you... or do a Road Runner and have a large Anvil instead of a car, have it send you up, then back down, sending the Anvil up and in a way so it lands on your head :D

gonna be lots of silly but fun mods coming out :)
Click to expand...

Haha, I loved RoadRunner when I was a kid. Some kind of Warner Bros. cartoon mod would be hilarious.
 
Originally posted by Bedwetting Type
Haha, I loved RoadRunner when I was a kid. Some kind of Warner Bros. cartoon mod would be hilarious.
Click to expand...

heh I still love those cartoons, Road Runner being my favorite, especially one where Wile went from trap to trap to trap really really quickly with them all going wrong in silly ways, cracked me up, another favorite was the one with the darts/rockets that kept popping up throughout the cartoon when you thought they were done with. Had to see it to get the joke I guess though :)

I hear with the shader support in HL2 that cel shading ala many Xbox titles will be quite possible to do, but with the better resolutions of the PC it'll look nicer ;)

All those silly inventions to play with.. damn someone has to make this! lol
 
Wow, I haven't seen that commercial in a long time. The parts that were fake are obvious, but it's still cool. If VALVe did an online commercial like this, I bet they'd use the Steam symbol at one point in it. If it's not the whole point of the commercial itself.

-Ghost.
 
When the second tire hits the third it stops rolling then it starts rolling up hill again... I think weighting the tires is a cheap trick they should have left it out. Makes you think thats not possible and then the rest of it seems to be a trick as well. Just my two Cents! :)
 
i know that mostly the ad was real, but only 1 or 2 bits were CG, anyone know what was actually CG?
 
the only bit that was cg was when the exhaust was rolling over to merge 2 clips, they couldn't fit all the stuff into the building so did it in 2 sections, everything else, i.e. the weighted tyres are real
 
Someone asked Gabe about this, and he said no.

There is some kind of random factor in the physics code that would keep the scenario from playing out the same every time.

BTW llyama is correct about the merging of the clips. the exhaust is the only CG in the entire commercial.
 
For a short period of time you guys were discussing MOD's you guys wanted to make using HL2 - Hows this for an idea :

Do you remember a old game on coin-op, later ported to SNES and Megadrive/Genesis, called Smash TV ?

I think a co-op MOD based on Smash TV would be hectic and fun - imagine moving into a room and suddenly doors open up and hordes of enemies pile out and charge your group, and you guys must fend of the horde while prizes and weapons fall from the ceiling. Throw is some vehicles and stationary weapon points, mix in traps and add a pont system based on prizes collected rather than kills.

Just food for thought.
 
Lmfao

The physics in that honda advert are false, Just look at those tires man. its computer graphics integrated with normal film. Just like loads of films you've watched many times. But its well done.
 
Re: Lmfao

Originally posted by voodoomachine
The physics in that honda advert are false, Just look at those tires man. its computer graphics integrated with normal film. Just like loads of films you've watched many times. But its well done.
Click to expand...

Please read the previous posts before posting. Otherwise you might end up looking like a jackass.
 
Re: Re: Lmfao

Originally posted by alco
Please read the previous posts before posting. Otherwise you might end up looking like a jackass.
Click to expand...

Too late. He already does. I wait for people who live under a rock to shit on this. It happens so much. Just because you don't see how it's possible it has to be fake. lol.

This was huge a few months ago when it was initially released. And it was huge because it was filmed in one complete take with NO CG. Nothing.
 
Originally posted by Parasite
Someone asked Gabe about this, and he said no.

There is some kind of random factor in the physics code that would keep the scenario from playing out the same every time.

BTW llyama is correct about the merging of the clips. the exhaust is the only CG in the entire commercial.
Click to expand...

Not to be a smartass, but can you point to some kind of proof of this?

I've seen countless articles indicating that the advert was 1 take, 1 room and absolutely NO CG.
 
I don't think the smash tv mod would work because of the sheer number of enemies you had to kill in that game. That would be perfect for the serious sam engine though :D

Also, I'd like to see someone mock up one of those little thingies that have about 5 steel balls that clack back and fourth swinging against each other. I don't know the name of it but you know what I mean. Either that or one of those things that spins around kinda like a gyroscope that usually has 2 dolphins or something that spin and have another ring that spins around them. You always see them at those discovery zone stores and shit like that. Stuff like that would be interesting to see if the half life engine could pull off.

Also, anyone got a link to the honda commercial?
 
A few people seem misinformed on the topic of if the HL2 engine can do this. It CAN be done. The engine only uses a single random number for the physics, and even that can be pinned down. I posted this letter in the valve email thread and the original discussion of this topic. Here it is again:

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2003 1:48 PM
To: 'Sean'
Cc: Jay Stelly; Chris Bokitch
Subject: RE: Rube Goldberg Possibilities?


Jay's a better person to answer this than me.
-----Original Message-----
From: Sean [mailto:removed]
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2003 12:40 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Rube Goldberg Possibilities?


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!

-Sean


I hope this clears things up ^_^
 
It wasnt done in one take, it was done in two seperate parts. Glued together pretty cleverly. Everything was real i read.
 
woo now these are the threads i like!! the ones getting excited about modding!
 
Originally posted by 82ross
It wasnt done in one take, it was done in two seperate parts. Glued together pretty cleverly. Everything was real i read.
Click to expand...

Sigh. No. One continuous take.
 
link doesnt work. anone have a working link to the commercial?
 
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