How manipulative are the physics?

[anthony256]

I've seen all the videos, screens, etc.. but one thing I haven't noticed. You see Gordon is able to pick up those gas canisters and throw them (making them explode) and *big* chunks of wood, etc. But, in the new vids when he uses the crowbar to smash the wood over the doors, could he pick up those *small* bits of wood? Or is it just pre-defined bits of the environment that are interactive?

I'm hoping not, but I'm guessing I'm right.

I want to be able to pick up wood, stones, bricks, etc if they are on the ground. You see him pick up the spanner, but that could just be for show/one of those items to be picked up.

Also, can you pick up dead bodies like in the original show off demo where he threw the mattress into the water, etc?

I'm hoping it's absolutely 100% interactive. ;(

 

[DoctorGordon]

Dont know, but i hope too

 

[NeptuneUK]

i hope the manipulator weapon is still powerful enough to lift moderate sized objects up....
the best mod ever would be a simple change to a value in the game console defining the manipulator strength... baha

 

[Petabyte]

Yeah it would be cool top pick up those broken wood pieces, but it probably won't happen, unfortunately.

 

[iamaelephant]

No one really knows the answer to these questions. Your guess is as good as ours.

 

[anthony256]

No one really knows the answer to these questions. Your guess is as good as ours.

Yeah, I noticed, which is why I asked it. I would email Gabe or Doug, but I emailed them a fortnight ago now and just don't get a response.. could someone from here do the honours?

I really should've named the thread "How manipulative is the environment" instead of physics. But I can almost bet it won't be as manipulative as they put it.. the memory requirements would be huge (to move all manners of wood, bins, rocks, etc), but in other statements, they've said you can do it.

Here's hoping!

:stare:

 

[Raziaar]

I'm fearing it might be less manipulative than we think. Remember how when there's a bunch of boxes around and he aims randomly, and it pulls something not in his direct line of sight instead of the other stuff that was? Hmm... trying to figure out which part I saw that in.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

The barrels don't explode from getting tossed. They need to be shot a few times before they catch fire.

You can't pick up dead bodies in the game, but you could mod it in with ease. Valve left it out as a design choice.

The rest of the stuff should work the way you're thinking though.

 

[alan8325]

The barrels don't explode from getting tossed. They need to be shot a few times before they catch fire.

You can't pick up dead bodies in the game, but you could mod it in with ease. Valve left it out as a design choice.

The rest of the stuff should work the way you're thinking though.

Didn't a barrel explode from being tossed in the Ravenholm video? I'm talking about the part in the hallway with barrels, boxes, and two zombies. A barrel was tossed with the manipulator and it exploded instantly. Obviously if thrown by hand though, there isn't enough power to cause the barrel to explode.

 

[Eon Blue]

I want to use dead combine soldiers to smack other combines around with. That's all.

 

[anthony256]

The barrels don't explode from getting tossed. They need to be shot a few times before they catch fire.

You can't pick up dead bodies in the game, but you could mod it in with ease. Valve left it out as a design choice.

The rest of the stuff should work the way you're thinking though.

What about the demo ages ago where he walked up to the table near the water, and smashed that watermelon in half with a bullet? Pick up the dead body by the foot and swung it around?

Hmm, hmm?!?

 

[Raziaar]

Yes, barrels explode when thrown with enough force.

 

[crabcakes66]

I doubt you would be able to do things like pick up splinters of wood in HL2. Becuase as valve likes to say....it will not add anything to gameplay.

Im sure you could mod something though.

Like break a leg off a table and use it as a club for example.

 

[iamaelephant]

I think it's a shame you cant manipulate dead bodies. I remember in the beta spending literally hours (no shit) picking up the combine corpse in the E3 tech demo with the blue physgun and throwing him around. There were those rods sticking out of the wall which were alot of fun to drop him on. You could smash him against the wall and it looked really painful. You could make him sleep on the matress with a watermelon on his face.

Then there are the wood physics, which are very complex and realistic. Okay, in the beta you couldn't splinter the wood realistically like in the E3 video (and if you did manage to break wood after about a thousand pistol rounds it slowed your computer down to a grinding halt), but that wooden platform over the water acted so realistically it was hard to believe it was rendered real time. The wood would bend slightly when weight was put on it, and the more weight you put on it, the more it would bend. If you managed to stack enough stuff onto it eventually it broke, but again slowed the computer down dramatically.

Trust me, the HL2 physics will astound you with their realism.

 

[poseyjmac]

I think it's a shame you cant manipulate dead bodies. .

since its possible in the e3 pre-alpha, i bet there will be a console command to allow it

 

[alan8325]

I think it's a shame you cant manipulate dead bodies. I remember in the beta spending literally hours (no shit) picking up the combine corpse in the E3 tech demo with the blue physgun and throwing him around. There were those rods sticking out of the wall which were alot of fun to drop him on. You could smash him against the wall and it looked really painful. You could make him sleep on the matress with a watermelon on his face.

I would think that this would be a very easy thing to fix in a mod. It's probably just a value, like CORPSEPHYSICS = 0 that you can set to 1. I'll bet it will be one of the first small mods made, kind of like the flashlight w/ weapon mods that came out immediately for Doom3.

 

[CR0M]

What about the demo ages ago where he walked up to the table near the water, and smashed that watermelon in half with a bullet? Pick up the dead body by the foot and swung it around?

Hmm, hmm?!?

That was just an engine demo, not a section from the game.

In Doom 3 using a console command (pointed out somewhere else on ths forum) you can do exactly the same thing as with that manipulator, pick up bodies and swing them around, stack them, etc. I managed to stack 8 bodies, 2 lamps and a laptop before it really started to slow down.

 

[Raziaar]

Damnit iamaelephant, dont post leak information even if its just tech demo =(

 

[king John I]

Omg!!11 Beta Leak!!!

H4x0r!!!!

 

[Danimal]

since its possible in the e3 pre-alpha, i bet there will be a console command to allow it

Maybe your right, maybe a console command or an option in the settings menu would allow you to turn off stuff like that for the slower computers...

 

[iamaelephant]

since its possible in the e3 pre-alpha, i bet there will be a console command to allow it

It's not possible in the "pre-alpha" (beta). You can play with bodies with the physgun but not the manipulator. There is a difference.

And for those whining, I'm not sharing anything about HL2 that we didn't already know. We have been told the physics kick ass. We have been told the manipulator won't pick up dead bodies. Nothing I said is new to anyone who has been following HL2.

 

[poseyjmac]

It's not possible in the "pre-alpha" (beta). You can play with bodies with the physgun but not the manipulator. There is a difference.

And for those whining, I'm not sharing anything about HL2 that we didn't already know. We have been told the physics kick ass. We have been told the manipulator won't pick up dead bodies. Nothing I said is new to anyone who has been following HL2.

it is with a bit of tweaking

 

[Yellonet]

The manipulator does not affect enemies, with good reason. If it did, you could just grab an opponent and smash him in the ground or wall or just throw him off some high place. That would just be too easy, although very cool

BTW, can you manipulate things "yourself" like grab things with your hands and throw them? If so, you should be able to grab someone and push them over a cliff or toss them out of a window or similar evil things... Muahaha...


- Yellonet

 

[Diablo2k]

The manipulator does not affect enemies, with good reason. If it did, you could just grab an opponent and smash him in the ground or wall or just throw him off some high place. That would just be too easy, although very cool

You can do that also in Jedi Knight 2 with force grip, too bad its not in HL 2. :O

 

[Sparta]

I think it's a shame you cant manipulate dead bodies. I remember in the beta spending literally hours (no shit) picking up the combine corpse in the E3 tech demo with the blue physgun and throwing him around. There were those rods sticking out of the wall which were alot of fun to drop him on. You could smash him against the wall and it looked really painful.

Good times, good times ;(

 

[Dead-Inside]

The barrels don't explode from getting tossed. They need to be shot a few times before they catch fire.

You can't pick up dead bodies in the game, but you could mod it in with ease. Valve left it out as a design choice.

The rest of the stuff should work the way you're thinking though.

Bodies are "transparent" (You can walk through them) for two reasons;
1. Performance, they stop modelling it and take a kind of sprite screenshot - so to say.
and
2. A design choise, as said above, it also eliminates the factor of irritation when bodies are in the way.

Rather have it that way then any other way. Hope you see it my way.

 

[Sparta]

And because there's less strain on the CPU when that kind of thing happens

 

[Dekstar]

Bah. Still. I would gladly download a mod that allowed you to pickup dead bodies. Along with the HL2 multiplayer, and the "Corpse_stay" steam function, there will be many "dead body fights" that will make everyone laugh.... Well, when I say everyone, I mean the sadistic people like me...

 

[lans]

WARNING:This isn't an illegal spoiler, the gun turrets were shown at E3, and the physgun was shown also in E3. Anyway, I added tags.

Spoiler

The best part in the beta was that you'd kill combines by placing the gun turrets behind them, and in their line of fire with the physgun. Uber fun!

Man, I invented so many ways of killing combines - I want the full game more than ever now! ;(

 

[wakkywheel]

They're so manipulative, you will soon find yourself paying valve a 1000$ fee everytime you start half life 2!!! Heha...

 

[bodhi]

What about the demo ages ago where he walked up to the table near the water, and smashed that watermelon in half with a bullet? Pick up the dead body by the foot and swung it around?

Hmm, hmm?!?

that was the technical demo to show what was possible and also as a demonstration of the physics. as far as we know you cant pick up dead bodies. the 'barrells' that are exploding are in fact compressed canisters of something or other in the ravenholm video(as far as i can remember they are long thin and have taps on them) although im sure that a barrell filled with some sort of fuel or whatever would explode, just not the plain 'vanilla' empty barrels that are lying around.

so "Hmm, hmm?!?" to you to

 

[Annihilator_91]

PCG playtested HL2 a little bit once. At some point in the beginning Combine tried to push him someplace, he took up a soda can and threw it in his face... So it seems to be quite interactive to me!:thumbs:

 

[Shuzer]

Without reading through the entire thread, I'll say this:

In the test_speakers map in the CS:S beta, there's a wooden table. When you break it, it fragments into multiple pieces of wood (as we've seen in the past), all which are physically simulated. You can shoot the smaller pieces of wood around the room.

So yes, the smaller pieces are physically manipulatable

 

[RoguePsi]

I was impressed that in the new Ravenholm bink, you could pick up a small wrench and throw it. Good to see that the manipulation isnt just left to the big objects.

 

[env_explosion]

Lots of it is dependent on the mapper. None of us know how much Valve will make interactive in HL2 because, none of us have played the finished game. The engine potential however, allows mappers to specify if they want npcs to go ragdoll on death, disappear, or do the normal HL1 corpse "stay on the ground and be hollow" thing. As for the wood, like Shuzer said, in CS:S, which runs on the same engine as HL2, little bits of wood are interactive. However, I should at that they are only interactive to a point, you can't keep breaking them into tiny interactive woodchips, that would just be a ridiculous strain on our processors. I figure if an object looks like you can play with it in HL2, you can probably play with it.

 

[Ch1cKeN]

Hmm they say that you cant pick up and manulipate dead bodies.

Somone care to explain the dead combine being tossed around during the tech demonstration E3 2003.

You know, i would like to break a piece of wood, then pick up a sharp pointy splinter and have it spear somone. That would be cool. but probably impossible.

 

[Yellonet]

Somone care to explain the dead combine being tossed around during the tech demonstration E3 2003.

It was a demo. And someone said that the devs had removed that feature in the name of playability.


- Yellonet

 

[impunity]

Hmm they say that you cant pick up and manulipate dead bodies.

Somone care to explain the dead combine being tossed around during the tech demonstration E3 2003.

You know, i would like to break a piece of wood, then pick up a sharp pointy splinter and have it spear somone. That would be cool. but probably impossible.

that was an engine demo, using a weapon that most likely will not be in the game.

 

[wakkywheel]

In the info from valve thread I think someone at valve said that impaling is indeed featured in the game... You can see this in the strider movies, and he said something about a crossbow movie too...

 

[Dekstar]

So, Ians, you've played the illegal downloady version? And HL2net staff haven't blocked you yet? I'm not flaming you or anything it just seems weird - Is it because you are popular around here?

Anyway, I doubt that impaling will never be as implemented as that new game. What's it called? The one which is like "Serious Sam" but more evil, and it's about hell and stuff, and you have the wooden-pole gun and can impale- y'know what? I am going to leave this there.