Info received from Valve ONLY - NO questions/discussion

I had been wondering about this for a while. But just as a thought, he didn't mention a date. Oh well, Valve is probably pretty hesitant about giving dates for anything right now.

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

We'll be getting these up on Steam.

From:
Sent: Saturday, March 06, 2004 9:46 PM
To: Erik Johnson
Subject: HL2 Bink Videos


I read a response on HalfLife2.net to an email written a while ago that said you were going to soon be putting the Half-Life 2 Bink videos back on Steam. Will that become a reality any time soon? If not, do you know of any place where I can find those videos for my extreme Half-Life 2 viewing pleasure?


Thank you for you time. Keep up the good work on what looks like the best game for years to come.
 
From : Rick Ellis <[email protected]>
Sent : 08 March 2004 22:14:05
To : "Edcrab" <[email protected]>
Subject : RE: Hitbox and collision query...?

See my answers below.

Rick
Valve

-----Original Message-----
From: Edcrab . [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 1:46 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Hitbox and collision query...?

Hey Rick,
I'm wondering if you've got time enough just to indulge a
psychotic fanboy.
I heard it said that HL2 will be based off hitboxes rather than
(apparently) Doom III style pixel-perfect collision or whatever. This
time round, will non-cuboid (i.e., cylindrical or spherical) hitboxes be
possible?

Yes, it will be slightly more CPU costly, but you can build a very
accurate physics hull to use for collisions or do very specific checking
to see if an individual poly had a collision.

Also, even though HL2 clearly supports skin damage and gibbing (as seen
in Trapdown and numerous screenshots, although I'm yet to see skin
damage evidence in a video... but meh) does the game support NPC's
taking falling damage and leaving blood stains on impact? I watched the
Bink of Barricade yet the corpse falling from the scaffold tower left no
mark, when I'm near certain I've seen a version where it did...

Yes it supports this.


Thanks in advance,

Ed

P.S. I can't help but wonder how you all manage to reply; but I'm sure
the community as a whole appreciates it (although with one fraction
demanding media and the other ordering you to "shut up and go back to
work", it's a wonder you haven't all gone homicidal).

It's a lot of work to reply to all of the email, but it's very
important to us that we are responsive to the community so while we
can't guarantee a speedy response, if you email me directly, the odds
are VERY high that you will get a reply.

Rick
 
It's not directly backwards compatible, however you can recompile hl1 maps and update some of the entities to get them to work in HL2.

Rick
Valve



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Chris Deeming [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 4:44 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Backward compatibility


Hey Rick, hope you're all ok.

There's been a little bit of discussion about versions of Half-Life 2 that were regrettably stolen. One bit of information has stated that the Source engine seems to be backwards compatible with content from the Half-Life engine. First of all, is this true? Was it a deliberate move by Valve? And what do you see as the main benefit for this compatibility - mod teams or the players of the game?

Chris_D
HalfLife2.Net Staff
 
Yes the sound in HL2 is directional and can be confined to space. We now use what we call "soundscapes" that allow a dsp effect to be in place and allows for occlusion of the sound as well as muffling etc.

Rick
Valve



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Julian Rossi [mailto:]
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 4:36 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: HL2 sound question


Hi,
I was just wondering about the dynamics of some of the sounds, in HL1 the sound traveled directly through walls, and didnt "bounce" around how it does in reality, you can effectivly know exactly where someone is by their footsteps, and the sound would sound like its coming out of a wall. In HL2 will there be a more realistic sound system, so instead of the sound of a footstep coming from a wall, it will come from a hallway and it may echo a bit, just to make it more confusing (more realistic).

Thanks if you get around to answering the question, and dont worry about delaying HL2 more because it gives me more time to save up for a better computer!
 
We're still working on the toolkit, and I expect it to be out soon (yeah I know that's what I told you before but I don't have any better date right now). It definitely won't be another 2 months.

Rick


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Wed 3/10/2004 9:45 AM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: FW: While HL2 being delayed, still improvements on the Source engine?




-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 8:37 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: While HL2 being delayed, still improvements on the Source engine?

Hello Gabe,

Because HL2 is delayed I am wondering if Valve is still working on the Source engine ie.: optimizing or improving the Source engine? Can the engine while being delayed still be improved?

I still remember you want to implement some things like "high res textures" is that true? And what about the speaking animations in mp?

last question :) : I emailed Rick E in the beginning in Januari about the HL2 SDK and he said 'soon' and 'there was a legal hangup' But there are 2 whole months passed by. Can you please say something about the release date of the HL2 SDK ? :)

Thanks for your time,

GJ / sharp.
 
Subject: RE: Not Another Hl2 Question
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 12:49:28 -0800
From: "Rick Ellis" <[email protected]> Add to Address Book
To: "Josh Brooks" <[email protected]>




Any :)

Rick
Valve



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Josh Brooks [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 7:05 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Not Another Hl2 Question


Hey Rick,
What pizza brand is preferred at Valve?
Josh
 
Subject: Pizza
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 13:24:13 -0800
From: "Rick Ellis" <[email protected]> Add to Address Book
To: [email protected]




So today we received a bunch of pizzas that we have no idea where they came from. Did they happen to come from you?

Rick
Valve
 
Subject: RE: Pizza
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 14:29:45 -0800
From: "Rick Ellis" <[email protected]> Add to Address Book
To: "Josh Brooks" <[email protected]>




Yes, people here love sushi :)

Rick



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Josh Brooks [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 2:25 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Re: Pizza


Hey Rick,

Although I would love to take credit for it, I did not send those Pizzas. Someone beat me to it! I have collected around seventy bucks from my Residence Hall at University of Missouri-Columbia and we were going to send you some. I still plan on ... but maybe it will be something original now. You guys like Sushi?

Cheers!
 
Thanks in advance if you can answer my questions.

My first question.
With the Video Camera ability seen in the video with the agent and the headcrab. I was wondering if that would be modified to be used as a camera that could be stuck to a wall and then viewed from say a pad in your inventory?

Basicly select the camera and place it on the wall. Select the pad, and then you could view what the camera was seeing.

*** If you used the monitor texture on the view model, with a little bit of code, you could do this (dx7 and up only). It won't really be in "inventory" as there's not inventory in Half-Life 2, but it could be a "weapon" in a weapon slot. For example, you could have a datapad as one of your weapons, when you select it, you would get a mini monitor to view for whatever purpose you had in mind.

2nd question.
Has anyone gone crazy over this game from stress from creating this game?

*** We are on the 10th floor of our building but I haven't witnessed any jumpers yet :)
 
Half-Life's Details

See my answers below...

Rick
Valve

-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Brauer [mailto:dbrauer@******]
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 8:25 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Source's Graphics

Dear Rick Ellis,

I've asked about this before, but I realize I was a bit long-winded, and
you may not have had time to read my letter.

1. Will Half-Life 2's detail objects be balanced by appropriate mipmaps
of the textures they are on at the distance where they appear? i.e. Will
green grass on brown dirt look like a patch of grass that grows under
the player's feet and disappears when the player moves on, or will it
fade to and from a flat green texture which accounts for the "actual"
(sprite) grass' disappearance?

*** Organics like grass and bushes will fade in and out at distance.
The materials usually have similar looking textures so this fade in/out
is not disturbing or surprising.

2. Similarly, will detail textures be created with equal darkening and
lightening effects upon the texture they detail, in order to avoid their
appearance and disappearance being very obvious?

*** See above.

3. Finally, does Source use lower-resolution mipmaps of a texture when
said texture is being viewed at a very high angle to its normal? If so,
does it use a mipmap that is low-resolution in both dimensions, or only
the one from which it is being viewed? i.e. Will walls look fuzzy when
one is looking along them? Is this even a reasonable expectation from a
piece of software, or is this a graphics card limitation?

*** mipmapping is done on distance, not angle so looking down a wall
should look fine, you should see it in high detail as you'd expect.*

Thank you,

Daniel Brauer

*This is more impressive than you may think. I know of no other engine that uses this behavior.
 
From: Peleus [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 4:04 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: HL2 realease over Steam


Quick question,
Will a locked version of HL2 be pre-released over steam too be unlocked on the realease date such as what is happening now with CS:CZ in an effort too avoid having massive download cues on the date? (And so gamers don't have too wait hours once the game is released?)

Thanks in advance




That's the theory, yes.
 
Yes all of that stuff can be done if you have the full source code to vgui...
Rick


-----Original Message-----
From: Tim M.
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 2:02 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: [Fwd: vgui / steam menu question]


Hi Rick,


I read somewhere that you can render stuff on VGUI2 Menus (for example to display models and such)


I wonder: Would it be possible to render stuff to the main menu, too? (The first menu the player sees ingame after he clicked 'launch game' in the steam gui... the one with the background image, where you can choose to create a server, join a game, open the friends list etc etc)

And, 2nd, would it be possible to replace the background image in that menu completely with a rendered sequence (for example, the camera flying through a map, stuff like that) ?

Finally, would it be possible to place the Buttons (Join game, create
server...) different for a mod than it is placed in HL2, and to replace the font with graphical buttons?


Thanks for you answer,


Tim M.
 
My third eMail from Rick Ellis... thought I'd post this one because it has some stuff that might interest fellow forumites...

Please see my answers below...

Rick
Valve



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Brian Damage [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004 9:41 AM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Hey, dude. Me (Brian D) again. Couple of questions and a suggestion...


Hi Mr Ellis. Thanks for answering my two earlier eMails. I've been thinking, and I have a few more queries...

For this mod I wish to make, would it be possible to have a series of maps, with each map being connected to several others? Sort of like the lines in a spider web...

*** Sure, there's no issue with having multiple "exit" points in a map.

Also, can I attatch lights to NPCs/Monsters? The reason I ask is that I'd like one type of creature /*SNIP!*/ to have little lights on their chestplates, which flash in time with their speech (Think the Daleks from Doctor Who)...

*** You can attach lights but depending on how you want them to flash, it could be tricky. If you want them to just flash while the npc talks, that's pretty easy, but if you want them to flash "in sync" with the actual speech, you'll need to add a bit of code, and that won't be a trivial task.

/*SNIP!* Spoiler for my mod./

Would it be possible to implement a conversation system in Source? Just a simple one consisting of preset choices, like in most RPGs.

*** I assume you mean like in CS where you can call out commands quickly? If so, yes that's pretty easy to do.

How will mods be activated? Will there be an option to load it from the HL2 menu? Or will they get their own .exe files?

*** It will be very similar to how HL1 handles mods.

I've heard that we can go commercial with mods, using Steam. Is this true, and what conditions would there be?

*** Yes, more details about selling your mod over Steam will be coming out later.

Okay, now for something a little different... Some online companions and I have been examining the Bugbait video, and we've all (separately) spotted something interesting. Those posters on the wall... the ones with the symbol on them that looks like a clamp or vice... is that the Combine symbol? It reminds me of the one from Gremlins 2. Is it an easter egg meant to suggest a little more of the storyline? The clamp in the symbol looks to be holding what could be a planet...

*** No easter eggs as far as I'm aware.

Or are we being stupid?

Last of all, we were discussing at HL2.net the contents of the Super-Duper-Mega-Cool-Deluxe version of Half-Life 2, and several ideas had been thrown around as to what could be in the Deluxe version box.

I, half-jokingly, suggested a little toy headcrab made from that squishy stuff they make stress balls from. Oddly, everyone seems to quite like the idea, so I thought I might as well tell you, on the off chance that you'd be interested (I don't mean to be presumptuous). I know I'd like one. Good for throwing at little sisters.

*** Seems fun, I'll pass it along.

&8^}>

Well, onya if you managed to read all that without dozing off. I ramble too much, I'm sure.

Hoping to hear (Or should it be read?) from you soon,

Brian Damage,
Edge of Justice Head Dude.

Nice dude, very helpful.
 
I didn't say 2 months.

Yes it's good that you are working on models now, you'll be that much further along when the tools are released.

Rick
Valve



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Petkofsky [mailto:xxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 7:29 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Sensibility in Modeling


Hi,

Hope you have a chance to respond, I know you must be flooded with e-mails. (and pizzas, so I read :) ).



My question for you is whether or not you think that it is sensible for mod teams to be modeling objects/players/vehicles in programs like 3D Studio Max in Maya now. Will models/textures/animations be easily converted to hl2 format? Or would it be better for mod teams to wait until the SDK (2 months you said?) to do modeling/texturing/animating work?

Also, will all recent editions of Maya/3DS Max have a supported exporter? (ie Max 5/6)

Thanks,

David Petkofsky
 
Subject: RE: questions for the great rick :p
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 09:18:21 -0800
From: "Rick Ellis" <[email protected]>
To: "David Basoco" <[email protected]>


Hi David,

See my answers below. (in bold)

Thanks,
Rick

-----Original Message-----
From: David Basoco [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004 2:51 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: questions for the great rick :p

hiya,
im not sure if u remember me, but iv asked a couple of questions and
you've replied back. its ok if you dont im sure you respond back to
hundreds if not more. well im about to ask a few more questions and see
if i get lucky again. here i go.

for multiplayer voice com will the model lip sync? i thought i remember
someone stating that it would be a simplier version but that it was
still being developed.

will npc's only fall when they are killed or will they also fall if
they
are hit hard enough but not enough to kill them?

*** physics can push npcs around without having to kill them.

is it developed or still planned for every npc to look different?

*** the npcs won't all look the same, with the exception of those in
uniform/masks (intended to look the same)

will there be an optional 'scound scape' for multiplayer?

*** Sound scapes can be used anywhere and define the characteristics of
the room where the sound is to be played so yes they could be used in
mp.

is it possible for player models or vehicles have have complicated
moving part? like a large mechanical suit(think matrix revolutions
mech's) with gears and hydraulics.

*** Absolutely, while not overly complicated, notice the jeep in the
movies has a moving speedo and aimable gun on it's hood. There's no
reason you couldn't extend this although at some point you'd want to
worry about performance.

how do u feel about the people that downloaded and played the 'beta'?

*** It's illegal. [Fenedit] <-- you hear that, hl2 world?? [Fenedit]

how big of a performance hit will HDR be when it is finalized? i guess
a
educated percentile estimate would be the easiest way to answer the
question, but please if you wish to elaborate feel free.

*** Very hard to answer as it really depends on the graphics hardware
installed in the machine.

is the source engine an ever growing project? will it continue to be
updated with new technology?

*** Yes

i was wondering if the multiplayer mods that valve puts out based on
the
source engine will be free? like
cs2 or dod2, im preety sure that tf2 will be separate.
please elaborate if you could.

im sortry if this is to many questions or the worng sort. again if you
dont respond to these questions but read this e-mail i hope hl2 and any
future projects go according to plan and make you a very rich and happy
man. i am thankful for the responses i have recieved already, i think
im
kinda pushin my lucky.

*** You're not pushing your luck, I'm happy to answer the questions of
fans.

kp

-

im really glad to see that the source engine will evolve with new tech. :D
/me hugs rick
 
I thought this was some very neat info.

==============================================================

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for writing. I've answered some of your questions below:

Best wishes,

Bill Van Buren
Valve


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nathan Lane [mailto:]
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 7:14 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Those Neat Effects and other things.


Hiya Gabe.... I've been itching for some more info since the XSI thing came out yesterday. Just some how is this going to work/could this work questions. Here is the main one I've been wondering about. The space warping effect the Strider makes when it does its big power blast. How will you be able to use that space bending/warping effect in the game? Would I be able to do something like create a tiny black hole? With just an ultra black basket ball sized...ball...that has an event horizon around it? I'm just curious how you put that effect into the game. Like is it something in Hammer or something in just the coding that I don't understand yet :( . Ooooo, here's something else I just thought about for that effect. Could you say make just a flat wall of this effect,that would warp the image of what ever was behind it to make it look different? Like making someone look way bigger than they are, or smaller. Thats just a thought :).

>>Yes, you could do something similar to what you're describing. The Strider effect is done with our shader system - here's what we're doing: Essentially we've got a normal map (created in XSI) applied to a transparent plane placed near the end of the Strider's gun. We're rendering it using a refraction shader so that the world behind it is 'warped' based on the overall shape of the object; as the Strider 'fires' turn the objects visibility on and rapidly increase the intensity of the normal map to increase the 'warp' effect.

Here's another random question. This one's about animation stuff. When Gordon gets into the buggy, he just gets in....since there's no doors. But if you had a car with doors and you wanted to have NPCs and you get into it, would you be able to make it so that just going up to it and hitting USE would make it so the door opens and you get in and shut the door? And the NPCs would do this too...and have it look good. I figure it is possible, I'm just not sure how easy.

>>Sure, you could do this - but you'd need to author two separate 'events' for this - one that handled NPCs +USEing a vehicle and one for the player.
 
prolly something you all don't already know but it made my day:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
From: si mcbrindle-larma [mailto: [email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2004 5:08 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: ONE QUESTION OF CHAOS!!!! please read

hi gabe....havent emailed you in AAAAAGES, not that you'll remember me BUUUUT anyway....just thought i'd ask, am i going to be seeing half life 2 this year in 2004?

cheers

simon

Gabe: Yep.

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

From: si mcbrindle-larma [mailto: [email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2004 7:10 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: RE: ONE QUESTION OF CHAOS!!!! please read

cheers for responding to my last e-mail...i should've elloborated a little...by seeing i meant will i see a release of the game in 2004?

cheers again

simon

Gabe: Yes.
 
----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ben
Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2004 8:16 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Half-Life 2 Character Eye Positions - Has The Tech Changed?


Hello Mr. Ellis,

...I noticed one odd thing, and i was hoping you could clarify this for me. During the GDC presentation, the two presenters open up the Dr. Kleiner model in HL2MV (the model viewer... i think that's what it's called) and they mention how yes, he is looking directly at the the viewer. The thing is, he's not looking at me, he's looking just over my right shoulder. no matter how they move the camera or the lights, he's constantly looking just over my shoulder, which is far more distracting that you might imagine. It's like talking to someone who won't meet your eyes. I had never noticed this before, and I checked out the old shakycam movie that i saw from Siggraph. They opened the Alyx model there, and there were no problems. The model was obviously looking straight at the camera.

Why is the kleiner model not quite looking at the camera? is this a minor bug in the model viewer, some random parameter that got changed unintentionally at GDC, or something intentional?

I'm attaching two images, for comarison's sake. They are both small jpegs.

I appreciate the time you are taking to read this, and thanks for keeping in touch with us fans.

regards,
Ben

I'm not sure what would cause that in the example you give, it could be the point in space where the camera is in hlmv is off a bit in their demos. I see what you are talking about with kleiner vs. alyx. Without seeing the sources for the gdc demo I can't really say what's going on. Rest assured though whatever the problem is, it will be fixed.

Rick
 

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It will probably lag the 32 bit version.

-----Original Message-----
From: Tadashi Oshima [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2004 9:42 AM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: 64-bit

Hi

a client question:
will the 64bit client come out the same time as the 32bit client?

thx reading the mail ^^
Good luck
 
Subject: RE: Flashlight reflections in HL2?
From: "Rick Ellis" <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 08:34:32 -0800
To: "Shuzer" <[email protected]>

Yes reflective surfaces reflect the light from a flashlight.

Rick

-----Original Message-----
From: Shuzer [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 8:56 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Flashlight reflections in HL2?

I'm sure you guys have been given copies of FarCry; if not, I'm sure
you've atleast played the demos, which brings me to my question

Will HL2 have a similar effect as FarCry (and STALKER, as seen in one of
the official trailers), where, if a surface is reflective (ie. metal air
vents) and you shine your flashlight on it, you'll see the light
bouncing off the surface back towards you?
Little touches like that are really great to see, makes games feel that
much more believable

Keep up the good work, can't wait for HL2
-Chris
 
Subject: RE: ps 3.0?
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 09:09:53 -0700
From: "Rick Ellis" <[email protected]> Add to Address Book
To: "Michael" <*******************>


Ps3.0 is on the list to get added, although I can't commit to a
timeframe for it yet (most hardware can't support it anyway). As for
the benchmark, check with Doug Lombardi after E3 for more details.

Rick
Valve

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael [mailto:***********]
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 8:37 AM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: ps 3.0?

Hi rick,
Thank you for answering my last question. I was wondering if Halflife2
is going to be supporting PS3.0? Or if that is something you plan to
release in a patch once more people have hardware capible of it.
Also any chance we'll be seeing a Halflife2 benchmark utility soon?
Thanks
Michael
 
more about the eyes in the GDC vid...

got an exclusive screenshot :)

----------
Hi Ben,

Thanks for writing. Yes the shot you sent of Dr. Kleiner definitely didn't feel like he was looking at me. That might be due to Softimage using an older version of our tools for their demonstrations, as I can't get Kleiner to 'look past me' like that in our current version. I've included a shot from HLMV.

Additionally, a good deal of our eye technology isn't even active in our tools like HLMV (the model viewer) and Face Poser - character's eyes are at their full manifestation only in the game engine. You can see better examples of our characters' eyes in action in the movies from our E3 demos last year - or if you find yourself in the Seattle area, give us a call and we'll set up a time for you to stop by and see things firsthand.

Best wishes,

Bill Van Buren



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2004 3:06 PM
To: 'Ben'
Cc: Bill Van Buren
Subject: RE: Do Dr. Kleiner's Eyes Not Look Right At Me?


Bill?



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ben
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2004 8:36 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Do Dr. Kleiner's Eyes Not Look Right At Me?


Hi Mr. Newell,

(see my previous post about the eyes... this e-mail was basically the same)
 

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Wow, got an answer :)

Gabe:

Grand Master Status? Wow, that's a new one.

Product's looking good.


-----Original Message-----
From: Johan Andersson [xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2004 2:10 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: "Grand master status" according to ve3d.com?
------------------------------------------------------
Hi Gabe,

According to www.ve3d.com:

"Still waiting on DOOM III to go gold, and someone told me that
Half-Life 2 has reached "grand master status" (something like that,
not
sure what that translates in VU lingo) so maybe Half-Life 2 isn't as far
off as we might think."

Is it true, if so, what does it exactly mean ? :)

Thanks&Good Luck!
Johan, Sweden
 
new info the coming weeks


Hi Robert,



There will be quite a bit of new information and material released on Half-Life 2 in the coming weeks and at E3.



Unfortunately, that is all I can tell you right now.



Cheers




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

From: Robert Estling [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 3:49 AM
To: Doug Lombardi
Subject: E3 presentation



Hi Doug.



On E3 this year you will have a presentation of HL2, as you had last year when you got the E3 awards.

Now, one year later, with hacked networks, leaks of the hl2 source, a playable version of HL2 and a non 30 September release date, I wonder: What will you tell us this time?



What information about Hl2 will you give the community at E3 2004? Is it the same presentation as 2003? Or will it be new videos, new screenshots, maybe an statement of the hacker who hacked you? Can you tell me anything that we will see that is "new" on E3. Since I can't afford to going there I just have to sit down and wait until Gamespy etc releases their information.



There is a rumor that says that you will release the official homepage for HL2 when E3 starts.



I would be glad if you could say anything that you will show on E3.



Cheers and keep on the good work. 30 September is still in the most "fans" hearts ;-)
 
I have never heard of Grand Master Status before. sounds kinda cool, though.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ben
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2004 11:01 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: A quick question about Grand Master.


Hi Mr. Newell,
I was just reading Voodoo Extreme, and I noticed one of the news posters wrote this:

"Still waiting on DOOM III to go gold, and someone told me that Half-Life 2 has reached "grand master status" (something like that, not sure what that translates in VU lingo) so maybe Half-Life 2 isn't as far off as we might think."

Is he crazy, or what?

Thanks for your time,
Ben
 
It will ship this year.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Bill [mailto:***]
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 8:49 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Setting a mind at rest

Hi Gabe

Things happening around now (magazine previews and build up to E3) with a lot of good messages and quotes coming out of you guys that your gonna make a summer release.

I understand you can’t say anything right now about the release date, but you could clear up a recent piece of news that’s kinda stirring things up, some site called VG Pro have taken it upon themselves to take an answer you gave to an interview in Polygon magazine, suggesting (In VG Pro's Mind) the game had a chance of being delayed into 2005.

It's a tense time in the community right now, everyone’s dying to start playing this game, and any light you could shed on any of these things would be great.

Thanks

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

Got bored, Decided to email them, Didnt expect a reply acctully, but it was quite speedy :O
 
HL-2 isn't delayed.

-----Original Message-----
From: Neale Roberts [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 10:33 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: No delay

Hi Gabe,

I don't suppose one of you guys would drop by our news forum and make a
brief post to say that Half-Life 2 isn't actually delayed? It doesn't
seem to matter what we post, they're still running round like headless
chickens.

Regards,

Neale "Pi Mu Rho" Roberts
Halflife2.net staff
__________________
Lead Designer/Modeller
I-fighter
www.i-fighter.co.uk
 
I was being dry. I hear several different ship dates a day from websites or magazines.

It's going to ship in the summer.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Alex
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 3:28 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Re: Maximum PC Release Date?


u speak like you dont know? you are the head of this operation arnt you?
anyway can you give me an estimate on how complete you guys are, 3/4 done 9/10
anything also
ive been hearing alot about somthing new coming up within the next few weeks?e3 perhaps?

nice talking to you,

-Alex
----- Original Message -----
From: Gabe Newell
To: Alex
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 12:11 AM
Subject: RE: Maximum PC Release Date?


Not that I know of.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Alex
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2004 7:23 PM
To: Gabe Newell; [email protected]; Rick Ellis
Subject: Maximum PC Release Date?


I just received my issue of maximum pc and it said half-life 2 is releasing nov. 2004.

True?

Thanks again,

-Alex
 
This thread is not intended for you to merely ask questions - you must e-mail Gabe ([email protected]) or another VALVe staffmember with your questions, get an answer, then post it here. I'm removing your post.
 
wbcheater said:
I was being dry. I hear several different ship dates a day from websites or magazines.

It's going to ship in the summer.
Click to expand...

Tell me that quote is real. :-O

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew E [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 6:51 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Steamy Goodness


Just a quick question, how much bandwith is behind Steam?

and...

Will you be releasing patches for Half-life 2 other than in Steam?

Lots. 10s of Gigabits.

Steam is our backend whether for retail packaged product or other delivery.

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew E [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 6:05 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject:


Does Half-life 2 support a driving wheel device for the drivable vehicles
(maybe even a flight stick, perhaps?)

What about a rumble feature for certain mice, etc..?

Thanks for your time.

yes on driving wheel
 
| | | Inbox


The SDK release will be on-going.

-----Original Message-----
From: rupert [mailto:****@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 1999 10:58 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Softimage XSI

Was the release of Sofimage XSI the first part of the SDK release or was
it actually a completely independent move simply pre arranged to be
backed by Valve whenever it would occur?
Thanks for your time,
Rupert xxx




I love this guy, every person who says valve doesnt support the community can kiss my arse.
 
I have no idea where Fragmaster thinks he gets information.

-----Original Message-----
From: Neale Roberts [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 12:58 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Fragmaster's comments

Hi Gabe,

After reading Fragmaster from planethalflife's comments in this thread:

http://www.forumplanet.com/planethalflife/topic.asp?fid=6549&tid=1352802

I suspect that most people are going to pick up on the part where he
says " I do know that content has been cut from the game in an attempt
to get it to ship sooner."
Can you confirm or deny this? If it's true, do you plan on releasing the
additional content at a later date?

I seek only clarification for our readers.

regards,

Neale Roberts

halflife2.net staff
www.halflife2.net
 
From: Mathijs Delva [mailto:*]
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 5:58 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Request


Hi,

I know you would like to ...kill... people like me, who just keep on complaining about releasing just one screenshot to the public. I can live with that. So anyway, this is not just a cry for hope / screenshot (;-)); it is a yell from heaven. The community NEEDS ONE screenshot of HL2. One screenshot of a nice location. That doesn't mean you have to take 'that' screenshot that might reveal something of the story of HL2, but just take one screenshot we didn't see yet. Oh god please, i can't beg you more than this...

Give the community even more credit by giving us 1 screenshot. It would do us so good. Btw, you guys are the first game producers of which i can truly say they're in contact with their community. I can never thank you more for answering all those fanmails.

Please.. Consider my request.

Cheers,

Mathijs
________________________________________________________________

A bunch of new stuff is coming out in the print mags starting immediately.

Again confirmed :)
 
Yes, we still use it.

Yes, it has benefits for the team as far as cohesiveness and morale.

Don't have a current count, but it's a lot.

We pick them because Erik Johnson thinks they'd give us useful data.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Chris Lilly [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 11:15 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Cabal Design Process


I just read a very interesting article posted by Ken Birdwell in 1999 about your team's design process you came up with during the creation of the original Half-Life called Cabal. I was wondering if you are still using the Cabal and how the process is going. Does it bring the team closer together or does someone really want a feature and someone else doesn't, does it cause any hard feelings at the office? Also, the article stated over 200 hours of playtesting for Half-Life. How much time has gone into playtesting Half-Life 2? How do you pick people to playtest the game in your offices? I know your team is busy, if you don't have time to answer this please try to forward it to someone else at the team that might have time to respond. Thanks, I'm looking forward to playing your latest game soon!

Chris

PiEdit - bolded the response
 
Original Question:

I am a part of a mod team for Half Life 2 (Neoshock @
www.neoshockmod.net/) and I have a few questions regarding mods with
Steam.

I understand that you and your team are working very hard on Half
Life 2 right now and are quite busy, but after the release of Half Life
2, how would third party mods be integrated with Steam? It's certainly
understandable if all of the details haven't been worked out yet, but
I'm curious to how this'll work. Would mod teams send Valve the code and
then Valve would have it available on Steam for all? Would you do this
for every mod out there? To be frank, there are, undoubtedly, going to
be mods that are shoddily done and extremely unpopular - would Valve
still host this mod's content? It seems like a tricky thing to deal with
- because their could be a fifty different mods, thirty of which very
very few will play.

Thanks in advance for any response.

-Josh

Response:

Hi Josh,

We don't have all the details worked out quite yet, but there will
likely be some review process in place to ensure only quality mods get
distributed via Steam. The community does a good job sorting them all
out so we will likely monitor closely what the community wants and
select mods for Steam based upon the community's reaction. As for
actually placing a mod on Steam, that's easy to do, we simply build a
master list here of the files that need to be distributed, add the mod
to the UI and the rest is magic :)

Rick
Valve
 
Yes you can pick things up with your hands as well.

Rick
Valve


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: XXXdirtyXXX [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wed 4/21/2004 5:08 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Hl2 lifting


Hi, I am truly sorry to bother you if this has been asked before but:
In HL2 can you pick up objects without the manipulator?

Thank you for your time, and keep up the great work.
 
The most impressive part about the response: I RECEIVED IT AFTER 2 MINUTES MAX. Apparently this is the time of day in which Gabe checks his mail ;) Mail starts now:
______________________________________________________

I think that it isn't a priority thing but a timing thing. Print mags
take longer, but they are embargoed. The on-line guys get it much
closer to the embargo date, so they still publish at the same time, but
with much more current stuff. It's an issue that any company working
with both print and on-line media has to deal with, and I don't think
we're different in how it is handled.

I like your idea overall, though.

-----Original Message-----
From: FraGNeMeSiS [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 10:50 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Potential Solution To Fanboy HL2 Spam-Mail!

Sir Gabe,

Hey, since I see so many repeats of emails you respond to on a daily
basis...

Do you mind if I take over Valve's E-mail duties? Come on...it'll be
fun!

You know you want to...

And since I haven't seen this one asked before, why give magazines
priority over online gaming sites regarding new HL2 news? For you, it
might be hard to imagine just how difficult it is for some to wait for
new HL2 info (no offense, but you get to look at the game every day!)

Michael Russo
 
We only use VC6.0 here but with some minor tweaks I would imagine it would be easy to get it to compile on GCC.

Rick
Valve

________________________________

From:
Sent: Fri 4/16/2004 10:35 AM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: The HL2 SDK and GCC compilers



Hi

I was wondering if you could compile the HL2 SDK on a GCC compiler like
Mingw. I use Dev-c++ as my IDE so it would be most convenient to use the
compiler that comes with it.
 
Yep.

It was probably the integration of acting and AI that was trickiest, not
necessarily an individual creature.

-----Original Message-----
From: rupert [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, January 08, 1999 4:44 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Excited?

Hey Mr. Newelle (sp?)

Just wondering whether you guys are in a buzz over E3 yet?
Must be a pretty mad time for devs, d all the staff get to go party or
are some left at home holding the fort?

Minor factual question but which of the enemies we've seen caused the
most grief in development from both HL and HL2, as in which was the
hardest to program right or design well, always wondered?

Cheers, Rupert
xxx
 
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