Info received from Valve ONLY - NO questions/discussion

[Chris D]

Originally posted by Chris_D
Just recieved confirmation from Gabe that Steam will NOT require an internet connection for LAN or single play. All you LAN partiers out there and guys in Australia with broadband where you pay for the bandwidth that you use or where your bandwidth is capped will not need to worry.

I'd just like to say before I post the e-mail that this is once again a fine example that Valve are NOT idiots like some of you seem to think.
And all you conspiracy theorists can all rest with your "omg teh Vaelv hav a deel wiv meh ISP so tha tehy get moor munnie from meh!!"

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Deeming [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 4:16 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Will it never cease?


I'm not sure if it will ever cease or not. The constant nagging question
that people are asking - Will Steam be required to have an internet
connection active when starting up a singleplayer game or a LAN game?

It's giving me a headache

Seen the petition yet?

Chris_D

No, it won't.

There will be a brief transition (like two weeks) when it is necessary, but
then it will go away. It's a temporary issue.

EDIT: If you all want a screenie to prove authenticity, then let me know and I'll post one up.

 

[StooMonster]

widescreen support

Got an email back from Gabe Newell of Valve, RE widescreen support in H-L2 -- e.g. 1360x768 rather than 1024x768, or 1920x1200 rather than 1600x1200. Also, who wants to play at 60Hz?

Quick response too, I sent message at 21:24 my time (1:24 PM his time) and got a reply in less than half an hour.

S.

-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe Newell [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 12 September 2003 21:50
To: 'Stuart Fotheringham'
Cc: Brian Jacobson
Subject: RE: widescreen support in H-L2?

Yes on Widescreen.

Yes you can set the refresh rate in the UI.

-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart Fotheringham
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2003 1:24 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: widescreen support in H-L2?


Gabe

Will H-L2 support screens/monitors of the 16:9 or 16:10 ratio rather than just old square 4:3 ratio screens?

Also, will you be able to select vertical refresh rate as well as resolution? BF1942 has a flag to turn this on, UT2003 lets you do it in the .ini; it would be nice to have it in the setup interface.

Good luck with H-L2!

Stuart

 

[Chazz]

Good to see the old Gaber still has some humor in this late stage of the game.

-----Original Message-----
From: Chazz [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2003 6:06 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: A couple quick questions.


Firstly, greetings and salutations, ye god of the Cult of Half-Life 2. I'm
well aware that it's crunch time and then some over there at Valve, hence,
why these are QUICK questions

1: How is it that you answer some folks' emails almost instantly? Sheer dumb
luck that they happen to catch you in a slow moment and checking your
e-mail? Or perhaps, something more... :minous thunder::

Because my secret masters in the sky tell me I need to respond to those
specific messages. And don't forget to qwertzinrdl the granstaafl.

2: The date "February 3rd" and its numerous misspellings seems to have
cropped up as the doubters' latest and by far most popular 'real release
date.' Do you have any knowledge of official statements that would lead to
that conclusion, or was it just the most popular speculation that you will
be laughing heartily at come September 30th?

I have never said any date other than September 30th.

Thank you in advance for your time and patience, and keep up the fantastic
work. If it is of any service, I'll see what I can do about importing some
excellent coffee for you guys, I'm guess you hard working peoples will
probably be needing it

- Chazz

 

[Obraxis]

Ok, big post from me here.....

-----Original Message-----
From: Obraxis
To: [email protected]
Subject: XSI and 9800's

Hi there.

Sorry to bother you, I know you must be busy and get 1000's of emails, but there is something I think the XSI community needs to know.

Having seen the early HL2 benchmarks, its made me wonder. In your workstations at Valve, do you guys use ATi cards? If so, do you guys get many artifacts or bugs while using XSI? And have you found ways around them? If you guys dont use them, what do you use, can I ask?

A number of people I know in the XSI community are wondering the same, and we need to know before we take the plunge and buy an ATi card.

Cheers man - good luck with the game!

-Scott M
XSI Animator.

Gabe forward my email to the relivent area of Valve...

Hi Scott,

We are mostly running XSI on systems with ATI FireGL X1 boards. We don't have any artifacts or issues, though we had to work through a few until we got the right drivers. The FireGL cards do a great job with dual monitor support (we _all_ run dual monitor for XSI now, since the interface lends itself so well to customization) and they do a good job with running our engine as well.

Best wishes,
Bill Van Buren
Valve

He also responds again after a few mins...


Hi Scott,

I just spoke with Gareth Morgan, product manager for XSI and he says that they’re running fine on 9800’s. ATI and Softimage have been very good about being proactive about driver issues – I wouldn’t have any trepidation about it.

Best wishes,

Bill Van Buren
Valve

I wanted to get in deeper, as to why Valve switched over to XSI from MAX....

-----Original Message-----
From: Obraxis
To: Bill Van Buren
Subject: Re: XSI and 9800's

Thanks man - much appreciated.
I think it's nearly time to open my wallet and grab an ATi card.

If I can ask, what made you guys change over from MAX to XSI, and what version of XSI did u guys start with?

Oh, one more thing, do you guys have a headcrab piñata wating to be destroyed like you did in the office when u hit gold for H-L1?

Take some pics/movies and put them on Steam

Thanks - Good luck with the game, and make sure Gabe gets some painkillers for his headache.

Cheers

-Scott M
XSI Animator

And his responce, is a very good one...

Hi Scott,

No piñata plans that I know about…

MAX broke its backward compatibility between version 2.5 and 3.0 and again between 3.1 and 4.0 – meaning you couldn’t just load your old version content into the new version – you had to redo it. This incompatibility kept us stuck in 3.1 and the tools just weren’t good enough – I’m fond of MAX’s modeler and the texturing and material tools are all solid, but we ran into limitations in terms of animation and especially enveloping (physique-ing). Perhaps most importantly, we found that our content was very volatile – you couldn’t edit the texture coordinates, or change vertex animations or edit the mesh without losing the envelope, or you couldn’t edit the mesh or UVs without losing the vertex animations, etc.. This had us in a situation where we couldn’t improve our content without having to throw away a lot of good work. At the root of it, I think that this comes from having such a fundamental portion of the program as Character Studio as essentially a ‘plug-in’.

Moving from MAX 3.1 was going to involve some pain for us whether we moved to MAX 4.0, Maya or XSI, so we put it off for a long time, hoping to ship HL2 with our existing pipeline but it finally became more painful _not_ to change. XSI got really interesting to us around version 2.0 – by 2.5 it was solid and full featured and had the best set of animation tools out there. We also liked the overall design of XSI and its organization and workflow, and the sub-d implementation is phenomenal. But the main thing for us was the company and the people. I’ve been working in 3D since the mid ‘80s, and I’ve never worked with an organization that is this proactive and helpful. We couldn’t get any support or even much good information from the developers at Discreet, and I don’t have especially fond memories of my experience with Alias/Wavefront’s organization during my years as a Power Animator user. Softimage has been extremely responsive to our needs, they helped us port our content and tools and have been very solicitous of our needs in moving XSI forward after each new release.

Best wishes,

Bill Van Buren
Valve

I cant thank Bill and Gabe enough for answering my emails with such depth. I hope you guys keep well.

 

[Fender357]

I love you, man.
-----Original Message-----
From: Nathan Lane [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2003 9:12 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: THANK YOU!!!!


Just thought you'd like to see this thread on Halflife2.net

Just to make sure you guys know we love what your doing for us.



THANK YOU VALVE!!!!!!!!
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=6952

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

You herd it here first.....Gabe loves me. And man am I happy! Out of all the e-mails I sent to him this is the one he answers. Gotta love the guy.

(and he replyed pretty quick)

 

[Arnaldo42]

About 95% of what you saw in the E3 videos would look the same in DX8. The
DX9 stuff is more what you would see in the recently released HDR demo.

-----Original Message-----
From: Arnaldo *****
To: Gabe Newell
Sent: 9/13/2003 3:28 PM
Subject: Re: Do I really need to sell my 5900 Ultra to play HL² at a decent
framerate?

But that would kill the DX9 shaders. If it can't run that, then it's not
worth running with a "top of the line graphics card". Thanks for taking
the time to answer my question.



Arnaldo



----- Original Message -----
From: "Gabe Newell" <[email protected]>
To: "'Arnaldo ***** '"
Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2003 6:24 PM
Subject: RE: Do I really need to sell my 5900 Ultra to play HL² at a
decent
framerate?


No. The easiest way to get speed is to set the game to run in DX8 mode
instead of DX9. That should give you more than enough speed.

-----Original Message-----
From: Arnaldo *****
To: Gabe Newell
Sent: 9/13/2003 2:53 PM
Subject: Do I really need to sell my 5900 Ultra to play HL² at a decent
framerate?

Because accourding to the benchmarks released I can only get 30FPS with
my card. And that's not a playable framerate. Do I really need to buy an
ATi or is it a driver problem that can be fixed?

Arnaldo

 

[FISKER_Q]

I only needed the answer on the steam question
(This is edited to look nicer, answers and questions meaning stay the same, log is available further down, it had some chat from the day before, cause i didn't know how to install mods)

`-FISKER_Q: Hey coomer
greg_coomer: hi.

`-FISKER_Q: When steam becomes irresponsive is it then because it's like verifying with the server?
greg_coomer: yes.

`-FISKER_Q: Why is HL2 media removed?
greg_coomer: the HL2 media was only for during the beta.
greg_coomer: partly to test steam...
`-FISKER_Q: There's no more media then? Not even the 3 other movies you mentioned?
greg_coomer: the videos were really big, and we don't have enough content servers to ship the movies to all the non-beta users.
`-FISKER_Q: Would they then come out as a seperate download or will you scrap it totally?
greg_coomer: we may still release them, but we've got to get the system stable first.


`-FISKER_Q: you've said you wanted P2P in the steam, is that going to be a reality?
greg_coomer: Right now we're wishing it already was a reality... down the road it probably will be.


`-FISKER_Q: What about the "cafe project" you have made for cyber cafés, how does that work.
greg_coomer: Right now, it is the same Steam client that everyone has. We can ship a full installer to cafe's on CD if they want.
`-FISKER_Q: Well i was thinking it would be a kind like the "Microsoft Sharepoint services" where you setup a server to get the content for you, and the clients use that as a "content server". Also you will be able to use one login for several licenses
`-FISKER_Q: But i guess that's also a step down the road?
greg_coomer: yes, down the road.
greg_coomer: The plan to allow one login for several licenses is not actually planned yet. We will be adding features to make things easier for cafe owners and gaming venue proprietors, however.

 

[SaiboT]

We're going to release the videos. Mainly we're trying to get past the initial bandwidth tsunami before putting more stuff on Steam.

-----Original Message-----
From: James [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003 4:07 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: HL2 vids


Hi Gabe, I was just wondering one thing. Didn't you all at Valve say that when the Steam client was released it would be accompanied by the remaining 3 HL2 e3 vids? The main reason I downloaded and installed the Steam client was to get the last 3 vids, but to my surprise and disappointment they were taken off Steam completely.
So are you still planning on releasing the final 3 vids, via Fileplanet, Fileshack etc.?
Thanks. =D

 

[omlette]

I can finally post in this topic!

We're working on this 24x7. Once again we underestimated how much demand would get placed on the system this quickly.

Gabe
-----Original Message-----
From: omlette [mailto[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003 5:00 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: So anyways... about Steam.


Hey there.

Let me start off by saying I'm a helper in the official Steam IRC channels - I am pro-steam all the way. However, the recent public release of Steam has me very worried. As you have most likely noticed, there is much public uprise against the system. You know by now that the release was chaotic, the content servers suffered a massive strain and there were quite a few of bugs and glitches.

Steam is a fantastic concept in theory - but as of now, something needs to be done. It needs to look nicer, perform a lot better, and you need more bandwidth. If HL2 ships with the Steam we know today, it could be a very painful blow to the success of an otherwise great game.

Just a reply letting me know that you are aware of the concerns of us gamers would comfort me enough to trust you guys on this.

Sincerely,
omlette (your biggest fan )

(PS: Please, if not in this email, clear up the release date issues soon. No one has any idea when to expect HL2, and it's irritating a lot of people).

 

[davey1971]

Yes, you can reuse the cache file or move cache files between computers.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Cronk [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2003 6:34 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Reinstalling Windows and having to download HL2 again?


Hello Gabe,

I know you are busy, but just have one question about Steam and HL2.

I reinstall my computer often, because I am constantly installing and
reinstalling software. I find that windows gets corrupt, and just needs to

have a fresh start.

My concern is, if I buy the Steam version of HL2, everytime I reinstall my
computer I will have to download HL2 again from Steam.

Can I burn the Cache file onto a CD once I download it, and then use it
later? Or is there some way I can burn HL2 so that I do not have to
download it again?

Thanks you for your time

 

[hunter-killer25]

woah i can finally post a totaly unique question!
and i gott'a say WOAH AWSOME!!!!

yes

yes

probably

-----Original Message-----
From: **** ******* [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2003 1:19 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: hey, quick question Gabe


hi (my seventh e-mail other six you didn't answer :/) quick question

would i be able to build a vehicle that had different parts that could
A: fall off when they lose enough health

and if i could i make it so when the vehicle is destroyed, the gas tank in
the back explodes and the peices of the car go flying (according to the
physics not scripted) and can do damage to a player if they hit him (like
you don't pass through the debris.... it's solid)

also will there be halflife 2 hats? ( i love hats )

thanks for your time, i hope you use some of your time to answer me this
time

 

[Mr.Radar]

I'm kinda surprised they don't already have something like this for their own private use.

That's a pretty good idea.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mr.Radar [mailto:**************]
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2003 1:49 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Steam File-System Browser?


Will you release a tool that allows you to 'look' inside cache files and
extract/modify non-protected(encrypted or not-yet-released) content?
Also, why are some steam servers near overload(like GAMESPY) while
others are wayyyy underloaded(like the NEXON servers)? And have you
seen this(http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7098)
thread on the HL2.net Steam forums?

 

[A2597]

O...M...Gosh...
This is gunna ROCK:


When we add motion blur to Source, you'd probably get this for free.
-----Original Message-----
From: A2597 [mailto:##############]
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2003 8:28 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: taking screenshots...


I'm curious as to wether something like this is/can be added though a patch or 3rd party mod.
a High Quality screenshot feature, where the person has two options available, reguler, and enhanced. The enhanced mode being that it takes 3-5 screenshots and overlays them, thus creating a sence of motion. Could work really well for some action sequences.
Just an idea...

A2597-

 

[Bloodsent]

There isn't a way to deal with this currently, but it is something we're
going to have to do.

-----Original Message-----
From: Bloodsent
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 5:59 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Ability to change e-mail address after signing up on Steam?


Erik,

Thank you for taking the time to read my E-mail.

I have had no luck in finding this answer, and it concerns me. Once an
account is created through Steam, and a Username is bound to a CD-Key and a
SteamID is assigned, will it be possible to change the E-mail address
associated with that account at a later time? Example would be that my ISP
goes out of business a year from now and my E-mail address is no longer
valid. Is it possible? Are there any consequences to this?

My fear is that I will be forced to create a new account with a new CD-Key.
I hope you can take the time to set my fears to rest.

Regards

 

[Apos]

This was posted on PHL, an interview by "Elmar"

Are there any plans to support Half-Life Blue Shift through Steam? Why not?
[Erik Johnson] Yes, we're going to look at this. There is an issue that we have to address where Blue Shift made some changes to the engine.

Will there be a training mission (that shipped with a retail CS) in Steam's Counter Strike?

[Erik Johnson] We cut this content as much of it will be redone for CZ. We were never very happy with how it came about, and the bots provide us with a much better mechanism to train people in how to play Counter-Strike.

Will Steam (in the future) use the RETAIL editions of CS and DOD, with all of their RETAIL exclusive content?
[Erik Johnson] That should be the case now.

Will you include the option for users to use High Definition Models; the new models that shipped with Half-Life Blue Shift in a High Definition Pack?
[Erik Johnson] This is also something we need to deal with. I'll add it to our list.

Will there be support for Gunman Chronicles (a forgotten Valve game that is based on HL Tech.)?
[Erik Johnson] This is in the same realm as Blue Shift, but yeah, we need to get this on Steam also.

Since "everything" is converted to Steam, such as DOD, will there be some kind of a benefit for people who have purchased the RETAIL version of DOD? As I understand, the RETAIL DOD that shipped on a CD, has NO VALUE - and my $29.99 is gone too...
[Erik Johnson] For the few people that never bought Half-Life or Counter-Strike, there is some value in this.

 

[Magicpants]

Yes!

I can't give you the exact date yet, but won't be too long.
How has Steam been working for you so far?

-Greg

-----Original Message-----
From: Sam Marshallsay
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 1:36 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Real quick - i won't take up much of your time

Sorry I just have to ask.... Are you going to release CS:CZ over Steam?

Thanks Greg.

 

[PrimalGod]

Not for gameplay, although it would help if you are running a bunch of big demos back to back. Our demo machines at E3 had a gig so we could run through the demo sequence without ever hitting the hard drive.
-----Original Message-----
From: Sean []
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 8:46 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: RAM Question


I know you're busy so I'll try to be fast. I was wondering if there's much of a performance difference in HL2 between having 512MB of RAM and 768 - 1Gig. Thanks for your time! And by the way, that was really cool of you guys to let that kid tour your place. Hats off to you. Thanks!

-Sean

 

[Wilkshake]

We need to hurry up and ship, just to keep you distracted from writing new songs.

-----Original Message-----
From: Wilkshake [*********************]
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 5:20 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: My Song (The 12 Days of Half-Life 2)


I looked at my calendar today (I live in Australia) and realised that it's
now 12 Days until September 30, and I just couldn't let this momentous
occasion pass by without letting my creative juices flow. As a result, I
give you "The 12 Days of Half-Life 2"!


On the first day of Half-Life 2, my true Gabe sent to me,
A head crab on a zombie.

On the second day of Half-Life 2, my true Gabe sent to me,
Two Vance's running

On the third day of Half-Life 2, my true Gabe sent to me,
Three combine soldiers

On the fourth day of Half-Life 2, my true Gabe sent to me,
Four shooting sentries

On the fifth day of Half-Life 2, my true Gabe sent to me,
Five G-Man agents

On the sixth day of Half-Life 2, my true Gabe sent to me,
Six stryders striding

On the seventh day of Half-Life 2, my true Gabe sent to me,
Seven manhacks spinning

On the eighth day of Half-Life 2, my true Gabe sent to me,
Eight ant-lions charging

On the ninth day of Half-Life 2, my true Gabe sent to me,
Nine Barneys leaping

On the tenth day of Half-Life 2, my true Gabe sent to me,
Ten gunships firing

On the eleventh day of Half-Life 2, my true Gabe sent to me,
Eleven scanners scanning

On the twelfth day of Half-Life 2, my true Gabe sent to me,
Twelve crowbars swinging.


All the best with the game. I'm definitely looking forward to playing it for
many hours!

 

[Bridger]

Answers below:

-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 4:47 PM
To: Erik Johnson
Subject: FW: Spectator Options in HL2/Source - Regaurding Mass
Spectators




-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 6:17 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Spectator Options in HL2/Source - Regaurding Mass Spectators


Hey Gabe, I'm a GameCaster for the Team Sportscast Network
(www.tsncentral.com). We use shoutcast internet radio to broadcast play by
play for online competative games (CS/Q3/UT2k3/RtCW etc). It's really
exciting and we get a lot of listeners but the #1 complaint is "why can't we
watch it too?" So....

1) Will HL2 have a utility similer to HLTV?

>>> Yes.

2) Will it be modable? (such as modifying it to include a shoutcast stream
directly into the HLTV audio?).

>>> This is a pretty good idea. I'll pass it on.

Thanks for your time, still awaiting TF2 info! ARRRRG!

 

[Lain]

No. One copy can play any language. Language assets that aren't already on your machine are transmitted by Steam.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ubaldo Navaro Hernández [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2003 5:20 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Re: language question


man yes to : i have to buy different versions of half life 2 in order to play it on spanish or english?
----- Original Message -----
From: Gabe Newell
To: 'Ubaldo Navaro Hernández'
Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2003 7:09 PM
Subject: RE: language question


Yes.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ubaldo Navaro Hernández [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2003 9:42 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: language question


man, im sorry for all the mail i've send to you, but i have a question, im mexican so will extra languages are going to be incorporated to a same version of half life 2 i mean if i buy hl 2 here in mexico am i going to be able to play it on english too? coz i hate how games are transalated into spanish and i love to play them on english, so will i have to buy it at another country

 

[Magicpants]

Just in case you guys were wondering what was wrong with Steam today....Greg asked me to let him know how Steam worked out for me.....Amusingly he replied within 5 minutes of me sending the message but then i suppose it's around 2pm over there ( -8 GMT?? UK myself.)...


> Sam
> Glad things are (mostly) working for you now. We're having some downtime
> today. We really hate when that happens.
> Thanks for the kind words,
> -Greg
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sam Marshallsay
> Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 11:57 AM
> To: Greg Coomer
> Subject: Re: Real quick - i won't take up much of your time
>
>
> I got the new version of Steam - works great for me, at least it did yesterday. I assume you are updating the servers or something today.
>
> To be honest I expect to download HL2 over Steam now that it seems stable. Especially if the 'International Release' is not quite synchronised (i.e USA and Steam first, i'm in UK)
>
> Shame i can't say the same about CS 1.6 - it seemed to break more than it fixed, but hey i'm all for HL2 now
>
> GL With Steam and HL2 - I hope you get both finished on time.
> (or stop your delay tactics and behave if they're already done, hehehe)
>
> Sam Marshallsay

 

[Templar Wizard]

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2003 3:18 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Hi Gabe


Hey Gabe,

i find your answering of emails from the public absolutely unbelievable! it truely is amazing.
may i throw in my 2 cents?

im very curious as to why you intend to release HL2 on Steam and at retail at the same time?
you know you have the biggest hit of the decade on your hands (a100% lock-in on that)

surely the Steam release would enable you to take all the money from the inital release and get you some of that sweet sweet money you poured into the development.


From Gabe:

Because some of our customers would prefer to buy it at retail.

In countries like Korea where the retail availability may lag, where the retail infrastructure is weak, and where a high percentage of homes have broadband, Steam will be a high percentage of sales. In countries like England, where the retail product will be available either simultaneously or close to the US release (we don't control those dates, only the Steam dates), the retail infrastructure is very well established, and where somewhere in the neighborhood of 2% of households have broadband, I'd expect the vast majority of sales will be at retail.

Hopefully Steam will mean that more customers around the world will have access to localized versions of the game much sooner than otherwise.

 

[Sotrax]

I've been talking to Charlie Cleveland about getting NS onto Steam.

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxxxxx [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 2:47 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Little Question about Steam


Hi there,

First of all, steam is great, i like the whole idea and will surely
subscribe for the monthly subscription when hl2 is out.
What I want to ask, are there any plans on bringing "Third Party Mods"
onto steam, such as "Natural Selection" (a HL-Mod)? Or will there be
just mods from valve where an retail version exists on steam?

Many thanks about any comment, and good luck for the whole steam
projekt,

xxxxx xxxxx

 

[DaLys]

Hey Martin,

I've answered your questions below.


-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 4:46 PM
To: Erik Johnson
Subject: FW: Some HL2 questions.




-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Lissmats [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 7:53 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Some HL2 questions.


Hi Mr. Newell!

1. I was wondering if there will be a HL2 dedicated server for linux (or
even better, *BSD maybe?) on the HL2 CD's. If not, when do you plan to
release a HL2 dedicated server for linux/*nix?

>>> Yes, we'll have a linux version of the dedicated server.

2. Can you give me some more info about the .VTF file format that is used
for spray decals? (and probably for other stuff also) I can't find anything
on google about it. Is it your own format? Maybe you have a url to some page
that explain all technical stuff about it? That would be great.

>>> It's our own format. It's a simple key/value pair system.

3. Can i use the VGUI2, or whatever you called it, to send and recieve data?
Would I be, for example, able to build a IRC client/web browser and so on
for the VGUI2?

>>> We're going to open up the UI more for modding very soon. The thing you
describe (IRC) is one of the first things I would expect people to do.

4. In discussions about killing a strider at halflife2.net's forum many
people say they would shoot something to one of its leg to make it fall. Is
that possible or will it only fall when it dies?

(He didn't answer this one)

/ Martin Lissmats, Sweden

 

[Profit]

1280x1024 Support

Yes

/me is now happy

From: Antony [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 12:03 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: 1280x1024 Support


Hi Gabe,

I scanned the forums for this answer before emailing you...

Will 1280x1024 be supported (common native resolution of 17" LCD's)

Thanks for your time.

Antony

 

[mchammer75040]

Hey if u can answer these it would be appreciated if not i understand.

1) Is there someway that i can make a pipe that runs along a wall and when
players shot it steam shoots out and injuries players that get hit by it?

2) What are you doing right now?

Thanks in advance and good luck on getting everything ready in 2 weeks! From

everyone at the halflife2.net forum id like to say we love you guys and we
look forawrd to hl2s release!

Gabe:
1)yes
2)replying to email

(ahh damnit i knew i was gonna get that answer)

 

[supangr]

Yes.

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe G
To: [email protected]
Sent: 9/19/2003 11:51 PM
Subject: Windows 2003 server.

I know it's not a game OS, and it will probably not be supported, but
does the Half-life 2 client install and run successfully on windows 2003
server please?

 

[fifty7var]

fifty7var says:
does valve plan to predownload HL2 to users machines (when purchased thru steam) prior to the 30th?
JohnC says:
you're going to have to ask gabe about that sorry

JohnC has gone offline.
Message could not be delivered.


** logged off, or removed me, faster than i could say "ok"

[edit] nm, he's back. not as shady as it sounded

 

[Frank]

yes
-----Original Message-----
From: nicolas vetterli [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 9:53 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Tokyo!


It'll be old material from the E3 that you're going to show, won't it?

Now start worshipping me, bitches!

 

[SpuD]

From: "Doug Lombardi" <[email protected]> | This is spam | Add to Address Book
To: "'Adam(SpuD)'" <[email protected]>, "Gabe Newell" <[email protected]>, "John Cook" <[email protected]>, [email protected]
Subject: RE: HalfLife2.net wants confirmation.
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 22:04:59 -0700

Hi.

Yes, I sent that note to Shack.

Sorry it didn't reach the entire press list at once.

And, as you may have guessed, that's all we can say -- for the moment anyway.

Cheers
-----Original Message-----
From: Adam(SpuD) [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 9:46 PM
To: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: HalfLife2.net wants confirmation.


Hello, I am SpuD from the halflife2.net staff team.

With all this speculation of the release dates and now this magical email that all the sites are reporting about has thrown many into confusion about the release date.

First off, I want to verify this new email that all the sites are posting about.
Second, can you tell me the exact release date now. Hopefully it hasnt changed.


And can you tell Fragmaster to be a mature boy and not rub it in if we beleivers are wrong.



SpuD

 

[Robert]

<-

 

[Joneleth]

Thought I'd put this up here, just for people who're interested.

 

[MistaB]

Just take a look. Its in a book. Reading rainbow.

 

[Tork]

I think Gary actually tried this because he already answered my question saying that it could be done by a mod and then today I get a email again from him saying that it could be done easily with a mod. here is the whole email.

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

It could be done by a mod pretty easily.

Gary
-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 9:14 PM
To: 'john doe'
Cc: Gary McTaggart
Subject: RE: Very quick question.

Gary, are you familiar with the effect?

-----Original Message-----
From: john doe [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 9:00 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Very quick question.

Is it possible for Half-life2 to kind of have like a Metroid Prime view where its seems like if you are inside a helmet ? kind of like a visor view, is that possible by in source? Another example is in Star Wars Galaxies , there is a option where it bends the screen.

thank you for your time.

 

[schelle]

Its a bit old but I think its okay to know

You will be able to control filtering and anti-aliasing from the game.
-----Original Message-----
From: christian schellenberger [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 8:55 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Graphic Settings in HL²


Hi Gabe!
At first I have to say that I am yearning to the day when it will come onto my harddisk
IT is the best game I've ever seen and IT will be the best game for years...No, its surely not an overstatement.

But now let me come to my questions:
Can tell me which options for the graphics adapter you'll offer directly in the game?
e.g. AA or AF Settings?
It is not very comfortable to change the settings everytime I play other games or use programs which have no setting options.

I am looking forward to your answer, thanks for your time.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

(In response to an enquiry about licensing)

Thanks for your interest in the Half-Life 2 Source engine. We are currently
not shipping SDK's to mod developers but will be shortly.

Thanks,
Rick Ellis
Valve Software
[email protected]

 

[Syphoon!!]

I'm finding it hard to copy and paste this because of the muffed reply tags and indenting, but the emails were like this (If you don't know what I'm asking about, check the links mentioned):

Dear Gabe.
What's a knife machine? And what's a knife stump? I really have no
idea...

Why do you ask?

http://www.valvesoftware.com/gabe/km.jpg
http://www.valvesoftware.com/gabe/ks.jpg

They are pieces of art for the office.

What's the theme? Surrealism? Modernism? Sillyism?

Pointillist.

 

[H2HSnake]

Damn it's true!!!! god damn it!!!!

Gabe answered:

A press release went out. I'm not sure how much more official we can get.

-----Original Message-----
From: Sebastian Rybaczek [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 3:08 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Stupid joke right?


HL2 Delay is some stupid joke right? cause if it was true You would make an
official statement(not an e-mail to shacknews)...that's how responsible
people do,and i think You're one of them.(we 're all pissed off !!! but
well still buy this game)

 

[Yatta]

Gabe said:

Let's just say, Alyx is not my type.

-----Original Message-----
From: Yatta R. [edited to hide my e-mail)]
Sent: Friday, September 25, 2003 4:15 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Alyx in the Nude


Hello Gabe, I'm Yatta, as you already know. I hope you enjoyed my previous e-mails such as the one asking whether you were Family Guy or not. Okay, let's get back on topic. I was wondering if you are looking forward to seeing Alyx in the nude in a possible upcoming modification for Half-Life 2? Please reply soon, thanks.

Yatta

 

[Phlek]

From: "Gabe Newell" <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Netcode
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 12:42:23 -0700

Not true.

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 12:22 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Netcode


Is it true the game was delayed because you were not done with the netcode, or there were still many bugs with it? I've heard this through the grapevine and was curious if it was true or not, thanks for your time.

- Ben