Info received from Valve ONLY - NO questions/discussion

[Chris D]

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris D
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 7:57 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Hey Gabe


Thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and e-mail you like everybody else is as
HL2.net. You getting sick of it all yet?

Anyway, I know that no matter how much anyone probes you all, you won't yet
divulge what the multiplayer mode will be in HL2, or whether it'll have
anything to do with CS2 or TF2 etc. But can you at least tell us when to
expect some news on HL2 MP, CS2 and TF2? We're all eagerly waiting!

Thanks Gabe
Chris

That's right.
Nope.

 

[Andy018]

we've already done this

in general we try to be mod friendly as possible

----Original Message----

Hey Gabe,

I'm sure you must of been asked this question but I have to admit as much as
I've followed the media frenzy over Half-Life 2 I haven't seen this question
being asked or answered

So without further a do my question LOL

If a MOD team wanted to convert the original Half-Life story and maps over
to Half-Life2's Source engine would you allow them to do this or like
3DRealms would you send the in the legal teams so to speak?

Good luck with the rest of the game
Ill be in touch with more questions when I can think of something original
lol

Thanks
Andy

 

[MoD]

Damn, and I was all excited, still, this is proof that valve people are cool:

MoD says:
Hello
MoD says:
Any news regarding steam hl2 media release?
Erik Johnson says:
Should be in less than a week.
MoD says:
May I publicise this?
Erik Johnson says:
Sure.
MoD says:
You people are godly.
MoD says:
when ill die and go to heaven, I fully expect it to be a valve office.
Erik Johnson says:
We try to keep the corpse count down to a minimum around here.
MoD says:
That's always a godo thing. Bye! :>
Erik Johnson says:
Goodbye.

Steam is cool.

 

[lastandroid]

He didn't really answer my question, but hinted at yes.

-----Original Message-----
From: Nelson Beers [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2003 6:38 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Tech and E3 demo maps being released with game?

Hi!
I was wondering if tech demo maps and/or the demo maps from E3 were going to be released with the game or for download when the game come out. I think it would be very good if some or all of them were released to the public. They would be lots of fun to play with, but it would also be good for modders and mappers to see what can be done and how to do it.
The E3 demo with the gravity gun (the first one with the blue beam) is the thing I would like to see the most.
Thanks for your time,
LastAndroid

We will be releasing a lot of game source with the SDK and more over time. We'll use Steam to update the SDK.

 

[SidewinderX]

didn't exactly answer my question but....

-----Original Message-----
From: David Petkofsky [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 12:01 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: HL2 Physics and Multiplayer


Hi!

Just have a question for you. I know the physics in HL2 are amazing, I've seen the videos. I would like to know how they work in multiplayer. Are the physics in the multiplayer client-side so that only you see them? Or are they server-side so if you push a desk infront of a door it's blocking the door for everyone else. And if it is server-side, does the number of interactive objectings in the level impact lag? I would imagine that haveing the server send information about the the objects would create a lot of lag, or have you guys managed to create netcode good enoguh so you don't have to worry about it?


Thanks for your time,
David "SidewinderX" Petkofsky

Yahn and Mike have been working on the netcode quite a bit. It's much easier for MOD makers to extend now, and has better performance.

In your game code, you decide whether specific physics are client side or server side. Debris spew, for instance, can almost certainly be safely limited to client side. All the players see debris spew, they just don't see the same debris spew. A moving desk, though, would almost certainly need to be server side because the exact position matters to all of the clients.

 

[vakuum]

Hi Tore,

Does it have a bumpmap texture for every texture?
Can a bumpmap from texture_rock be placed as bumpmap on texture_wood?

Bump mapping is defined per texture. Not every texture will need
bumpmapping.

Does the texture system have any "color code"?
Like a wall was grey, and you had to add the right color in hammer.
(This was just an idea I had, cause it would make it possible to use 1
texture on many walls.
And it would not seem to be the same old boring texture.)

No. Diffferent textures require... well, different textures.

Is it possible with animated textures\bumpmaps?

Is it possible to have animated textures that have a bumpmap? I'm pretty
sure this is possible.

Does the new texture system require 8x8 textures? (like 128x128 and 64x64)
Or is it now possible with 2000x500?

Textures sizes must still be multiples of 8.

Hope that helps!

Chris.

 

[PimpMidget]

Hey gabe. I can't wait.
Alright. Here we go.

If i pay you back in sexual favors can i get an
advance copy of the game?

Whose sexual favors? If they are Cameron Diaz's, and you get my wife
to agree, then you're on.

Alright real question now. So is record a demo and what not going to be as easy as in HL?

It will be easier. Yahn has done a bunch of stuff including an in-game
demo editor. You can set a camera track, a target track, interpolate between paths, yadda yadda yadda. We did it with machinima in mind.

Are you going to have a built in thing to convert the
demo into pictures (like geek play)

Yes, we're using that now to generate the E3 videos. Gary's working on
automatically exporting bink files from the engine.

Are the pictures that you take in game. Are they still
going to be .bmps. Or are you going to try and do
.jpgs

BMPs. We assume people will have their own tools for image
management/conversion.

Alright last one. Are you the PR guy for HL2. I mean
there has to be a crap load of letters you get. So how
do you deal with it all?

By not sleeping and typing really fast.

 

[Grimresfa]

Hello, i am a long time half life fan with a few questions that i would love

to have answered if you have the time :-D.


1: A problem in games that i have found is that when playing you will have a

large number of friendlys or enemies but they will all really look the same.

Which can really bore someone who likes variety. The charachters that don't
really matter such as a group of scientist though some of them may differ,
you will see the same charachter several times some times in the same place.

have you found a way to get around this problem?


2: One thing many people have wondered about is the crow bar animation, when

he swung it did the same animation and did not apear as though it had really

hit the wood. Any iformation on this i would love.


3: I am not sure if you can answer this but ingame will you be able to save
your progress whenever you want. Or will it follow more checkpoints?


4: lets say you wanted to make a mod of a charachter built out of some sorta

liquid, would it be possible... or more easy to make that charachter be able

to turn into a puddle and then rebuild itself into the creature it was, or
even a new creature?




everybody looks different

there was a bug in the DEM playback related to prediction, so it looked like
the crowbar (and the swinging beam) were causing things to move before they
hit them. This was a playback problem since fixed, not a gameplay issue.
The crowbar is physically simulated.

You can save whenever you want. We will also auto-save for you as well.

You could do this but it would take some work. It's a nice MOD kind of
problem.

 

[SidewinderX]

I'm sorta fixated on the lag and netcode....

-----Original Message-----
From: David Petkofsky [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 12:53 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Physics and the HL2 Netcode


Hi!

I understand that you are/have worked on the netcode for half-life 2, and I have a question for you. Does the netcode allow for you to have a bunch of objects that can be manipulated to alter the level (I.e. desks infront of doors, boxes to make ladders, wood that's destroyable) or does this create too much lag?

Thanks for your time,
David "SideiwnderX" Petkofsky

Packet size, which can factor into lag is more dependent on how many objects are changing state per message. The physics system, also, has perf considerations related to the # of objects actively simulating (moving). For desks, boxes, etc., I don't think this will be an issue at all. If you were talking about 100s of objects moving at once, then maybe. I'd have to test that out.

Yahn

 

[SD1]

next Monday. today is Fileplanet day.

-----Original Message-----
From: XXXXXX.co.uk [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 12:37 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Final Comments On Video


Hiya Gabe, sorry to disturb.

Would it be possible to get a final stance on the speculative release of new media either today or next Monday. A simple YES or NO will suffice.

I'd like to put the cat to sleep over at www.halflife2.net, I don't know if you read those boards, but the folks are going crazy.

Take care, XXX
http://www.XXXXXXX.co.uk

 

[hLABS]tryptefan]

hi, i'm new.

1. Has much effort been put into anti-cheat technology, and if so what method was used?

1) Yes. None of your business. (insert smiley face here)

2. HL voice comm is great, how has this been implemented into hl2?

2) Yes. Higher quality voice codecs.

 

[Kornflake™]

He's not giving much away on this one!

With regards to the Alyx's sidekick robot dog (or robot called DOG), is this an acronym for something? If so, what? Is it going to resemble a dog in any way?

Alyx just thought it was amusing to name her robot Dog.

Some very dedicated people with a lot of time on their hands have managed to get this http://community.vugames.com/[email protected]@.efdc453/140!enclosure=.efded43 from the end of the 20min video available from Gamespot and Fileplanet. Do the phrases on here actually give anything away about HL2, perhaps explaining why Gordon is to have no memories of the past 15yrs? Or are we maybe reading to much into this?

They are there for a reason.

In HL1 if a player shot at the G-Man, he would not be injured, in effect being invincible from player inflicted harm. How are such "player attacks" going to be handled in HL2? If I was to take a shot at Alyx how would the game react to this?

She'd shoot you back. It would annoy her. Dog would kick your ass.

 

[Eternity]

Me:

It frankly staggers me you have enough time to answer these e-mails. Your response to the fans is incredibly unique. When are you going to snap and change your e-mail address to get away from us? =)

Would you by any chance be able to fill me in on what the very opening of Half-Life II will be like? Will we awaken from a Temporal-Stasis Chamber designed to preserve Gordon's body so he won't age? Will he literally hit the ground running, with no idea who or what he is? Will we see any part of the Black Mesa or the fabled tram system? (Black Mesa, I miss you so..) The curiosity is slowly eating away at my soul and transforming my healthy, robust body into a pallid, shrunken, vehicle of despair.

Thanks for your time and don't let all these annoying and inconsiderate e-mails get you down...

Gabe:

When you start the game, the last thing you the player and "you" the character Gordon Freeman remember is your conversation with the G-Man. You have no idea what has happened, how much time has passed, or why you can't remember it.

 

[NightElf]

We'll be releasing content for Half-Life on an on-going basis after the retail product.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Anderson [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2003 6:26 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: HL2 Singleplayer mods


i was wondering would there be any single player mods liek in hl such as oposing force adn blue shift?

thanks for ur time

 

[Belisarius]

I think that you don't realize that gabe is not in this thread reading these questions and responding to them, they're copy and pasted e-mails with questions to gabe and his responses. YOU MUST E-MAIL GABE TO GET A RESPONSE!

Two new(for this thread) things of info.

1. Valve has shown interest in working with the Sven Co-op team and they are in the late planning stages for their mod of HL2

2. The Day of Defeat team has access to the source code, but is currently working on their update for the current version; version 1.1.

 

[SidewinderX]

More of me fixating on netcode....
And answers on the multipayer support.


-----Original Message-----
From: David Petkofsky [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 1:16 PM
To: Yahn Bernier
Subject: Physics and the HL2 Netcode: Part II


Sorry to bother you again, but i have another netcode related question for you.

I'm going to assume that lights can shot out, and will htis have a large impact on lag in multiplayer, wiht dyanamic shadows and everyhting? And is the netcode tweaked enough to support more than 32 players (up to 64 I hope ) with out running into netcode issues? I know the server will be important here, but with a "perfect" server, could will the netcode have probelms with large number of players like that? Oh yeah, one last question that you may or may not be able to answer, are map changes smoother and quicker with the HL2 netcode than they were with HL1 and most other games?


Thanks again,
David "SidewinderX" Petkofsky

Lights would be an entirely client side perf question, so it's not a lag issue.

We haven't made a final call on whether the engine will support > 32 player multiplayer.

We haven't profiled map changes versus HL1, so I don't know how they compare. I would think they would be comparable, but we do have more data to deal with this time around.

Yahn

 

[EVIL]

Hy gabe,

I am kinda involved in a short discussion about wether Half-Life² does or
does not support dynamic shadows like DooM³. I think it does because a dutch

gaming magazine said it does, and they got to see a demo with a lightbulb
hanging from a cord in a room and when you push it it swings and the light
would go dynamically across the surfaces off the objecs that where installed

in the room. and cast dynamic shadows.

Yes, we have dynamic shadows. We use a different approach than Doom3.

 

[tokin]

Hello Gabe, a few questions to be answered would make me a bit happy.

1. Has anyone ever said you remind them of that Glenn Humplick guy on the Tom Green Show?

As a matter of fact, yes.

2. Have you ever considered working out more?

I suppose, but not now...only HL2 to work on more.

3. Team Fortress 2?

uhhh you'll see.

 

[Tequila]

Friends IM chat with Erik Johnston , edited for relevance.

Me: What form will Steam be in with Half-Life 2?

Erik: It will ship with Hl2, and will be quite similar to the current Steam beta

Me: About the SDK, will Hammer ship with it, aside from coding and modelling tools, so that preliminary mapping can be done before September 30th?

Erik: We haven't finalised the SDK yet, it's still being worked on

I slightly paraphrased here since I lost the copy of the chat log, but my memory is sharp so you can trust the answers.
Oh and excuse the pap questions, I was in awe of actually talking to a Valve employee that my mind went blank

 

[Hybrid]

Hey Gabe,

i will keep this short, i am a graphics artist and i know that hl2 will be
shipping with a lightened up version of Softimage|XSI , does that mean that
3dsmax wont be used or will there be plugins and exporters, hl1 was
generally optimized for 3dsmax users, will modelling be as easy on multiple
different modelling platforms rather than just softimage, i dont want to
relearn new software , also will there be tutorials available from valve
software ?

-->

We use XSI for our modeling, but we will ship exporters for XSI, 3DSMax, and Maya, so most people will be able to use their preferred modeling program.
We will probably include some type of tutorial or documentation with XSI.

 

[JGF]

We target 60 FPS, and then adjust details accordingly. At E3 we were running 60 Hz on a 128 MB 9800 at 13something by 7something (the resolution of the plasma screen, which I don't remember exactly).

We are in the middle of a lot of performance analysis and tuning with ATI and NVIDIA. We will release benchmarking tools before we ship.

-----Original Message-----
From: The boogeyman
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2003 9:48 AM
To: '[email protected]'
Subject: HL2 performance numbers


Hi Gabe,

I feel guilty sending this to you since I suspect you're being inundated with emails every minute of every hour buuuuuuuuut.... ;-)

Any idea if you guys are planning on releasing some performance metrics/benchmark numbers to the net before Half-Life2's release? I'm sure there are legions of folks out there wondering what kind of performance they can expect out of the game running on high end ATI/nvidia hardware. 30 fps? 60fps? 100fps? I realize the engine is highly scaleable but for the 'ultimate' HL2 experience (ie 1024x768 to 1280x960, 32 bit color, all the eye candy cranked, 60 fps+) are the ATI 9800Pros and Nvidia 5900Ultra's going to be able to deliver? I know I for one want to pull the trigger on a 9800Pro but there's no way I'm jumping in if its not going to run the game the way it deserves to be run. I know the hardware AND gaming sites would love to get this kind of data a la the preliminary Doom3 benchmarks that id/nvidia released a while ago.

Any chance?

96 days and counting!

Regards!

 

[Grimsrud]

dfd

My mail:
Hello.

Just a quick question; is Half-Life 2 gonna use the same map loading technique as in the first Half-Life (smaller contiunually downloads as you progress in the map and not not a big loading in the beginning of each map).

If you this technique is used in HL2, is that gonna affect creating huge levels for multi player?

The answer:
yes

no

 

[Goddamn Freeman]

Excellent! Gabe won me a fiver....

Me: First off good job with HL-2 it looks absolutely stunning.
I was wondering if you could settle a (admitedly rather daft) argument between me and my friend. Are the faces of the characters taken or adapted from real people (for example max payne, whos face is apparently that of the story writer)? The reason I ask is that they look so much more lifelike that anything else we've seen outside of hollywood, and we find it hard to fathom how much work must have gone into them if they arent, to get them so human-like.
Sorry its such a stupid question


Gabe: We usually start from real world source material, whether it's a texture, a model, or a face. Sometimes faces are composites of more than one person. We actually backed off the realism of the faces a bit, since it was forcing us to spend more polys on clothes to make them comparably realistic than we could afford.


He replied in 2 mins flat! Faster than light. nearly.

 

[Gojin]

This doesn't really contain much information that I haven't posted already, but might as well put it in the official thread. Hope this helps someone.

Btw, this thread needs some cleanin'.

(Too big to attach. Please copy/paste the link in the browser address bar -- Sry. I need to find a way to host this)

http://www34.brinkster.com/codaxe/files/Steam_-_Erik_J_convo_full_-_unedited.jpg

Scroll down for the whole convo pic! Forget this link! -- Thanks Worldspawn!

 

[BlackPete]

Subtitle info

Wow, I must say I'm quite impressed... check out the time stamps on this email. Answering emails at 9:20 PM... is this guy dedicated or what?


From: "Gabe Newell" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2003 9:20 PM
Subject: RE: HL2 audio questions

Yes, there are subtitles. The same structure which carries the facial
information also carries subtitles.

It's a regret of mine that we didn't do this with HL-1, and I'm glad we are
remedying it with HL-2.


-----Original Message-----
From: Pete
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2003 8:04 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: HL2 audio questions


Hello! I was reading hl2.net's forums for an answer to this question, but
couldn't find it (and I admit it's probably not something much people think
or care about but...)

Question: Will there be subtitles in the game? If so, will the subtitles
be available at all times (both at run-time and during cinematic movies, if
any exist)

Reason I ask is that I'm deaf and unable to understand speech without
lipreading. Yes I've tried to lipread the actors in the E3 demos, and I
could ***almost*** do it, but not quite Maybe in Halflife 3?

Thanks!
-Pete

 

[3d Animator]

Ragdoll and Ant-lions

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Monday, June 30, 2003 10:36 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Ragdoll and Ant-lions


Hi,

I just wanted to ask If your ragdoll efect is implemented for any creature
or just working for human-like bodies?

or to say it another way, If you kill an ant-lion will you see a ragdoll
effect or a death animation?

thanks, for your time.



pd: I work with Maya and I wonder if it will ever have script or a converter
to be able to export to V-source, Im just not a Xsi user...


Yes, physics applies to pretty much everything, including non-human bodies.

Yes, there will be ways to export from Maya (the TF-2 team has people
working in Maya).

 

[worldspawn]

Originally posted by Gojin
This doesn't really contain much information that I haven't posted already, but might as well put it in the official thread. Hope this helps someone.

Btw, this thread needs some cleanin'.

(Too big to attach. Please copy/paste the link in the browser address bar -- Sry. I need to find a way to host this)

http://www34.brinkster.com/codaxe/files/Steam_-_Erik_J_convo_full_-_unedited.jpg

 

[Foggy]

Me:
my team and I are working out a Spiderman concept. With, ofcoarse, the ability to shoot the web against the walls, and then letting you use that to move from building to building. Same for 'webbing' objects to catapult them to other enemy players and for creating big webs in alleys as obstacles for enemy players. Will this be possible with the Source engine?

Brian:
Yes, this is possible in source. Here's how you'd potentially do some of the things you're talking about:

* Shooting webs against walls + using that to move from building to building.

This could be done with simple tracelines from the player to the world to see what the web hit. At the point where the web hit, you can apply a web decal to the world to show the contact point on the world and use a tool called a meshbuilder to render the web between the first person view and the contact point. If you want to be fancy, you could use a cable simulator we have in the engine to physically simulate the web as if it was a rope, and to cause it to simulate (bouncing off the walls and ground) even after you've let go of that web and shot out a new one. We have the ability to easily modify player movement (far easier than what you had to do in HL1) which you could use to simulate the web-slinging movement.

* Same for 'webbing' objects to catapult them to other enemy players

For this, you could potentially use physics objects. If your web raycast hit a physics object, you tell vphysics to apply forces to the physics object to catapult it across the level. We have systems which automatically apply damage to game entities when they've been hit by a fast-moving physics object (which even take into account material properties of that object.. you'd take more damage from a metal object than from something made out of wood, for example).

* Creating big webs in alleys as obstacles for enemy players

For this, you'd need to use a number of raycasts to find points in the world to anchor the web to. Drawing the web is simple using the meshbuilder. To make it be an obstacle, you can make the web be a trigger entity which gets notified when other entities touch it. The web entity could then slow down or even stop entities that touch it. You also need to define a collision model for the web entity. The simplest method would be to use a bounding box which surrounds the web, which would be a little less accurate, but very simple to code. If you wanted to make an exact collision model, you can do that, but you'd need to implement a custom collision function. There's an example of such a custom collision function in one of the entities we have in our game.

Me:
The idea is to have this game without any 'weapons' just the power to use your environment and your web powers.
Imagine running in an alley with 2 or 3 enemy's behind you and using your web to pull boxes in the alley to aim at those enemy's. Then creating a web to stop them (your webfuel will be allmost empty by then) , shoot the wall and climb up it, fall behind the enemy and put them in a cocoon. Spiders win.. ain't that fun?

is it possible to make that web sticky ?

thanks for your time and have fun in finishing Half Life 2, i'm sure you guys will make the biggest hit in years to come. And you know what? You deserve it.

Brian:
Sounds like a fun game idea; I'm excited to see it!

Yeah, sticky webs are doable too. Because the player movement code is really easy to change, you can change the player movement code to be hindered to simulate stickiness when he's marked as being stuck in a web (which you'd do in the Touch method of the web entity).


Me:
A lot is possible with source.

Ofcoarse we have an opponent for the 'spiders', these are the 'catchers'. I hope the folliwing is possible, but i guess not..

The most important part about the catchers is that they must capture the spiders from behind. This is very hard to do so i want to give them the possibility to merge/dissolve into their background. For example, standing with your back against the wall will give your suit the wall texture, standing against metal will give you the metal texture, etc.
This will make the game very exciting because the spiders must move close together and scan every wall for catchers.

Will this be doable?

Brian:
Dissolving into the background: How you want to do this depends on the level of graphics hardware you want to support. The refractive shaders you may have seen in the E3 demo would be a way to get that effect, but they only work on dx8- and dx9- level hardware (GeForce 3 and up, or Radeon and up, for example). If you want the mod to run on low-end hardware (dx6 or dx7), you're pretty much stuck with simply using translucency for your effect.


Me:
But is it possible? to bind the texture change to a sort of a 'lean' action i mean.

Brian:
Oh yeah; we have a skinning feature; you'd could switch skins based on the leaning state; also we have a way of plugging game state into the shaders so you can make him more or less translucent based on how long you've been leaning against the wall, etc.

 

[Tamer17]

a little talk with Erik Johnson over Steam:


Erik Johnson says:

Just went to get coffee, what's up?

A_M says:

I'm good

A_M says:
can you answer some questions for me?

Erik Johnson says:
I can try.

A_M says:

ok
A_M says:
Will there be an option to disable the dynamic/auto GFX scale-down , cause i wanna see how my CPU handles the game on full and max GFX . .

Erik Johnson says:
Yes.

A_M says:
good
A_M says:
Gameplay question: Will there be a part in the game , where the player got to protect Alyx from dying? , you know those annoying missions where you gotta escort some character that has no guns m through a area filled with hostiles.

A_M says:
sorry for the long questions

Erik Johnson says:
Can't answer that.
A_M says:

why , can't talk about it , or you don't know

A_M says:
ok , next question :
A_M says:
3. Are there any any plans for Expansion packs for HL2 made by you or Gearbox ?. Or you will continue the story just from Gordon's POV.?

Erik Johnson says:
Yes.

A_M says:
so there will be expansion packs?
A_M says:
or no?

Erik Johnson says:
Yes, there will be.
Erik Johnson says:
There are more stories we'd like to tell,

 

[BaNDiT]

From me:
Hey Gabe,
If a wooden board is floating in the water and you jump onto it, will it slowly sink? thanks for your time. Great job on HL2!

From Gabe:
yes

 

[Joeyslucky22]

....so far it looks as though the answer to every question is yes... lol:dork:

Q: Ok, I swear i watched that shakey cam e3 demo more than 50 times... and It just gets better everytime I watch it... What in the hell is wrong with me?
Say I shoot a box.. with that box break and you'll be able to see inside? and the box have things inside it?

Gabe: Yes.

 

[Xtasy0]

Q: will HL2 run natively on linux?

A: No, not the client.

Q: Are there any plans to add linux support in the future?

A: No.

 

[SidewinderX]

Hi!

WE all know that the physics are amazing, and you can move stuff around and everything, but i have a quesion about that. Do the physics give everything a "damage limit" or something similar so that after you shoot somthing enoguh times, it will blow up/shatter/ whatever? or is that jsut the wood. Could i sit there with a rocket launcher and hit a car a few times and then have it explode, or would it jsut keep sliding back or soemthing, a la Halo? And one final question: Does HL2 have destructable enviroments bulit in, or is that somehting us mod-makers will have code in?


Thanks
David "SidewinderX" Petkofsky


It's really easy to create things that are destructible in HL2. Of course it's not limited to wood Mod authors can easily use, script, modify, or extend this behavior.

Jay

 

[SidewinderX]

Actually, people e-mailed him these questions and we get the answers and post them here.... they must not hat me, they answered another one of my questions!

-----Original Message-----
From: David Petkofsky [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 12:12 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Half Life 2 Models and Objects


Hi!

I know many members of the growing HL2 community, includeing myself, would like to know what kind of poly counts you guys are using for you models. Could you tell us what kind of poly counts (on average) you use for a gun? a pistol? a large gun? a vehicle? a player model?


Thanks for your time,
David "SidewinderX" Petkofsky

hey david,
thanks for your interest in our various models throughout the half life world, there sure is a lot of em! but, like a lot of aspects of HL2, were keeping the specifics to ourselves. i can tell you that the source engine utilizes a very well rounded level of detail system which allows us to use a larger amount of polygons at close ranges and much less detail as you distance yourself in the world space. hope that helps answer your question a little.

cheers
- eric "mr birch" kirchmer

 

[Robert]

Anytime someone is talking you will see sub-titles if you have sub-titles turned on.

Yes, the zoom effect is part of some weapons.

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Obst [mailto:xxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2003 10:44 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: HL2 audio/cinematic questions.


I read a e-mail from you where you says it's going to me subtitules.
Does it mean that it's going to be cinematic, like GTA3 , or is it subtitules when you " talks " to a person presing the use button.

Also, in the E3 movies i noticed a "focus" effect. Will that be in the final version of hl2, or was it just to show the peeps on E3.



Thanks // geeK

 

[PoopStewart]

HL2 Still On Track for Sept 30 2003 Launch

Since I saw that HL2 was being listed as having a December 15 2003 release date on Amazon.com I figured I'd get in touch with Gabe and set things straight. Here's his reply:

I have no idea where retailers get their dates. Nothing has changed.

Looks like Sept 30 2003 is still the day.

Shawn Wallace
GamingNEXT > www.gamingnext.com

 

[Black-Falcon]

Q: Will there be a playable demo released over steam at all?

A: Probably after we ship.

 

[Psylocke]

-----Original Message-----
From: Jessica Lee [Edited out]
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 11:44 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: half-Life 2 question (Oh how original!)


Hello Gabe,
I am writing to you about a quick question about Half-Life 2 (which I assume lots and lots of people do). Will Half-Life 2 have any special optimizations for 64-bit processors?

Thank you,
Jessica Lee

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

I would expect we would run about 30% faster clock for clock comparing an Athlon running 32-bit code and an Athlon 64 running 64-bit code. Release of the 64-bit client will be gated on MS releasing 64-bit Windows.

 

[SnowBall]

Erik Johnson says:
Hello.
n0 Bra1ns says:
hello
n0 Bra1ns says:
how are you doing this morning?
Erik Johnson says:
Not bad, and yourself?
n0 Bra1ns says:
great
n0 Bra1ns says:
i have one question
Erik Johnson says:
SHoot.
n0 Bra1ns says:
in hl2 i hear rumors of there being hit decals on models
n0 Bra1ns says:
is this true?
Erik Johnson says:
True.
n0 Bra1ns says:
thank you very much for your time
n0 Bra1ns says:
i appreciate it
n0 Bra1ns says:
have a nice day and good luck on hl2
Erik Johnson says:
Thank you

 

[SidewinderX]

-----Original Message-----
From: David Petkofsky [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 12:07 PM
To: Yahn Bernier
Subject: Half-Life 2 Multiplayer Map Changes


Hi

I am leading a mod in which maps change throught the "campaign" in the game. Can you tell me how quickly/smoothly the Source engine handles these map changes?Or should i encourge my team to cram the planned maps into diffrent sections of one map?


Thanks
David "SidewinderX" Petkofsky

David,

We're not done optimizing level transitions yet so I can't even begin to give you any guidance on how long they'll typically take.

Yhan