Info received from Valve ONLY - NO questions/discussion

[antimatter]

Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 1999 8:35 AM
To: Erik Johnson
Subject: server bandwidth & cpu requirements question


I asked on halflife2.net forums and no one seemed to know or remember Valve mentioning these so I will ask you. What are the bandwidth requirements per player for hosting a hl2 server, or the cpu requirements per player?

thank you for your time.

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

We just don't have this data yet, but it's going to pretty close to what a Half-Life 1 server is.

 

[Kouler]

Hey Erik!

Thanks for replying to my question but I have another one. If I chose to
receive HL2 through Steam (with my voucher), will I be able to back it
up on a CD? That is the only thing that worries me.

HL2 is lookin great, keep up the good work! This summer is gonna rock


Thanks again,

Kouler

PS. Congratulations on your baby

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

Sure.

You can just take the various cache files and drop them onto a CD. In the case of a hard drive failure on your side, or something like that, you'd just need to login to your account and drop these files back down.

Erik

 

[benpatient]

From: BenPatient [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004 1:46 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: a quick question re:calendars

Hello Gabe!

I'll not take too much of your time. I was just wondering...according to NASA, summer begins this year at 00:57 GMT on June 21st and ends at 16:29 GMT on Sept 22nd.


This, technically, is the limit and scope of the phrase "this summer," although many students and parents would consider the last day of school to be the unofficial first day of summer, and the first day of school to mark the end of it. I'm quite confident that when Valve talks about a summer release of HL2, they aren't referring to some vague "high school begins today" date and rather the equinox-based astronomical midpoint between the solstices in june and december.

Anyway, I was wondering if, when you guys say "HL2 will be released this summer" if you actually mean that, or if you're just talking about something that could arguably be considered summer (such as some sort of corporate 2nd quarter earnings report date)?

It seems that if you insist on saying that it will certainly be out "this summer" that we should have a fair idea of exactly which definition of "summer" you are ascribing to.

Cheers, and thanks for all the fun you've provided me over the years (and hopefully for years to come).

____________________________
heh

*

we use NASA for all of our official seasonal extants

 

[Perret]

Good news to future-amd-64-bit-owners like me in 'this summer' ..
ps: valve roxx!


-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Perret [mailto[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, June 18, 2004 6:27 AM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: HL2 on 64 Bit Systems

Hello Mr Ellis,
I hope you're the right guy for this question: Will Hl2 runs without problems on an AMD64? And if yes, will the perfomance be faster then by a 32 Bit System?

Greeting from Switzerland

Michael Perret



Yes we have test systems here that have AMD64's in them. I haven't done any perf testing on them however so I can't comment on how much faster they are.

Thanks,
Rick
Valve

 

[alan8325]

From: XXXXXXXXX
Sent: Friday, June 18, 2004 1:31 AM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Physics in Source


Hi, Half-Life 2 looks very interesting and I look forward to playing it. I heard that the player is physically simulated in the game so I have a couple questions in regard to this.

1.) I have seen that the player can knock objects over by just walking or running into them. What about running into other characters, like the combine? If I run into another person in the game will he/she react realistically to being hit?

Yes walking into combine soldiers will make them react (usually they will strike you or push you back).

2.) Will the bodies of fallen characters in the game impede the movement of the player or NPCs? The reason I ask is that in other games bodies seem to not really count as objects that can block a player's movement, which isn't very realistic.

This is done for performance. In most games, including ours, after the body dies, it will eventually fade away so that it's no longer drawn. Also, turning off the collisions on the model improve performance.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and good luck with the remaining development!

 

[wonkers]

Asked Greg Coomer Questions

Re: questions


Quote:
Originally Posted by wonkers
I don't expect you to answer this but I will ask questions.

1. What is the game Akzidenz-Grotesk like or even what genre is it?

2. What exactly is product design?

3. If you are becoming more active on these forums does that mean your job and involvement in HL2 is done for the time being?

It would be cool if you answered.


1. http://www.bertholdtypes.com/bq_library/AkzidenzGrotesk.html

2. I mostly do stuff related to visual design and user interface design, but my job at Valve is pretty amorphous.

3. No, my involvement is not done -- I'm just taking a short time once in a while to check in on the forums.

I asked these because I was curious what he did and if Valve employees, where done working on the HL2. Just trying to feel out some of what may or may not be going on.

 

[[NZ]Killer]

From: Bastian [mailto: [email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, June 19, 2004 3:02 AM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Physics in Source


On www.halflife2.net I have read this:

2.) Will the bodies of fallen characters in the game impede the movement of the player or NPCs? The reason I ask is that in other games bodies seem to not really count as objects that can block a player's movement, which isn't very realistic.

This is done for performance. In most games, including ours, after the body dies, it will eventually fade away so that it's no longer drawn. Also, turning off the collisions on the model improve performance.

My Question:
Does this mean, that fallen characters will not collide with Barrels, Crates or other ragdolls?

No, they just won't impede player movement. The ragdolls are physically simulated so when they fall etc. they will fully interact with the environment.

Rick
Valve

 

[denlife7]

I was extremely happy to get this reply. I loved the fast loading times in Half-Life...

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

Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2004 10:44:19 -0700
From: "Rick Ellis" <[email protected]> Add To Address Book
Subject: RE: loading times
To: <[email protected]>


Hi Dxxx,

Level load times should be on par with Half-Life 1. We will continue to
optimize our game up until the time we go gold -- there's always
something that can be polished.

Thanks,
Rick

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, June 20, 2004 8:41 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: loading times

Hi Rick,

Just another hl2.net forum freak with a question for ya.
Anyway, I was wondering how the loading times are shaping up for levels
in Half-Life 2? I loved the way levels were loaded so quick in the first
game, and am wondering how long the "huge looking" levels in the sequel
take to load in general.

As a secondary question, has optimisations for something like level
loading been completed, or is that something that just gradually
improves as the game nears completion?

Thanks for your time, and thanks in advance for the game!

Cheers

 

[tokin]

Info from Merc visiting Valve Headquarters:



Bink E3 2004 videos soon.

Land and Air Vehicles available in multiplayer (the way it's said by Merc was unclear, either they are actually incorporated into multiplayer
or we are able to add them)

CS:S looks like it's close to being finished, runs great (huge improvements with flash bangs, physics, etc)

Gabe said they were making finishing touches on the game, pretty positive about the summer release

DOD:S going very well, putting it over to the source engine and adding updates over time such as vehicles

Only thing said about TF2 from Erik "They will kill me if I talk about it"


http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/8969/csource2.jpg
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/853/steamservers.jpg
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/9791/awards.jpg
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/5917/cannon2.jpg
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/6325/posters2.jpg
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/7308/max2.jpg
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/8411/minigun2.jpg
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/4589/crowbar2.jpg

edit: this will be updated again as he tells us more.....

 

[evil^milk]

Info from merc's visit to Valve

Thanks merc for sharing all of this valuable info!

character models in CS fly back a bit when they're shot

the physics changed the game as you could be hiding behind something, but then the next second some guy could blast it to pieces with a gun and you would be exposed! also sometimes when guys died their guns would bounce away from their bodies into the open where you may not be able to get to without being shot..

i got to watch all the hl2 e3 videos on a widescreen tv in high resolution and it was awesome...

no there wasnt any lag whatsoever while we were playing... no slowdown and no internet lag as it was on a lan i think (CS: Source)

check this thread for the latest.

Edit:

yes kill notification was the same... the feel of the game is a little bit different but it is alot smoother and it just feels a lot more real... it is great.. the cs source was better than far cry just for how the guns worked and graphics wise it competes well too..

hl2 graphics was better than screenshots especially since i saw it on a high resolution wide screen tv.. it was awesome, the game is just going to be plain awesome and is going to amaze everyone

 

[WhiteBoy]

From:
Sent: Monday, June 21, 2004 7:41 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Moving ladders


I just have a small question, so if you have a spare moment, it would be great if you could answer it.

My question is conerning about ladders. I know you can move things around with the munipulator boxes, barrels etc, but I was wondering if you could move a ladder entity and have it still work as a ladder. I don't exactly know how the ladders worked in the original Half-Life, and the mods, but I know some older games needed a load of scripting for ladders. And if this was the same for Half-Life 2, I doubt this could be done, so any clearification would be appreciated

Hi Kyle,

Ladders can be put on moving objects but you cannot just pick them up with the manipulator gun to move them.

Rick
Valve

 

[Sushi]

From merc's another trip to valve thread.

An image of a whiteboard from Valve, make what you can out of it...
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/8601/board1.jpg

According to merc, who playtested some parts of HL2 while at Valve, the gameplay is amazing and physics play a significant role in this part of the game. The AI is supposed to be very good, and the graphics are also great.


-Expect an abundance of cool weapons
-There will be a final boss
-We will go inside the citadel structure
-The game appears to be complete

 

[G-Dub]

CS:Source & BOTS

We haven't decided yet.

-----Original Message-----
From: GSW [mailto:*****************]
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2004 8:00 AM
To: Erik Johnson
Subject: CS:Source

Hi Erik!

I was just wondering if you could answer a quick question I had about
CS:Source?

Basically, are you going to be selling CS:Source separately from HL2 or
will it be free to those with HL2?

Will there be any bot support for CS:Source, and if so, will the bots be
like the Condition Zero bots or have the AI of the HL2 enemies?

Thanks for your time and keep up the brilliant work!

GSW

 

[Andy]

Sounds like a bug, there wasn't anything intentional changed here.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Andy [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, June 19, 2004 3:41 AM
To: Erik Johnson
Subject: Half-life2 E3 videos - lighting


Hi Erik, I know you're probably really busy but I was hoping you could answer a question for me:

I was watching both E3 videos the other day and it suddenly struck me that the lighting (particulalry interior) seems to be of greater quality in the earlier one (2003). Not only that, but in the 2004 vid, in the scene after the roller mines, where Gordon is in the house, the muzzle flash from the combine does not light up the attic. Compare this to the 2003 vid (trap town scene) where "dynamic" lighting is applied. Where still some bugs at this point? Where you playing the demo at a lower graphical setting? Has certain stuff been removed since last year?

Thanks for your time,

Andy

 

[sage]

Misc. HL2-Fallout Forum Info

Taken from the HL2-Fallout Forum

-----------------------------------------------
-HL-2 Voice actors-
Gabe Newell Posted on: Jun 24 2004, 07:51 PM
-----------------------------------------------
Here are the actors who are the voices for Half-Life 2 (English language):

Robert Guillaume - Dr. Eli Vance
Robert Culp - Dr. Wallace Breen
Lou Gossett, Jr. - Vortigaunt
Michelle Forbes - Dr. Judith Mossman
Merle Dandridge - Alyx Vance
Mike Shapiro - Barney Calhoun
Mike Shapiro - Gman
Harry S. Robins - Dr. Isaac Kleiner
Jim French - Father Grigori
John Patrick Lowrie - Citizens/Misc. characters
Mary Kae Irvin - Citizens/Misc. characters
Ellen McLane - Overwatch voice

We've been very fortunate in the professionalism and the talent of the people we've been able to work with. For example we had over 200 applicants for the voice of Alyx.
-----------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------
-Half-Life 2 size-
Gabe Newell Posted on: Jun 24 2004, 07:45 PM
-----------------------------------------------
Half-Life 2 is about 3.5 GB uncompressed and about 2 GB compressed. This doesn't include CS:Source, HL-1:Source, DoD:Source, the SDK, or whatever. It's just the straight HL-2 sizes.
-----------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------
-Languages-
Gabe Newell Posted on: Jun 24 2004, 06:14 PM
-----------------------------------------------
I am behind in my forum browsing. So if I haven't gotten back to you on a question, it's because actually shipping the game has gotten in the way of answering questions about it. Hopefully actually shipping will be a productivity enhancer as many questions will be answerable by a wider group of people. So we have to ship if for no other reason than to reduce the number of emails I get that start with "I have a Pentium II running Windows 95 ..."

One question I get asked a fair bit is what languages we will ship with. The initial languages which should all sim-ship are

English
French
German
Italian
Spanish
Russian
Korean
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Japanese
Thai

Localization includes all of the spoken content, but not the in-game signage (the latter is an art direction choice not a constraint).
-----------------------------------------------

 

[ShadowFox]

Hi Gabe!

Simple question.. I've heard of DOD-Source and CS-Source. Will there be a TFC-Source?

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

Yes.

 

[booogerhead]

We'll have to see.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: XXXXX@XXXX [mailto:XXXXXXXXX]
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2004 8:48 PM
To: Jess Cliffe
Subject: Quick question on cs_siege


I'll be as quick as possible - will CS:Source have a return of the driveable APC? Now that CS will have an engine that can handle vehicles, it would only seem logical (well, sort of) that we could once again pile into the APC and drive off of the bridge to our death. Or something like that.

-Steve

 

[Axyon]

Okay, guys. I (and others) have been noticing the repetition of certain details and answers in this thread. It's about time people need to stop asking and replying about:

• Source mod ports.
• The fact that Half-Life itself is being ported to Source.
• Multiplayer. Valve clearly don't want to give any further information out at this point in time, so the same repetitive answer they give doesn't need to be posted over and over.

Thanks.

 

[Shuzer]

From: Shuzer [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2004 9:21 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: HL2 gold? This gaming site says so

http://www.insidegamer.nl/content.php?id=2395

Translated:

------
Gabe Newell of Valve Software, said that HL2 will almost defenitely be
available in stores by September, in an interview with "Computer &
Videogames".
Gabe Newell also said that they have delivered the "master disc" to
Vivendi, not that long ago and that Vivendi is in the process of
duplicating it.

The only thing that could cause any delay now, is that this is a lie,
but that's unlikely. If everything goes well, HL2 should be available on
30 september.
------


Is there any truth to this statement?


Thanks,
Chris

----------
Subject: RE: HL2 gold? This gaming site says so
From: "Gabe Newell"
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 09:46:43 -0700
To: "Shuzer"

nope

(Note: I realize this may not be new information, per se, but I figured I'd post this e-mail in case someone else sees this "news" and misses the previous thread that originally debunked this rumor)

 

[Hired-Gun]

We're not sure on this one yet.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: AMP HG [mailto: [email protected]]
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 3:15 PM
To: Erik Johnson
Subject: CD and DVD...


Hi Erik

I hope you have time to answear my simple question.
It looks like HL2 is coming out on both CD and DVD and on the DVD its much more space,will there be any extra stuff on the DVD like cut out material or will that be saved for collectors edition?

Hired-Gun

 

[Runteh]

Hey Jon, that's a good idea and we actually have implemented that for cs:source. Thanks!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2004 10:07 AM
To: Mike Dussault
Subject: FW: source bomb timer






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jon Simpson [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2004 2:09 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: cs:source bomb timer


Will the bomb in cs:source have a timer (on the LED display) that physically counts down?
I always thought that this was a subtlety that was missing from CS, and it would add that little something to the game.

 

[Chris D]

Jess,

Just finished playing the three "new" deleted scenes. I know they're
made by Ritual but I found these latest three really enjoyable. Do you
currently have plans to port the deleted scenes over to Source along
with CS:Source and/or do you have any plans to release further deleted
scenes missions to Counter-Strike: CZ?

Kindest Regards,
Chris Deeming
HalfLife2.Net Staff

Hey Chris,

A couple more unreleased DS missions will come. Not sure on the DS on
Source at this point.

Cliffe

 

[mayro]

This is what i got from Rick when i emailed him about makeing a mod and what the source engine was capable of handeling.

While the engine is setup to handle 256 players (was only 64 in HL1), I don't think you'd be successful running that many, you might be fine running 128, you'd have to test it. The reason is CPU and bandwidth. With a single server handling all of the transactions at the speed at which they need to happen, there may just simply not be enough horsepower to handle that many players.

Rick
Valve

 

[^Thomas^]

Fra: Erik Johnson <[email protected]>
Sendt: 5. juli 2004 19:42:15
Til: "Thomas E." <[email protected]>
Emne: RE: Will Counter-Strike Condition Zero ever be portet to source?

| | |
Innboks

Yes.

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas E. [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, July 04, 2004 5:10 AM
To: Erik Johnson
Subject: Will Counter-Strike Condition Zero ever be portet to source?

Hi Erik.

I guess you won`t answer this one, but I hope you do.

Will CZ ever be portet into source?

Thanks in advance.

From Thomas.

 

[^Thomas^]

The plan is to have bots.

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas E. [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2004 12:05 PM
To: Erik Johnson
Subject: RE: No bots in CS:S after all?

Hi.

Where did I read what?

If I did read that you probably will add bot support? I read it here:

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=23944&page=2

Cliffe said that the current plan was to add the official CS bot.


And then Doug said on the latest interview:

http://www.driverheaven.net/dhinterviews/doug/

He said: At launch, multiplayer only.


We are all confused here, look at the forum thread and you will see. Can
you post something in that thread or give me a answer to this so I can
post it?

Its kinda important to me!

From Jens-Thomas

 

[felipaopl]

HDR and FP32

Felipe Andrade <[email protected]> Mon, Jul 5, 2004 at 9:37AM
To: [email protected]

Hi Rick, how are you?

First of all, thanks for making one of the best games that will come
out, and thanks for answering the questions of us as well

Well, I saw a interview with the CryTek CEO about HDR support in the
upcoming 1.3 patch for FarCry. He said that this feature will be
available only in the GeForce 6800 series, mainly 'cause they support
FP32 blending capabilities that other cards don't. My question is, is
FP32 required to do HDR? I think is not, 'cause the DX9 Source demo of
HL2 was running in a 9800 PRO right? And I heard that maybe HDR would
not ship with the game, and could be added in a future patch... why
don't ship it already and create a option to switch it on, if
supported?

Thanks again for all,

Felipe
--
Felipe Andrade (Gmail beta tester)
Gmail - A Google approach to email.

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

Rick Ellis <[email protected]> Tue, Jul 6, 2004 at 1:31PM
To: Felipe Andrade <[email protected]>

In HL2, we support HDR on most of the DX9 capable hardware, including
ATI.

Rick
Valve

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Hi Rick,

I've done a bit of level-making back in the hay-days of HL1, No
doubt will I be doing it when HL2 releases. However I would like to do
some full modding as well upon release, so the questions are related to
this.

1) Will the SDK tools be supplied on the game disk to create anything
from weapons, items, and vehicles.
*** They will appear as a Steam download and will include everything you
need to create models. Once the SDK code is released, you'll be able to
modify their behavior as well.

2) Will I have to have experience on programming and coding or will
there be help files available to guide me
*** Experience would be best, but you can certainly learn by going
through the process of building a mod.

3) Will the coding be done on external softare or can it be done from
within the SDK
*** You'll need to use VC6 to build the software, if this is what you
are asking.

Rick
Valve

 

[Esquire]

The difference between the difficulty settings includes not only amount of ammo/health kits, but also the accuracy of the NPCs and their aggressiveness towards you. On the hardest settings, there will not be any enemy NPCs that "ignore" you or wait until you move against them, they will all be aggressive.

Rick



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Esquire [mailto: [email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2004 7:10 AM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Difficulty Settings of Half-Life 2


Hi Mr Ellis,
I'm interested in how and what aspects of gameplay will change, as the difficulty setting of the game increases.

For example, on easiest setting: Lots of ammo, Enemy takes more damage, Player can carry infinite amount of weapons.

So question is as follows;
As the difficulty of the game increases, what aspects of gameplay change and how?


HL1 was great, I hope HL2 will be everything we all expect and more. Best wishes to yourself and the rest of Valve.

Esquire - (a HL2net forum member).

--------------
Thanks to Pendragon for the email address.

 

[Syphoon!!]

me to Rick Ellis

Hi

Could you please describe what Source's scripting system's like?
I'm curious about how it's changed with the focus on AI interaction.
Is it a trigger system, an event based deferring programming
environment (like the asynchronous networking framework Twisted) or
something more procedural? Ie, what sort of a framework should mod
programmers be expecting to work with?

Thanks

Rick Ellis to me

Every entity in the game has the ability to have inputs and outputs
associated with it. These are coded routines that a programmer adds to
an entity to expose behaviors or attributes for use by other entities.
When the level designer is building a map, he/she has the ability to tie
the outputs of an entity to the inputs of other entities to sculpt the
ai behavior or trigger events to happen. We don't use a scripting
language as that would provide far less performance than our system
which is purely code driving code.

Rick
Valve

 

[Maui]

-----Original Message-----
From: Brian [Lastname] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 8:07 PM
To: Steve Bond
Subject: Weather effects in Source?

Hello Mr. Bond (Wedge I guess is a nickname?)

There's so much I could do with the name, but I'm sure you've heard it
all before. Anyway, I think the subject of this e-mail was pretty
clear:
what sort of weather effects do we get to play with in Source? None of
the
E3 demos or the tunnels demo have any visible rain or snow or anything
(though it could just be crappy video quality I suppose). Will we be
able to assign a sort of world-variable to say "hey, it's raining", an
area/zone effect (similar to the Unreal Warfare engine), or will we have
to sorta compromise and make the grids of cascading raindrop textures
again? I think it could make for some pretty atmospheric areas
(especially DOD:S).

Thanks for your (probably scarce) time,
Brian [MY_LAST_NAME]

P.S. Get back to work


---------------------REPLY-----------------------------
From : Doug Lombardi <[email protected]>
Sent : Wednesday, July 7, 2004 11:35 PM
To : <[email protected]>
Subject : FW: Weather effects in Source?

Hi,

Source supports effects like rain, wind and fog, and with some work it
would be possible to add effects like lightning to the skyboxes.

Thanks for taking the time to write to us, and for your interest in
Valve's games.

Cheers

 

[nc17]

Here are Qs&As from an email i sent to Rick Ellis

1A - You guys have stated that you plan to update the source engine with new technology, what technology do you plan to implement?
*** We're going to make another pass at the tools and continue to improve the graphics of the engine (working towards the DirectX 10 release). We're also going to continue to improve the AI, facial animation system and physics.

1B - Do you plan to implement pixel shader 3.0 and if so will you wait until ATI has GPU that supports it to do so?
*** Yes, not sure if we'll wait, it just depends on when we get to it.

1C - Do you plan to implement self shadowing normal maps (as a pose to self "shading" normal maps)?
*** I'm not sure on this feature.


2 - Would it be possible for a mod team to add a totally real time lighting/shadowing system (like doom3's) or would this be something that you would need the source code for?
*** You should get all of the code you need in the final SDK to do this as a mod maker.

3 - Would it be possible for a mod team to implement real-time dynamic 3D water (like that seen un the unreal 2.x engine) or would this be something that you would need the source code for?
*** I'm assuming you mean fluid dynamics here, yes that should be possible.

4 - Would it be possible for a mod team to change the deco layer fade/draw pattern or is this something that you would need the source code for?
*** I'm not sure what you are referring to here.

5 - Will there be a system that automatically creates different LOD for a model or will each LOD have to be made manually?
*** The tools such as XSI do most of this work for us.

6 - Will there be an entity in HL22 hammer that allows the mapper to attach objects to an npc (such as a weapon or backpack) that moves with the player model's animations?
*** Not an entity, but this is very possible, yes.

7 - Is there a weather entity in hl2 hammer and if so will the weather be "smart" like in DOD where it will automatically know that there is a roof and not to draw through it?
*** Rain won't come through the roof in HL2

8 - What is the the current maximum amount of players supported by source for online games/mods
*** The engine can handle 256, however realizing that is not likely given the bandwidth and cpu requirements. 64 should be doable, possibly even 128 if you made some changes to the code (reduced the amount of data sent).

9 - What are map compile times with source compared to HL1 map compile times?
*** We use our internal tool called VMPI for distributing the compiles. With this tool, maps that used to take a day to compile, now compile in just a few minutes.

 

[CreedoG]

Sure. It might take a little bit of work but it's certainly possible.

Rick
Valve

-----Original Message-----
From: ******* [mailto:******@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 2:54 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: Possible to add bullet time to Source?

Hello Rick,

Would it be possible to add "Bullet Time" like effects to a mod using
the source engine? Sort of like the effect in the movie "The Matrix"
or like Max Payne, F.E.A.R., etc?

Assuming this is a normal mod, not a licensed development company who
have the source code to Source.

thanks for your time,

-Matt

 

[el Chi]

Don't know if we knew this already, but:

Hi!
I was just wondering whether the production of CS: Source was hindering
that of HL2 or influencing its release date at all?
I understand you're very busy so good luck.
Cheers,
Chris George

It's work we have to do regardless (e.g. for multiplayer sample code for
the SDK).

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris George [mailto:*****@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 5:22 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: CS: Source

 

[Banana]

Didnt directly answer my questions but interesting and cool never the less. Valve = Awesome.

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Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 1:59 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Give it to me straight, i can take it...

Good Afternoon Mr. Newell,

As usual, hope all is well over there. Quick questions involving HL2 and CS:S

News about the beta of Counterstrike Source makes me wonder exactly who will get to beta test this game. I know it is stated to be CyberCafe and Condition Zero people but with regards to the Condition Zero people will everyone who bought CZ be able to test or will only a select few from that pool be able to do so.

Second: How does all this affect the release of HL2? The halflife2.net forums are confused as to whether CS:S will come with HL2 and if this is the case, does this mean that HL2 is going to be pushed back further in order to accommodate the completion of CS:S If HL2 and CS:S will be separate, does this mean we will get HL2 before anyone plays CS:S? As much as I like CS, I think I’d like to have HL2 as the first source powered game available, but that is just my opinion.


From: Gabe Newell [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 4:14 PM
Subject: RE: Give it to me straight, i can take it...

We're quite close to shipping Half-Life 2. One thing you'd like to do before you ship a brand new game engine to millions of people is make sure you haven't missed something that is going to affect a bunch of people (.e.g "argh, why didn't it occur to us that some people might have DX 9 hardware, but only have DX8 installed").

So we wanted to ship something that people could play, that lots of people knew how to play, that would get the Source engine into lots and lots of people's hands. Shipping a part of CS:Source was the best compromise of a number of factors. Hopefully it will go smoothly, and we'll be that much closer to getting Half-Life 2 out the door. If it doesn't go smoothly, better find out now rather than after we've shipped Half-Life 2.

We have to restrict the number of people just to manage the amount of data we get back. Cybercafes are nice, because we can also talk to the cybercafe operators to find out what they are learning as well. CZ owners are a good group because we know they are recently active.

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Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 2:34 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: RE: Give it to me straight, i can take it... part 2

Hello again Mr. Newell,

It is this attention to a certain level of quality that I like about valve as a company.

Another (more generic) question if I may,

When do you as a developer decide to just “stop” with the testing process? Realistically, there is always something that can be worked on and improved and I assume that at some point you just have to declare that you have done all that you can in house, though I may be wrong. Not that I am trying to push for release or anything but rather that it is interesting to see how different developers make decisions concerning their products. I assume valve has advantage of not really having someone, other than raving fans, breathing down your necks to get something out of the door.

Second: I’m just curious about what your test OSs are. I assume you test your products on the current flavors of Windows but do you also test on unreleased products such as the Longhorn betas floating around? How much do you plan for future compatibility versus just getting it to run on what is available now?

Thanks again!

From: Gabe Newell [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 4:14 PM
Subject: RE: Give it to me straight, i can take it... part 2

Part of the reason we did Steam was so that the process of evolving the product, whether it's new content or bug fixes, or compatibility with new OS's/hardware, could be more continuous.

 

[ecchi]

I write for a gaming site and inquired about doing a preview about the CS: Source beta.

Chris -

All CZ users will have access to the CS Source Beta and there won't be
an NDA. I'd love to see your thoughts after you play so feel free to
send a link of the preview when it goes live.

Thanks for your enthusiasm and continued support!
-kellie


Kellie Cosner, Valve
[email protected]
www.valvesoftware.com

 

[wakkywheel]

From me to Gabe:

Hello, i would really appreciate it if you have the time to answer my mail (although I doubt you have the time).

I have a modem connection to the internet, so I wonder if it would be possible to download patches and updates from another compuer that has a broadband connection but doesn't have Half-Life 2 installed and burn it on a cd?

Also I wonder which of the new cards from Nvidia an Ati is the best on Half-Life 2? (Performance and Image quality)

Also, I kind of wonder if you aresome sort of divine creature, or maby you have direct contact with some sort of alien race that has spent many millenia on perfecting interactive storytelling?

From Gabe to me:

Yes, you can share Steam cache files between computers.

ATI has the faster cards by a considerable margin for DirectX 9.0 games (including Half-Life 2).

My alien masters would prefer it if I didn't answer this question

 

[Chris D]

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Deeming [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, July 09, 2004 1:39 PM
To: Doug Lombardi
Subject: Half-Life 2 playtesting

Have you had the chance to play test over
different nationalities yet, and has it ever made a difference in the
way they play the game?

Now that you mention it, those from the UK are striking more skilled
than most.

Cheers

 

[63]

From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2004 9:25 PM
To: Six Three
Subject: Re: Rating? - quick


Right now we're targetting a July 30th release candidate. This means we give what we think is a shippable version to VU. Usually you go through a couple of RCs before you reach Gold, which means that you have what you are going to manufacture. After you manufacture it, it goes to stores.

In our last conversation with the ESRB, we were looking at a teen rating.

- Gabe

 

[Stef]

From: Stef
Sent: Saturday, July 10, 2004 9:36 PM
To: Rick Ellis
Subject: LOD in HL2


Hi Mr Ellis,

Juste 2 quick questions about the LOD in Half-Life 2...

How does Source know when it's time to switch between models with differents LOD ?

It is based on the distance to the player or by the capacity of the computer to render it ?
If I have a faster computer, does the LOD will change when the object is further ?
*** Yes it's based on distance from the player. The upper level LOD is determined by the hardware capabilities, then the fall off is fixed from there.

And in the E3 2004 demo, at the beginning, when we see a close-up of the G-Man,
the head look very detailed.

Does the model was a special meshe (with hi-res normal-mappings, more detailed textures and maybe more polys) done just for that shot, or if I get close enough in the game, I'll see as much details ?
*** Our characters are very detailed. You should be surprised if you get up very close to HL2 characters how well the faces look.


Thanks alot !

Stef

 

[hype.db]

Hello,
I'm from HL2.net and have read that in addition to VALVe aiming to RC
at the end of July (great news), you are also aiming for a teen ESRB
rating. I'd like to know what your thinking is behind striving for
the rather average content rating. I'm not questioning your move, but
fans may feel better knowing no HL2 material is being sacrificed.

Cheers & best of luck
Ryan


Gabe's reply:
No HL-2 material is or was being sacrificed. That just looks to be the rating they are going to give us.