Live weather effects in Half-Life 2

see if games have rain or snow in a certain level, it shouldn't be possible to turn it off. rain can impair visibility so its kinda like a wall, turning it off is a wallhack :) i hope in the future games make it so you can't turn off things like that.
 
Originally posted by Menelaos
Gordon's HEV doesn't have a visor, he doesn't even have a helmet.
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Weeeeeeeeeelllll... There was a bit of a debate going on about that in one of the threads. Some artwork from VALVe shows Gordon holding an HEV helmet, but I joked that his HUD was projected onto his glasses. Barring actual info from VALVe, I don't think we can say for sure.

He certainly doesn't wear a helmet in most pics of him.
 
HL2 supposedly would use a system like Unreal and Wolfensten, where you could make a minimal scene on the map 'outside' the playable area, and then project that as a skybox, making it possible for very detailed skyboxes with great distances, blending fog, and rich detail.
 
Originally posted by Dagobert
How you gonna do the dynamic loading of skyboxes?
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Wouldn't be using dynamic skyboxes.. Don't think they can be used anyway. No the trick is another way, which even worked in HL1, there's just something in the source engine I need to ensure is there or possible for it to work properly, or it'll look silly :(
 
Forget live weather.. I want weather forecasts. After battling some ant lions I want to be able to turn on a television and see the 7 day outlook.
 
Originally posted by Fenric1138
Wouldn't be using dynamic skyboxes.. Don't think they can be used anyway. No the trick is another way, which even worked in HL1, there's just something in the source engine I need to ensure is there or possible for it to work properly, or it'll look silly :(
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It would be really impressive if you could get day/night cycles going in an engine that isn't specifically made for it. I've seen plenty of games go from daylight to dawn and dusk to daylight, but I've yet to see a FPS that can make the transition from daylight to almost total darkness. The darkest it gets is either a very dark blue sky or a very moonlit sky. I've heard S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is supposed to make realistic transitions, I'm interested to see how that goes.
 
Hey people guess what, NONE OF YOU UNDERSTOOD WHAT HE MEANT

he wanted to know if it would be possible to have the game interact with the OUTSIDE enviornment. EG, you look out your window while playing HL2 and if its night, the game is night, if its raining, the game has rain. he thought it through pretty well and had an idea for steam to check a weather page and download the information, then have it tell the game what weather effects to use.

he wasnt talking about the game having day night cycles and whatnot, he wanted the game to interact with the reality of the weather outside! just thought id clear this up since i havnt seen anyone respond correctly!!!! :O
 
That would be kick ass. You play HL2 in the morning: "Agh! the sun! can't see! i need to come back at 2:00" :p

"Bad weather today I guess." What would be REALLY cool is if it used the weather forcast in your local area ;) "Ohhh, so that's how it is outside"
 
Originally posted by Cheetarah654
Hey people guess what, NONE OF YOU UNDERSTOOD WHAT HE MEANT
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Yes we did, it was answered and we moved onto more sensible/possible idea's.
 
How about footsteps in the snow, real time...that would RULE. Imagine multiplayer where you could see everyones footsteps..

or if it's raining footsteps in the mud...sorry


*creams pants*
 
wow that actually would be a really neat idea...there could be mods where you have to sneak around without leaving a trace!!

war and peace aint no thang brotha
 
Originally posted by Wrath
How about footsteps in the snow, real time...that would RULE. Imagine multiplayer where you could see everyones footsteps..

or if it's raining footsteps in the mud...sorry


*creams pants*
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I wanted to, still do, but haven't worked out a way that would work in the engine, other than coded later by someone.. hmm I suppose it could be just something at the players position that lays down footstep decals and takes into account the player speed. For best effects woul dhave to work for every creature/NPC in a mod, if their done the same as the bullet ones they could look pretty good...

your right though, it would be pretty cool in mods :)
 
and then get like a Rake weapon, where you can walk backwards and rake the snow to cover your tracks. lol ;)

that is a pretty near idea (footstep decals) they did that somewhat in Undying when you walked in snow and dirt, as well as leaving bloody footprints (ala duke nukem actually) when you walked in blood.
 
Originally posted by Mr. Redundant
and then get like a Rake weapon, where you can walk backwards and rake the snow to cover your tracks. lol ;)

that is a pretty near idea (footstep decals) they did that somewhat in Undying when you walked in snow and dirt, as well as leaving bloody footprints (ala duke nukem actually) when you walked in blood.
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yep, and in serious sam i think too? It should be easy enough for a coder to come up with something, as for mine, it'll be one of those things done right at the end as its not super important, would be cool to have, I like the idea about multiplayer and it being a way to track the enemy
 
GTA 3 and GTA VC had footprints and tire tracks when you went through blood, so its obviously fesible.
 
i guess there would be a problem sync'n the footprints with the feet maybe? i dunno i only just started to learn. decals mite look a bit weird for footpints in snow imo, for something as high tech as hl2 it will have to leave imprints in the ground...now thats complicated.
 
Originally posted by WikKa!
i guess there would be a problem sync'n the footprints with the feet maybe? i dunno i only just started to learn. decals mite look a bit weird for footpints in snow imo, for something as high tech as hl2 it will have to leave imprints in the ground...now thats complicated.
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Decals would be the only real way to go with them. Deformable terrain at that level would be impossible on current systems (would need a few hundred at least to define a single footprint and displacement of the snow)

If you could somehow code something that would calculate the speed of the object in question, the direction, the texture its currently over. You could create various style of footprints for snow, mud, wet earth, blood and so on. Using normal and spec maps in the decals to give the impression of some kind of depth eg: the mud and snow footprints would have the sides appear to be raised up where the mud/snow has been pushed from where the foot has gone. The direction of the object would decide on which way the decal is facing, the speed would be used for setting the distance per footprint. The bit about having different kinds of footprint decals for various surfaces would be the easy part, as even HL1 had something there which told the software which sound to play depending on what surface you hit with say the crowbar. As I understand it HL2 has the same thing but with decals aswell.

Like with normal decals they'd gradually be reused and older ones replaced. So even in a busy area the footprints made should be realistic enough. You could go one better and have the speed of the object not only determin the spacing of each footprint, but also the depth it appears at, so if you were running through snow the footprints would be lighter than if you were walking slowly.. If a mod had the option of going prone, it could be told to change the type of footprint from feet to a shuffle like markings across the ground. Vehicles would be done differently with no spacing between the tracks to give the impression of moving tire tracks. That could work great for those mods with large Tanks :D

It would be great to see it done right
 
For snow (as well as mud) what if you made a little crater/footprint model that would be spawned everytime you take a step, etc. You could have a console command or ingame option that would limit the max amount of footsteps in the level at a time (kind of like decal times).
 
have you guys played any of the new fighting games like DOA3 or VF4? those games both have a deformable snow/sand level, and they pull it off quite well.

admittedly, that is on a much smaller scale, but it uses a sort of polygon subtraction.
 
they'd have to be dynamic shadows to react to the moving sun. Pre-rendered shadows like those for buildings wouldn't move. However you could make the whole lot dynamic but that would need a pretty hefty PC to run it.

EDIT: that was in answer to the last post on page one... thats what happens when you dont realise there is more then one page.
 
It has already been quoted somewhere about the weather effects being in great detail...

But "live" weather effects would be fantastic!
 
Originally posted by Cheetarah654
Hey people guess what, NONE OF YOU UNDERSTOOD WHAT HE MEANT

he wanted to know if it would be possible to have the game interact with the OUTSIDE enviornment. EG, you look out your window while playing HL2 and if its night, the game is night, if its raining, the game has rain.......
Click to expand...

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! yes thats exactly what i meant!:eek: :cheers:
 
I don't think HL2 supports night 2 day transitions.
 
If you like a prove that future games got dynamic weather then head to the IGN.COM site and click on the latest vids of stalker or go to spit's thread where he did post the new vid.

As you can see in the vid that the ability to change weather affects is infinite. I hop HL2 got the same.
 
Even if HL2 don't support day/night shift 'out of the box' no one says that a mod team couldn't make that pretty easy through diffrent skies blending and overall dynamic lightning.
 
There's possibly a way to fake it without using dynamic lights/shadows.. it worked in HL1 and that didn't have much in the way of fancy lighting
 
Originally posted by Brian Damage
I'm just wondering if the rain or a steamy atmosphere will affect the visor of Gordon's HEV, like in Metroid Prime.
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i dono if this was answered any or not but.... gordon doesn't wear a helmet... so how could his visor get fogged?? maybe his glasses... i mean there is a pic of him in the top left corner up there...

*edit* ok this was already answered.. sorry bout the repeat post
 
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