Making of Left 4 Dead Video Presentation

Hectic Glenn

Hectic Glenn

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Doug Lombardi has passed on a HD version to L4D411, of a presentation Valve prepared for E3 this year for the press and E3 judges. Not a lot of new information from the presentation (AI director details, lighting and it's effect, bridging of single and multiplayer models), but some interesting game play snippets including a large explosion at a gas station, and a new extended trailer at the end of the video. See below for the video. 7 mins 45 seconds onwards for the new trailer. 2 months to go.
 
Valve, I've said it before and I'll say it again. I <3 U.

-dodo

edit: Yes Gabe, I love you to, stop mailing me asking if that means that I love you aswell, it does, now get to work. Really.
 
****ing insane!!!! Cant wait!!!
 
"Ships November 4th"

:( Not anymore!

Anyways, I'm so pumped for L4D!
 
Anyone else think that the tank zombie in the trailer at the end didn't look very good? Maybe I am missing something but it looked way too shiny, kind of like when developers first started doing bump mapping a few years ago and everything looked wet.
 
Does look amazing - I really want to play this.

Only thing that bothers me is how their lips weren't moving when they talked, but I can chalk that up to the game not actually being finished yet.
 
I love this in-depth technology talk. Had about light, shadows and texture filtering last week, and I learned some from this video :) Although I want to try the Shadow Volumes technique first, that Carmack made for Doom ;)

I'm sure the facial animations are going to be there when they ship. They've pretty much perfected it for TF2, so there's no reason they shouldn't be using it in this game as well :)

Can't wait to play this game... It looks very good. The graphics are better than Crysis in my opinion, not in that they're very high resolution or ultra-realistisc, but that they really makes you feel the atmosphere. Always though Valve nailed that one - Half-life 2 felt so much better than its competitor Doom 3, because it just felt natural to the scene, whereas Doom 3 felt too detailed. (In my opinion that is)
 
I've always thought this game looked good, but that trailer made me really want to play it. And there's no way in hell my computer will be able to.
 
There is a quote on left4dead411 from a dev stating the new player models had not been rigged for facial animation at the time the video was made.
 
Seriously cannot wait to play this game! >_<
 
DO WANT.

Left 4 Dead looks like its gonna be so much fun!
 
Epsi said:
Only thing that bothers me is how their lips weren't moving when they talked, but I can chalk that up to the game not actually being finished yet.
Click to expand...

I think it was done in IFM(Integrated film maker) and sound was added later.
 
Its looking great so far, I just wish the characters mouths where animated when they speak like in tf2.

Lobster said:
There is a quote on left4dead411 from a dev stating the new player models had not been rigged for facial animation at the time the video was made.
Click to expand...

That explains it.
 
Iced_Eagle said:
If you can run Ep2, you can run L4D :)
Click to expand...

The enhanced lightning/shadowing might make it harder to run that Episode 2. Those things are real performance hogs sadly... And it looks like you gotta have those features on, in the way the game is supposed to be played.

So a few upgrades might be necessary to play L4D if you could play Ep2 as intended.
 
Surrogate said:
The enhanced lightning/shadowing might make it harder to run that Episode 2. Those things are real performance hogs sadly... And it looks like you gotta have those features on, in the way the game is supposed to be played.

So a few upgrades might be necessary to play L4D if you could play Ep2 as intended.
Click to expand...

Lower the settings though and it should be fine.

I mean, they aren't that heavy of requirements in the first place.
 
Hm. They can do dynamic lighting - they just aren't using it. In the early part of the presentation, the terrible, static shadows are gone, ALL the player flashlights cast beams of shadowed light, and static lights cast accurate shadows. In the trailer, static shadows are back, and only the player's flashlight beam casts shadows. Obviously using more shadowed light sources has an effect on performance, but surely the option should be there to use on high end machines?

Obviously it could be there on release, but it seems strange that while the footage for L4D in the presentation had bells and whistles, the trailer didn't.

Eh, I just so want source to using dynamic lighting more.
 
Why use a dynamic light on a static light source though? if your talking about having high resolution shadows, then thats simply a case of increasing the scale of the static lightmap which in turn increases the memory usage and requires the use of two seperate versions of the map, the vast majority of people wont notice the difference in a shadow unless the light source is moving.
 
The footage looks amazing, I especially loved the gas station explosion. It did bother me though that their lips didn't move and this shows me even more how much I prefer the former look for the survivors. Zoey just looks hurt and not hurt as in attacked by zombies, but ugly hurt.
 
I noticed at the part when the zombie jumps up on the crate it teleports onto it, also their lips don't move. I hope these are fixed when it comes out.
 
Lobster said:
Why use a dynamic light on a static light source though? if your talking about having high resolution shadows, then thats simply a case of increasing the scale of the static lightmap which in turn increases the memory usage and requires the use of two seperate versions of the map, the vast majority of people wont notice the difference in a shadow unless the light source is moving.
Click to expand...

I suppose I'm talking more about the (relatively) accurate casting of shadows on movable props, not lightmap shadows. In the early video footage, static lights seemed to be casting accurate shadows on props. In the trailer, the 'world' shadows are cast, barring flashlight shadows.

It's all nonsense really, because the game will be great. I'm just one of those people who stays up all night worrying about Source keeping up with the pack :E
 
The only thing that worried me about that trailer was the way they are trying to mix epic singleplayer drama with multilplayer social fun. I don't think the two really to together. Tense, dramatic stuff with high emotional impact is stuff you want to enjoy on your own, surely. I always thought multiplayer games were meant to be more light-hearted, as in, a recreational thing that friends do together. Like TF2 or Counter-Strike. I dunno, it might work, I just find it hard to imagine getting immersed in a tense and dramatic atmosphere while your friends/other random interneteers are all around you.

Excellent trailer though, of course. That game looks like awesome fun.
 
The tank throwing a chunk of pavement looked... bad. I really hope they fix that up before the release. Other than that, fantastic.
 
jondo85 said:
Anyone else think that the tank zombie in the trailer at the end didn't look very good? Maybe I am missing something but it looked way too shiny, kind of like when developers first started doing bump mapping a few years ago and everything looked wet.
Click to expand...
I didn't think it was possible to create a monster that looked more stupid than the mutants in Far Cry but Valve seem to have managed it with that particular creature :P Game looks awesome though. Bit worried it looks darker than Doom 3! Is there at least a small chance this could suck big time?
 
Godron said:
The only thing that worried me about that trailer was the way they are trying to mix epic singleplayer drama with multilplayer social fun.
Click to expand...

So the only thing that bothers you is the idea by which the entire game is based? :p
 
I would be ashamed to play this game on any settings but the highest. It looks magnificent. Up there with Crysis in graphics, I believe.
 
Van_Halen said:
I would be ashamed to play this game on any settings but the highest. It looks magnificent. Up there with Crysis in graphics, I believe.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's really not. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm sure it'll play like a beast, but... really not.
 
Didnt anyone else notice that when the models talked there was no lip synching? Looked like a machinima video.
 
The Source engine had some awesome enhancements. Good news for Half-Life, too.
 
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