Messed up Shadows in Screen Shot

[FuriousGeorge83]

Anyone else bothered by the fact that in some of the screen shots, the shadows arent right? The most obvious one is where the one with the 2 horse statues in the middle of the square. It looks like all the building and item shadows all go east (Meaning it would be late afternoon) while the character shadows go south west. Ehh im probably just crazy but stuff like that bothers me. If you guys have any explanation id be happy to find out whats going on.

 

[azz0r]

Well the game doesnt seem to have that problem in my build, dont worry about it.

 

[thehunter1320]

Originally posted by azz0r
Well the game doesnt seem to have that problem in my build, dont worry about it.

u got that map in your beta?

 

[Chris D]

Something that's been discussed before. There are many screenshots that are what seem to be the original post-announcment shots that were given to Gamespy etc. There are also some shadow errors on the traptown E3 demo. The build from E3 is the one that was shown in the Steam videos so I would expect that in the final release, which isn't reflected by any current "releases", that the problem is sorted.

 

[Pumbert]

Discussing the beta is illegal on these forums buds
It quite possibly will get you a lynching.

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

EvilEwok

HL2 uses a combination of real time and all the other traditional forms of shadowing such as static. This is partly why conflicts appear as I understand it. But yes. There were other problems such as shadows showwing through solid surfaces


Anyway, I think its far from ugly

 

[azz0r]

I havent noticed any major shadow problems, there is the odd map (the coast maps for example) that have large static blob shadows on the coast.

However I havent noticed any shadows going the wrong way, and yes I have played the map that has the horse in the middle, and the shadows all go the right way.

Also note, the flashlight is very odd, its overly bright (people look like paper when you stick the light on them) and it seems to light an entire object on some static stuff.

 

[thehunter1320]

azz0r, check ur PM

 

[Anwar]

now they have a lot of time to make upgrades to the shadows... maybe even go full dynamic

 

[manny_c44]

Originally posted by Anwar
now they have a lot of time to make upgrades to the shadows... maybe even go full dynamic

They won't do that, but I'm sure the final product will be quite polished and lit rooms w/o lights and the like will be fixed.

 

[Hallucinogen]

Originally posted by FuriousGeorge83
Anyone else bothered by the fact that in some of the screen shots, the shadows arent right? The most obvious one is where the one with the 2 horse statues in the middle of the square. It looks like all the building and item shadows all go east (Meaning it would be late afternoon) while the character shadows go south west. Ehh im probably just crazy but stuff like that bothers me. If you guys have any explanation id be happy to find out whats going on.

1st of all, your not supposed to discuss this ... but maybe you didnt see because your blind.
2nd of all, I think the reason is that your card sucks, the shadows work fine.
3rd I deleted the beta already, I had enough of it (played it to the death for the past few days), so I dont care.

 

[theGreenBunny]

Re: Re: Messed up Shadows in Screen Shot

Originally posted by Hallucinogen
1st of all, your not supposed to discuss this ... but maybe you didnt see because your blind.
2nd of all, I think the reason is that your card sucks, the shadows work fine.
3rd I deleted the beta already, I had enough of it (played it to the death for the past few days), so I dont care.

He's talking about official screenshots, so now you're on the wrong side of the rules instead of him

 

[Hallucinogen]

Re: Re: Re: Messed up Shadows in Screen Shot

Originally posted by theGreenBunny
He's talking about official screenshots, so now you're on the wrong side of the rules instead of him

Ohh my bad :dozey:

 

[Mr. Redundant]

Originally posted by EvilEwok
Although they more than likley fixed most of the blatent shadow errors we have seen in the older screens, the lighting system in source isnt very sophisticated at all. Not only in the shadows department, but in the way that light interacts with the surfaces.

Surfaces are often evenly lit in instaces where they shouldnt be, and surfaces which are brightly lit run into surfaces which are nearly black due to no light hitting it at all, even though it should be lit aswell. Things like this appear very frequently, and i could point out an example in just about any screenshot. In many instances it makes the game look quite ugly.


*EDIT

Another thing that bothers me is when you walk into a closed off room that is brightly lit, yet there is no visible light source. This was ok a few years ago, but game developers really should be moving towards a more consistant environment. Thankfully, we are seeing this in games like stalker and doom3.

Constistancy goes along way for immersion, and i find hl2s environment inconsistent to the extreme. Mattresses where there would be no reason for them to be, the same toilet models used again and again in places where there would be no reason for a toilet to be laying around. Obviously they were put there for you to play with the physics gun, but they could go a step further in the design department and use props where you would expect them to be. It really ruins the immersion when i go to pick up a model then have to stop and laugh at the developers for putting it in that particular spot.

I agree with you on all points friend
games should strive for blah, have more blah, and HL2 shouldnt be so lackluster with Blah...
the only problem is the source.
your judging a game thats not released, (and you talk as though from experience, so I assume you have the beta).
but you must realize it is that... a beta.
if you wanted to air your grieviances, you should have also noted that the beta crashes a lot, has huge red "error" text when something is missing, some models have no physics applied, you cant do this, it doesnt do that...

cmon man... be a little rational here, you shouldnt have the beta to begin with.
and you dont know how much of the game has changed since then... how well it was compiled by the hacker etc.

(this is a general statement, not aimed at anyone)
---
people who download the beta leak, and judge it / decide not to get the full game / or even slightly put off by it.
are insignificant, simply because they probably wouldnt be able to afford the game anyway / it would'nt run on their computer / their dad's think its too violent for them.
---

 

[jat]

This is kinda funny, i cant get the beta and i wouldnt, but when the doom3 got leaked, the same thing happened. Everyone on the forums were screaming, oh my god this is wrong and it craches here, and how do u get to the next part.... to be honest it was either a bumch of 10 year olds posting or they dont realise what is ment by a leaked version.

Like the guy before my posted, everyone expects perfection even though the game is not finshed, but has anyone ever thought that this is not the latest build around sept 30th that valve had?

The hacker could have had this a year ago and just gone into the files and changed a few dates and hes done...

Its kinda obvious cause the source has already been liscensed to bloond lines or whatever.

And these peeps that complain about the shadows and all the problems, it may not be the game but ur graphics card...

And the beta, not worth downloading when it will have a few viruses in and some trojans... its the perfect infiltration if u dont have a descent firewall.

 

[Maskirovka]

jat, he's talking about official screenshots...why not read the thread before posting?

can someone link to the actual screenshot in question?
i assume it's this one:
http://www.halflifesource.com/images/screenshots/hl2/13.jpg

in that shot the APC and the guy standing in the square have messed up shadows. i hope they've noticed this stuff

they're fine in this shot though...the people's shadows match the statues
http://www.halflifesource.com/images/screenshots/hl2/22.jpg

 

[Benji]

well sure even the "official" screenshots have bugs shown in them. they are, after all, screenshots of an unfinished product!

 

[vetebulle]

"Messed up Shadows in Screen Shot"

Wow, I was confident valve would do something about those shadows... guess they fancy firing squads over debugging. Crikey.. :dozey:

 

[Homer]

Originally posted by Pumbert
Discussing the beta is illegal on these forums buds
It quite possibly will get you a lynching.

and that is what has killed these forums.

 

[Maskirovka]

Originally posted by Homer
and that is what has killed these forums.

what has...discussing the beta or people posting without reading the thread first?

 

[ParaBellum]

Well yes, the shadows and lighting in HL2 will never be as good as Doom3. HL2 has much larger maps, and the fps would below 5fps if they had dynamic shadows for everything.