New CVG mag, new shots and hands on With Half-life 2...

[shadow stalker]

I just got my copy of CVG, and it has 6 pages on Half-life 2!! It mainly says what the other mags say, but one bit of info caught my eye...

"..then you'll be pleased to know that every building is fully destructable, meaning shards of rock and stone will be scything through the air while you engage the enemy in bloddy firefights as the rest of mankind attempt to take City 17, street by street. Happy now?"

Fully destructable buildings? i never new about this? If this is true, i mean they could have it wrong , then this will be so cool. Sorry if this was already know... first that ive heard of it though.

There is also a neat screen shot that i havnt seen before, where there is a baracade, and some destroyed buildings and there is a strider potrolling in teh background... looks really sweet

 

[MrWhite]

played Red Faction or RF 2? same thing, just alot more crappy. That will be the most amazing thing in the world to witness.

 

[Shuzer]

Sounds too good to be true.. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if there are set objects on a building that are destructable, but fully destructable buildings?

 

[TheWart]

I think he may be exaggerating a little...

 

[GOoch]

Fully destructable buildings

not entirley true i think the wooden ones are.

this was clarified in an email ages ago i think or on a steam chat with one of the dev blokes..

 

[blahblahblah]

no way are building are fully destructable. Think about the strain on the graphics engine and the physics engine. I'll be happy with crate/box busting.

 

[A.I.]

Exaggerating... reporters.

 

[Shuzer]

I wouldn't be surprised if they confused a scripted bit where a strider came out and started blasting buildings apart with actual non-scripted destructable buildings

 

[TheWart]

I would not be suprised he if considered the e3 video with the strider an example of fully destructable buildings....I am sure certain buildings will be scripted to have parts that fly off etc.

 

[Shuzer]

TheWart, our replies are almost the same.. that's just creepy

 

[SMT]

Perhaps he only means that when you shoot them, instead of just leaving a decal the engine causes debris to fly from where the bullet hit.

I really, really think they've got it wrong. It would probably be best for everyone to assume that buildings will not be fully destructable.

 

[shadow stalker]

Thats what i thought actually, im sure i read somwhere ages ago about only certain parts or somthink... but as blahblahblah said, i will be happy just breking boxes and stuff

 

[Javert]

I assume that only a huge enough force of Striders can "fully destruct" a building, but I doubt it's anything Gordon can do with his guns.
But debris I can believe.

 

[Lobster]

lol im sure its possible to construct buildings entirely of debris (like the wood planks) and have them destructable using source, be laggy as hell for just a small building.

Im sure the maps will be full of smaller destructable stuff that the AI and you can play with, the strider scene was most likely entirely scripted for the sake of the E3 demo, but in the final game the strider wont be predefined to Destroy The Bridge, it will simply move down the road , see a destructable object in its path and destroy it to get at its target, same with the grunts and the door.

 

[whoa182]

if every building and object could be destroyed ,, some object or bridge or building might be vital to complete a mission or the game. Fully destructable city wisnt going to happen

 

[Mechagodzilla]

yeah, what if you blasted a hole in the house at the edge of the level, and then stepped out into space?

I think they might mean that it will be like a scaled-down version of the lobby scene in matrix 1, shooting tiles off the walls and puncturing concrete.
Nothing that would knock the building over, but still lots of destruction.
That would be rad.

 

[mrchimp]

I think anything that looks breakable probably will be, not just wooden objects but if you look at the strider video, the second strider knocks some unstable concrete off the side of a building by shooting it.

It's probably like in Painkiller where certain structures will collapse if you throw a grenade there way, only HL2 will do it much much better.

 

[Apos]

Magazine writers are such noobs, sigh. Why don't they get real gamers like us who know what's what to write these articles instead of these middle-aged boobs who can't tell a shader from shading.

As Valve has said many times over, you have to explicitly set things to be destructable if you want them to be (and then you have your choice of ways they can fall apart), so that you can balance destructability with performance and polygon count. An entire building can be destructible, but you have to be aware that this is a costly expenditure of polygons, and should be used sparingly if you want it to run on everyone's computers.

 

[the_prodigy]

I think they meant the debris. As in, if u shoot a wall, debris of that particular material will fly about. Shoot a brick wall, ull see brick-like debri; shoot a wooden entity, splinters of wood will fly about. Basically, all materials won't have the same debri texture, as FPS games usually do. That's what I think the mag writers intended to say.

 

[Alig]

Destructable buildings/walls and stuff would be good so long as they can make it right *thinks of Matrix : Lobby scene* <---that would pwn.

 

[brokenjago]

I am inclined to agree with the_prodigy.

 

[Axyon]

Magazine writers are such noobs, sigh. Why don't they get real gamers like us who know what's what to write these articles instead of these middle-aged boobs who can't tell a shader from shading.

Because unfortunately, 95% of the time they're hired to make things sound more appealing and better than they are, so that they can earn the company/publisher more money, rather than looking at the straight facts and talking about them.

 

[The Brick]

I don't really believe that it's possible to destroy everything, but I sure hope so...

 

[amneziac85]

I thought I read about this in an interview with Gabe. I think he said that anything thats not vital to finishing the mission (i.e., the only bridge, a building you have to get to the top of, etc.) could be destroyed, like random houses or buildings, non-vital bridges, etc...

I remember him stating that vital buildings you cant destroy, so why would he even mention that if you couldnt destroy ANY buildings?

 

[Death.Trap]

I'm sure they have several buildings that are destructible. It's ignorant to assume that this guy is exaggerating. Perhaps he was talking about debree, perhaps not. We really won't know till the e3 or the release of the game.

I really don't know what to think about it, but I DO know that it would be damn cool if we could destroy whatever building we felt like destroyin!

 

[Seppo]

Valve have said it's possible to build a wooden house and blow it off with explosives. Somewhere in the "info from valve only" -thread.

 

[Seppo]

I thought I read about this in an interview with Gabe. I think he said that anything thats not vital to finishing the mission (i.e., the only bridge, a building you have to get to the top of, etc.) could be destroyed, like random houses or buildings, non-vital bridges, etc...

I remember him stating that vital buildings you cant destroy, so why would he even mention that if you couldnt destroy ANY buildings?

Yeah, I've read something like that too...Info from Valve -thread perhaps

 

[torso boy]

valve talked about this last year, they do have displacement maps (what allowed the stuff in red faction to be destroyed), but the level designer decides what to make destructible, but the things that are get destroyed, red faction style, with no preset breaking patterns. But, whole levels won't be destroyed because it could stop you from being able to complete the level, and it could strain the physics engine if there is too much wreckage flying around.

Examples of displacement maps are the first part of the tech demo where the ground is lifted up, the wood in the tech demo, the strider blowing up the walkway before going under it, the second strider shooting through the cement that was part of the building when it first comes out

 

[EVIL]

only the ground going up is caused by a displacement map.. there wood and stuff arent so please dont try to talk smart, it makes you look stupid.

you can make steel dent with a displacement map.. you can make craters with displacement maps. but thats all.. the demolition from buildings is a combination of valve's material system and psychics.

displacement maps are black and white images that hold height data. black is horizon. white is for example 3000 m above the horizon. by manipulating these maps you can make landscapes and other stuff.

displacement maps can move a polygon up and down. you cant make objects fall appart with it.

 

[Quixote]

How much of the physics engine do you guys expect to be in play in MP? All of it or most of the features like a destructable house for instance turned off.

 

[Victor2]

if every building and object could be destroyed ,, some object or bridge or building might be vital to complete a mission or the game. Fully destructable city wisnt going to happen

Yep, that will never happen, imagine a player blasting his way through the map until he finds the mapping edge, the limits of the map.

 

[Apos]

It's configurable for MP. I'm sure there will be some destructible areas, but mostly the physics will be in the objects. Big ones that affect gameplay will be rendered server-side, the same for everyone, while tiny objects will be just client side effects.

 

[Lobster]

Yep, that will never happen, imagine a player blasting his way through the map until he finds the mapping edge, the limits of the map.

Yeah lol, He would hit a matt painted skybox with a door into nothing, Truman style.

 

[Styloid]

I hope this isn't a case of a reporter purposely exaggerating but more that Valve's level design is good enough that it feels like everything is breakable though they're not.

 

[Sai]

if this has already been posted i apologize didn't take time to read the entire thread....

in the pc gamer preview the guy who played it said that when he hit an explosive barrell the fire started spreading and this building was at one point completely on fire

my thoughts: WOW
fire that actually spreads and a non scripted sequence where a building burns

 

[whoa182]

that sounds awesome !

 

[Mechagodzilla]

if this has already been posted i apologize didn't take time to read the entire thread....

in the pc gamer preview the guy who played it said that when he hit an explosive barrell the fire started spreading and this building was at one point completely on fire

my thoughts: WOW
fire that actually spreads and a non scripted sequence where a building burns

What if the building is entirely concrete?
Perhaps he means that the ignited gasoline inside the barrel spreads, as liquids are prone to do.

 

[ferd]

so you could destroy the building where the endboss is

the thing about the fire had been said already in the official news from valve thread

 

[Jackal hit]

yeah i agree with those who say that parts of buildings will be destructible... or maybe just buildings in certain levels? say maybe levels that have large vehicles/enemies that would be capable of such a thing. it would be awesome to have even partially destructible buildings though.. like say, you run into a building to hide from a strider, ... and BLAM! strider shoots a huge gaping hole in the side of the building to get at you...
...but i've always had a feeling at least some large things would be destructible it would actually make the physics in game tactical, as valve has stated... beyond just objects that can be picked up and thrown. scripted or not, evidence of the destruction possibilities has been shown off in at least 3 e3 vids.

 

[Sparta]

Has anyone noticed in the Strider video how when the strider is shooting that guy behind the car, he shoots out the windows of the building behind him? That surprised me because i thought that building was just a big block