New Hi Res pics of HL2

[Xtasy0]

...okay? Well, considering I've been looking at older shots then switching to looking at the newer shots, I disagree completely.. even the screens I took in the stolen build (alot aren't well composed) look bounds better than those

so take a screenshot of the exact same scene as one of the new screenshots and post a comparison for us and point out where the new screen shots falter.

 

[Shuzer]

so take a screenshot of the exact same scene as one of the new screenshots and post a comparison for us and point out where the new screen shots falter.

1) Against forum rules
2) As far as I can tell, those areas (for the most part) aren't in the stolen build
3) GO. LOOK. AT. OFFICIAL. MEDIA. There's ALOT missing from these new shots, well composed or not, that doesn't make up for missing graphical features

 

[ferd]

These kinda look like the pics in the PC gameplay mag, except for 1

 

[Xtasy0]

1) Against forum rules
2) As far as I can tell, those areas (for the most part) aren't in the stolen build
3) GO. LOOK. AT. OFFICIAL. MEDIA. There's ALOT missing from these new shots, well composed or not, that doesn't make up for missing graphical features

ok, so can you cite specific missing graphicals features and illustrate where they should be? (remember fenric already listed "missing" features and i pointed out specific instances of said features being used in the very same screenshots he was talking about)... and also name the older screenshots which show proper usage of said feature(s)?

see what you're trying to do doesnt really work, youre trying to compare these screenshots from these levels with DIFFERENT screenshots from DIFFERENT levels, and you somehow claim that there are features missing etc..etc..but the fact of the matter is, there are no missing features, valve has implemented whatever features they wanted wherever they felt it was neccesary.

like "ooohh i dont see any HDR they must be missing details" well, there are no circumstances in the screenshots where HDR would come into play (looking from a darker area into the sunlight through a window or the like). (there i just eliminated HDR from your list of features that you think are missing) now go ahead and list the others.

 

[Crusader]

Bump mapping seems to be missing. (assuming you're talking about what I think you are...

 

[Shuzer]

Like I said before..

The brushwork seems to have taken a huge step back. It went from decent to HL1 ugly.
There's no reflections in the water, now, barring not ALL water has reflections, it's ugly regardless.
Alot of surfaces are missing bumpmapping (ie. cemetary screen)
Alot of surfaces have really low resolution textures (again, cemetary shot)
Alot of buildings are much lower geometry than some stuff we've seen (..cemetary shot, again..)
Shadow bug in the third shot (supposed to be fixed)
Old blood decals in 9th shot (supposed to be placeholders)

There's more, too. But I'm not exactly a graphics buff, so I can't really take it much further..

Even so, as I said, I think 04.jpg looks to be about what HL2 will look like in the end

 

[Xtasy0]

Like I said before..

The brushwork seems to have taken a huge step back. It went from decent to HL1 ugly.
There's no reflections in the water, now, barring not ALL water has reflections, it's ugly regardless.
Alot of surfaces are missing bumpmapping (ie. cemetary screen)
Alot of surfaces have really low resolution textures (again, cemetary shot)
Alot of buildings are much lower geometry than some stuff we've seen (..cemetary shot, again..)
Shadow bug in the third shot (supposed to be fixed)
Old blood decals in 9th shot (supposed to be placeholders)

There's more, too. But I'm not exactly a graphics buff, so I can't really take it much further..

Even so, as I said, I think 04.jpg looks to be about what HL2 will look like in the end

brushwork is subjective, and its not a "feature".

there ARE reflections in the water (already said this in reply to fenrics post).

"missing" bump mapping, who says it's missing? what specific surfaces? and show me a screenshot of the map which has the bump mapping present rather than missing.

its a dark dirty ugly foggy cemetary, somehow i dont think they were going to "crisp and pristine" textures.

well some of the stuff in the game will be low geometry and some won't be, if it doesnt require better detail then why put better detail?

shadow bug? with the 4 metro cops? whats the bug? that only one lightsource casts a shadow? well thats the way it works, it's not broken.

the alien green blood splatters on the ground? *shrug* they obviously aren't placeholders any longer.

overall the screenshots show the same thing you'll see in the game.

 

[Shuzer]

No reasoning with you. Believe what you will, but it's like I said, even the stolen build looks better in alot of cases.

And I'm glad you've played the final game to say with such certainty that these are at full detail...

 

[Xtasy0]

No reasoning with you. Believe what you will, but it's like I said, even the stolen build looks better in alot of cases.

And I'm glad you've played the final game to say with such certainty that these are at full detail...

"in alot of cases" yes, DIFFERENT cases!! can you not grasp this concept? different cases = different results, just because some screenshots look a certain way doesnt mean every other screenshot will, just remember what i've said when you're playing the game and you go "oh snap that water looks like shit in this situation", and then in another area "oh snap the water looks amazing here!!", or perhaps "oh no wheres teh bump mapping!!!11!!!oneone11!!", and elsewhere "OMG THAT BUMPMAPPING IS TEH AWESOME".

i guarantee most of the people here will be dissapointed no matter what valve releases as the final game, people have simply hyped it too much for themselves.

 

[Shuzer]

Even so, I wish they'd of released eye candy shots.. is that too much to ask for!? lol, anyway.. I don't really care, all I want is the game

Even so, the game looks pretty "moody," even if I don't really think it looks top-notch

Anyway, I'm done complaining about these screens

 

[Carbon]

Having mapped in the beta, all I can say is that the engine is capable of a hell of a lot more. I can make nicer screens on my GF4 MX420 lol. The engine is capable of having doom3 like shadows on given surfaces if you want, it seems like they still have a fair bit of polishing to do on some of those map shots.

 

[Joeyslucky22]

I'm sure even if their maps do suck (which will effect its score on reviewrs :'() they'll be plenty of kick ass maps modders will make!

i've mapped in the beta also, and yeah, you can make some pretty crazy stuff if you got time and patience

 

[Carbon]

Well its possible that they are still playtesting and altering the maps, which means that they dont want to wait 30+ hours for a map to compile just to change small things. so they may have been compiled with fast settings and the lightmap scales high or something.

At E3 we may see pictures of what they want to release, ie fully finished map shots of areas that they have "polished" and on good hardware. Whereas what we have here is shots from the storyline that they thought they cuold show the magazines, they may not be fully finished, but they would have had to have chosen areas in which the magazines would not get to much info on the storyline.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

I posted this in some other threads, but I'll put it in this one too:

Munro was e-mailed by valve, and the screens are all unofficial releases.

The better looking ones that showed up in various magazines are legit, I'd guess, but the rest seem to be beta pics from a crap PC.
Whoever leaked the screens seems to have wanted to include some homemade 'exclusive content'.

In any case, it seems that none of them were supposed to get web releases.
Looks like another (thankfully smaller) leak.

 

[Apos]

I think the unofficialness of them is that they were never meant to be blown up large like that or released online. They were small picks for the mags only. Hopefully, we'll be seeing some ones meant for online soon.

 

[Dagobert]

Sigh...

Do you need anything at the grocery store while I'm at it? Can I wash your car for you?

Seriously, go outside and play... it's a nice day.

Idiot. I'm asking people to back up their arguments with hard fact. All I get is 'it looks worse' or 'it seems to be lower detail'.

Bunch of fools.

 

[Sparta]

Flaming gets you nowhere dude. And for god sake can we all just stop bitching about these shots? They're new shots after 9 months of waiting for this game after it got delayed, even if some people think they're crap, Big f*ckin whoop? Would you rather no screenshots to these screenshots? come on guys lets all just chill and wait till E3, this should tide us over for a week or 2

 

[Dagobert]

Remember we are talking about 'change', here. Your idea is that the game has been downgraded somewhat since the last shots, in terms of artwork or effects..

The brushwork seems to have taken a huge step back. It went from decent to HL1 ugly.

Please give me a specific instance. All I see is the camera positioned close to low-poly objects (like walls and floors) which was not the case in the old shots. I see no instance where a similar object from the old shots is build from a simpler set of brushes in the new ones.

There's no reflections in the water, now, barring not ALL water has reflections, it's ugly regardless.

I see no difference in the shader on the water. Granted, one shot has no reflections, but the other does. This suggest that the reflections have no been taken out.

Alot of surfaces are missing bumpmapping (ie. cemetary screen)

Can you tell me which of the old shots have bump-mapping? because I'm not sure you know how to correctly identify it (it is hard to see bumps without a moving light source, anyway) I know a fair bit about graphics (5 years experience) and I see no surface which had bumps on it in old shots, which doesn't in the new shots. In fact the areas that had a specular pass in the old shots and movies (in the prison) still have that effect applied in the new shots. Half-Life 2 never had very obvious bump or spec maps, really.

Alot of surfaces have really low resolution textures (again, cemetary shot)

Once more I see no difference. yes the camera is closer to the surfaces in the new shots, so the texels are larger, but I really see no difference in actual resolution of the diffuse map.

A lot of buildings are much lower geometry than some stuff we've seen (..cemetary shot, again..)

This is the same issue as the brushwork. It's impossible to compare the two builds (last E3 and this) because they rarely show the same objects.

Old blood decals in 9th shot (supposed to be placeholders)

So this art asset is the same as the old shots, and somehow that makes these worse??

I'd love to take part in a really in-depth technical discussion about this with picture examples, but I don't think anyone is really up to it.

Oh – and these ARE official shots, if anything, they have been released to early (E3 is coming up, after all, and Vivendi may have sent out press packs early).

These are too posed to be from the leaked build. They have been obviously set up by someone with access to the editor (the placement of the combine soldiers in the outdoors shot, for example)

 

[Carbon]

You do realise that the complete map editor and all the source maps are available from the stolen build? I think that all these shots, if someone wanted to waste their time, could have been faked in the stolen build of the game..