New Hi Res pics of HL2

We beg for more table scraps from Valve and when we finally get some, we complain how crappy they are. Come on now people. Wait until E3 or some sort of official word that the game has been downgraded to a piece of sh*t.

They are terrible screen shots though ...
 
Shuzer said:
Ah well, moving on...

[Matt], exactly.. now why does the latest batch of screens look like crap? :(
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I believe details are turned off... look at image 02 on 3dgamers and compare it with the image i posted. Note how there is no refraction or reflection whatsoever on the water compared to the older image?? One thing you have to remember is that this game will have the ability to scale back to be played on DX6 based hardware. DX6 doesnt support pixel shaders at all and neither does DX7 IIRC which would leave you playing a very fugly game...
 
[Matt] said:
I believe details are turned off... look at image 02 on 3dgamers and compare it with the image i posted. Note how there is no refraction or reflection whatsoever on the water compared to the older image?? One thing you have to remember is that this game will have the ability to scale back to be played on DX6 based hardware. DX6 doesnt support pixel shaders at all and neither does DX7 IIRC which would leave you playing a very fugly game...
Click to expand...

details aren't turned off, but as i said a reflection in water won't look good unless the surroundings look goood, look at whats around that water, its not exactly an island paradise or anything, real water tends to be pretty shitty looking unless the enviroment and lighting is really nice. the angle the water is being viewed at also makes a difference, if gordon was up higher in 02.jpg like he is in 04.jpg then it would look better.
 
Yes, these screens look like ass. In fact, I can attest that the beta looked much, much better. And that was without DX9 stuff enabled (I think) and without all textures and models finished, optimized, etc.
So... either they have taken a giant step backward since September or they are holding out on us. Which is weird because at this point why would they want to undersell HL2? It just doesn't make sense. They need to turn everything on and blow us away. I don't know, it's kind of confusing...
 
Neutrino said:
They don't cause hl2 doesn't have full dynamic lighting. If you look at earlier screenshots you can see the shadow inconsistencies as well.

As for the screeshots in general, I agree, I am less than impressed that these are supposedly 7 months more developed than the last ones.

One thought I had, though, was what if these aren't the final compiles of the maps? You know how in HL1 you can choose to do fast rad, normal rad, or extra rad? Also you can use commands like "bouce 3" to get better shadowing. Well what if Valve is still in testing stages to make sure there are no bugs? Would it really make sense for them to do a full, final compile on everything when it would probably take 4 times as long and then just end up having to do it again when they find a bug?

Just a thought and could very well be wrong, but it might explain somethings if these are using the equivalent of fast vis and the like.

What do you guys think?
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Taking the line that Valve have 'released' these screenshots I can't see why they wouldn't release shots which do the most to show off their game.
 
All I can say is how can you guys doubt Valve with these screenshots if you saw the PDF and pics w/the AntLion/water/fire?
I don't think you should be all expecting these screenshots to reflect the graphics you will see when HL2 is released.
Sure it's weird that they may look poor in comparison with earlier shots but they are different locations.
There is probably a bright light above the guards heads and that could be why the shadows are right below them.
All I'm saying is you might be jumping a little too quickly to your own conclusions. ;)
 
Asus said:
All I can say is how can you guys doubt Valve with these screenshots if you saw the PDF and pics w/the AntLion/water/fire?
I don't think you should be all expecting these screenshots to reflect the graphics you will see when HL2 is released.
Sure it's weird that they may look poor in comparison with earlier shots but they are different locations.
There is probably a bright light above the guards heads and that could be why the shadows are right below them.
All I'm saying is you might be jumping a little too quickly to your own conclusions. ;)
Click to expand...

Oh, I don't think that they represent what the game really looks like. I'm just puzzled as to why Valve would show them at all? The whole purpose of magazine photos is to show off the best of a game. These certainly do not do that.
 
ok, i think we can all agree these pics dont do the game justice. the final product will be much much better, so lets all just sit tight and wait for new footage at e3, which i gurantee wont be holding back as these pics obviously are.
 
Dunno: perhaps they wanted to give a view of what the average gamer would be seeing instead of the high end people only. Perhaps there was more context of these shots being examples of dx7 and 8 shots specifically. Or perhaps they wanted to save the real wow for e3. Who knows. The only really important thing is that we already know what the game will look like from the vids, regardless of whatever crappy screenshots they put out.
 
I think UT2004 looks better than those screens and it's only a dx8 game. Im pretty damn sure though that those screens are no where near how the final game will look. Or at least I hope that's not how the final game will look. All we can do is hope.
 
Someone on the shack forums said that these shots were stills for tiny pics in magazines: they weren't meant to be blown up big, and halflife.de was being a little naughty in doing so.
 
Why did Brassmonkey get banned?
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He's been banned ever since the site first started up for breaking this or that forum rule on spam and flames, and he keeps coming back under different names, and different spellings of the same names. That alone is enough to make the mods ban you: trying to find ways to sneak around their rules and them not enforcing them would make the rules worthless.
 
Neutrino said:
Oh, I don't think that they represent what the game really looks like. I'm just puzzled as to why Valve would show them at all? The whole purpose of magazine photos is to show off the best of a game. These certainly do not do that.
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Perhaps that's because they want to leave the best until E3.
I guess the Doctor Evil poster in the third pic is the our Mr. Breen?
 
Varsity said:
Perhaps that's because they want to leave the best until E3.
I guess the Doctor Evil poster in the third pic is the our Mr. Breen?
Click to expand...

Could be. But if that is the reason I think it is a stupid PR move, which is why it still puzzles me.
 
Okay, most of you guys ARE over-reacting.

The information doesn't all add up. For example, why in the heck is that one shot so insanely large? That clearly is not straight from in-game. Which means it must have been scanned or some other method... Also makes me wonder about the rest of the screenshots and how big the ORIGINALS were. I highly doubt anyone would turn the res up that high.

Wait til E3, especially for the game to be in motion with all the effects turned on and hopefully questions answered. Speculation is going to get us nowhere. That's right, nowhere.
 
sooo excitement rising, the combine look fairly freaky in these shots that are hovering around. I'm going travelling round china now see you all when i'm back and hopefully HL2 is with us.
 
Falcon(Nate) said:
Okay, most of you guys ARE over-reacting.

The information doesn't all add up. For example, why in the heck is that one shot so insanely large? That clearly is not straight from in-game. Which means it must have been scanned or some other method... Also makes me wonder about the rest of the screenshots and how big the ORIGINALS were. I highly doubt anyone would turn the res up that high.
Click to expand...

Printscreen on a Widescreen? ;) And personally, I simply adore large screenshots.
 
Very nice. I am Sure E3 will have more eyecandy vids...............
 
Interesting... lower detail...

Hmmmm... didn't that survey a while back show that most people with Steam only had DX7/DX8 level hardware? Maybe they're only showing what most people's hardware will be able to handle... or they really are old shots...

I wouldn't worry... It'd make absolutely no sense for them to downgrade the game's visuals...
 
The one screen that is annoying me most is the one Fenric mentioned earlier, where the map seems to just end (the one with the bridge in it and some trees). It just seems like really poor mapping skills, and i doubt Valve would let the game falter on this point.

I think the lack of AA in the screens is going some way to add to people's disappointment, we are all used to seeing nice smooth images so perhaps it's just a bit of a shock judgement that all the screens look poor in quality. But Valve had said that the AA issue that was apparent last year is fixed, so unless the Source engine has backwards AA i doubt we'll see screens like this in game on top-end hardware.
 
The screens look great..damn :D

valve really pulled if off, as pczone uk says.
 
whew, 16 pages later =]

this is from a post I wrote on another forum:

It seems the engine is capable of a lot more than some of those screenshots. Then again I suppose the original HL had pretty basic maps compared to some of its mods.

01.
that shed to the right is a box with a triangle on top...

02.
no water reflections in that pic? I would say it certainly means the details been turned down. and it isn't the angle xtacy, since the higher you go the LESS of a reflection you get and the closer to the water the more of a reflection you will get.

03.
lighting on the characters seems not to relate to the environment, decidedly green hue to them.

04.
hill just gets cut off, and that grass looks pretty damn odd sitting in the water there.

05.
fantastic image =]

06.
another fantastic image =]

07.
still haven't fixed the ugly lighting on the gun/hands, I mean any light would be emitted at the barrel end, and would not get back onto the gun and his hand like that

08.
the fences are made from transparency textures, and the LOD on them is showing badly. I think there should be an option to turn off LOD on transparency textures or something since they always turn out ugly on low angles.

09.
another sexy pic, allthough the character shadow seems not to relate to the main light source.
 
http://www.**************/images/content/08.jpg (hmmmm...site blocked...I'm refering to graveyard image)

The rocks look like they were higher-detailed origionally, then optimized for normal mapping, then shown without normal maps....weird. I agree these screenshots are lacking, but chances are these are screenshots from a while ago. Valve still seems to be in a very secretive mode & will probably continue to do that until the game is released.


Before everyone jumps on the lower quality....just go back and watch the DX9 video again and take a look at that shader document. Rest assured all of the normal mapping, radiosity, etc is in the engine.
http://www.gryphonauto.com/Extra/HL2/Shader-005.jpg
http://www.gryphonauto.com/Extra/HL2/Shader-006.jpg
 
This is what he game is going to look like. Get over it, fools.
 
Dagobert said:
flupke - the only difference is AA.
Click to expand...


I have to disagree.

In the shot posted, look at the awesome lighting....much more subtle than the HL1-ish pics posted yesterday. The shaddows look better, and the textures look sharper.
 
HMM.. there is one very neat effect on the 2th picture.. look at the big metal pipe above the water.. see the water reflection casting light on that pipe. I can already see it animated.. ohh pretty.
 
maybe valve got carried away 'tweaking and optimising' the graphics... or maybe they plan to con us by forcing us to subscribe to steam so them we can get the high res textures... :(
 
Or maybe they're only teasing a bit, showing a little flesh and on E3 showing the full frontal nudity :farmer:

speaking as a figure of speech of course...
 
In the shot posted, look at the awesome lighting....much more subtle than the HL1-ish pics posted yesterday. The shaddows look better, and the textures look sharper.
Click to expand...

The textures don't look sharper to me, and without seeing that exact part of the city in the new screenshots it's impossible to tell if the lighting has changes.

NOTHING IN THE GAME HAS CHANGED. Your expectations have, however.

I'm telling you right now, this is how the game looked last year, how the game looks now and how the game will look when you play it on high detail.
 
Right, now I'm annoyed.

01.
that shed to the right is a box with a triangle on top...
Click to expand...
So what? The game has to run on a TNT2. You'd be an idiot to make it out of anything else.

03.
lighting on the characters seems not to relate to the environment, decidedly green hue to them.
Click to expand...
That would be because the characters in HL2 have a different lighting model to the environments, and always have had.

07.
still haven't fixed the ugly lighting on the gun/hands, I mean any light would be emitted at the barrel end, and would not get back onto the gun and his hand like that
Click to expand...
And? Picky forum geek alert.

08.
the fences are made from transparency textures, and the LOD on them is showing badly. I think there should be an option to turn off LOD on transparency textures or something since they always turn out ugly on low angles.
Click to expand...
What would you rather they made the fences from? Individual polygons?

09.
another sexy pic, allthough the character shadow seems not to relate to the main light source.
Click to expand...
See 3.

Why don’t you go back to dreaming about being a game developer with one hand down your trousers?
 
Dagobert said:
The textures don't look sharper to me, and without seeing that exact part of the city in the new screenshots it's impossible to tell if the lighting has changes.

NOTHING IN THE GAME HAS CHANGED. Your expectations have, however.

I'm telling you right now, this is how the game looked last year, how the game looks now and how the game will look when you play it on high detail.
Click to expand...

Wrongo, Dagobert.

Perhaps you should go look at some of the older screenshots... or maybe even the DX9 vid?
 
Brian Damage said:
Wrongo, Dagobert.

Perhaps you should go look at some of the older screenshots... or maybe even the DX9 vid?
Click to expand...
Yep, Dagobert, go look at the differences between an older image and these new ones, its nothing to do with our expectations, its right there for the world to see that the differences are far greater than that.


Oh and please also knock off the insulting k thanks.
 
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