Post Life

[joule]

I've just received my latest issue of PC Gamer in the mail today. The following is an excerpt discussing the possibilities of Half-Life 3.

When I was a kid, Christmas afternoon was the most depressing time of the year. The gifts had all been ripped open, my stocking had been raided, and every scrap of pie and cookie was in nestled happily inside my tummy. I should've been playing with my toys, but one thought gnawed at me: Dang! Next Christmas is a year away...

By now, you've probably beaten Half-Life 2 at least once. So now we can finally get back to what really matters: obsessing over Half-Life 3. When will it ship? I don't know, but the waiting is like Christmas afternoon all over again.

What will Half-Life 3 be like? Well, according to Ken Birdwell, a senior software development engineer at Valve, one planned feature that had to be cut from HL 2 was image-based rendering. Oversimplified, it's a method of modeling and rendering objects based on photographs to create photo-realistic settings. "There are just too many 3D cards without enough texture memory, and we realized that [image-based rendering] wouldn't work on many customer's machine's," explains Birdwell.

But as more powerful hardware emerges over the next few years, all that could change. Valve's modular code design for HL 2's Source engine allows for its core components, such as its rendering or physics engines, to be swapped out with next-generation technology. Considering that it took several years to build Source in the first place, it will most certainly be the basis for HL 3.

And sometimes, technology can shape the direction of gameplay. "We always knew that we wanted to have weapons that gave the player inputs that affected physics," describes Valve Senior Software Development Engineer Jay Stelly. "The gravity gun evolved from a tool we built to test physics very early on. The better it got, the closer we moved it to the beginning of the game."

Physics turned out to play a huge part in HL 2's gameplay and puzzles, and the gravity gun became integral to the game's story. I witnessed a demo of the gravity gun in March 2003 in which Valve's managing director, Gabe Newell, used it to juggle ragdolls and toss barrels. At that time, Gabe wasn't certain that the gravity gun would make it into HL 2. I nearly got down on my knees and begged.

So I'm expecting the gravity gun to reappear in HL 3 in some form. But you know what I'd really like to see in Half-Life 3? Answers! Enough foreplay, Valve - who is the G-Man?

 

[Narcolepsy]

Yep, I read that too. They're going to have to SERIOUSLY modify the Source engine if they want to keep up with the likes of Unreal 3 and what will come afterwards.

 

[Jesus Lincoln]

Good article, i think that the buggy will make a return

Im basing this off of the last coast level at the lighthouse. When you set your foot out the door all hell breaks loose and you see a dropship flying away with your buggy in it's claws

The way valve teases you just screams a comeback. Mabye you're attacking a combine facility and on your escape you find it?

*drools*

 

[xcellerate]

"But as more powerful hardware emerges over the next few years, all that could change." no one else saw that???? --few-- years?!

 

[Ennui]

Yep, I read that too. They're going to have to SERIOUSLY modify the Source engine if they want to keep up with the likes of Unreal 3 and what will come afterwards.

They built in the ability for massive modification to it with that in mind.

 

[Death.Trap]

Yep, I read that too. They're going to have to SERIOUSLY modify the Source engine if they want to keep up with the likes of Unreal 3 and what will come afterwards.

"Valve's modular code design for HL 2's Source engine allows for its core components, such as its rendering or physics engines, to be swapped out with next-generation technology."

 

[A_Denial]

"But as more powerful hardware emerges over the next few years, all that could change." no one else saw that???? --few-- years?!

Clearly no one saw this message either.