Shadow problems in HL2.

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medic

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Hello. First of all i want to tell you that my english sucks.
But! I found something intressing on two of the pictures of City 17.

Everything in Half-Life 2 will cast shadows and rejact like it does in our world, right?
well if you look at these two pictures:
Picture 1
Picture 2

you can se that on the ground around the two horses there is a kind of fence, the "pipes" has a shadow, but the rope that binds them togheter dosent have a shadow, the wires between the houses dosent have a shadow either...

Could it be like it is in Half-Life 1 that some textures/entitys dosent cast shadows, it´s really lame. But i dont care, you wont think of that when you play the game...


once again im sorry for my extremly bad English!
And i hope that you understand what I mean.
I dident know in witch room i shoud post this topic...
 
I think those pictures were produced with a much older version of the source engine

SCoomby
 
Found another "bad" thing about Half-Life 2.

Picture

I got the same picture in my PC Gamger magazine, but it is bigger... And then you can se that all the zombies is the same, got the same blood and the same places, the same hole in the pants etc... Not funny... :x

thoe it is still going to be a great game!


SCoomby: Maby ur right... I think like you... Just wanted to show what i found... :D
 
I already told you people that I noticed things like these already. And therefore I don't think Half-Life 2 has fully dynamic lighting at all. Either way the game still looks beautiful and has a very realistic style to it.

Originally posted by SCoomby
I think those pictures were produced with a much older version of the source engine

SCoomby
Click to expand...

Even if that was true. It really doesn't matter. Once yous see things without shadows... automatically you can tell that the lighting engine is not fully dynamic.
 
sorry. I´m new in here... Im gonna try to cach up with you, and lurn to spell bether... ;)
 
Lifthz, weren't we over it? Or do you want to start again? I think everybody agreed that Hl2 doesn't have full dynamic lighting system. You saying it like somebody disagreeing with you/
 
And yeah, I think they should make variety in all the particular enemies. I think that will be in the final game though... we'll see.

Originally posted by Mr.Reak
Lifthz, weren't we over it? Or do you want to start again? I think everybody agreed that Hl2 doesn't have full dynamic lighting system. You saying it like somebody disagreeing with you/
Click to expand...

Obviously I wasn't the person that started this thread. Also, I wasn't the person still trying to say that it's only because it was an "old build" of the Source engine.

And look... even below this post there are still people trying to say the same thing...
 
First of all I read your thread without any trouble... :)

Second, those pictures are from an older version of the game, when the game will be released it will look different, has some guys from Valve told us. So don't worry, I think they will fix it.

But anyway, if the game will turn out to be as those pics looks like, it will still be a great game IMO.

Graphics isn't all, GAMEPLAY is all. :p
 
Gameplay isn't all. Graphics isn't all. They both go hand in hand with these types of games...
 
medic: Please stop apologizing about your english. No one cares and your english is quite fine except for some minor spelling problems :) There you go.
 
Originally posted by Lifthz
And yeah, I think they should make variety in all the particular enemies. I think that will be in the final game though... we'll see.



Obviously I wasn't the person that started this thread. Also, I wasn't the person still trying to say that it's only because it was an "old build" of the Source engine.

And look... even below this post there are still people trying to say the same thing...
Click to expand...

I am not talking about it. Point is, nobody said here that HL2 shadows will be fully dynamic. Person above you said that this bug is fixed already, because it was from older build.
 
Lifthz: I'm just not talking about FPS, also all other type of gametypes. :)
 
Originally posted by medic
Found another "bad" thing about Half-Life 2.

Picture

I got the same picture in my PC Gamger magazine, but it is bigger... And then you can se that all the zombies is the same, got the same blood and the same places, the same hole in the pants etc... Not funny... :x

thoe it is still going to be a great game!


SCoomby: Maby ur right... I think like you... Just wanted to show what i found... :D
Click to expand...

I think they will be different in the final version. That's something I hate about Doom3 screens/movies. There are som many zombies who look the same, it's stupid...
 
Originally posted by Loke
Lifthz: I'm just not talking about FPS, also all other type of gametypes. :)
Click to expand...

Well, whatever... in FPS games and any game trying to portray a story in a 3d world... graphics do matter a lot, gameplay matters in any game...

Originally posted by Mr.Reak
I am not talking about it. Point is, nobody said here that HL2 shadows will be fully dynamic. Person above you said that this bug is fixed already, because it was from older build.
Click to expand...

Well may be so they'll fix the stuff that we've seen (that they've shown to us), but it doesn't mean that everything in the game will have a proper shadow or a shadow at all.

Either way, this is not a huge deal for the overall game.
 
Graphics do matter. Without graphics, Half-Life 2 wouldn't be half as impressive at all. And that's a fact, not an opinion.

If graphics don't matter then they wouldn't have even bothered making the Source engine.
 
Originally posted by Lifthz
graphics do matter a lot
Click to expand...

Do they really? Compared to todays standards, the graphics in HL1 and all relating MODs are shit. But however, I still think that HL1 is the best game ever made. And I don't even use the High Definition pack that was released with Blue Shift. If graphics matter a lot, how can so many people still think it's the greatest game of all time?
 
Ok, then im sorry that im sorry! :dork:

What does IMO means?

I just wanted to be a 1337n00b :D hehehe
No but i think that valve will fix it all when we go to the store and buy HL2...

And if they dont, im still gonna play and love the game...
I really looking forward to begin leveldesigning to Half-Life 2! :bounce:
 
Originally posted by Chris_D
STOP NIT PICKING!!
Click to expand...

Amen.

There seems to be a determined desire around here to ignore the practical realities of the systems that Valve (and id) are coding for.

Yes, most crab guys will look exactly the same, just as they did in HL1. The same goes for Combine soldiers.

You may well have 5 or 6 variations on the theme but I sincerely doubt that you'll run across a room of 10 or so zombies all of whom will look identical. Why? Simply because of the sheer amount of resources needed to do so.

Making each and evey enemy unique would not only take up an insane amount of development time but will also mean accessing many many more texture sets at the same time. Your system can't handle it.

Does the individual make up of the headcrab guys really matter all that much? No.

You wouldn't have even thought about it back in the days of Wolf 3D. Don't build this up to be a perfect simulation of reality or game in every way because it can't be.. The system isn't there.
 
Originally posted by Lifthz
Graphics do matter. Without graphics, Half-Life 2 wouldn't be half as impressive at all. And that's a fact, not an opinion.
Click to expand...
No, that's your opinion.
If graphics don't matter then they wouldn't have even bothered making the Source engine.
Click to expand...
Graphics matter only as far as they successfully convey the proper visual cues to the gamer. How they achieve that is irrelevant.
 
Originally posted by Lifthz
Graphics do matter. Without graphics, Half-Life 2 wouldn't be half as impressive at all. And that's a fact, not an opinion.
Click to expand...

Yes, in your opinion graphics matter, not mine. And if that’s a fact why did I play Project Eden so much and really liked it? And the graphics in that game wasn’t that great really.

And what would you do if the gameplay sucked so hard in HL2 that no one would buy it? But the graphics looked great? Would you really buy it?
 
I think the point is that graphics matter towards immersion. The more believable the world is, the less you think about playing the game and the more accessible it is to people. Gameplay is king, but graphics can indeed help gameplay.
And I think the posters mean that little things like ropes not casting shadows will likely be fixed, not that Valve is all of a sudden code in totally dynamic lighting.
 
Graphics should fit the style of gameplay.
For a game like Half-Life 2 the great visuals add to the game mood and overall style and thus make it a better experience.
Anyone ever hear about people complaining about the new Zelda game for Gamecube and it's cel-shading graphics?
It's the same deal, that game, although cartoony and seemingly childish was fun as hell and the graphics fit the gameplay and the style.
Yes, Half-Life 2's graphics should be there for the gameplay style, but from what i've seen, they are far better than I would have expected them to be.
:cheers:
Cheers!
 
Making each and evey enemy unique would not only take up an insane amount of development time but will also mean accessing many many more texture sets at the same time. Your system can't handle it.
Click to expand...

Actually, supposing that a model's skin consisted of five distinct parts and for each of these five similar distinguishable variations were produced. That would give you the ability to produce 3125 different looking models of the same type. Now considering that these could be created using only 25 different textures all loaded in RAM and instead of read from a variable could be read from an array based on a random index roll it doesn't seem so far fetched that every monster in hl2 can be unique.
 
They've already said that there will be variation on the inhabitants of the city. They've alreadys said that they don't have a unified lighting model like D3, but that those shots are older and shadow issues have been fixed.
 
Originally posted by Llevar
Actually, supposing that a model's skin consisted of five distinct parts and for each of these five similar distinguishable variations were produced. That would give you the ability to produce 3125 different looking models of the same type. Now considering that these could be created using only 25 different textures all loaded in RAM and instead of read from a variable could be read from an array based on a random index roll it doesn't seem so far fetched that every monster in hl2 can be unique.
Click to expand...

True.. The modular system has been used before by raven IIRC. It does pose a whole bunch of related problems however and I see no evidence of it in the screenies/videos so far.
 
hmm kay.. to kinda light up the hl² dynamic shadow discussion. I mailed gabe before, and I asked him if hl² features dynamic shadows like doom3 does. he answered me this (direct quote:)

Yes, we have dynamic shadows. We use a different approach than Doom3.

and I dont think gabe is wrong :)
 
Originally posted by Sporky
True.. The modular system has been used before by raven IIRC. It does pose a whole bunch of related problems however and I see no evidence of it in the screenies/videos so far.
Click to expand...

Most RPGs nowadays use it because they usually pit you against the same monster models colored differently in later levels. Most recently I saw this in Dark Cloud 2.
 
Well D3 doesn't have dynamic shadows. It has truly dynamic lighting. There is a difference, although it's easy for a lot of people to incorrectly focus on the results of that instead (the dynamic shadows).
 
Thank God I'm just a normal gamer, and not someone who worries about the y-axis of delta z-axis matching with the dynamics of Pi².

You really need to step back and look at what you're all throwing a hissy fit over.
 
It's a clear tradeoff - dynamic lighting or open environments. Which do you choose.
 
Originally posted by Dagobert
It's a clear tradeoff - dynamic lighting or open environments. Which do you choose.
Click to expand...

Depends on the game I'm making. :dozey:

Would a horror based, tense game of survival benefit from large airy open areas? Not really.

Would an epic tale of alien conquest covering a whole city and more work without large open areas? Equally no.

I think you'll find Doom 3's engine will be pretty damn fantastic for the purposes of making the game they're making (and I've never bought into this 'id can't make games, they just make engines' crap. Every game I ever played of theirs was fantasticly playable. *shrug* ) but I don't think it would be suitable for HL2 and vice versa.
 
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