Who wants to ask Rick Ellis a question?

[Sparta]

Ok i've got one

Since Half-Life 2 uses Inverse-Kinematics does that give the A.I the ability to create its own animations? Like for instance, with the Strider, how when you guys tested it in the City and it came to an overpass, i read that it figured out it couldn't step over it so i crawled under it. Now was that "crawling under overpass" animation already made for the strider or did it do that itself?

 

[PvtRyan]

Ah, I'll throw in another question:

What do you think when people say the Alien Slaves/vortigaunts and houndeyes were kinda cute and a lot of people didn't want to kill them. Was this planned or an unexpected reaction by people? And we know you focussed on NPC interaction in HL2 after the many positive reactions about NPC's like Barney and the scientists. But have you also gone further with triggering emotional responses from people with aliens?

 

[Dougy]

Say a combine is shot in the leg, Would Ragdoll physics determine what happens next? or would ragdoll physics only affect the Combine after he had died..

EG. Max payne 2, the physics only came into effect when the mobsters died, you could hit them several times and they would simply show a coded "hit" sequence but when they died the physics would only then start to work on the body.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

-Will there be houndeyes?

-How has gibbing been improved since HL1?

-Can we see the last E3 videos in bink format?

 

[DEATH eVADER]

1) will you be able to animate skyboxes (similar to unreal tournament 2003)
Are you using this on the combine citadel viewed from a distance

2) What is the estimated amount of character animations will there be (Including facial, body movement, alien animations)

3) Will a combine soldier be occupied putting out a fire on his/her comrade, or be easily distracted by other things. Reference: tunnels

4) Will HL1, Op4 and Blueshift be re-released with the source engine, if so, does valve plan to add extra content.

5) It's been said that there will be a collector edition with extra content, could you say what will be included in this collectors edition.

6) will there be a hazard course or training

7) theres a zoom function used in the E3 demos, what are the other new key capabilities (Kung-fu fighting)

8) on the vids, you had to chuck away weapons to use other weapons, will this be used in the final product, if so, do we have the capabilities to use the original HL1 weapon storage.

 

[zwingly]

I sent an e-mail to Gabe Newell asking this same question, but I got no reply, so hopefully I'll get a reply to this if ya use this question.

A feature that I hear was touted for TF2 was, "volumetric fire", in which it was described that fire, eg.from a flamethrower would spread rapidly through enclosed areas, eg.trenches or bunkers. An example of what i'm on about would perhaps best be demonstrated by the D-Day sequence in 'Saving Private Ryan' in which a soldier wielding a flamethrower uses it on a pillbox, which is almost instanteously engulfed in flames. Has this feature made it to the Source engine? (if it even existed in the first place )

 

[Kadayi]

Another question for rick:-

At the moment I'm playing DX:IW and although it has quite a compelling storyline, it frankly looks kind of wooden and dire at times, because of the lack of action and animation to the characters. Conversely I played H&D² a while back and that had a lot of action scripts for the german soldiers, they would smoke cigarettes, or talk to each other and generally look more at home in the scenery. So my question would be, do the human AI in HL² have personal action scripts, like scratching their heads, or yawning etc, similarly to H&D²?

 

[zwingly]

Two more questions: -

1. Traditionally in FPS games, the NPCs and enemies have always been hampered by the most mundane of obstacles, eg. ladders, windows, etc.

Whilst we all saw a Combine soldier descend from a ladder in the 'Tunnels' video, was this merely scripted (like a marine jumping over a handrail in the first game) or will all the soldiers be able to use the ladders, jump over crevices, and into open windows?

This would be fantastic as it would mean that there would be no real hiding place for you, and the enemy would seem truly intelligent. The only game I can recall doing something similar is 'Kingpin', where enemies would jump over hazardous areas, eg. molten lava.

2. Does a system of morale shape the actions of the AI? For example would a lone lightly armed Metrocop simply flee in the face of an Antlion, after seeing his shots do little good? Whereas a group of heavily armed Combine soldiers, who I would assume are shock troops, who having better training and higher morale, would stand their ground, and if need be fight to the death.

:sniper: = highly trained Combine soldier, not flinching!

 

[nc17]

1 - Will bump maps on models and world brushes react to dynamic lights such as the flashlight and muzzle flashes or are they only effected by static lighting?

2 - Will each model have to have a collision model made for it manualy or are collisions in hl2 per-poly? if you do have to manualy create collission models how will this be done?

3 - Will bump maps be usable on player models and if so will they react dynamicly as the model's/light sources move?

4 - Would it be possible within source to have player models with real-time reflective shaders for the eyes that as the model moves farther away from the camera turn into cube-maps (sort of like a lod system)?

5 - Is it possible to have 3d models rendered in source's vgui menu system?

6 - Would it be possible to have rag dolls that interact with each other in multiplayer games but are totally client-side?

7 - How will HDRR (High dynamic range rendering) work work in hl2? will it be definable/adjustable per map or will it just be a part of source's lighting system?

8 - Will fluid be simulated in 3d as it was in hl1 or will it just be flat with shaders to simulate the visuals? if it is not simulated in 3d how dificult would it be to impliment 3d fluid simulation into the source engine?

9 - How complex is the terrain material painting tool in the hl2 build of hammer? will we be able to paint many different materials onto each terrain brush?

10 - Will character model shadows react to lighting realisticly or will they just be projected in a pre-determined direction?

11 - We know that source supports 2048x2048 textures but what is the average resolution of skins used on charactor and first person weapon models?

12 - Will the "SPEAK" command return in HL2 and if so will there be any new phrases and will there be a new voice?

 

[Kadayi]

Hypothetically could the source engine be used to create a gameworld similar in size and complexity to Morrowind for example? Is there an upper limit to the number of entities that a typical zone can handle?

 

[ComradeBadger]

My computer broke, and I've now got it fixed. Sorry for the delay lads, and I'm compiling it now!



Thread closed.