Why new screenshots look so bad?

Good observation Spiffae. There's definately something shifty going on with these 'new' screens.
 
Here's a solution:

The pics where not ment to be displayed that large.

Problem solved.
 
Chris_D said:
I think you're over reacting a little bit. You're basing your views on magazine scans and those high resolution pictures that all seem to be varying resolutions since they've been resized etc.

It is very difficult to know what it looks like in game.
Click to expand...

I don't think no one is over reacting. Although the screenies are some what impressing, they don't however, show anything new or fresh. To be honest, i was more impressed when i first saw FarCry's screenies then seeing this.

I still don't see as shown in this thread made by TheWart, that HL2 is not only looking to "knock FC off" of its current position, but "blow it away". Frankly i really don't, that to me is bias. With all this been said, it doesn't mean, i won't buy the game. Quite contrary, this new media has awaken a new interest in me for the game. :E

btw, Sparta you are such fanboy dude. ;)
 
Caminante said:
I still don't see as shown in this thread made by TheWart, that HL2 is not only looking to "knock FC off" of its current position, but "blow it away". Frankly i really don't, that to me is bias. :E
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omfg..and you're basing this on a screenshot?

Halflife 2 will spank far cry..and that's not bases on only the graphics..but on the whole game..with all it's aspects.
 
If you guys remember the year HL came out, a few months before it UT came out, with BETTER grahpics then HL, but which game sold more copies and which game is played more?

It's not just about the graphics, it's how you use them.
 
And how many times are we going to have to repeat the same exact idea in the same exact thread?
 
Most people don't wan't to read a very long thread, thats the problem with long threads.

And how this community is turning into PHL I don't know.
 
guys there obviously old screenshots, valve have rarely released the best screenshots at any one time, we've seen the game looking alot better, and for a scalable engine they dont just make the graphics worse.
 
Lobster said:
guys there obviously old screenshots, valve have rarely released the best screenshots at any one time, we've seen the game looking alot better, and for a scalable engine they dont just make the graphics worse.
Click to expand...

You herd the gentelman guys. This is clearly direct information from Valve. :dork: Thereafter i am talking the liberty to level this reply as fanboy talk. :LOL:


Xenome said:
omfg..and you're basing this on a screenshot?

Halflife 2 will spank far cry..and that's not bases on only the graphics..but on the whole game..with all it's aspects.
Click to expand...

Nope, i was merely stating that HL2 "scored" - at least on this screen shoots shown- not too great graphicaly wise speaking. And i will however, wait until i get to play the actual game, so that i may judge the other game elements i.e. game play and AI.
 
Dagobert said:
How does this look any different from before?
Click to expand...

I don't know, apparently they expected some kind of complete makeover since the last screenies. A good way to disappoint yourself. Small chance it's going to look a lot better than it does now, although AA&AF will make it look a lot prettier. But at least Valve knows their priorities, game first, graphics second.
 
Also remember that the dude playing the game for PCZone was amazed by the graphics....so I think that these screens were simply taken at a fairly high resolution (but with low settings) and given to the mags so they could resize and put them on paper.
 
Pfft. I'm still playing Half-Life. I still find a fair amount of its mods better than more modern games. That says all I need to say regarding the graphics vs gameplay thing.

As for development? I'd say they're on lower quality settings. If someone's bothered they could ask Rick, Gabe or Doug (if you want a laugh). And Unreal 3? It looks great, but as said its an engine designed to make today's machines cry, unlike the more scalable Source. Plus, if Source is anywhere near as adaptable to the original HL's engine, I don't think "pushing its limits" is as far fetched as some people made out. Look at the HD pack, or Sven Co-op's HIT models, or Natural Selection or Nightwatch, and then look at the original game. Woo.
 
I don't know, apparently they expected some kind of complete makeover since the last screenies. A good way to disappoint yourself. Small chance it's going to look a lot better than it does now, although AA&AF will make it look a lot prettier. But at least Valve knows their priorities, game first, graphics second.
Click to expand...
Ha! Didn't Valve say last year the engine was complete? Gabe mouths off some PR crap about HDR (A term he just pulled out of his ass) and everyone expects the game to have a complete graphical makeover!! When do you want this game, 2007?
 
HDR is not a term he "pulled out of his ass". Ask Fenric if you don't know what HDR is.
 
PvtRyan said:
I don't know, apparently they expected some kind of complete makeover since the last screenies. A good way to disappoint yourself. Small chance it's going to look a lot better than it does now, although AA&AF will make it look a lot prettier. But at least Valve knows their priorities, game first, graphics second.
Click to expand...

Well this discussion has nothing to do with gameplay, I started it just to comment on graphics quality, currently graphics quality is on par or below other games like STALKER, and if game is delayed even more then it will look even more dated, gameplay will rock surely, although we havn't seen it, but gameplay must be better to make up for the graphics quality, that's what Half-Life did back in 1998.
 
Dagobert said:
Ha! Didn't Valve say last year the engine was complete? Gabe mouths off some PR crap about HDR (A term he just pulled out of his ass) and everyone expects the game to have a complete graphical makeover!! When do you want this game, 2007?
Click to expand...


I don't think people are saying that...I am not for sure.

I did not expect an engine 'makeover' during the time of delay. That is ludicrous, especially since they said that they stopped adding major features to the engine sometime like in October of 2002.

*However*, I expect the game to look as good as it did last e3 with the Bink videos and to include DX9 features (like in the cave) and HDR (like in the Bink video). It is NOT far fetched to expect them to include features in the game which they themselves showed off in videos.

I wouldn't get too worked up over these shots. Yes, they do look kind of bad, but I have faith that at E3 we will be seeing HL2 in motion, on high settings, and we will once again be drooling over the graphics.
 
I can't believe these types of threads... Mind you I used to post arguements in these threads. Since I have learned that we get what we are given. And we like it or..... we dont. Thats my opinion anyway.
 
marksmanHL2 :) said:
I can't believe these types of threads... Mind you I used to post arguements in these threads. Since I have learned that we get what we are given. And we like it or..... we dont. Thats my opinion anyway.
Click to expand...

Therefore we don't need discussion groups, right? :dozey:
 
I think the only way to explain the difference in the screenshots is that the engine is scaleable. Perhaps to get playable framrates they had to turn a lot of the possible detail down.
 
*However*, I expect the game to look as good as it did last e3 with the Bink videos and to include DX9 features (like in the cave)
Click to expand...
There's no cave in these shots, so how do you know it isn't in?

and HDR (like in the Bink video).
Click to expand...
You expect that effect to be used everywhere? In the tacky manner that a lot of developers use bloom effects? There are no shots of somone looking form a dark place into sunlight in these images, so how do you knwo this effect isn't in this build?

Ask Fenric if you don't know what HDR is.
Click to expand...
I know what selection of DX9 effects Gabe reffers to with his marketing term 'HDR'. It's in a bunch of games and they don't call it that. It's just a buzzword.
 
Dagobert said:
There's no cave in these shots, so how do you know it isn't in?


You expect that effect to be used everywhere? In the tacky manner that a lot of developers use bloom effects? There are no shots of somone looking form a dark place into sunlight in these images, so how do you knwo this effect isn't in this build?


I know what selection of DX9 effects Gabe reffers to with his marketing term 'HDR'. It's in a bunch of games and they don't call it that. It's just a buzzword.
Click to expand...


You do raise a valid point about us 'not being in a cave.' And personally, I got a little tired of the 'shiny' look that everything, including the characters had with the highest settings. So no, I dont want everything to be shiny like that, but at least have some bumpmapping on the ground textures or something, so it looks better.

And from what we saw of the HDR/bloom effect in the Bink video, I would have to reserve judgement until I play the game, but I would at least like to see how it looks with it always on with regards to the sun. (That last statement was probably confusing. I am trying to say that I think it would look neat if the Sun rays at a certain time of day always looked like they did in the Dx9 Bink).
 
Dagobert said:
I know what selection of DX9 effects Gabe reffers to with his marketing term 'HDR'. It's in a bunch of games and they don't call it that. It's just a buzzword.
Click to expand...

Name 2 games that feature HDR. It's not a buzzword; when it comes down to it, it's about brighter light values from natural light sources (although I'm sure someone will come along and give a much more lengthy explanation)
 
Caminante said:
You herd the gentelman guys. This is clearly direct information from Valve. :dork: Thereafter i am talking the liberty to level this reply as fanboy talk. :LOL:




Nope, i was merely stating that HL2 "scored" - at least on this screen shoots shown- not too great graphicaly wise speaking. And i will however, wait until i get to play the actual game, so that i may judge the other game elements i.e. game play and AI.
Click to expand...

You are possibly the most infuriating person I have ever had the misfortune to meet on a forum, you are a hypocritical obstinate self important ignorant fool. Your signature is completely disrespectfull and is in my opinion a deliberate attempt to provoke people, which appears to be true for most of your posts as well.

You discredit people's perfectly respectable theorys and opinion's by calling them fanboys and subsquently bring a bitter taste to any debate you happen bring your word of God to. You blatantly have a bias towards FC yet you won't allow people to have a bias towards HL2 and often reffere to anyone who defends it as a fan boy, when they are in actuall fact they are just offering there genuine opinion, there's a certain level of bias and ignorance that is required of a fanboy and you are closer to it than most of the people you insult.

You are being far too obnoxious... oh and I'm still waiting to see your response to my post in the FC ps1.1 thread, if you can come up with evidense that fireing squad are a bunch of ass holes that don't know what there doing I'd love to see it. Personally I think you were just defending FC because thats what fan boys :p do (even when it doesn't need defending).

EDIT: HDR meaning high dynamic range is very significant, Fenrics going to go ape shit when he see's it being reffered to as a buzz word. Just take a look at the some of the art works useing HDRI on http://www.cgtalk.com/
 
Dagobert said:
There's no cave in these shots, so how do you know it isn't in?


You expect that effect to be used everywhere? In the tacky manner that a lot of developers use bloom effects? There are no shots of somone looking form a dark place into sunlight in these images, so how do you knwo this effect isn't in this build?


I know what selection of DX9 effects Gabe reffers to with his marketing term 'HDR'. It's in a bunch of games and they don't call it that. It's just a buzzword.
Click to expand...

Just for information from valve regarding HDR rendering
http://www.4gamer.net/specials/hl2int/hl2int_e1.html

2nd to last image on 2nd page looks really nice, grass, water, overall effect, I hope we will see more screenshots or videos in this quality at E3.
http://www.4gamer.net/specials/hl2int/img/010.jpg
 
Anyones else notice that these new screenshots are in widescreen mode? They seem like they were taken on a machine running in letterbox mode. I wonder if that has anything to do with it. I don't believe they've been resized because if they were resized in proportion then they would be blurry if made bigger and look better if made smaller, seeing the amount of stairstepping on the angles it would appear as though they were not resized. If they were resized unproportionately then they would look streched or scewed which they are not. They are just taken in a widescreen format although the detail doesn't look as high as that of the previous released screens or the Bink videos. Does anyone know where these screen actually came from? I've yet to see a site saying that they recieved these sceens exclusively. Unless I missed something and some site from Germany or somewhere else got them as an exclusive. I'd hope that if Valve were to release some new pics on the internet as "Official Screens" that they would release them to Half-Life2.net because we are a pretty big site in terms of Forum members and vistors a day.
 
Just for information from valve regarding HDR rendering
http://www.4gamer.net/specials/hl2int/hl2int_e1.html
Click to expand...
For god's sake I know what 'HDR' is!!! All I said is the term itself is just a buzzword they used. People talk about it like it's a real term that graphics people use.

From that link

The technique is often used in DirectX 8 based 3D games like "Splinter Cell" and began to appear recently.
Click to expand...
Yeah, and I'm sure at Ubisoft they just call it a 'bloom effect' like everyone else.
 
Well, bud, Fenric uses the term, and he's about as graphics-y as people get...

But you just go on thinking what you like, alright? I really can't be bothered any more...
 
OMG j00 fools, why even discuss this? It's so obvious that the screens are not the best in terms of quality. Do you think Valve thought: "hey, lets make the game look crap in this extra year!". I don't think so...

EDIT: Actually, some of them look great (funnily enough the larger images) so that makes it pretty clear to me that the worst looking ones aren't the best HL2 has to offer...

EDIT2: On the higher res screens it seems the bump-mapping has been turned off. The pistol is usually 'ribbed' looking with bump-mapping enabled. Who knows why anyone would release lower detailed screenshots...
 
I think HL2's graphics are cool and are on par with FarCry. I don't think it beats Doom 3 but we must not forget about the physic engine. The physic engine in HL2 is ****ing awesome.It eats FC's physic engine 10 times. So, with HL2 we get a competitive graphic engine, on par with FarCry IMO, and a truly awesome physic engine. Plus, the engine won't have uber high requirements. What else would we want ?
 
Ha! Didn't Valve say last year the engine was complete?
Click to expand...

They said the version of the engine that would be used for HL2 was in feature-lock, though it would continue to be developed.

Yeah, and I'm sure at Ubisoft they just call it a 'bloom effect' like everyone else.
Click to expand...

Except that's not the same thing. HDR is about color and light values, not bloom effects. No game out features HDR, and it's not a buzzword. Unreal 3 features it as well, it's fairly obvious when it's enabled.
 
Someone could always ask Valve about the difference between the shots on Gamer's Hell and the shots we've seen before that look much better even without AA on. Are they Dx7 shots or what?

They do look suspiciously like Far Cry looks when you turn the detail down.
 
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