Why new screenshots look so bad?

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Naveed

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I have few theories, honestly I am disappointed by the quality of screenshots, one year ago Half-Life 2 seems out of this world, but now it doesn't look extraordinary just look at the shot of railway track, of course you cannot judge the game by screenshots, so I am only commenting on graphics quality, some reasons:

a) Screenshots taken at low details and without FSAA (Why would Valve do that? Usually in previews you see best quality).
b) They are also targetting for XBox, and this is how game is supposed to look on XBox.
c) Scenes are too realistic, like we see in real world and therefore they don't look extraordinary (may be it is too far fetch).
d) It is THE best quality of Half-Life 2 in terms of graphics (if this is the case then I am disappointed, but surely gameplay will be much better then any other game).
 
The graphics will still be good enough for me if they look like that on release. They don't look that bad to me anyway. Gameplay > Graphics.

They do look like they are low detail + no AA screens though, or atleast definately no AA. I'll wait for some real vids from E3 to see how it really looks.
 
If this level is shown on E3 then I am disappointed too. All future games and Current ones such as FC, D3, and UT3.0 engine are using multiple technologies to provide the best looking environment.

I have no idea why valve is doing this. IS IT so it can run on old PCs.......if that is the case then valve need to know that 1 out of 100 gamers got an old pc.
 
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.
 
could you lot point me towards these "crappy" screens?

the ones in the pc zone mag and the ones on gamershell just released today look fine to me.

remember people Games look much better in motion.
 
i ... err. had a look at the leaked alpha and i can tell you that still images don't do the engine justice.
 
Dougy said:
could you lot point me towards these "crappy" screens?

the ones in the pc zone mag and the ones on gamershell just released today look fine to me.

remember people Games look much better in motion.
Click to expand...


Dougy I saw the half life dot de screens. You could say that they are low res, without all the fancy stuff. But I'm not disappointed at all.

I can't find those gamershell screens??
 
There is no way the graphics have gone downhill since all those Bink videos. The game will look atleast as good as those vids. I do agree that the delay has hurt HL2 tho. If it would have come out last year, the graphics would have BLOWN everyone away. Now that we've seen Fry Cry in action (not to mention vids of Stalker) HL2's graphics don't seem unique anymore, just on par with what we will expect from next-gen titles.

Regardless character models and animation, overall feel and gameplay should still set it apart from the competition. I just wish the damn thing would ship already.
 
RoyaleWithCheese said:
Dougy I saw the half life dot de screens. You could say that they are low res, without all the fancy stuff. But I'm not disappointed at all.

I can't find those gamershell screens??
Click to expand...


http://www.gamershell.com/hellzone_FPS_Half-Life_2.shtml

they look fine to me.......

----------------------------------------------------------------

what the hell are you people panicking about? Lombardi/Gabe said they are upping the minimum specs.....

why in gods name would they have to do that if they were making the game look crapper?

all these screens mean is that its either an older build of the game or the computer they were using was not top of the range.

:sniper:
 
Yeah, the ones gamers hell released look cool, but they DO have AA and AF off... wierd huh?
 
They're not SO bad. And it would look much more impressive in movement, with all the light reflections in action.

But I agree that they have nothing spectacular.
However, AA is definately off, and HL2 definately supports AA. thus, logic tells that the graphics are definately not to maximum. :)
 
The water in this SS (if it is water) looks like it's PS1.1, the original binks were taken on DX8 hardware, maybe that's what valve have done again. They could be saveing the DX9 stuff for E3 so they have something new to show people.

EDIT: looks like my webspace is on the word filter, the shot I'm talking about is second from the left on this page http://www.3dgamers.com/screenshots/games/halflife2/
 
WHY do the mods put the sites hosting the screenshots in the wordfilter? They are just screenshots, not mag scans.
 
actually banning my webspace is perfectly justifiable.
 
******************* by any chance?

EDIT: Ahhh yes :p

We've just gotta be carefull :)
 
It seems that some of you don't understand the basics of game company's intrests. The game was shown pretty (promoted) early at e3 2003 to show what could possibly be done with the engine. Why you ask? To show all the potential mod makers that the engine rocks and would be a ride in the park to make all the future mods and games for. So game != engine. Engine is always far more superior than the game released with it. Maybe few years from now we see the superiority of the engine, pushed to the max of it's capabilities, who knows?
And maybe it's just the game developers choice to make HL2 to look the way it currently looks..To look HalfLivish :)
The graphics rock even though the engine isn't pushed to it's limits at Half-Life 2...at the time..

Just my few euro's and couple of FIM's..sorry bout the bad language :)
Good ole FIM :(
 
The graphics aren't up full in those screenies. And if they are, then I am Mickey Mouse.
 
Sparta said:
The graphics aren't up full in those screenies. And if they are, then I am Mickey Mouse.
Click to expand...
You're not Mickey Mouse: FACT
 
The old pictures are in 1280x960 ressolution, these new ones are in 1024x768 and the old pictures have AA/AF on and the game is probably unplayable at 1280x960 with full AA/AF on. If the gameplay owns then the graphics dont matter, thats _if_ it does own which i think it will...i have faith and i've grown up 6 years from the original HL..long time.
 
In the days of the spectrum and the amiga and early pc games screen shots were a very good way to show off the quality of a game's visual aspects.

Games have reached the state now where the objects and scenes on a game screen look good in most new games on a static picture. What makes a game look good is the animation of those screens, the dynamic lighting, lens effects, particles and general animation make a game look good now and you cannot tell that from a screenshot.

Screenshots are now used to give people a clue as to what is going to be in a game and to spark interest. If you want to judge the visual quality of a game you need a movie or a demo.

Think yourselves lucky though imagine if a hl2 demo came printed on the front of a magazine and you had to type it in manually and run it ;-)
 
MoJo|Night said:
Think yourselves lucky though imagine if a hl2 demo came printed on the front of a magazine and you had to type it in manually and run it ;-)
Click to expand...
The front? That's a pretty damn large piece of paper.
 
Alig said:
The old pictures are in 1280x960 ressolution, these new ones are in 1024x768 and the old pictures have AA/AF on and the game is probably unplayable at 1280x960 with full AA/AF on.
Click to expand...

lol im pretty sure even a any top end card these days could run hl2 at 1280x960. remember this engine can scale back to even the suckiest computers. very flexiable. im sure if you had a next gen card (6800ultra or x800xt) you could run it in 1600x1200 with little problems.
 
Naveed said:
I have few theories, honestly I am disappointed by the quality of screenshots, one year ago Half-Life 2 seems out of this world, but now it doesn't look extraordinary just look at the shot of railway track, of course you cannot judge the game by screenshots, so I am only commenting on graphics quality, some reasons:

a) Screenshots taken at low details and without FSAA (Why would Valve do that? Usually in previews you see best quality).
b) They are also targetting for XBox, and this is how game is supposed to look on XBox.
c) Scenes are too realistic, like we see in real world and therefore they don't look extraordinary (may be it is too far fetch).
d) It is THE best quality of Half-Life 2 in terms of graphics (if this is the case then I am disappointed, but surely gameplay will be much better then any other game).
Click to expand...

Previewing the game on some ninja-PC doesn't help me anything, because I won't spend a fortune on buying PC because of one game. Those pics of d3, FC, UE3 and all the rest is actually lying to publicity. Most of the people won't see that kind of beauty on their PC's. In the end, what really all people can enjoy is the gameplay and VALVe knows this. Even HL1 didn't have top end graphics at the time of release, but I don't remember people complaining about it. Why? Because of gameplay! And I would also agree with others that games look much better in motion.
 
A.I. said:
Previewing the game on some ninja-PC doesn't help me anything, because I won't spend a fortune on buying PC because of one game. Those pics of d3, FC, UE3 and all the rest is actually lying to publicity. Most of the people won't see that kind of beauty on their PC's. In the end, what really all people can enjoy is the gameplay and VALVe knows this. Even HL1 didn't have top end graphics at the time of release, but I don't remember people complaining about it. Why? Because of gameplay! And I would also agree with others that games look much better in motion.
Click to expand...


Too true. But what i think most people are complaining about is that these graphics are a step down fromthe ones we saw last year at E3. And if VALVe have had an extra 8-9 months to make the game better, why are they showing us dodgy screenshots?

Anyway, i agree with you about the gameplay, which will be the main reason i buy this game
 
Sparta said:
Too true. But what i think most people are complaining about is that these graphics are a step down fromthe ones we saw last year at E3. And if VALVe have had an extra 8-9 months to make the game better, why are they showing us dodgy screenshots?

Anyway, i agree with you about the gameplay, which will be the main reason i buy this game
Click to expand...

Yes, I wrote in my post that I am only commenting on graphics quality, in terms of gameplay I am sure HL2 will better then any other game, like original Half-Life.
 
Sparta said:
Too true. But what i think most people are complaining about is that these graphics are a step down fromthe ones we saw last year at E3. And if VALVe have had an extra 8-9 months to make the game better, why are they showing us dodgy screenshots?

Anyway, i agree with you about the gameplay, which will be the main reason i buy this game
Click to expand...
Perhaps it's to cover up the huge graphics update they'll reveal at E3. :)
 
A.I. said:
Previewing the game on some ninja-PC doesn't help me anything, because I won't spend a fortune on buying PC because of one game. Those pics of d3, FC, UE3 and all the rest is actually lying to publicity. Most of the people won't see that kind of beauty on their PC's. In the end, what really all people can enjoy is the gameplay and VALVe knows this. Even HL1 didn't have top end graphics at the time of release, but I don't remember people complaining about it. Why? Because of gameplay! And I would also agree with others that games look much better in motion.
Click to expand...

Motion, yes! That's what makes nowadays games so good looking..lights bouncing from the walls and crap shooting to the air. Don't stop ordering those extra cokes you're planning to, cause HL2 will rock your pants off. And what comes to PC used on e3, the specs were something like 2,4 Pentium or AMD and radeon 9800 so you don't have to buy any ninja eguipment to enjoy this one. Just hold on and while holding your breath just take a look at these blink videos from the actual game:


http://www.levels4you.com/sections/halflife2/index.l4y?cat=119

rock on !
 
ScopeD said:
It seems that some of you don't understand the basics of game company's intrests. The game was shown pretty (promoted) early at e3 2003 to show what could possibly be done with the engine. Why you ask? To show all the potential mod makers that the engine rocks and would be a ride in the park to make all the future mods and games for. So game != engine. Engine is always far more superior than the game released with it. Maybe few years from now we see the superiority of the engine, pushed to the max of it's capabilities, who knows?
And maybe it's just the game developers choice to make HL2 to look the way it currently looks..To look HalfLivish :)
The graphics rock even though the engine isn't pushed to it's limits at Half-Life 2...at the time..

Just my few euro's and couple of FIM's..sorry bout the bad language :)
Good ole FIM :(
Click to expand...


whilst you are correct in regards to most engine videos you are still wrong.

the E3 videos and DX9 bink video were ingame and were what you will see if you have a good enough system, the game will play at those levels if your rig can handle it.

read up on the history of the videos and youl see im right.
 
Dougy said:
whilst you are correct in regards to most engine videos you are still wrong.

the E3 videos and DX9 bink video were ingame and were what you will see if you have a good enough system, the game will play at those levels if your rig can handle it.

read up on the history of the videos and youl see im right.
Click to expand...

You're right or right, I wasn't talking about the Blink videos. I was merely just pointing out some speculations.

Edit:

And while looking at those photos some of you crit It's obvious that they were taken with some older graphics card, absolutely not DX9 compatible.

:dork:
 
Those screenies look so good my eyes just came...

Show me a more photorealistic game environment and I'll eat my hat. If I had one.
 
I'm telling you people its because we've been spoiled by Far Cry! At least I've been...
 
CR0M said:
Those screenies look so good my eyes just came...

Show me a more photorealistic game environment and I'll eat my hat. If I had one.
Click to expand...

stalker..... the only game ive seen that actaully "looks" better than hl2.
 
Oh, take a chill pill, the three of you... we've barely even seen HL2's DX9 side... :naughty:
 
Some of the textures don't look like they are as high quality as they should be. Texture resolution set down maybe? Or perhaps like its already been said, the screens have been resized, screen resolution down, etc. Either way I am not dissapointed since the graphics were obviously not set to the max.
 
This is just how it goes. People beg and cry Valve to release any new media, and when they do, you complain how shit they look. So I quess Valve can't do anything right.
 
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