Why no gunsmoke?

[chili pepper]

I'd hate to nitpick, but I think this deserves some attention.

That is, the lack of gunsmoke in the E3 videos when you fire your weapon. When you fire a real gun you always get a lot of gunsmoke, obviously. So I don't understand why a game like HL2 with so much realism is missing this feature. Even Doom 3 has gunsmoke. So I hope gunsmoke is implemented in the final release. It really adds to the fun and immersion when firing your weapon. A gun without gunsmoke is like a gun without muzzle flashes or kickback!

 

[DimitriPopov]

I wouldnt miss it. But hey , if you want it , email gabe or something.

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

I dont want to be pesimistic or nethin but i doubt that will get in the game tbh.

I mean how many people will actualy miss it.
When you couple this with the fact that even a little smoke that is right in from of the player whenever he fires tends to slow down action sequeces making playing un-fun and pointless .

Sorry i just dont think they would do it. They have more pressing issues

 

[NiteStalker]

Remember that the guns in HL2 are very new. Maybe the MP7 and that other H&K pistol (and the OPCW or whatever) don't have gunsmoke IRL.

 

[LoneDeranger]

I don't know how realistic they want to make it, but it will definatelly take away from the gameplay if you constantly have smoke in your face.

 

[Lobster]

I found the gun smoke in the D3 alpha the single most laggy feature in the engine, So no i wont miss it lol

 

[djkanuk]

Originally posted by Lobster
I found the gun smoke in the D3 alpha the single most laggy feature in the engine, So no i wont miss it lol

Yup. This a feature that might be cool at first, but most people would turn it off (hopefully it'd be a graphics detail option) to get smoother graphics.

 

[Chris D]

Why no gunsmoke?

Because it really doesn't matter.

 

[Prince of China]

Not all guns have smoke, in movies, you'd see a terrorist firing like crazy at the good(and miss) and there would be no smoke. Usually, smoke comes from heavy MG's like the M-60

 

[Guest]

I've shot alot of guns, and you either dont notice the gun smoke, or too busy looking where you're shooting/shot at to notice the gun smoke which lasts .2 seconds

 

[chili pepper]

The way gunsmoke is placed in D3 looks very good and it doesn't get in your way because the way they did it the smoke is discharged from the side of the gun and away from the player's face.

Also I don't think smoke has much effect on framerate. In CS for HL1 the smoke grenades produce large amounts of lingering smoke. when a smoke bomb goes off I notice zero effect on my framerate when I use to play CS on my old Pentium 300/Voodoo Banshee system (now have a 1.3 Ghz Athlon).

There are many things you can do to have good gunsmoke effects without it being distracting. ie: you don;t need a lot of it going off and clouding up the whole screen, just enough for it to be visible as the weapon is being fired, also make it so it appears and disappears quickly so it doesn't linger too long in the air to be a potentail distraction.

I have fired many real-life weapons myself including a .22 rifle, a 9mm pistol, a shotgun, etc. and they all produce plenty of gunsmoke, so I have never fired a real weapon that didn't.

 

[Direwolf]

Its just too small a detail that is completely unecessary, so I really can't imagine anyone spending all the time necessary to put it in. And the reason that the smoke grenade doesn't cause an FPS drop is because the rest of CS doesn't require much power, so your computer has some to spare.

 

[Ahnteis]

CS actually has gun smoke since about b5 version. You hardly see it and it really doesn't add anything, but they could obviously put it in HL if they so desired. Or maybe they already have.

 

[chili pepper]

Smoke effects in games has been around for many years. So its not hard to implement because the technology is there already. Should be very easy to do.

For example you have the smoke trail effects in Unreal Torunament when you fire the rocket launcher. It looks awesome by the way. Medal of Honor also has many gunsmoke effects and smoke effects from explosions and burninn objects. These things would look very bad without the smoke effects.

Not much impact on framerate. There could be some issues on slower computers. In that case, you can put in an option to turn it off for players on slower machines.

 

[Loke]

Originally posted by Tredoslop
Usually, smoke comes from heavy MG's like the M-60

And Muskets, although I don’t think they will include one in Half-Life II...

 

[Lifthz]

I would miss it. I like gunsmoke, gives a sense of immersion and shows the attention to detail. It's very neat and subtle, and it should be in there IMO. Halo has it, Halo 2 has it, S.T.A.L.K.E.R has it, Doom 3 has it, many games have it.

Originally posted by Tredoslop
Not all guns have smoke, in movies, you'd see a terrorist firing like crazy at the good(and miss) and there would be no smoke. Usually, smoke comes from heavy MG's like the M-60

Err... I believe all guns have smoke coming out whenever shot, some have more than others though. It varies a lot.

 

[Reaper978]

When I shot a 22 pistol it seemed to me that it only smoked when it got hot, thats why when you shoot a cool rifle you dont see much.

 

[Lifthz]

There is a degree of smoke in every shot I think. As I said, it varies, whether you see a lot or not. Again.... it's a subtle effect. Not hugely important, but it does make everything seem better , it's just more immersive.

 

[SnowBall]

I dont think you see smoke. I believe its steam and gun powder. I fired a glock once and never saw anything like smoke comming out of it, only the tiny muzzle flash.

 

[Lifthz]

Whatever, steam... same look man. Lol. Gas, it's all gas.

 

[jasonh1234]

I thought the gunsmoke in the D3 leak looked like complete ass.
It made me think "wtf. This is something made by id "The gods of gaming? It looks more like a 5 year olds interpretation of gunsmoke." I say leave it out unless it can be made to look damn good and realistic. I wouldn't miss it if it wasn't there.
If it is there I definately think it should be subtle. I've fired many real guns and it's so slight you barely notice it. In a combat situation your brain would be too tuned in on other things to even notice it at all.

 

[Direwolf]

I think also that it depends how they want the weapon to feel. If its supposed to be kind of arcade-like and isn't at all realistic, gunsmoke might not fit. But if the weapon should seem powerful and gritty then gunsmoke might work quite well. Its just a design decision.

 

[chili pepper]

Originally posted by Tredoslop
Usually, smoke comes from heavy MG's like the M-60

I would imagine any type of automatic machine gun big and small has very noticeable gunsmoke. A small single shot weapon won't produce much smoke but the gunpowder released by many bullets in a fully automtic weapon that is spitting out many slugs at a time tends to produce a good deal of smoke.

A semi-automatic will also make some good puffs of smoke if fired fast enough.

It won't be a big deal to me if they leave out the gunsmoke, but it would be nice to have it.

 

[TrueWeltall]

Originally posted by chili pepper
When you fire a real gun you always get a lot of gunsmoke, obviously.

If your using black powder then you'll see alot of gunsmoke. Maybe if you had a couple of machine guns side to side youd see alot of gun smoke. Todays gun powder isnt called "smokeless" for nothing.

 

[Demon-Dragon]

Although i've never fired an actual fire-arm before, I would assume that you don't see smoke. I think it's just heat from the barrel.
It's the same effect as heat rising off of pavement. If you look at it, it distorts the image behind it because of the heat.

 

[chili pepper]

I wouldn't know about the smokeless variety I just draw from my own experience with guns, guns that have all produced noticeable smoke that you see and smell. You notice it even more when you're standing by someone (such as a friend) and watch them fire their weapon at a target. The smell is strong too.

 

[Reaper978]

"I thought the gunsmoke in the D3 leak looked like complete ass.
It made me think "wtf. This is something made by id "The gods of gaming? It looks more like a 5 year olds interpretation of gunsmoke.""

LOL! alpha=not done, and btw I guess some people are just never pleased.