toblix

Half-Life 3

Recommended Posts

Oh, man. So many great things. GamersHell as the definitive download source for patches. .tk domains! toblix professing his love to Alyx. Intrepid was still a member.

How much video memory does that thing have?
baconian"]128mb
CURSES!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The loading pauses are a consequence of the Source/GoldSrc/Quake render path and file format. Source isn't capable of streaming model data from the hard disk like most modern engines are, and to do so would require a major rewrite of the engine and porting Valve's shaders and physics models over to it. I suspect that's why we're seeing Source 2 treated as a separate engine: while it's almost certainly going to share a lot of code it's technically a new renderer and it allows Valve to say it's a "new" engine to stave off those perennial complaints about the "aging" Source engine.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm dead serious when I say that I would almost rather have the real Ricochet 2. Ricochet is a fun, fun game, and bringing it to a modern engine, complete with new game modes, more polish, etc. ala the typical Valve Sequel Pattern... Yes, please!

If I were to ever make a Source mod, it would be a Ricochet sequel.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah, based on my very fleeting, baseless impressions of how things are, Epic and Crytek are really engine-centric and have become so advanced Source probably won't be able to beat them on their really impressive strong points, like hot-compiling C code whilst moving real-time lighted celestial bodies around to demonstrate how gravity affects highlight shadow refraction in dynamic water beads on moist surfaces, BUT what do I know. Hopefully they'll be able to have more of what they're good at – impeccable design of everything. My number one request for their next engine: no more loading pauses.

Talent counts for a heck of a lot. Look at Just Cause 2, it's still wonderful looking 2 years later and it's not like Avalanche was a huge triple A studio or anything when it was made. Huge studios get you a lot of art, not necessarily a great engine. IE look at Skyrim. That thing sucks, it looks like a game from 2009 technically, the editor is getting vastly out of date, you can't even go into cities without a long loading time into a separate gamespace; and yet Bethesda has over a hundred people at their studio.

I'm sure it'll look rocking, I just wonder what they're concentrating on. Return on investment in shiny graphics tech has gone down since Half Life 2. It's been a while since any game actually "blew gamers minds!" So I'm more interested in what it's going to do in terms of allowing for game design. Not that I don't care about shiny graphics tech B)

The loading pauses are a consequence of the Source/GoldSrc/Quake render path and file format. Source isn't capable of streaming model data from the hard disk like most modern engines are, and to do so would require a major rewrite of the engine and porting Valve's shaders and physics models over to it. I suspect that's why we're seeing Source 2 treated as a separate engine: while it's almost certainly going to share a lot of code it's technically a new renderer and it allows Valve to say it's a "new" engine to stave off those perennial complaints about the "aging" Source engine.

Yep yep, no more BSP. And if they're really doing a space MMO then all streaming all the time. I just wonder how this went with their new games. As in, I wonder what it was like transitioning Half Life 3 from Episode 3 on the Source engine to next gen stuff and Source 2.0 or squared... or cubed! No! Source Sqrt -1 then they could be all "it stands for Source: iMagination"

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The biggest thing really is their tools are totally awful. You can't get any kind of asset into Source without faffing about in a text editor and often a command prompt. Hammer is basically the same now as it was when it was Worldcraft for Quake. You can't, say, scale up a mesh in Hammer, or move it in local space. It really is bloody awful to try to use after you've used Unreal or probably Unity etc.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Again, not really having in-depth knowledge, haven't Valve really proven to be all about user-created stuff lately? One would think a main feature of their next engine is a sweet, powerful editor that lets even dumb people make awesome video game assets.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well seeing as how Valve was all about modding back when Half-Life was their hot commodity, and how they went so far as to hire mod teams and turn mods into retail games, you would've thought that modding Source would be the easiest thing in the world, but no, it's a fucking pain in the ass because you need a text editor to get your 3d models into the game and pretty much every other part of the pipeline for content creation contains similarly arcane and unintuitive steps. Plus, look how well Valve's doing with user created content right now, when it's a pain in the ass! Maybe they wouldn't care about making things easy because it works out well for them no matter how hard it is.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

To be fair, they've streamlined the process quite a bit for some things. But, yeah, map editing is still the worst. I guess it's all right in Portal 2, though? I don't know these things.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Portal 2 has a hugely simplified editor for if you want to just make test chambers out of prefabs, and it is very cool, but if you want to do anything more complicated than that you've got to use Hammer.

An editor that actually runs the game engine would be a huge step up.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

When half life 3 finally gets realised it'll only be playable in my penis

And you guys are going to have to ask me very nicely if you fancy having a go

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I would have thought you'd need something bigger than a thumb to run a game like Half-Life 3

no but seriously I love you man

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Buuuuurn :) love you to x

So, half life 3. I kinda hope they do a ep3 instead. i feel like a bite size single player experence that completes the hl2 story and is a prelude to the next numbered release would be the right avenue to go down.

Then a couple years later release the all new singing a dancing half life 3 with all the trimmings.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

okay so we know that things are happening behind the scenes with the next gen consoles.

i wonder if there's a bidding war between sony and microsoft for Hlaf life 3 timed exclusivity.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Buuuuurn :) love you to x

So, half life 3. I kinda hope they do a ep3 instead. i feel like a bite size single player experence that completes the hl2 story and is a prelude to the next numbered release would be the right avenue to go down.

Then a couple years later release the all new singing a dancing half life 3 with all the trimmings.

I feel like that train has sailed

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I reckon Valve will do Episode 3 in a very similar manner to Eps 1 and 2, to wrap up this Combine Occupation section of the story, then have Gordon wake up on some other place/time for HL3 in the new Source engine, developing them concurrently.

So, half life 3. I kinda hope they do a ep3 instead. i feel like a bite size single player experence that completes the hl2 story and is a prelude to the next numbered release would be the right avenue to go down.

I'm going to forgive you for stealing my theory, because you were drunk, Mington. (I still can't forgive a Christmas avatar in November, though.)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

(I still can't forgive a Christmas avatar in November, though.)

I can just hear you carol singing now...

"On the Twelfth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me... NOTHING -- BECAUSE TECHNICALLY IT WASN'T CHRISTMAS!

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas my true love gave to me..."

You get the idea ;-P

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Very clever, except for one small detail: I would NEVER sing Christmas carols! Bah humbug.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

OK let's just make a quick rule here, that you can't post in this topic anymore until there is actually news about a Half-Life 3 announcement. I will flip out if you keep joking around here.

Just posting to say I think this is definitely a good idea.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I heard Gaben finished HL3 as a Christmas present to the world. Should be on Steam tomorrow.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If it ran on Linux it would run everywhere cause it would be on an ogl render path. One of the reasons there is so little Linux gaming is due to the historical dominance of the direct x platform. I bet hl3 is not exclusive anywhere cause that's dumb. However I bet it ends yup running best on ogl under Linux cause that kind of platform agnostic approach is what valve currently seems interested in.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now