Bloooooood

[SiNizTer]

I'm not sure if this has been addressed by either Valve or anyone else, but I was wondering about the blood effects seen in the e3 demo. After watching it through, I noticed that the blood effects, particularly the one seen when Gordon hits the headcrabs with the crowbar, are the same as HL1's...is this intentional, or is this some "placeholder" effect that will be corrected later on? I know one could argue that this may be meant to give a naustalgic feeling, but to me it seems weird to have such advanced graphics rendering, while still having the same kind of cartoon splatter. Any replies would be great . Thanks alot
:cheers:

 

[simmo]

hmmm...havent thought about that, blood to me is an important factor, yeah I hope they make the blood splater all over the place, but not too much tho its will be unrealistic

 

[SiNizTer]

Agreed...I mean, i don't need Valve t model blood down to every detail, but if you look at the e3 vid, it seems as though its the same green splatter...it just seems like a shame to have that effect in the game, since Valve has already put so much attention to detail in the graphics!

 

[EVIL]

The blood splatters you saw are placholders. Valve uses alot of HL1 stuff as a placeholder untill they finished the new thing

 

[Swartz]

I had an idea for blood effects (oh, and hello, my first post here).

It would be cool for blood that splatters on surfaces, if the blood uses the bumpmapping for the texture it splattered on, so that it looks like the blood is really splattered on that texture. Would look pretty sweet.

 

[The Mullinator]

hmmm... now that would be cool.

 

[Majestic XII]

This thing has already been up in the forums, and yes, we think its a placeholder.

 

[SiNizTer]

Wow...well, you guys have certainly calmed my fears about this. I already had a feeling it was only placeholder art, but I just wanted to check with you guys...being the HL pros and all . Anyways, I'm sorry if this has gone up before...but i couldn't help myself ...its hard for me to let go of something once its in my head unless I ask someone. And BTW the gore sounds awesome!!! this game just keeps gettin better and better!.
:cheers:

 

[SiNizTer]

Originally posted by Swartz
I had an idea for blood effects (oh, and hello, my first post here).

It would be cool for blood that splatters on surfaces, if the blood uses the bumpmapping for the texture it splattered on, so that it looks like the blood is really splattered on that texture. Would look pretty sweet.

Yeah i agree...that would be awesome...if not in HL2...HL3...?

 

[Swartz]

That depends, might not be able to, because that may be code thats incorporated in the main engine data, which we won't be allowed access to.
It would also be cool if there was a liquid physics system for blood like in Postal 2, except not as shitty.

I was working on programing one in HL2 where the blood drips down surfaces and whatnot, and drips from ceilings, but I never finished it and Hl1's engine is crappy so it lagged the game beyond being playable so I got rid of it.
But it would be sweet in HL2, and it would be cool if not only blood takes on the bumpmap of the texture its on, but if theres alot of blood on that spot then its too thick to have texture, so there wouldn't be a bumpmap. And then if lots of blood decals hits that one spot, the blood would spread across the ground (assuming you can animate decals in the source engine).

I think I'm going to email Valve's lead programmer about this, but I forget the email and his name, anyone know it?

 

[ValVed RaY]

Originally posted by Swartz
That depends, might not be able to, because that may be code thats incorporated in the main engine data, which we won't be allowed access to.
It would also be cool if there was a liquid physics system for blood like in Postal 2, except not as shitty.

I was working on programing one in HL2 where the blood drips down surfaces and whatnot, and drips from ceilings, but I never finished it and Hl1's engine is crappy so it lagged the game beyond being playable so I got rid of it.
But it would be sweet in HL2, and it would be cool if not only blood takes on the bumpmap of the texture its on, but if theres alot of blood on that spot then its too thick to have texture, so there wouldn't be a bumpmap. And then if lots of blood decals hits that one spot, the blood would spread across the ground (assuming you can animate decals in the source engine).

I think I'm going to email Valve's lead programmer about this, but I forget the email and his name, anyone know it?

his email is
[email protected]

 

[The Mullinator]

good luck getting through too him. :dozey:

 

[Swartz]

Lol, that would suck if he worked for microsoft...but did you write the first part of his email right?

 

[The Mullinator]

He did work for Microsoft before he made HL1, but then created Valve with some other former Microsoft employees.

 

[Swartz]

Nevermind, have his email now.

 

[Swartz]

Huh. Considering how much of a fan I am of HL1 I would have thought I would have known that.

I thought most of Valve was made up of former Quake modders gone pro.

 

[LoneDeranger]

Originally posted by Swartz
Lol, that would suck if he worked for microsoft...but did you write the first part of his email right?

Yes he did work for M$. Just check the Valve website.

It doesn't mean you should hate the guy just because of that.

 

[Swartz]

Wow...talk about a fast reply:

You have complete control over blood in your mod. If you want blood to
glow
bright green and have an environment map, you can.

The HL-2 SDK will have a lot more functionality than HL-1 did, it will
just
be easier to get at. We want it to be easier to write code, not take
away
the ability to write code.

-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Swartz
To: [email protected]
Sent: 6/1/2003 5:38 PM
Subject: Concerning HL2 engine capabilities

Hi, sorry to bother you, I'm sure you're very busy and get many emails
a
day, but I have a few questions concerning Hl2 (if you can answer them,
I understand if you cant).

1) Blood. I don't know about you, but for me and most other people
blood
plays a very important role in a game. My question is, will blood
splatter use the bumpmap of the texture its laying on, because it would
look quite cool and make it look like its actually splattered on the
surface instead of painted on. Just thought I'd bring this one up
because since bump-mapping is so new I don't know if anyone thought of
that.

2) For modding, I heard you plan on simplifying modding and
programming.
Will we be limited to only modifying a few things a certain way, or can
we have actually programming access like we did in Half-Life?
Because there are some special effects things Ill probably want to
change for my mods (like making muzzleflash randomly appear on the gun,
since it doesnt show up each time, lots of smoke emitting from guns,
particle effects, etc.)

Only answer what you can, and thank you for taking the time to read
this.
I can't wait to play HL2, I'm even spending $2,500 on a new computer
just to play it

Just got that email from Gabe. Sounds like they won't be doing that, but we can give it a bumpmap of its own (although he didn't answer wether we can steal the bumpmap from the surface underneath it and use it for the bumpmap of the blood, so Ill ask that again.

Its surprising he replied so fast, you'd think he'd be getting alot of email.

 

[ValVed RaY]

i guess the fatso does care, how nice of him.

 

[LoneDeranger]

Originally posted by Swartz

Its surprising he replied so fast, you'd think he'd be getting alot of email.

I find it more surprising that he works on Sunday.

 

[The Mullinator]

Gabe didn't write that, he probably has a team of people hes hired to represent him in e-mails fans send. He would never be able to answer every e-mail fans sent him if it was just him alone.

EDIT: Like my new Sig, :naughty:

 

[Swartz]

Lmao.

I sent Gabe a new email carefully explaining what I meant, a really long email and he just replied with a simple "Yes."

So yes, the method I described can easily be done, but he still didn't feel the need to tell me wether or not they're going to be doing it, lol.

 

[LoneDeranger]

Originally posted by Swartz
Lmao.

I sent Gabe a new email carefully explaining what I meant, a really long email and he just replied with a simple "Yes."

So yes, the method I described can easily be done, but he still didn't feel the need to tell me wether or not they're going to be doing it, lol.

It's just like the interview video. They talked for 40 minutes about how excited they were to talk about the game .. yet they said nothing about the game we dont already know ..

 

[dovoxove]

it looks as bits of bisuits falling apart when Gordon hits the zombies.