Half-Life 2, A game in this generation?

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mayro

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Hear me out and please read all of this before commenting.

With the announcement of Doom 3 going gold it has sort of taken the fire from underneath valve and has put the heat on DOOM 3. While being a game that will keep most of us ocupied till our beloved Half-Life 2 comes out, I find it very strange that the fastest graphics cards cant "tottaly" support the game even ones backing the game. This brings me to the point of this thread.

Half-Life 2 may have had alot of faults but, they did something that we should all be greatful for and I finaly see the reasoning behind what they are and did do. I purchased a radeon 9800 pro back in the day and at the time valve was stateing that the game would be released with medium grade computers in mind. I was kinda peeved seeing as i had just droped 400 dollers on this bad boy and the new system to boot. Valve did say that it would more than likely release the upgraded models in the future.

After seeing the review for DOOM 3 and reading that nice little portion about how the computers of today cant handle the game it hit me like a ton of rocks. Carmack designed a game for tomarrow where valve designed a game for today! Dont get me wrong guys, doom3 has alot of great things in it. To name a few it has PerPixleHitDetection followed by in game menues that are literaly in game or on map if you will. Half-Life 2 features a HIGHLY scaleable engine with the worlds greatest AI seen to date. Not only all of that but Half-Life 2 also has what will be the game with some of the best replayability ever seen in a first person shooter. Remember that comment about most things not being scripted? Wont it be nice to go through the game a second time and not know whats going to happen?

PS: If you guys havent noticed, valve said it was mainly doing bug fixing and playability stuff. If you didnt see it, the new picture of the flashlight shows that they are upgradeing/changeing other textures as well as adding some new ones.

Do you guys think the same? I mean, it does kinda seem like Half-Life 2 will play on alot of differnt machines and not look like crap, what is doom3 going to look like scaled back a ton?
 
Yeah i agree. Even when they played the e3 demos in 2003 and 2004 they used a radeon 9800 pro card and you saw how well the game looked, so i think hl2 will be better system wise. Also the Doom3 system req scare me, pc gamer even said they played on a 6800 on 1024x768 flawlessly which scares me being an ati radeon 9800 owner which i recently bought, I just hope i wont have to play the game on 800x600, that would suck. Although when i got my new card i tested Far Cry to see how well it ran it actually ran on 1600x1200! with shadows on an average of 30 fps but Doom3 seems to be taking to a new level. Well i guess this REALLY is the time to upgrade your system
 
Then again, if what we are seeing in doom3 is "medium" i wonder what a goverment pc could put out?
 
Oh, well REz wise yeah but i mean dynamic shadows and level of detail and that stuff, like theres low, medium, and high. Kinda like in Farcry
 
Remember the good times when the outside levels where the ones that demended the most out of your computer. These days the inside levels are done with so much detail (FarCry) compared to the outside than the huge outside levels acutally run better than the inside levels.

That's the basic reason I'm not buying Doom 3 but rather HL2. Doom 3 will basically feature very stereotypic claustrophobic enverionments (beautifully done, don't get me wrong). But I always prefer the open environements. In doom 3 most of what you will be doing is going backwards in some narrow corridor shooting like crazy on the monster coming at you.

Nothing against doom 3 :)
 
yeah, i notice whenever i go outside i lag less then when i enter a building but this isnt stopping me from buying Doom3, the more games the better :) I just wonder how much Hd space doom3 will take up
 
a local retailer here says the minimum spec's are 700mhz pentium 3 dx9 capable vpu card... so how bad could it be??
 
well for some reason other sources have the minimum specs much higher
 
I dont really mind that my computer wont run it with everything maxed out. Alot of games in the past are like that when its new engine tech. But It will still be playable and i dont believe it will look that bad. One thing i dont understand is why every one talks about HL2 vs doom3. You know you can buy both right? Preorder both mine yesterday.
 
Well the key is the video card and RAM. I'd bet any computer with a Radeon 9500 and up or a GeForce 5600 and up should make the game look beautiful.. even if it doesn't look its best.
 
kungfucheez said:
yeah, i notice whenever i go outside i lag less then when i enter a building but this isnt stopping me from buying Doom3, the more games the better :) I just wonder how much Hd space doom3 will take up
Click to expand...


No to be an ass but when your not playin online its not called lag.
 
im hoping i can run doom3 and HL2 on at least 1280 x 1024 w/o aa on the highest settings. I can't believe that they could only run doom3 on 1024 x 768 with a 6800 Ultra, which by the way would run doom3 better than an ati. I've got an x800pro so looks like doom3 wont run as good as i had hoped when i bought the card.
 
Yeah, 512 is good bet for D3 (plus it's really cheap to upgrade from 256 to 512). I remeber even if FarCry when I shot at a group of enemies my computer (512 Ram) would just shot for a nanosecond to calculate the A.I. (wouldn't happen with 1024).
 
Carmack took a gamble when he decided to use totally real-time lighting and shadowing.

This is because it crunches processing power like popcorn. And on top of that, to make up for the fact that everything has to be low poly to keep the simplicity of the lighting calculations down, everything has to be covered in normal maps to put all the detail back in.

It's not that Valve took the wrong direction, they just decided on a different one, which is significantly less power-hungry, but still looks great.

Anyways, such features as per-pixel hit detection and GUIs on 3D objects are in Source. It's up to modders if they want to use per-pixel or hitboxes, I believe. As for GUIs, Valve has the VGUI2 system, which looks flexible as hell. If you look at for example CS, it's used for the menus, the green Steam-style windows, the buy menus, rendering all the in-game text, etc. In Source, VGUI2 interfaces can be rendered onto 3D objects, and 3D objects can be rendered onto a VGUI2 panel. Seeing as how even an Internet Explorer browser window can be hosted inside VGUI2, and therefore probably even rendered onto a 3D object, it certainly looks powerful.
 
Some_God said:
What will be the difference in HL2 if I upgrade? What? Better graphics?
Click to expand...
No, but it will be much smoother, and by extension you might be able to bump the graphics up.

Btw, lazicsavo, RAM has nothing to do with the AI. It's all cpu-intensive.
 
Anyone know where to find ram cheap? I looked ata stick of 512 and it cost around $100
 
Epsi said:
Anyways, such features as per-pixel hit detection and GUIs on 3D objects are in Source. It's up to modders if they want to use per-pixel or hitboxes, I believe. As for GUIs, Valve has the VGUI2 system, which looks flexible as hell. If you look at for example CS, it's used for the menus, the green Steam-style windows, the buy menus, rendering all the in-game text, etc. In Source, VGUI2 interfaces can be rendered onto 3D objects, and 3D objects can be rendered onto a VGUI2 panel. Seeing as how even an Internet Explorer browser window can be hosted inside VGUI2, and therefore probably even rendered onto a 3D object, it certainly looks powerful.
Click to expand...

you're joking right?? Man the possibilities for that kind of gui system are so vast. I mean imagine going to a gui in a game which is a dynamic representation of the internet? Like in a multiplayer game where you have different rooms etc you could go to a gui in the game and interact with people who aren't even in your game. That's what you mean right? I don't wanna misinterpret this.
 
kungfucheez said:
Anyone know where to find ram cheap? I looked ata stick of 512 and it cost around $100
Click to expand...

I believe we're talking VIDEO RAM, not system RAM :naughty:

But to answer your question, newegg.com.
 
Oh video ram, well people tell me that a 256 mb doesnt make much of a difference but we will see, it might for doom3 and hl2

P.S: Oh and newegg didnt really have anything cheaper but im probably just gonna geta whole new system anyways
 
Some one help me!!!

I have a 2.2 ghz cpu
a 9800xt 256 mb
and 512mb of ram

Would adding another 512mb of ram make any difference at all when playing hl2??? Cause Hl2 is all i care about! Hl2 runs my life, and will probrably end it when i have a seizure once i finally play it :)
 
Kazuki_Fuse said:
you're joking right?? Man the possibilities for that kind of gui system are so vast. I mean imagine going to a gui in a game which is a dynamic representation of the internet? Like in a multiplayer game where you have different rooms etc you could go to a gui in the game and interact with people who aren't even in your game. That's what you mean right? I don't wanna misinterpret this.
Click to expand...

Yeh, it's pretty powerful stuff. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that you could put an IE browser control onto an object in the 3D world, but I remember reading somewhere that they used IE because it can render to memory, which I assume can then be rendered onto a surface. But yeh, it's the same principle as the MOTD window in CS now, except stuck onto a 3D surface, which is pretty cool. If I do a MOD, I was thinking about ditching a conventional menu in favour of having a map you can walk around, with the options menus and things on the walls.

http://collective.valve-erc.com/ind...06159033732043100&question=106160031852895500
 
yadalogo said:
Some one help me!!!

I have a 2.2 ghz cpu
a 9800xt 256 mb
and 512mb of ram

Would adding another 512mb of ram make any difference at all when playing hl2??? Cause Hl2 is all i care about! Hl2 runs my life, and will probrably end it when i have a seizure once i finally play it :)
Click to expand...

It'll decrease load times, and any chances of extra loading after the level has been cached. You'll see no performance gain, though
 
You'll be fine, more than fine. (although you should have gone for 9800Pro, 9800XT too much money for such a small increase in performance).
 
Epsi said:
Yeh, it's pretty powerful stuff. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that you could put an IE browser control onto an object in the 3D world, but I remember reading somewhere that they used IE because it can render to memory, which I assume can then be rendered onto a surface. But yeh, it's the same principle as the MOTD window in CS now, except stuck onto a 3D surface, which is pretty cool. If I do a MOD, I was thinking about ditching a conventional menu in favour of having a map you can walk around, with the options menus and things on the walls.

http://collective.valve-erc.com/ind...06159033732043100&question=106160031852895500
Click to expand...


Are you saying that you could render the actual internet via this gui system? im a bit confused
 
Yeh. I'm pretty sure it's technically feasible in HL2 to put a web browser onto a wall.
 
kungfucheez said:
Are you saying that you could render the actual internet via this gui system? im a bit confused
Click to expand...

He's saying you may be able to actually render IE or another browser onto in-game surfaces. I have no idea if this is possible within the source. You can render menus and the like to in-game surfaces, I'm just not sure about something like this. So basically, say you're walking around an office complex in HL2. You come across a PC. You walk up to it, hit the use key, and without being taken out of the game, IE pops up on the screen of the virtual PC. You could then browse the web via that virtual interface while in the game. As in, the IE window would pop up onto the virtual computers screen.
 
wow, thats really cool, i remember i had a program that put you in a 3-d world and you could access the internet from it and stuff. Lol well if its possible would that mean i could geta computer model and actually have it work like an actual computer does? Or maybe just look online? Wow, now im getting excited over this :) I think i just found a new reason for loving hl2 ;)
 
Phrozen Ice said:
No to be an ass but when your not playin online its not called lag.
Click to expand...
Lag just means that it doesn't keep up or is slow.
It's an old general term that we used to say, before Online gaming that is. :P
 
mayro said:
After seeing the review for DOOM 3 and reading that nice little portion about how the computers of today cant handle the game it hit me like a ton of rocks. Carmack designed a game for tomarrow where valve designed a game for today! Dont get me wrong guys, doom3 has alot of great things in it. To name a few it has PerPixleHitDetection followed by in game menues that are literaly in game or on map if you will. Half-Life 2 features a HIGHLY scaleable engine with the worlds greatest AI seen to date. Not only all of that but Half-Life 2 also has what will be the game with some of the best replayability ever seen in a first person shooter. Remember that comment about most things not being scripted? Wont it be nice to go through the game a second time and not know whats going to happen?

PS: If you guys havent noticed, valve said it was mainly doing bug fixing and playability stuff. If you didnt see it, the new picture of the flashlight shows that they are upgradeing/changeing other textures as well as adding some new ones.

Do you guys think the same? I mean, it does kinda seem like Half-Life 2 will play on alot of differnt machines and not look like crap, what is doom3 going to look like scaled back a ton?
Click to expand...

What the fuss over per pixel hit detection anyway? I don't see why it's such a revoltionary feature...."WOW! I have to now shoot the body only, and the guy won't die if I shoot near his leg..."

Big deal. :hmph:

Also, you say that HL2 has the greatest A.I. ever? have you even played the game or are you some valve employee in disguise?
 
I havent played Half-Life2 persay... Ive seen valves videos and some other things. I do live on campus so ive got to see what some other people have seen. Lets just put it this way. Valve AI= Oh, that wasent a multiplayer match?

EDIT PS: As for the per pixle hit i feal this is much more realistic than a giant box on yer head. Also this allowes for a much better feal to the game overall knowing that you cant just grab a gun and get the shots near your target.
 
i like how valve seem to be able to make games run so well and make the best use of hardware. hl1 always stood out to me as a game that run smooth compared to other simular ones.

all was good untill i got a x800pro and i get 30 fps in dod, hurmm :) gota love da steam!
 
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