Half-life 2 & Episode 1 Updated With Achievements (Steam Play)

[Hectic Glenn]

Today Valve have launched Half-life 2, Episode 1 and Episode 2 for the Mac. This update features cross-platform support for Steam Cloud, allowing players to save their game progress on one computer, then seamlessly resume from that save point on another computer (Mac or PC).

In addition, HL2 and Episode One have been updated to include over 40 new Steam Achievements, which are available to all owners of these titles.

All these titles are available for 30% off a limited time only.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Hm, so no official HDR update for the PC version?

edit: Oh found this:

Updates to Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Half-Life 2
Added support for Mac
Added Steam Cloud support for save games
Added new achievements
Improved graphical effects

Half-Life 2: Episode One
Added support for Mac
Added Steam Cloud support for save games
Added new achievements
Improved graphical effects

Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Added support for Mac
Added Steam Cloud support for save games

Note: Save games for Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One will go through a transition. The current level you are on will be saved, but not the exact position in the level.

 

[Barnz]

There is.

 

[Sheepo]

Man, I thought they'd given up on giving us those achievements.

 

[John1986]

wasn't expecting to see those but glad we have them now shame it's taking some time for me to download lol

 

[DEATHMASTER]

It's actually quite small an update in size.

 

[<RJMC>]

whats new in graphics?

 

[DEATHMASTER]

It looks goddamn amazing. Will post screenshots soon.

 

[Laivasse]

I'm noticing the realtime shadows from the flashlight and the HDR (mostly in a kind of oversaturation to the breencasts). I'm not noticing so much difference from the 'very high' texture setting (is that new?) but then I've only played up to where you drop into the water for the first time.

 

[Blackthorn]

I just came.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Ravenholm and the City 17 underground is going to be ace now, thank you Valve ;D

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Here's a few

Spoiler

This guy is much better at killing them hacks now

 

[Blackthorn]

I can confirm from my play that texture quality has increased and models from Episode 2 are included, I spotted updated Alyx, Kleiner, Antlions and Antlion towers all new.

Can anyone confirm Vautigants? They really stood out before.

 

[Shem]

Can someone post a picture of a comparison between Half-Life 2's original graphics and the newly implemented graphics?

 

[Lucid]

The Source engine still continues to impress me with its graphics.

Does anyone possibly have a list of the achievements?

 

[Blackthorn]

Just got "Submissive" for putting the can in the bin, haha.

I can confirm this is the real deal Episode 2 graphical update. Every single object I've seen is updated to it's Episode 1/2 equivalent. Barney's forehead wrinkles, Combine command consoles are high res, Strider models are new, as are Vautigants, the tiles in the City 17 courtyard are now "bumpier" and "shinier", the list could go on. I'm so incredibly pleased.

 

[MaximusPM]

FINALLY... I've been waiting for this for ages...

 

[Insano]

Sweet, just what I was hoping for. This will make me replay all HL games after my exams.

 

[Barnz]

it's quite buggy. I'm making a list so I can report Valve (or just bitch).

 

[Blackthorn]

Only oddity I noticed was water being really murky at a certain distance. Can't remember that from before, so I think it's a bug. I get small stutters when entering some locations too.

Another couple of notes: fast weapon switch is like the new games, and you can enable 8x AA now instead of just 4x.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Damn, has the sky always been this damn beautiful?

Spoiler

 

[Polaris]

At the top of the Citadel you can see flowing clouds... is this new as well? I can't remember...

 

[kupocake]

So, are the colour-coded shotgun soldiers in yet? For some reason, they are essential for my participation.

 

[Barnz]

there's no HDR, why?

At the top of the Citadel you can see flowing clouds... is this new as well? I can't remember...

no, the fog for skybox doesn't work.

I beat Ravenholm using only the gravity gun, but I didn't get the achievement.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

There is HDR.

 

[kgwhipp]

sweeeeeeeeeeeet

 

[Warped]

god damn people, I'm gunna play this amazing game once again!

 

[Barnz]

There is HDR.

There is no HDR. Here's a list I made for Steampowered.

-There is no HDR (in any level), Bloom, Motion Blur, or Color Correction.
-Multi Core Rendering sometimes slow downs the game.
-Some faces look extremely bright, or dark.
-3D Skybox fog doesn't work, unless you have sv_cheats set to 1.
-Some achievements don't work.
-Sometimes the game disables achievements.
-Sometimes you can see through random objects.

-Combine Scanners have their spotlight always on in bright areas.
-You can't throw a hand grenade when you're underwater.
-Breen's animation is broken when you see him during the teleportation scene.
-Many old bugs still remain unsolved.

-Following console commands don't work, unless you have sv_cheats set to 1:
fog_start
fog_end
fog_color
fog_colorskybox
fog_startskybox
fog_endskybox
r_farz

cam_snapto
cam_ideallag
cam_idealdelta
cam_idealyaw
cam_idealpitch
cam_idealdist
cam_idealdistright
cam_idealdistup
cam_collision
c_maxpitch
c_minpitch
c_maxyaw
c_minyaw
c_maxdistance
c_mindistance
c_orthowidth
c_orthoheight

 

[Shem]

Episode One seems to have no problems with its achievements, but I'm not sure about Half-Life 2.

 

[morgs]

No HDR? whaa...

 

[DEATHMASTER]

THERE IS HDR. THERE IS BLOOM. THERE IS MOTION BLUR.
These are problems for only Barnz and perhaps others, but for me it all works.

The one that I did have is 'Breen's animation is broken when you see him during the teleportation scene.'

Spoiler

 

[Barnz]

There is no HDR. What you see is probably bloom, or something else. Let me explain: when you compile a standart map (*.VMF) with HDR settings on, you get a compiled map file (*.BSP) with file size around 50 MB. Go, open your "half-life 2 content.GCF", and see if there's a map larger than 10 MB.

 

[-smash-]

I don't know how you have HDR on. I've tried forcing it through console but it spits back a "HDR Disabled" at me.

 

[Barnz]

It doesn't matter. There's no HDR in any map. You have to recompile them all, which is something Valve already did for their Orange Box ports on consoles. They're not available for PC though.

 

[morgs]

Hmm, no HDR/motion blur for me :\

 

[QUINTIX256]

Lightmaps are fairly independent from everything else. With the right extraction tools you can play around with them in any image editing tool. What HDR adds is a 4th "exponent" component to the standard RGB values, so the idea that adding HDR somehow makes a bsp file 5 times larger is absurd to say the very least.

 

[Warped]

I noticed a substantial improvement in the graphics department, with all the settings on max. my framerate is good, a few glitches here and there but not really noticeable. also this is the 1st time playing on Hard Mode and I love it! I should have done this sooner. I'm in Route Kanal now but no biggies so far

 

[Barnz]

It's not about the lightmaps, but the data stored in a map file when you compile with HDR settings on. You can simpy call it extra VRAD data, or whatever you want.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

They are all .BSPs mostly under 10mb, some are above 10 though.

I do seem to have come across a couple more bugs though; at Nova Prospekt when you're waiting for the teleport to recharge, the soldiers stop coming after the initial wave and I just wait around until the thing is complete, then a bunch come in after I enter the teleport. Also the next scene Dog faces the wrong way when Barney comes on. Sometimes (I think if you pause/minimize the game) Alyx won't go and open the door to the next level.

 

[Barnz]

It was a generalization, of course there is map files larger than 10 MB.