Info received from Valve ONLY - NO questions/discussion

Yay, my second post in this thread! Not much new, but what the heck:
============================

Thanks,
Rick Ellis
Valve Software
[email protected]
-----Original Message-----
From: Solitaire [mailto:solitaire]
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 8:40 PM

A couple of mod-related questions if you get time to answer:

1. Can models have semi-opaque areas that project off the surface
of the model - like say a giant bug that would have gem-encrusted
armor, or bulging compound eyes (various colors in either case)?

*** Of course :) Anything that can be done with DX9 can be added to the
models using shaders. The only catch is that you'd have to be careful with
performance.

2. Can liquid's opacity & surface be changed in such a way that one
could create 'black' water w/high gloss surfaces, i.e. standing pools
of oil? Would it be possible for a character/ingame model to walk
through such a liquid & 'track' it from its feet/wheels/tentacles/etc?

*** Liquid is also a shader to see above. As for tracking stuff from it's
feet or wheels, this can be done but will require a little bit of work, it's
not automagic right now.

3. Is it possible to create a map feature that has real-time
updating - player in the middle from an overhead view, 2D simplified
map updated as he runs/looks around, limiting the distance of vision
to what is onscreen, and keeping hidden what should be occluded by
walls?

*** Yes, a mini-map ala counter-strike can easily be put into the game.

Thanks for everything,
Todd C. aka Solidarnosi
 
My second post in this thread and it's a DOZEY.
====================================
No.
-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Kap [mailto:****@rit.edu]
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 9:10 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Localization?


Yes or no.
All you're working on is localization and hardware optimization, then HL2 is finished. Right?

~DaveKap

====================================

So no more thinking that it's actually done, because it sure as hell isn't.
 
We simply aren't finished. It's a very large project.

-----Original Message-----
From: AnAmiC [mailto:*******@gmx.de]
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 9:27 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: A question :p

Hi Mr. Newell,

I am like many in the community very exited about hl2 and its delay.
So here my question:
What are you currently doing on the game causing the delay,
or isn't it the game but anything else?
 
They don't have any room. Lots of ATI people can't go. You aren't missing much. I didn't know Alcatraz was this hard to get into ....

-----Original Message-----
From: Allan [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 10:30 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Alcatraz


First, how do you get in? Is it by invitation or is it open to the public?

What time does the event start?

Will you put me on the guest book if I go on behalf of the hl2.net community?
 
No.
-----Original Message-----
From: Chad Donahue [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2003 6:12 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Leak Query


Now that the leak information is out in the open, was this the reason for the delay?
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Hannes Kochniß [mailto: [email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2003 6:20 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Steam content server usage

[....]

so my question is simple: I look at the status page on www.steampowered.com almost every day, curious about the fact when e.g. the www.nexus.com content servers will provide bandwidth, along with others
e.g. the nvidia.com server runs at almost 100% usage all the time, but many others stay idle..
so the real question is : is it intended to be as it is or is this a problem with communication w/ the content providers (esp. ww.nexus.com seems to be chinese or something)
well the idea is: u provide promotion underground, while they do nothing.. it's not fair..

but well, I just would like to know if it is intended to see the content servers delivering a distributed amount of content (I am a foreigner, so please excuse any bad spelling)

nice day and out..

Those content servers are private and servicing pretty much just Korea. We're going to change the status page so this isn't confusing to people.
 
RE: Half-Life 2 extender version?

I e-maile Doug Lombardi las Monday checking about the "Extended Edition" we heard of in the Japanese Interviews. Here's the email and his response.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeremy Dunn [---------------------}
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 12:05 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Half-Life 2 extender version?


Dear Mr. Lombardi,

In some of the articles I've read from the recent Japanese tradeshow, I kept

reading about an "extended" version of the game that will be released
sometime next year. I was wondering if this is the collectors edition, a
Half-Life 2 expansion, a misquote/bad translation, or something else
entirely.

Thanks for your time!

Sincerely,
Jeremy Dunn

----------------
Hi,

Not sure which article you're referencing -- but it would have to be the
collector's edition or a misquote.

Cheers
----------------

So it looks like Valve has NOT announced plans for a Half-Life 2 expansion yet. Which sucks.. :(

Sincerely,
Jeremy Dunn
 
========================================

From: Erik Johnson <Snipped>To: '*** *****' <Snipped>
Subject: RE: Hello?
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2003 10:33:08 -0700

It's the real deal.

-----Original Message-----
From: *** ***** [mailto:Snipped]
Sent: Friday, October 03, 2003 10:29 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Hello?


Hey, this is just a test to prove that this address works...if it bounces I
will be disclaiming that the Gabe Newell post was a fake

--
Thanks,
*** *****
(Necromancer)

========================================

Taken from this thread:
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10872&perpage=40&pagenumber=2
 
Soon.
-----Original Message-----
From: James [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2003 12:39 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Steam related question, not a problem!


Hi Erik, I just have one quick question related to Steam. No, it's not a problem, Steam is running fine now like I knew it would.
I am just wondering when you all are going to release the last 3 HL2 vids and put all the HL2 vids back on Steam?
Thanks.
 
I totally forgot about this Email... I emailed ATI a bout the HL2 in the XT card about half a month ago... some of the info is a bit outdated but here it is:

From : "ATI Customer Service Canada" <[email protected]>

Reply-To : [email protected]
To : <********@hotmail.com>
Subject : RE: ATI Sales Assistance
Date : Thu, 2 Oct 2003 14:32:33 -0400
Dear **** *****,

Thank you for contacting ATI Customer Service Canada.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your email has been assigned:
TicketGUID:{***-*********-*******-********}

Please include the above identifier in all future correspondence
relating to this ticket. Note: The TicketGUID identifier must appear
in the message body, not in the subject line.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Regarding the included HL2 with the 9800 XT:

The version that is included with the 9800 XT is the full version, so it will
have all of the same features as the retail release of the card. Because HL2 is
not yet shipping, the game itself will not come with the card, but will have a
voucher that can be used to download HL2 from the web using Valve's Steam
client.

We do not know when the release of HL2 will be. There has been no official word
from Valve on when HL2 will be released.
Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us.

I hope that this information helps. If we can be of further assistance, just
let us know.

Chris Shapcott
Customer Service Canada
ATI Technologies, Inc.
http://www.ati.com
Click to expand...
 
Chris Bokitch:

There's no doubt that the E3 content has leaked out. But... well, let me just repaste my post from the SteamPowered forums:

The anonymous hacker thief writeth once...

Hacker:

To all those saying HL2 was delayed because of the hacking action, ill just remind you that what was leaked is what Valve has, nothing more and nothing less, so its pretty good to understand it wasnt finished yet.

And also...

Now they will see how much I have been lying when I release the Pre-Gold and all 100% of the sourcecode. Actions speak louder then words.

Chris Bokitch:

Logic is a real conundrum sometimes, huh?

Feel free to believe whoever you like. At this point... whatever.
 
no
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Jones [mailto:***censored***@hotmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2003 1:27 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Just to clear something up about the engine (Dynamic lighting)


I have just been told by a fellow forum member on Halflife2.net that the source only supports one Dynamic light per scene.
Simply, Is this true?

Mark
 
Yes

-----Original Message-----
From: x [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, October 13, 2003 7:50 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Question

One question, if you please; do you feature this "animation blending" so
when you shoot enemy into shoulder, his chest jerks a bit backwards? Check chrome demo to see what I mean!
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Adrian Jooste [mailto:adrian@:p]
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 4:00 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: You guys are Champions !


Good day to you Mr. Newell,

Our internet services here in South Africa are sucking pretty bad @ the moment with 512k ADSL only becoming available a couple of months ago to the public with a hefty price of $120+/- a month and a 3gb international traffic limit to boot. The reason I am telling you all this is that I have a concern, as many other people do I am sure. My concern is that, as with cs 1.6 currently, you need an internet connection to play on LAN. Will this be the same for hl2 ?

See we LAN quite allot here, like 100ppl lans going on every weekend but it is very, VERY rare to go to a lan that offers an internet connection to all the players. Is this internet requirement a temporary thing or not ?


Best of luck to you guys for the months to follow, I hope everything goes as smoothly as humanly possible.

Regards
-Adrian

--------------------

His reply : We'll be removing the "connect-to-play" requirement in the future. It's a temporary thing
 
Originally posted by spitcodfry
http://www.halflifesource.com/



ANON best hole up somewhere deep beneath the earth for a while.
Click to expand...

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As it stands right now we can conclude it is not any hacking group, our/police investigations points on a single person from Denmark
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Gabe replied using this forum:


Originally posted by Gabe Newell
I am not sure who they were quoting, but it wasn't me.

It has little to do with reality as the "they only stole a third of the source code" statement.
Click to expand...
 
I did not say that.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: nicolas vetterli [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2003 6:13 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Denmark!?


I just read this on Halflife2.net: "As it stands right now we can conclude it is not any hacking group, our/police investigations points on a single person from Denmark"
Does this mean that this is a guy from little Denmark in Scandinavien where I'm from?
If it is then I'll see if I can get my hands on anything and then mail it back to you guys.

Good luck!


Med Venlig hilsen/ Best regards
Nicolas Vetterli
 
From: Kadayi Polokov [mailto:******@*********.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2003 6:17 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Question if thats ok and you've got the time


Hi Gabe

(Random stuff about cockjockey hackers, pats on back for pushing the boundaries of gaming, etc rather than churning out the usual garbage like EA).

Naturally everyone is looking forward to the release of half life 2, but I’m intrigued to know which upcoming games interest you the most and why? (and don’t just say doom 3 plz)

Hope to hear from you, but understand if you don’t have the time to write

Kadayi Polokov

Answer:-

Thanks for the mail. Pikmin 2 or whatever Blizzard does next. Pikmin 2 because I thought that the first was rushed and it still showed enormous promise. Blizzard because I always find myself playing Blizzard games over and over.
 
There is no current plan in HL2 to directly support HRTF or other
driver-provided headphone modes. However, there is an embedded headphone
mode which enhances spatialization of mono audio sources by providing a
left/right differential delay based on room size.

-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 11:33 AM
To: Kelly Bailey
Subject: FW: headphone specific audio modes?



________________________________

From: NucHaz [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 11:26 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: headphone specific audio modes?


Howdy, Is there gonna be any headphone specific audio modes in HL2 ?,
if there is, feel-free to elaborate if you have time, im very curious if
theres any HRTF modes or dolby headphone like modes or binaural modes.

thanks!

-NucHaz
 
Yes. John Guthrie (CC'd) made a watermelon catapult for playing skeet with.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: aaron sabo [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2003 6:18 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: hl2 capabilities


hello and thanks in advance to anybody who can answer this for me.

I was wondering if hl2's engine would be capable of simulating a working siege engine built from small parts.
for example it, would roll on wheels, the arm would pull back and release according to the applied tension (using wound ropes), and the object fire would fly according to the tension of the arm and mass of the object.

thankyou again for any help on this subject.
 
Remedy sent us a bunch of copies. They are great guys.

I've had some time to play (I'm about an hour in). It's fun so far.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Rogers [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 3:03 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: cheeky question

hey, this is kind of a cheeky question but...

Have you got to play max payne 2?It a top game, the phsyics make the
game.

if so, would you say HL2 is a better game? :)
 
bogus



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ****@*** [mailto:****@***]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 5:24 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: HL2 announcement rumored?


Hiya Gabe, Is it true that there will be an announcement regarding HL2 coming from valve this Friday? http://www.halflife2.net/forums/sho...;threadid=13723 is where all the fuss began.

Thanks for your time!
 
I just e-mailed Gabe. Heres the e-mail and response.

E-mail:

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2003 3:45 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Recent rumor true?

Hey Gabe,
There have been some rumors floating around the web about Half Life 2
going gold soon, or an anouncement coming soon. Is any of this true?
Thanks
-Matt

Response:

no


Nothing really new here...
-Sashswash
 
Hi Mark,

I ran your question by Jay Stelly, one of the programmers for Half-Life 2, and this is what he had to say:

Making the player's movement wrap around is trivial. The difficult part is having the renderer render part of the scene from one part of the map and part from the other. It should be straightforward to do something like this using the same kind of code we use for 3d skybox. We implemented that feature entirely in mod-accessible code (instead of inside the engine) to make sure things like this were possible for mod authors.

You will have to draw the scene multiple times, and you may have to deal with some other minor issues (like how the z-buffer meets up), but in general I would expect it to just work. Source mods have full control over the scene graph, so you don't have to go writing your own world renderer to make different choices like this.

Hope that helps! :)

Chris.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mark Jones [mailto:***********@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003 5:57 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: To you and the team..


Hope your doing ok. I just wondered what you thought of my idea of a map system where when you reached the end of the map you start on the other side. A little bit like asteroids but in 3d. Do you know if this is feasable. Because it would work great in the mod i'm a part of :)

Just wondered what you thought.

Oh and as a sideline question. People at Halflife2.net have been wondering if your actually adding or changing anything in halflife 2 regarding story or gameplay now that you have more time with the coders busy with the netcode and whathave you. For example artists making new textures or anything.


Keep it up all of you :)

Mark


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Yes, HL2's joystick code supports pure analog input along any control axis:

forward, side, turn, and also look (which is the one you are asking about).

Yahn




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Erik Johnson
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003 1:49 PM
To: Yahn Bernier
Subject: FW: hey sorry to bother you .... quick question






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: joe [
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2003 3:34 PM
To: Erik Johnson
Subject: hey sorry to bother you .... quick question


I was just wondering if the joystick look option in hl2 will be digital or analog?

Basically will aiming with an analog joystick be porportional in hl2?

I know there is porportional (analog) movement already just wondering if the same thing will apply with aiming (when using an analog gamepad )...
 
From: xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 10:41 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: say it ain't so, gabe.

From the hl2.net forums.

Team Fortress 2: 1998

1999: TF2 shows at E3. Wins Awards
1999: Small and Large TF2 communities pop up. Clans are formed. Mod ideas are developed
1999: Valve releases little info on TF2, aside from some screens, and small Movies. Game details trickle out, but the majority of the game is kept confidential
2000: TF2 dissapears from the media, and public. Info runs dry. Communities become confused. Valve says its been delayed

Half Life 2: 2003

2003: HL2 shows at E3. Wins awards.
2003: Small and Large HL2 communities pop up. Clans are formed. Mod ideas are developed
2003: Valve releases little info on HL2, aside from some screens, and small Movies. Game details trickle out, but the majority of the game is kept confidential
2003: HL2 dissapears from the media, and public for a good month.. Communities become confused. Valve says its been delayed

<bitter, bitter sob>

heh

you just need to add

2008: CS2 shows at E3. Wins award.

----
at least the man still has a sense of humor :)
I'd say this qualifies as info, especially in light of the non-communication from valve recently.
 
You've got mail!

Guillaume

At some point we might do this, however for our initial release of the
SDK Hammer will be non-steam.

Thanks,
Rick Ellis
Valve
[email protected]

-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Lombardi
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2003 10:19 AM
To: Rick Ellis; Erik Johnson
Subject: FW: Steam & Valve Hammer Editor



-----Original Message-----
From: Guillaume Goddeeris [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2003 9:12 AM
To: Doug Lombardi
Subject: Steam & Valve Hammer Editor

Hi Doug,

Is there any chance that Hammer will be available through Steam?
So people don't need the conventional Half-Life install... for the wad
files for example. I'm a mapper myself and find this very annoying. I
hope you will be able to fix this. Anyway I wish you lots of luck with
Steam, and all your upcoming games... and other stuff nobody is supposed
to know about ;-)

Come on Valve, a fully Steam enabled version of Hammer would totally
kick ass... Please release one! :D

Thanks

DelaZ aka Guillaume Goddeeris
 
My first addition to this thread! Evidently the headcrabs didn't get everyone over at Valve headquarters.

------
1. What would be the best format for me to save my textures as for quick conversion to HL2 textures. TGA’s with alpha channel?

Yes save in TGA w/alpha. We have a new format but we'll take .tga's as input.

2. Will the conversion of models from 3DS Max format to HL2 format keep mapping coordinates?

Yes.
----
(from Rick Ellis)
 
Some some rather elementary questions that may get coders started. I'm not sure if this is new info or not. I had two other questions, but I'd rather not give away some info specific to my MOD.
--------
Is there a function to determine...

1. ... the target-point position (exact world-XYZ point being
aimed at)

2. ... the "map distance" (XY plane, where Z is up) of
the target (object aimed at)?

3. ... the distance [sqrt( (x-x0)^2 + (y-y0)^2 + (z-z0)^2 )] to the target?

yes to all of these.
-----
(from Rick Ellis)
 
From: Gabe Newell <[email protected]>
To: Jorge Rodriguez <[email protected]>

Yes, we are fans as well, and Ken was out here for a couple of months.

No, that isn't our skeleton as far as I know.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jorge Rodriguez [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 10:07 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Ken Perlin's "Motion Filtering"

Hello Gabe!

I'm a big fan of Ken Perlin, and I visit his site periodically to see
what cool new java applet he's put up. He allways has something
interesting on display on his website at http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin

Recently I noticed that he noted in one of his articles that he was
working with a game company to design some motion filtering algorithms
(see http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/gdc/ "Filtering motion") and that said
game company had supplied him a skeleton to work with. I was wondering,
could that be you guys?

You can see the skeleton in action at http://www.kenperlin.com/mdemo01/
It's quite a good looking one. I'm aware of all the effort you put into
the characters to make them seem real. This seems like the kind of thing
you guys would do.

Good luck with your projects!

Jorge "Vino" Rodriguez
 
A response to an email I sent to Gabe concerning what vid. card is the overall best for HL2 visually, his response:

The visual issue is a little bit complicated.

The simple answer is that they are the same as long as you are running a 5900 or 5950.

The more complicated answer is that we make visual quality/performance trade-off decisions, and that some of the NVIDIA parts are so slow that we turn off a lot of visual effects in order to make the game run decently. The user can always set it to run with all features enabled if they want to. Another example would be avoiding lightmap artifacts in anti-aliasing - we use shader bandwidth on the NVIDIA part (which we don't have to on the ATI part), which is typically the last resource you want to consume on an NVIDIA card since their shader performance is slow relative to the other performance factors (e.g. fillrate).

As a rule of thumb, DX9 games are going to run faster or look better or both on the ATI cards (remember that visual quality and framerate are almost always inversely related and remember that ATI is fundamentally faster in a lot of key areas so you have more performance to allocate to either framerate or visual quality).. The exception to this is likely to be Doom3 and Doom3-derived games. I haven't spoken to John directly about this, but it's my understanding that NVIDIA did a good job of implementing hardware specifically for Doom3. Of course Doom3 isn't really a DX9 application in the sense that I'm using it in this email - it's more or less a DX7 application. John's design for Doom3 means he does a lot of the rendering work in software rather than in hardware, which, given what he's doing, makes a ton of sense.

Hope this is helpful.

Gabe
 
i know this is similar to the previous post, but Gabe only responded about the relase date....so i asked about if it will go Gold around December 11th...heres the e-mail:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

no

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2003 8:31 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: December 11th Gold?

Is it true that Half Life 2 will go Gold around December 11th? There
have been rumors about this around the web. Thanks for your time.
-Matt
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i guess that clears some stuff up...
-Sashswash
 
No.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Sash [mailto:xxx@xxx]
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2003 2:25 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Gold speculation!


Hi Gabe,
is there a Chance that HL2 goes GOLD this YEAR 2003 ?
Thanx for a quick answer.

Sash.
 
no

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ***
Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2003 10:35 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Christmas present?


Dear Mr. Newell,

will HL2 be out before christmas eve?
I am a father of a son who wishes HL2 for christmas.

regards,

skynet6
 
Many said that if Valve wasn't hacked, we would see HL2 in 2003. Sadly, we wouldn't have.

Gabe: no

-----Original Message-----
From: Arzin
Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2003 12:49 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: -

Hi Mr. Newell,

I'm gonna ask you a question assuming HL2 will release in 2004. If Valve
wasn't hacked, would we really have seen Half-Life 2 on 30th September
or later on in 2003?

It would appreciate it if you could answer this. It wouldn't really help
the situation or anything, but I would just like to know.

Arzin
 
yes



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Daan
Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2003 5:38 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: small things


heya Gabe,
Are there very small things in half-life2? Small things like a spoon, or a pencil, or a cd (a coin maybe?)... somethings like that.

Thanx
Daan
 
I hope this stops the rumors....


From: Andrew [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, November 30, 2003 5:25 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: You always reply negative...

Dear Mr. Newell,
In all of the e-mails I have read from you, you are always replying
negative. When people ask anything about HL2 release date, you reply
negative. So I ask you, Mr. Newell, reply to this e-mail with some
positive information about HL2 or TF2.

Sincerely,
Andrew
A.K.A MongoTheMad

P.S. I already know everything about CS:CZ, so do not give any
information about it.

From: Gabe Newell [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Mon, 1 Dec 2003 03:12:24 -0800
To: Andrew
Subject: RE: You always reply negative...

I'm positive HL-2 won't ship this year.
 
Just double checked with Gabe that the above post was real - and it is.

Don't lose faith in Valve guys - they're only delaying it for a good reason.

From: "Gabe Newell" <[email protected]>
To: "Chris Deeming" <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Quick one - Real or fake?
Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2003 13:28:44 -0800

real
 
I talked with my good friend mew, who is rather popular in circles of people who play The Specialists, and he related to me an email conversation he had with Yahn Bernier about mouse sensitivity. These are all his emails, spelling and all! (Don't hold it against him, English is his second language :p):

** 1st **

Sakari,

Yes, we'll enable tweaking mouse acceleration.

Yahn


-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2003 10:11 AM
To: Yahn Bernier
Subject: FW: question - mouse acceleration in HL2



-----Original Message-----
From: Sakari Pollari [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 3:24 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: question - mouse acceleration in HL2

will there be a command for mouse acceleration in half-life 2? as in quake 3.
if not, oh please please make one...shouldnt be hard. :)

Sakari Pollari,
Half-Life fan
Finland.


** 2nd **

I don't know how UT2003 implemented it's mouse functionality. Our input code original came from the Quake engine, and some of this code was in there, so if I had to guess I'd say it'll be more like Q3.

What is the specific thing you are saying is different between Q3 and UT2003?

Yahn


-----Original Message-----
From: Sakari Pollari [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 9:23 AM
To: Yahn Bernier
Subject: RE: question - mouse acceleration in HL2

> Sakari,
>
> Yes, we'll enable tweaking mouse acceleration.
>
> Yahn

might i ask more about it? like for example will it be like it is in UT2003 newest patch?
or like it is in quake 3. i'd prefer the way it is in quake 3. it has by far the best accel there is.
the ut2003 one sucked. and im freaking out of not knowing how hl2 will make it.

sakari pollari.


** 3rd **

We support the windows mouse scale, accel doubling 1 and accel doubling 2 thresholds, but you can set all of these values independently. I'm sure you can get it to feel exactly how you want. By default, we turn off both doubling thresholds and set the scale to the minimum. Your "sensitivity" setting is then all that gets factored in.

Yahn


-----Original Message-----
From: Sakari Pollari [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 9:59 AM
To: Yahn Bernier
Subject: RE: question - mouse acceleration in HL2

Yahn Bernier kirjoitti 21.11.2003 kello 19:39:
> I don't know how UT2003 implemented it's mouse functionality. Our
> input code original came from the Quake engine, and some of this code
> was in there, so if I had to guess I'd say it'll be more like Q3.
>
> What is the specific thing you are saying is different between Q3 and
> UT2003?
>
> Yahn

well, in quake 3 the acceleration is a lot smoother. it seems that it doesnt have thresholds as for example the windows default acceleration has.
but it seems that there are either A WHOLE LOT of thresholds or that it is just seamless.
but in UT2003 you can clearly TELL when the speed crosses the threshold and the mouse speed increases. so its not smooth.

sakari.


** 4th **

No, the thresholds are hardware/driver settings.

The sensitivity factor is the only other user setting that can be used to change the behavior.

Yahn


-----Original Message-----
From: Sakari Pollari [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 2:23 PM
To: Yahn Bernier
Subject: RE: question - mouse acceleration in HL2

> We support the windows mouse scale, accel doubling 1 and accel
> doubling 2 thresholds, but you can set all of these values
> independently. I'm sure you can get it to feel exactly how you want.
> By default, we turn off both doubling thresholds and set the scale to
> the minimum. Your "sensitivity"
> setting is then all that gets factored in.
>
> Yahn

lets say one would want to have more thresholds, could it be possible to code more?
lets say to code 10 independent thresholds. that is if one is not satisfied with only 2.

sakari


** 5th **

It's probably not an issue, since HL2 doesn't do any acceleration by default so you get a smooth (but linear) mapping.

I'm not sure how we would actually change this to be much smoother than it already is, since we only accumulate a small amount of mouse movement per frame and are always recentering the mouse to the window center.

If you liked the feel of Half-Life's or CS's mouse accel settings, it'll be the same.

Yahn


-----Original Message-----
From: Sakari Pollari [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 6:47 PM
To: Yahn Bernier
Subject: RE: question - mouse acceleration in HL2

> No, the thresholds are hardware/driver settings.
>
> The sensitivity factor is the only other user setting that can be
> used to change the behavior.
>
> Yahn

lol i must be annoying...

ok, the thing with me is that i like the smoothness of quake 3 mouse acceleration.
but if hl2 accel has 2 thresholds and it works like the windows acceleration, then its not smooth.

see, if it works so that you determine the values where the thresholds kick in and double the sensitivity?
so when you move the mouse in an acceleration speed, you can clearly tell when you cross the threshold and the speed increases.

for example if you are chasing an enemy with your crosshair and accelerate the speed you move your mouse, and then the acceleration kicks in, your crosshair goes a lot faster and your aim is way off.

perhaps this is not an issue, and im just worrying about nothing...but thats the way i am.
hope you understand what i mean.

sakari.


** LAST ONE **

Okay, I went ahead and put in an optional mode that allows a scale to be applied to the raw mouse movement distance:

movex/y = movex/y * ( raw_move_Dist * scale + sensitivity );

I'll add in the optional m_pitch/m_yaw scaling mode, as well, and the necessary ConVars to turn the whole thing on/off and to enable the pitch/yaw rescale.

Yahn


-----Original Message-----
From: Sakari Pollari [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2003 8:58 PM
To: Yahn Bernier
Subject: RE: question - mouse acceleration in HL2

OK DUDE!

that mouse acceleration in fuhquake that fuh made is EXACTLY as it is in quake 3.
i ***STRONGLY*** recommend you ask the coders of half-life 2 to implement it in. if its not in already that is...

read the stuff on the 2nd page that fuh said, its the code i think. and on page 3 fuh gave me (im mew) a link to the patch for fuhquake.
then i tried it, but it didnt feel right. then fuh said that i should add a commandline -dinput (direct input?) and then it was EXACTLY AS IN QUAKE 3.

and let me tell you, mouse acceleration cant really be better than that.

(the forum threat: http://www.fuhquake.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1564&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 )

sakari

-------------------------------------------

I think the most important thing to see here is that Yahn actually made a change to the code. So, as of November 26th, they either havent locked the HL2 code down, or have split off a separate code tree and are working on a later patch release. I highly doubt that the second is the case, because Yahn seemed to be implying that the feature would be present on the initial release. As you all know, from the point that the code is "locked down" to the point where the game is released is more then a month. So, it's going to be somewhat more then a month for sure. Not like there was any doubt in any of our minds about that. Thanks mew!
 
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