The Flashlight

[Wesisapie]

Here is a pretty much undiscussed topic.

Remember the DODGY flashlight in HL1? Remember how you didn't really need to use it that often? It was a really underused feature, maybe they will explore it in HL2.

Do you think it will make a comeback, new and improved to the max in HL2? In Project Eden, that game had a really cool looking torch, but it wasn't really dynamic...

I think it has the opportunity to look really cool if they do it right.

Post your Ideas.

 

[82ross]

HL1 torch was crap the light from anothers perspective was just a glow.

 

[righte0us]

Originally posted by 82ross
HL1 torch was crap the light from anothers perspective was just a glow.

that only happened after recent HL patches.

 

[simmo]

I cant wait until I shine the flashlight in the NPC's faces and watch them blink like mad...lol

 

[h00dlum]

well the flashlight is part of the hazard suit..so it should be included in part 2.

 

[Cleric]

If it is a new model Hazard suit maybe they will include some kind of night vision or something, maybe thermal immaging :cheese:

 

[[Matt]]

Originally posted by Cleric
If it is a new model Hazard suit maybe they will include some kind of night vision or something, maybe thermal immaging :cheese:

Maybe it will have its own personal sandwich maker too!

 

[Wild_Ragnar]

Maybe it will have its own personal sandwich maker too!

it may have on, by I wonder what hapens if gordon suddenly has to take a crap...i mean hes still human or is he?...:bounce:

 

[SpuD]

It should have a mini fridge, oh oh and a biult-in computer so he can play HL2

 

[PriNcE oF SpAcE]

I would be happy if they could get it just as good as in swat3...that was a good flashlight...

 

[worldspawn]

like the halo flashlight.. only you would actually have to use it.

 

[urseus]

Originally posted by 82ross
HL1 torch was crap the light from anothers perspective was just a glow.

Thats because it was made for HL1 and not really for mods where other real people could see you.

 

[Sushi]

Doom 3 supposedly has an incredable flashlight, since it adds a ton to the type of game that Doom 3 is, since it will have plenty of dark places with tons of monsters lurking in the shadows. Hopefully, HL2 will have a good flashlight too.

 

[Guest]

I think what was most annoying about the flashlight was the fact that when you turned it on, other people around in in MP wouldnt see where you flashed your light but would see YOU light up. That was kinda..... Un-heterosexual.

 

[The Mullinator]

I hope baddies will be able to actually SEE your flashlight when its on.

 

[NiteStalker]

I hope that you can't use the flashlight without holding it (like in HL1).
When you press the "f"-button, you should take take it up. I hate when people running around with a light from nowhere...

 

[EVIL]

yeah.. that suxx.. unless your suit has a flashlight build in.

 

[BWMASTER]

the flashlight is useful for making it through the training levels

 

[Wesisapie]

yeah, it's like they implemented it with all these dreams of grandeur in the demo, then in the actual game they forgot all about it.

 

[Foggy]

I think they will leave it out, considering the technology we'd all expect it to cast shadows according the natural way (the way the flashlight works in Doom3). The Source engine does not support that, so i guess no flashlight.

 

[worldspawn]

foggy... there very well might be a flashlight in hl2.

 

[[Re4lity]Jeff]

I hope it's shoulder mounted. Like the grunts have in AvP2 (but more glitzy, since this is well, HL2). It'd make sense to free up the hands of the suit's occupant in dark conditions.

 

[GOoch]

Acctualy the Best lighting effects for a torch were in Global Operations the way the light shone from the Muzzel and hit the walls looked like a real torch.

Nice lighting effects on this ship in HL2 as well though

 

[MIWojo11]

That picture kinda looks like HL1 graphics if you ask me. See how the front (operations deck) goes curved then strait? The movie graphics looked alot better to me. Maybe its just that picture is 2 from the year 2000. Only difference I see is the lighting and water.

 

[jellocube27]

maybe it's the texture resolution, which I'd expect to go up in detail with limiting distance.
nice water, though.

 

[Sparky the Fox]

didn't they say at one point that half-life 2's lighting wouldnt be as dynamic as doom 3's? doesn't that mean that if you shine a light in a room, shadows *won't* be calculated real-time?

and thug (i see you're back again), i'm confused what it is about a lighting effect in a computer game that has any relation to sexual preference. care to detail it for us?

 

[worldspawn]

Originally posted by Sparky the Fox
didn't they say at one point that half-life 2's lighting wouldnt be as dynamic as doom 3's? doesn't that mean that if you shine a light in a room, shadows *won't* be calculated real-time?

and thug (i see you're back again), i'm confused what it is about a lighting effect in a computer game that has any relation to sexual preference. care to detail it for us?

if you shine a light in a room.. and it's going to cast shadows in hl2.. how the hell else would it be calculated then in real time.. if it's a part of gameplay.. which all of hl2 is (no cutscenes or videos) ... then it can't be precalculated.. because there is no possible way to anticipate what a player will do..

while the shading might not be as detailed or intensive as doom 3.. it's still going to be done real time.

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Originally posted by Sparky the Fox
didn't they say at one point that half-life 2's lighting wouldnt be as dynamic as doom 3's? doesn't that mean that if you shine a light in a room, shadows *won't* be calculated real-time?

and thug (i see you're back again), i'm confused what it is about a lighting effect in a computer game that has any relation to sexual preference. care to detail it for us?

Well it must like lights of the same make.

 

[Sparky the Fox]

if you shine a light in a room.. and it's going to cast shadows in hl2.. how the hell else would it be calculated then in real time..

then maybe it won't cast shadows. i haven't read any devs say that real-time shadows of this nature will be in. if you have, please direct me to the quote.

if it's a part of gameplay.. which all of hl2 is (no cutscenes or videos) ... then it can't be precalculated.. because there is no possible way to anticipate what a player will do..

please don't put words in my mouth. i didn't say anything inferring that it would be precalculated. how are dynamic shadows cast from a flashlight an addition to the gameplay? i could understand them being a compliment to the atmosphere, but it just seems like a feature instead of an integral part of the game. i wouldn't be surprised if half-life 2 had stencil shadows, or maybe real-time light of at least a limited nature (muzzle flashes casting shadows, etc), but i don't think that it'll extend much past that.

while the shading might not be as detailed or intensive as doom 3.. it's still going to be done real time.

again, direct me to the quote, and i'll believe that this is more than speculation. like i said, i think a few light sources will cast shadows (kind of like in serious sam), but i doubt they'll be very complex. this is just an assumption, though, since i don't know much about half-life 2's lighting engine, other than that it appears to use lightmaps to some extent on the environment.

 

[EVIL]

Man.. the source engine supports dynamic shadows.. just like doom3. it supports everything that the doom3 engine supports and alot more.

allow me to quote something fromm a dutch magazine "PC gameplay"

That what we got to see from the V-source definatly looked alot more impressive then everything we saw from the doom3 engine. The dynamic lightmodel that can contribute alot to the athmosphere in a game en twas talked about alot after the doom3 presintation on E3 last year was just one off the many graphical tricks that the V-source can efforthless pull out off his magic hat.

We got to see a presitation about a light hanging on a wire to the ceiling that illuminated a room. When you pushed the light so it started bangeling on its courd, you would see the shadows friom all objects and characters moving up and down realsiticly as would you expect in reallife. almost exactly as the bathroom schene from doom3. It not only looks great. but technologically it opens a whole new erray off possibillity's

thiss was translated from the original page wich you can see here

so there yah go.. and the reporters fromm the magazines got to see alot more then we at the e3

 

[LoneDeranger]

Good point EVIL. While the E3 video is amazing by all means, it really does not show the full power of the lighting system.

 

[Sparky the Fox]

yeah. i don't think i saw *any* shadows in the e3 video since it was such an old build.

also, i think it's a shame that doom 3 is turning out how it is. extremely low poly models in exchange for per-pixel lighting doesn't seem like a very good trade-off to me. i'd rather have a more optimized, maybe less precise lighting method but see more than two polygons comprise the top of an imp's head. i'm sorry, but it looks like ass. oh, and something you don't hear much about but was mentioned in the pc gamer doom 3 article, was that sound was going to be affected by every polygon. it said something about something as inconsequential as your nose affecting the sound, too. i wonder what kind of sound technologies half-life 2 will use. all you hear about is the source engine's physics/graphics, not the sound engine :\ anyone know anything about this?

 

[EVIL]

HL² uses a similar system as doom3 uses. this is something I read I think.

anyway.. I want to disagree you on the poly doom3 thingy. I think it is a good thing that gamedevelopers are taking the graphics to a further level by using other technique to reach a level off detail you cant get with polygons in this stage. maby in 2 years. but not now.. you will see alot more similar techniques being used in the next generation games and maby someday you wont see polygons anymore. maby VOXELS

and i agree on that the imp kinda looks bad by the lack off poly's. altrough it looks like id has put some more poly's into the imp model if you see the last e3 video. and it wont bother you because you wont see it.. you are way to busy to survive instead off looking to the faces. and how many poly's the critter has.

 

[Sparky the Fox]

i didn't say their new rendering techniques weren't good, i just said it looks like ass when they use such few polygons ;( also, if polygon levels were kept around what i would consider an *acceptable* level, like maybe 1500-3000 polygons for the body (quake 3), rather than what looks like 500-800, then i would be blown away. it's just when they start cutting polygons *so much* that it's a step back, like in this screenshot. its neato bumpmapping and lighting start having a hard time "making up" for the horrible outlines that plagues every monster. in some cases, the situation's so bad that i can't even tell what the hell something's supposed to be (what is going on with the arch-vile's hands/claws?? i certainly can't tell).

where did you hear half-life 2's lighting system was going to be like doom 3's?? it sounds like wishful thinking, seeing how doom 3's light rendering system is practically the entire engine. i'd be less surprised if they used a system like splinter cell's or something.

altrough it looks like id has put some more poly's into the imp model if you see the last e3 video.

:thumbs:

 

[LoneDeranger]

Originally posted by Sparky the Fox
i didn't say their new rendering techniques weren't good, i just said it looks like ass when they use such few polygons ;( also, if polygon levels were kept around what i would consider an *acceptable* level, like maybe 1500-3000 polygons for the body (quake 3), rather than what looks like 500-800, then i would be blown away. it's just when they start cutting polygons *so much* that it's a step back, like in this screenshot. its neato bumpmapping and lighting start having a hard time "making up" for the horrible outlines that plagues every monster. in some cases, the situation's so bad that i can't even tell what the hell something's supposed to be (what is going on with the arch-vile's hands/claws?? i certainly can't tell).

where did you hear half-life 2's lighting system was going to be like doom 3's?? it sounds like wishful thinking, seeing how doom 3's light rendering system is practically the entire engine. i'd be less surprised if they used a system like splinter cell's or something.

:thumbs:

Yes, those 2 screenshots look terrible, but others actually look very good. I think Id has done a good job with their bumpmaps for the most part.

 

[Stone]

Well as the great SCARECROW qoute is:

It's not the polycount, It's what you do with it that counts!

 

[Sparky the Fox]

games like system shock 2 had low polygon counts, but they did it in such a way that you could only notice if you looked closely. doom 3 has glaringly low polygon counts. the archvile's hands/claws are the perfect example. i'm also inclined to believe that the grotesque clipping problem on its left leg would be less noticeable if there were more polygons to round things out.

lone: can you show me some frames from movies or screenshots that show higher-poly monsters? the zombie with the chainsaw looks all right, i guess... can't say i feel the same way about the others though ;(

 

[jellocube27]

my fingers are purple from eating too many blueberries.

 

[Stone]

Originally posted by jellocube27
my fingers are purple from eating too many blueberries.

and this isn't completly obvious spamming is it

 

[ComradeBadger]

nope.... not at all

on the subject of flashlights... i hope the flashlight is improved from a moving light_spot.... i have a feeling it will however....