Wat I missed in HL2, design/tech wise.

[PlayingMantis]

What I missed in HL2, design/tech wise.

While reflecting on matters concerning HL2, I imagined what could have made HL2 even better. In other words: what have I missed in HL2, design/tech wise..

Most definitely, a real dynamic whether system, temporal lapse (i.e. day night cycle) and real-time dynamic lighting.

That would have made this game even more awe-inspiring.

Can you image how much more awesome Ravenholm would have been if there would have been a (imminent) storm, complete with thunders, rain and wind?

Or animated skyboxes with sunlight shining (in real-time) through particle clouds (SOMEWHAT resembling FarCry's "through the bush light rays" effect)?

Or heat shimmering during the coastal scenes (highway and beach), with occasional sandstorms or rainstorms (THAT would have made the driving A LOT more interesting and exciting, i.m.o.).

I do not know if the Source engine is capable of pulling off these effects within a respectable frame rate range, but I can't help but wonder about how much more atmospheric the game could have been with the aforementioned aspects implemented.

Design wise I would have appreciated an open level structure, opposed to the linear nature of the present version of HL2. Speedruns of under 3 hours would have been less viable and certainly less enjoyable if HL2 would have been less linear. I am by no means complaining, for I REALLy LOVE HL2, although I must admit having a profound admiration for games such as FarCry due to the open structure of its level design.


What do you guys think?

 

[Narcolepsy]

While reflecting on matters concerning HL2, I imagined what could have made HL2 even better. In other words: what have I missed in HL2, design/tech wise..

Most definetly, a real dynamic wether system, temporal lapse, (i.e. day night cycle) and realtime dynamic lighting.

That would have made this game even more awe-inspiring.

Can you image how much more awesome Ravenholm would have been if there would have been a (imminent) storm, complete with thunders, rain and wind?

Or animated skyboxes with sunlight shining (in realtime) through particle clouds (SOMEWHAT resembling FarCry's "through the bush lightrays" effect)?

Or heatshimmering during the coastal scenes (highway and beach), with occasional sandstorms or rainstorms (THAT would have made the driving A LOT more interesting and exciting, i.m.o.).

I do not know if the Source engine is capable of pulling off these effects within a respectable framerate range, but I can't help but wonder about how much more atmospheric the game could have been with the aformentioned aspects implemented.


What do you guys think?

It's all good, but I can see how it would be a bit ahead of today's technology.

Design wise I would have appreciated a open level structure, opposed to the linear nature of the present version of HL2.

Except for that. I think it's fine the way it is - Far Cry satiates your craving for non-linearity, and Half-Life can give you your linear fix.

 

[KagePrototype]

Most definetly, a real dynamic wether system, temporal lapse, (i.e. day night cycle) and realtime dynamic lighting.

While I think HL2 is too linear and scripted to have a real-time weather system, I certainly would have liked to see some weather effects like rain and thunder storms. As for real-time day night cycle, this would ruin the plotting of the game (meant to be spread over 3 days, so it would have to be controlled). Real-time dynamic lighting took long enough to develop for Doom 3, and even then you could only use like 3 lights in one area, otherwise the fps just went south. But you're right, it would have been nice to have it. I reckon HL3 will have something closer to it.

Can you image how much more awesome Ravenholm would have been if there would have been a (imminent) storm, complete with thunders, rain and wind?

I was thinking a thunder-storm at Nova Prospekt would have brilliant.

Or heatshimmering during the coastal scenes (highway and beach), with occasional sandstorms or rainstorms (THAT would have made the driving A LOT more interesting and exciting, i.m.o.).

Heat shimmering would have been cool, but this is Eastern Europe for god's sake; it's cold.

 

[StAtiC]

Too demanding on processor power, and would limit the capabilities of computers like... mine. If it were a selectable option maybe that would have been cool. I remember the snow in Hitman Contracts dropped my fps to below 10...

 

[jimmyjam]

I must say the lack of dynamic skyboxes was pretty lame
Unreal, which came out before half life ONE, had them for god's sake

 

[corkscru74]

Apart from the day/night cycle - all good ideas.

Things were set at certain times to create a certain atmosphere. Ravenholm wouldn't have been half as scary if it had been during the day.

Weather effects! That's what was missing. Like the idea of rain storm...somewhere, dunno where it could happen though.

Linearity is being discussed in another thread but my thoughts - Some games work with linear, some work with non-linear. Personally, if a game can make me think I'm choosing my path or engross me so much that I don't care - then I'm happy!

 

[SqueakyWaffle]

I don't know much about it, but the source engine can do a "3d skybox" thing where you can actually place objects in the skybox to be rendered with the correct perspective, etc. with respect to the player's viewpoint. I guess you could put some clouds in there... but I honestly didn't look at the sky much, and doing a "weather" system without hardcoding it into the game in some lame way would require a lot of extra AI-related work that wouldn't really be worth it IMO. I think it could be done by modders, though.

 

[PvtRyan]

Most definitely, a real dynamic whether system, temporal lapse (i.e. day night cycle) and real-time dynamic lighting.

Why? No seriously, why the hell? The game is spread over 3 days, the day/night cycle is done artificially, there's no need for this. Nor does dynamic lighting (as in a unified lighting model) work with outdoor areas or complex scenes (well, not on this hardware it will).

 

[StardogChampion]

I must say the lack of dynamic skyboxes was pretty lame
Unreal, which came out before half life ONE, had them for god's sake

Like the ones in Q3 where the sky moves? I'm sure Source is easily capable of that, but HL2 just didn't need one, plus they're pretty unrealistic.

About the heat shimmering you could make one of those easily with a shader.

 

[PlayingMantis]

Weather effects! That's what was missing.

Strangely, I have not seen mention of this aspect before in this Forum. Such an integral part of REAL LIFE, could not possibly be overlooked in a game that flirts with reality to the extent our beloved Half-Life 2 does, right?

 

[KagePrototype]

Strangely, I have not seen mention of this aspect before in this Forum. Such an integral part of REAL LIFE, could not possibly be overlooked in a game that flirts with reality like our beloved Half-Life 2, right?

I do remember people asking Valve about it via e-mail, and they said that it is possible to do weather effects in Source, but they never said they would take advantage of it in HL2. I guess people simply assumed they would.

 

[PlayingMantis]

Where is everybody???

Any experienced mods out there with ideas (about dynamic whether and the like)?

 

[The_Preacher]

cl_winddir Weather effects wind direction angle

cl_windspeed Weather effects wind speed scalar

r_DrawRain Enable/disable rain rendering

r_rainalpha

r_rainalphapow

r_raindensity

r_RainHack

r_rainlength

r_RainProfile Enable/disable rain profiling.

r_RainRadius

r_RainSideVel How much sideways velocity rain gets.

r_RainSimulate Enable/disable rain simulation.

r_rainspeed

r_RainSplashPercentage

r_rainwidth

cl_ShowSunVectors

cl_sun_decay_rate

rope_wind_dist Don't use CPU applying small wind gusts to ropes when they're past this distance.

all i could find in the Client console commands, from the Half life 2 wiki

not sure if these actually work or anything, but they seem related. i could be wrong though