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Surprise! Seven years and 364 days after Half-Life 2: Episode Two was released as part of The Orange Box (a total coincidence), SteamDB has brought to light some leaked Half-Life 3 content that was released through today’s Dota 2 update.
The leak doesn’t contain any game assets, but instead it has some text files that define some game assets - similar to what Valve’s FGD does.
Of note are three files that have new information, named hl3.txt, rpg.txt, and lights.txt. We’ve gone ahead and compiled what we think are the more relevant pieces of information from these files, and that’s detailed below...
hl3.txt - View Source File
Most of the definitions in this file are old and can be found within Source 1, suggesting that they’re being ported over to Source 2 with some slight changes.
For starters, the base AI definitions inside hl3.txt, such as for companions, squad following, attack/cover, scripted sequences, and more, are from Half-Life 2. And, there are procedurally generated spawn points for items and enemies that could be a child of Left 4 Dead’s system. Finally, spawns are controllable, which could stem from Left 4 Dead 2’s AI Director.
But, there’s obviously some completely new things that are defined.
There’s some type of “quest” system which we don’t think was in Valve’s dictionary in Half-Life 2/Source 1. Quest dialogue, quest goals, and quest NPCs, such as hunters, citizens, and ceiling turrets, are all found in hl3.txt. Quest citizen is a quest member that’s “neutral to Combine, and don’t take damage from their weapons.” “Quest” and “Combine” in the same attribute - is this suggesting that Half-Life 3 is or at one point was a shooter with role playing elements? There’s also some definitions for VR involving the Chaperone system (only patented March 2015) and a movement system. Ziplines, too!
rpg.txt - View Source File
This is a base for defining some RPG elements in Source 2, so it’s all new to us. There’s actually a lot of engine, as well as gameplay-related, definitions, but nothing specific to any actual game title.
Most everything in here is typical to your classic RPG game. Item stats, item pickups/drops.
lights.txt - View Source File
Here there are definitions that describe some of the lighting characteristics. There’s your typical definitions for angles, offsets, targets, colors, light types… But then there’s new “Realistic Day/Night Cycle” attributes that can be adjusted by time, date, timezone, and length of the day.
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So, it’s important to realize that there’s absolutely no information as to exactly when or where these definitions come from. Meaning some or all definitions could be years old, used in some early iterations of projects that may or may not have died internally at Valve. Or, these are precisely what Valve is using, today, in some future title. Stay tuned as always...
The leak doesn’t contain any game assets, but instead it has some text files that define some game assets - similar to what Valve’s FGD does.
Of note are three files that have new information, named hl3.txt, rpg.txt, and lights.txt. We’ve gone ahead and compiled what we think are the more relevant pieces of information from these files, and that’s detailed below...
hl3.txt - View Source File
Most of the definitions in this file are old and can be found within Source 1, suggesting that they’re being ported over to Source 2 with some slight changes.
For starters, the base AI definitions inside hl3.txt, such as for companions, squad following, attack/cover, scripted sequences, and more, are from Half-Life 2. And, there are procedurally generated spawn points for items and enemies that could be a child of Left 4 Dead’s system. Finally, spawns are controllable, which could stem from Left 4 Dead 2’s AI Director.
But, there’s obviously some completely new things that are defined.
There’s some type of “quest” system which we don’t think was in Valve’s dictionary in Half-Life 2/Source 1. Quest dialogue, quest goals, and quest NPCs, such as hunters, citizens, and ceiling turrets, are all found in hl3.txt. Quest citizen is a quest member that’s “neutral to Combine, and don’t take damage from their weapons.” “Quest” and “Combine” in the same attribute - is this suggesting that Half-Life 3 is or at one point was a shooter with role playing elements? There’s also some definitions for VR involving the Chaperone system (only patented March 2015) and a movement system. Ziplines, too!
rpg.txt - View Source File
This is a base for defining some RPG elements in Source 2, so it’s all new to us. There’s actually a lot of engine, as well as gameplay-related, definitions, but nothing specific to any actual game title.
Most everything in here is typical to your classic RPG game. Item stats, item pickups/drops.
lights.txt - View Source File
Here there are definitions that describe some of the lighting characteristics. There’s your typical definitions for angles, offsets, targets, colors, light types… But then there’s new “Realistic Day/Night Cycle” attributes that can be adjusted by time, date, timezone, and length of the day.
--------------
So, it’s important to realize that there’s absolutely no information as to exactly when or where these definitions come from. Meaning some or all definitions could be years old, used in some early iterations of projects that may or may not have died internally at Valve. Or, these are precisely what Valve is using, today, in some future title. Stay tuned as always...
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