Will HL2 have destructible environments?

[Xcellere]

I've been wondering this ever since I saw the videos. It would be incredible if it did. Also, I can imagine MOD authors going crazy with destructible environments.

 

[Ender]

Too some point.. yes

 

[Xcellere]

What do you mean "to some point"? I'm imagining something like DoD 2 having the ability to knock down walls with a tank, grenade, or RPG. Get the idea?

 

[Ender]

Well... im not sure about blowing up holes in walls.. but thinks like boxes and stuff will be destructable

 

[LoneDeranger]

Originally posted by Xcellere
What do you mean "to some point"? I'm imagining something like DoD 2 having the ability to knock down walls with a tank, grenade, or RPG. Get the idea?

Yeah you'd be able to destroy some walls (haven't you see the strider video?). But not all since it will take away from the gameplay.

 

[Xcellere]

^^^Ok, look at this pic of Germany after World War II:

I imagined the DoD 2 scenario having an effect on the environments just like this. I'm hoping that MOD authors will have the ability to designate which walls can or cannot be knocked down. The immersion factor would be increased ten-fold if the environments could be manipulated to this degree.

 

[simmo]

When you shoot a wall which holds up an entire building, I wonder if it will all fall down and stuff like that, that would rock, like me

 

[righte0us]

func_breakable o_o

 

[Lifthz]

Yeah, a lot of stuff in Half-Life 2 will be breakable i'd bet...

 

[Domokun]

you can make everything destructible posibilities are endless

 

[Apos]

In the HL2 video, even though it was single player, I saw some actual buildings get destroyed, and it looked awesome.

???

 

[LoneDeranger]

Originally posted by Apos
???

I think he's talking about the strider.

 

[GOoch]

If a house is made of wood (Beams ect) then yea it will break and fall down..

 

[Apos]

In the info thread, they seemed to imply that this was possible, but I can't see them making it a routine experiencein the SP game. They are much more centered on making a game with a coherent story rather than a demolition crew sim. Who knows what they have planned for MP though.

 

[BWMASTER]

Not evreything in HL 2 will be destructible. But I do hope that If they don't want us to blow the wall with a bazooka, please make it out of steel(not wood) because if something looks destructible then it should be destructible (if you get my idea)

 

[Sat]

Well, considering that in a email sent to VALVe which asked if we will be able to do a entiere map destructible, Gabe said yes.

So i assume a lot a thing will be possible for the destruction :cheers:

 

[Dave]

Originally posted by Sat
Well, considering that in a email sent to VALVe which asked if we will be able to do a entiere map destructible, Gabe said yes.

So i assume a lot a thing will be possible for the destruction :cheers:

Really? You emailed him asking if it was possible to make a map in which everything was descructable, and he said yes? Awesome!

 

[[Matt]]

The walls wont be destructable in the same way as the walls that appeared in Red Factions Geomod engine. The walls that you will be able to break will have been predefined to be breakable by the map maker much like the 'func_breakable' walls in HL1 although the engine will more than likely be able to support FAR more func_breakable walls than the HL1 engine can.

 

[BWMASTER]

anything can be scripted and modded

 

[Phisionary]

So, do you imagine it would be possible to recreate the type of destructible environments such as those in red faction? By that i mean geometry that can be reformed and changed based on the angle of impast, the material type, etc., as well as using volumetric tecturing and bump maps to create the varied internal structure of a material?

Speculating about my own question, I have to say yes, probably. Everything has a possibility to be breakable, it's a question of whether designers want to put in the work of creating all objects in the world in that way... I imagine a mod crew could modify the engine (if it doesn't contain it natively) to allow objects like big blocks of concrete of whatever, to mar the geometry of a surface. With the displacement maps demonstrated as being a part of HL2 i would think this is possible.

Whether you would be able to cut holes witha machine gun, I'm just not sure of... it doesn't seem to be a factor of the e3 demo movie. things seem to break in realistic ways, and wood seems to fragemnt based on the point of impact, but much more is unclear.

I do have some questions regarding displacement maps. Do displacement maps, as implemented, create additional geometry with they're application?? Or do they simply modify the depth position of geometry already there?? For example, you throw a grenade (launch a rocket whatever) at an arbitrarily chosen area of open ground (most likely describe by a handful of polygons at most). A displacement map is applied. Will the resulting alterations be limited to the existing resolution of the geometry, or will new geometry be created to match the displacement maps' resolution, and the LOD required?? if the first case is true, it seeem FAR too limiting....

physics of impact. another question. in the building, as mentioned above, where a structural support is damaged. Will the physics engine be capable of calculating the remainign structural strength of the structure and determining whether it will collapse?? Or is it a far simpler model of (damage taken) >= (damage limit) = object fails. Can complex interactions of structural design take place within a model, to determine the manner in which a structure would collapse??

These questions would be quite interesting if we could get someone from ValVe to answer them. I don't think they have been covered yet, really. (BTW, these were not submitted to valve)

I'd like to hear all your thought on it though...

-Phision

 

[Wesisapie]

just create the whole level out of "wood" material.

too much fun to be legal

 

[grompl]

i think i´ve read in an interview with gabe that walls and buildings won´t actually be totally breakable, but they made many textures which will give you the feeling of destroying the wall. with really breakable walls every level designer would go crazy.

 

[Ender]

I wanna see a giant map made out of wood.. with towers and stuff.. I could imagine people running across a wooden bridge(with safety railings of course) and people shooting out the bridge from below.. watching the wood splinter..

 

[Punzz]

ye i believe stuff is breakable but only certain objects set out to be that help you progress through SP

 

[simmo]

Originally posted by Ender
I wanna see a giant map made out of wood.. with towers and stuff.. I could imagine people running across a wooden bridge(with safety railings of course) and people shooting out the bridge from below.. watching the wood splinter..

God that would rock, what an excellent idea! , i want HL2 even more now

 

[Wesisapie]

yeah, sure, give him all the credit for my idea :'(

 

[Ender]

You didnt have the idea of towers.. you just said a map made out of wood.. im thinking of almost a military base made completly out of wood.. towers.. or two bases head to head.. with 3 floors each.. shooting eachother think of it this way
| |
| | (valley here.. courtyard if you will)
Base 1 | | then another base here

err.. that turned out bad.. just imagine two bases in the middle of a small canyon.. ala halo.. kinda.. but closer together.. Kinda like wooden combine structures(in strider vid)


each base will look like a giant comebine structure(seen in Strider video.. the bridges will be covered on each side with wood to look like this


||||||||||||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||||||||||||

thats a cheap 2d chart of it.. kinda.. the wood will be there to provide some moderate cover when moving from base to tower.. tower will hopefully have a turret of some kind.. to kill people in the courtyard..

 

[Sat]

Originally posted by Dave
Really? You emailed him asking if it was possible to make a map in which everything was descructable, and he said yes? Awesome!

No i did not myself, somebody else did.
The email is in the valve discussion topic.