Woah!

[Dave]

I'm not sure if anyone has commented on this, my apologies if someone made a fuss over this already, but..

we've already done this

in general we try to be mod friendly as possible

----Original Message----

Hey Gabe,

I'm sure you must of been asked this question but I have to admit as much as
I've followed the media frenzy over Half-Life 2 I haven't seen this question
being asked or answered

So without further a do my question LOL

If a MOD team wanted to convert the original Half-Life story and maps over
to Half-Life2's Source engine would you allow them to do this or like
3DRealms would you send the in the legal teams so to speak?

Good luck with the rest of the game
Ill be in touch with more questions when I can think of something original
lol

Thanks
Andy

Did Gabe just say they converted Half-Life to the HL2 engine?!

 

[jhero]

that'd be cool

 

[PriNcE oF SpAcE]

I think he meant that they'd already allowed someone to make it...

 

[Dave]

Yes, but that *is* the pessemistic view on it

 

[djkanuk]

Pessimistic, but the most realistic option. I mean, Valve are busting their butts to finish HL2 on time. Do you really think they've got a B-team hidden away somewhere cranking out the old HL1 on Source?

I'm with PoS. I think they've made an agreement with a mod team to do it. And I hope it rocks. Two for the price of one.

 

[Dave]

Yeah, your right, I was simply too excited to think realistically

In any case, it does at least mean that it will be ported one way or another. Maybe Sven Coop are working on it?

 

[Kamakazie]

maybe he meant they've already sent in the lawyers

Kam

 

[djkanuk]

Originally posted by Dave
Yeah, your right, I was simply too excited to think realistically

No, I agree. It's definitely something to get excited about. And I'm actually even more encouraged that we hadn't heard anything about this until now. Likely means that Valve are working with them and keeping it "close to the family." This should mean a top quality product when it finally get released.

It won't be Sven, tho. They've already announced they're going to be working with Valve to do Sven Co-Op for HL2, so they have their hands full.

 

[Apos]

Actually, the way they did development was probably to use old HL1 media to test out the new engine features. So they would end up doing a conversion almost naturlally. It'd be really cool if HL2 included a Source remade HL1. I'd definately do it again.

 

[GOoch]

Think this Topic has been covered before..( in IRC Quakenet #halflife2) official Halflife2.net chan..

As a MOD but not sure if people are dooing anything about it.
Would be cool though..

 

[Eternity]

Actually, the way they did development was probably to use old HL1 media to test out the new engine features. So they would end up doing a conversion almost naturlally. It'd be really cool if HL2 included a Source remade HL1. I'd definately do it again.

Er, I doubt it.

 

[djkanuk]

Originally posted by Apos
Actually, the way they did development was probably to use old HL1 media to test out the new engine features. So they would end up doing a conversion almost naturlally. It'd be really cool if HL2 included a Source remade HL1. I'd definately do it again.

I'm sure they used some of the old HL1 stuff to test Source, but there would still be a lot of work to do to bring it up to HL2 standards (in terms of the models, textures, etc). Of course a lot of this was already created for HL2, so maybe it wouldn't be that hard after all. Probably the biggest trick would be play-balancing, to get that right with all the new physics and AI. They might re-do some of the problem-solving type missions to take advantage of the new physics engine.

It would be totally sweet if it came with HL2. I might actually think about playing through it first to keep the continuity, but I can't imagine I'd last very long before breaking down and starting HL2.

 

[Slash]

Considering that they said converting maps should be as painless as possible, I think its pretty likely they tested porting maps with the HL1 story. I think he meant Valve DID do it. In theory, if converting maps is "painless", then it wouldn't take much time to convert all of HL1 into the Source engine... I don't think a MOD team is needed to do that. It's basically just a map conversion issue, you could just use HL2 models and everything, since I'm assuming most of the weapons will be coming back, or weapons equal to the old ones.

I don't think it's hard to believe that they converted HL1 at all. I find it harder to believe they wasted time making DMC or Ricochet or ANSWERING ALL THE DUMBASS EMAILS. They aren't going to make claims that converting maps should be easy unless they tested it themselves.

 

[Eternity]

I don't think you guys have a very clear idea of what 'testing maps' means. They would 'test' the graphical capabilities of Source with custom settings - the ones seen in E3, for example. They would 'test' Gameplay elements on maps made for Half-Life II, and then send them off to the betatesters - there's absolutely no reason for them to 'test' anything with primitive Half-Life I maps.

 

[Slash]

uhh

Of course there is reason to test. Because they said converting maps should be very easy for whatever mod developers want to do. If they want to take old maps, port them, and improve them, that should be possible.

And what better way to test this compatability than to test it with HL1. If all of HL1 works flawlessly without any extra work on the Source engine, everyone else should have an equally-easy time.

 

[Ghost]

Perhaps they may have converted old maps for:

A) Flashback purposes if any.
B) Testing to see how well their old maps run and how much more detail is possible without getting to insane FPS. THat is, take one of the offices, and add more details just to see how it would look.
C) Nostalgia. I'm sure they'd all love to go back and see their first game in the new engine.

 

[jasonh1234]

Originally posted by Ghost
Perhaps they may have converted old maps for:

A) Flashback purposes if any.
B) Testing to see how well their old maps run and how much more detail is possible without getting to insane FPS. THat is, take one of the offices, and add more details just to see how it would look.
C) Nostalgia. I'm sure they'd all love to go back and see their first game in the new engine.

A) That'd be cool!
B) Highly probable.
C) I think they're to busy looking ahead to be nostalgic.

 

[Andy018]

I asked the question because I thought it would be really cool to play through the original game with an updated engine , textures, modelset

I also asked the question because I remember gabe saying that conversion of halflife bsp's to halflife2 bsp's was painless.

So I thought I would ask if they or another mod team would be allowed to remake the original in source without VALVe or Sierra sending in the lawers like 3DRealms did when a mod team decided to remake Duke3D in the Unreal engine.

Personally I think he ment that it had already been asked by a mod team and they have given permission for it.