Half life 2 etc

Post by **Gambit37** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 11:46 pm

I agree that there are lots of cool features in HL2, and the graphics are still pretty stupendous. The normal mapping is very evident on cliff faces and the like where it works well, but it's generally very poor on other txtures, especially brick walls for example. Add in the fact that even high res textures look crappy close up, and that's what's left me feeling like some of the textures simply aren't good enough. But I guess compromises had to be made to allow such large, playable, outdoor areas, and that's more important at the end of the day than the graphics.

Another thing that lets the visuals down is poor terrain topography. It's not a patch on the Unreal engine, which used 'proper' fractal generated land masses and skilfully blended texture seams over two years ago. HL2 is very chunky and straight edged by comparison -- again, it's a shame this aspect of HL2 wasn't improved but I guess the maps had to be kept simple.

Water is pretty cool close up especially the reflections but from afar it looks artificial and you can see the seams. Not what I would have expected.

It's worth remembering that the bulk of the HL2 tech was complete last spring, so this may account for some of the graphics not being up to Doom 3 or UT2004 standard.

Anyway, I'm not *really* complaining -- the gameplay is solid and hugely entertaining, and I have spent most of the weekend playing it -- I've hardly steped outside! I'm gonna write a mini review once I've finished the game.... until then, wake up and smell the ashes!

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 11:56 pm

my friend tried to give me a non-spoiler review of the game, so i'm enthused
just registering now....

i have had my weekend away (actually in england!) and a few more planned, so i have no qualms in playing nothing but HL2 all week : )

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 10:21 am

just wondering if you have graphical glitches because.. I've seen none of that... going to look harder now. I do admit the rocks are kind of chunky.. but I dunno.. I expect that. Saying it's not up to doom3 standard.. I'd say sure in environment design.. and I emphasize *DESIGN* as doom 3 is an entirely fantasy environment.. none of it exists.. where as HL2 is trying to simulate real life. Reality IS drab and basic.

From what I know about the two engines HL2 is still the more powerfull.. it's just a matter of content.

moo

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 7:04 pm

i noticed a slight black line in some of the outside connecting surfaces, then again i'm just goign with the default settings for graphics

i also noticed with the graphics some are floor your brilliant, while others are very flat - some of the designs or handles on the trains, etc
the boxes also look great, although the edges are too definite for a closer look

just quickly looked at it (the damn installation and registering took me ages, and i think becuase my firewall piped in it caused to crashes before i could finally start)

for lighting - there is one sublime section when you are walking along a front porch with light spilling between pillars...perfect...

Post by **Gambit37** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 8:41 pm

** SPOILER ** Don't click this link if you don't want to see one of the later weapons.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/matt_hill/ ... 120069.jpg

The above image shows some of my gripes:

1) sharp edges on topography (not the nice smooth landscapes you get in UT2003/4)
2) Noticeable tiling on the water texture (you can see straight lines running from the player to the horizon) -- this is what I meant by seams, I wasn't referring to glitches.
3) Little or no depth to the sand texture

I'd also gripe about the hard water edge, but this is usually unnoticeable when full reflections are on (which are off in my pic). Anyway, I'm not be picky for the sake of it -- the game truly is an impressive feast even on my DirectX 8.0 card; there's just some things I expected to be better considering the current state of the art.

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 3:26 am

it's weird that when I look at the water I don't see that.. it's all random waves.. the only thing I did see was a hint of the edge of the geometry (the atual planes edge had some distortion to the wave as it crossed it). but the waves were all random.. You said you had to turn some things off? what did you turn off or down?

I'll try and get you a screen shot of my water a little later..

Looking at screens from unreal 2k4 I see they use grass and stuff to break up the line where the ground meets the rocks.. it's still a clean intersection though.. hmm now reading that though.. I guess you mean the roundness of the hill. hmmm.. you know I think that might be the dynamic LOD in the HL2 engine.. it's altering the geometry on the fly.. or at least I think it is.. maybe that was a different engine.. but that could cause it so maybe it is this one.. hmmm.. now I have to go reread the specs.

now as for the sand texure.. none of the games I know of bother with something like that.. not ut2k4 or Doom3. notice when outside those airlocks it's all pretty basic. for that you're going to have to wait untill unreal3 engine

moo

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 10:27 am

well, I looked at the water again.. in certain situations it looks very good.. ie.. when you are near by or above from far.. but at an angle from far.. you see the repeats.. I hadn't seen it from all the angles before and when I had the chance I guess I was too busy trying to run away..

So the water does indeed suck.. compared anyway to that demo I showed you all.

Jardice · Post by **Jardice** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 7:39 pm

Hmm..thinking about the ovious flaws..Wonder if that means they were thinking about the people on slower computers after all....

Be nice if they did...Hopefully when the price of this game goes down it'll still be around for me to buy it.

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 3:02 pm

apparently some people are complaining now about motion sickness from this game. So if you are prone to sea sickness or car sickness you may want to avoid it.

I know these graphical glitches are due to the way the levels are built.. it's a tile based system rather than that other water where you would say.. fill this area with water.. and Unreal where they would use a height map. this game all of it is modeled.. so you have stuff like jagged hills from somone being extra conservative.. or being able to see the tiled displacement on the water because they are just tiles.. rather than a large scale surface effect.

Tom Hatfield · Post by **Tom Hatfield** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:46 pm

Yeah, it's got bugs. It's also designed to run like crap on nVidia cards. (There were some threads about this in other places.) It becomes more interesting. My favorite area in particular is Nova Prospekt. I played through it three times before removing the game. Anyway, HL2 is not really my cup of tea anymore --- I'm into strategy games now --- and Valve has lost sight of what's truly important: keeping fans happy.

As for making a DM clone with Doom 3, that would be AWESOME. It would also take forever.

BloodFromStone · Post by **BloodFromStone** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 4:01 pm

I'd almost rather see it shift out of first person into a more RPG like set up, myself. Though, giving it an RPG set up would probably lead to more of a new DM game rather than a clone.

Jardice · Post by **Jardice** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 5:13 am

Well My dad bought the game and we filanny got around tp o playing it.

It's a neat game itself...However I do not like the method Valve has use for HL2 in order fo you to play it. I have no desire to connect online just to play single player..that and the fact that I can't use my account with HL2(due to the fact that My dad registered the Cd key under his account). I mean you would think that the program can tell that the legit copy of the software is in the same house.

It wont stop me from playing it but I'm not Liking steam very much..no one shald have to buy 2 copies of the same game if they live together in the same house.

Post by **Gambit37** » Sat Jan 15, 2005 3:43 am

Yeah, Steam sucks big time. I found this song on the halflife.org forums. Sing it to the tune from "The Nightmare before Christmas" if you happen to have that film in your collection:

What's This?

What's this? What's this?
There's spyware everywhere,
What's this?
There's foulness in the air,
What's this?
I can't believe my eyes
I must be dreaming
Wake up, Valve, this isn't fair.
What's this?

What's this? What's this?
There's something very wrong,
What's this?
Steam's loading all day long,

What's this?
My RAM is crammed with
Background applications racking
Forums suckups won't stop backing
Maybe I will just start hacking!
What is this?

Tom Hatfield · Post by **Tom Hatfield** » Sat Jan 15, 2005 8:35 am

Vengeance released an installer and modified patches. If you can find them, you don't need to be online to play. Not that I'm condoning it or anything, but who listens to reason?

Jardice · Post by **Jardice** » Sat Jan 15, 2005 8:26 pm

Heh only of the reason sounds valid would I listen to it.

Eh I beat the game anyways so I really don't care too much(hmm they should have out that time they used to make the security feature in steam to make the game longer, it was to short IMO).