Author Topic: Half-Life 2: Episode One  (Read 12434 times)

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Offline pecenipicek

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Re: Half-Life 2: Episode One
What bothers me though is that F.E.A.R still loads quicker/larger maps than HL2 does and its often got twice the visual detail. :wtf:
after starting to play F.E.A.R., its unoptimised as hell. i've gotten much better graphics and framerates out of HL2 on 1024x768 on my rig, yet on in FEAR, i have to play in 800x600, with everything at medium.

i play HL2 with everything on high except textures, cause i dont have enough memory for high-res textures.
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Offline redmenace

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Re: Half-Life 2: Episode One
This is the first time seeing the extended version. I think it is awesome. Give you a better idea about what EPII is going to be about.
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Offline Apathy

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Re: Half-Life 2: Episode One
I loved episode 1, alot better than HL2 imo. Episode 2 looks like it will be really good because of the change in scenery, city fighting was getting boring.

Oh definitely. My Radeon 9800 could do quite well with the HDR shaders on. It really does look incredible. I'm curious to see how Cryteks new offering will fair now.

(Oh, and if you're looking to play FEAR I'd think about having at least 1GB of RAM. It'll make a nice difference in load times etc.)

um you do know that anything pre X800 from ATi can't do HDR? only HDRish (aka bloom).

 

Offline Sandwich

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Re: Half-Life 2: Episode One
You know, all this HDR craze is, in my eyes, a load of BS. "High Dynamic Range"? It's like saying that this whole time, our monitors weren't rendering things as really, really white, but now, they are. It's BS. All it does (and correct me if I'm wrong so I don't have to continue sounding like an idiot here) is calculate and render effects similar to what we get when we look at bright light sources... the light bleeds over onto darker areas around the light source, thus making the light appear even brighter. How this is different that adding the equivalent of a simple Photoshop outer glow layer effect to anything bright, I don't know.
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Offline pecenipicek

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Re: Half-Life 2: Episode One
it is a load of BS in its entirety. its just real-time outer glow.


that said, its very annoying in my opinion. a sad waste of resources.
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Offline Mefustae

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Re: Half-Life 2: Episode One
*Snip*
The basic idea is to have it looking a bit better, while doing relatively little to it. I like it, because it's shiny, and I like shiny. The trick is not to overthink it, it's just a cool-looking effect added to make everything shiny.

 

Offline Fury

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Re: Half-Life 2: Episode One
You know, all this HDR craze is, in my eyes, a load of BS. "High Dynamic Range"? It's like saying that this whole time, our monitors weren't rendering things as really, really white, but now, they are. It's BS. All it does (and correct me if I'm wrong so I don't have to continue sounding like an idiot here) is calculate and render effects similar to what we get when we look at bright light sources... the light bleeds over onto darker areas around the light source, thus making the light appear even brighter. How this is different that adding the equivalent of a simple Photoshop outer glow layer effect to anything bright, I don't know.
If by bull**** you refer to the marketing name, then you are correct. If by bull**** you mean that it's no different from a photoshop effect, then you are wrong. A photoshop effect is not rendered in real-time. An efficient rendering of light sources in real-time is no small task because you also need to calculate light reflections which become exponentially more complex with HDR enabled.

Also, to render real HDR you would need a monitor that is capable of displaying contrast ratio of 50 000:1. Most monitors only display 500:1 or 1000:1 at most. So in games HDR has to be rendered to what your eyes would see in the situation, not what your eyes see.


that said, its very annoying in my opinion. a sad waste of resources.
It so depends how HDR is utilized and what kind of visual setting it is used in. You really can't cast off a feature based on poor use of it. Personally I think HDR is quite good visual rendering effect, it can make hell a lot of difference in the visual atmosphere when used right.

At the moment I think the best demo of HDR is Half Life 2: Lost Coast. If you have the chance, I recommend to play it.

 

Offline pecenipicek

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Re: Half-Life 2: Episode One
You know, all this HDR craze is, in my eyes, a load of BS. "High Dynamic Range"? It's like saying that this whole time, our monitors weren't rendering things as really, really white, but now, they are. It's BS. All it does (and correct me if I'm wrong so I don't have to continue sounding like an idiot here) is calculate and render effects similar to what we get when we look at bright light sources... the light bleeds over onto darker areas around the light source, thus making the light appear even brighter. How this is different that adding the equivalent of a simple Photoshop outer glow layer effect to anything bright, I don't know.
If by bull**** you refer to the marketing name, then you are correct. If by bull**** you mean that it's no different from a photoshop effect, then you are wrong. A photoshop effect is not rendered in real-time. An efficient rendering of light sources in real-time is no small task because you also need to calculate light reflections which become exponentially more complex with HDR enabled.

Also, to render real HDR you would need a monitor that is capable of displaying contrast ratio of 50 000:1. Most monitors only display 500:1 or 1000:1 at most. So in games HDR has to be rendered to what your eyes would see in the situation, not what your eyes see.


that said, its very annoying in my opinion. a sad waste of resources.
It so depends how HDR is utilized and what kind of visual setting it is used in. You really can't cast off a feature based on poor use of it. Personally I think HDR is quite good visual rendering effect, it can make hell a lot of difference in the visual atmosphere when used right.

At the moment I think the best demo of HDR is Half Life 2: Lost Coast. If you have the chance, I recommend to play it.
quite frankly, i seriously doubt my machine could take lost coast... -.-


but, using the HDR name itself is by far the most bull****ting thing ever done.

if i remember correctly, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and when used in 3D, its used to simulate the surrounding of a shiny/semi-shiny/reflective object, to simulate realistic lightning.

HDR in games doesnt have anything in common with the aforementioned usage.

and i think that it hasnt yet been implemented properly. all the screenies show me its just overexposure of the pics...



HDR pics consist of many pics taken at different exposures, or something like that, no?
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Offline Fury

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Re: Half-Life 2: Episode One
:wtf: You really should play Lost Coast or something else equal.

 

Offline Colonol Dekker

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Re: Half-Life 2: Episode One
I for one appreciate that there is no monopoly on acronyms, as shown by the tem FTW. Which started in prisons.
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Offline Mefustae

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Re: Half-Life 2: Episode One
quite frankly, i seriously doubt my machine could take lost coast... -.-


but, using the HDR name itself is by far the most bull****ting thing ever done.

if i remember correctly, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and when used in 3D, its used to simulate the surrounding of a shiny/semi-shiny/reflective object, to simulate realistic lightning.

HDR in games doesnt have anything in common with the aforementioned usage.

and i think that it hasnt yet been implemented properly. all the screenies show me its just overexposure of the pics...

HDR pics consist of many pics taken at different exposures, or something like that, no?
If you're going to b**** so vehemently against HDR, perhaps you could have at least attempted to see one of the best showings of the technology in recent times. However, i'm going to assume in the past you've only ever seen either just bloom or very badly done HDR, so i'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

Now, here's a rather nice shot of Lost Coast, not much of a glory shot, but it gets the point across.



See, the Valve lads use HDR to simulate realistic light on the environment - such as the sand and rocks on the beach as you can see - pushing the visible light in areas up to 100% of monitor brightness, and then using bloom in areas where brightness exceeds that 100%. I'm not entirely sure how what you see about doesn't really equate to your "definition" of HDR, but make what you want of it. Honestly, it's a nice effect, so perhaps you should try a game where it is implemented properly [Lost Coast or Episode 1 being prime examples] before you condemn this rather significant leap in gaming graphical technology.
« Last Edit: July 28, 2006, 10:49:53 am by Mefustae »

 

Offline Fineus

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Re: Half-Life 2: Episode One
Hate to bump again but I've just finished Ep1 for the second time (first time with my new rig) and I have to say... damn. It's good. I kind of wish I hadn't played HL2 and had skipped straight to Ep1 as it's everything HL2 should have been. The pace and combat are great and the intro/outros are truly special.

 

Offline Ferret

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Re: Half-Life 2: Episode One
 I just finished Half-Life 2 and serprisingly loved most of it. I think some sections were dragged out way too far, like the boat sequence. Other than that I thought it was very fun all the way through, even the boring bits were way worth it for the super gravity gun.
Is that in  Episode One? Or do you revert back to boring old grav gun?

Best parts of Half-Life 2 for me would be Ravenholm (of course), that huge steel bridge, storming Nova Prospeckt with an army of Antlions and the last level with the super gravity gun. Love it.

This brings me to another question; I've been able to get all of the sounds out of Half-Life 2, but I'm trying to get the music to no avail, Hammer wont play MP3s. I want the music when you attack the Nova Prospeckt beach, it was great, but like I said I can't get hold of them. Anyone know?

 

Offline Mefustae

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Re: Half-Life 2: Episode One
Episode one picks up right after the closing events at the top of the Citadel, the events of which are explained with a damn cool cutscene that undoubtedly foreshadows some very, very plot developments to be seen in future episodes. From there, you work your way through the crumbling Citadel in an unarmed exposition section, before regaining your super-gravgun, and entering one of the most visually stunning gameplay areas i've seen in recent times. You of course lose the super-gravgun shortly thereafter as regular gameplay commences.

Can't help you with music extraction, though.

  

Offline Fineus

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Re: Half-Life 2: Episode One
I think one thing that really justifies playing Ep1 twice is that there is a development commentary.

Not only do you get some valuable plot insights that you might have missed while playing through without it, it's also really interesting to learn about the design process behind a game. Little things like "we put in those poles and wires to focus the players attention on the exploding Citidal" are things that never conciously occured to me but seem clear now that they're explained. That sort of thing really helps if you like to design your own games or work in other media areas.