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[Plissken]

I have yet to play Half Life 2, so this package is looking all kinds of awesome to me. The more I see of it, the more I can't wait.

 

[PleoMax]

From that IGN article:



Looks like Valve has put the 360 eDRAM to good use, especially since they're not using it for AA.

How do you know this?

 

[manxor]

Yeah, jeez... I really hope they can at least add AA for the 360 release.
Maybe I am dreaming with my AA+HDR+motion blur wishes...

 

[Chiggs]

How do you know this?

Valve stated awhile ago that they weren't going to be using the 360's tiling process in conjunction with the eDRAM to achieve AA. They said they had found a better way to achieve AA.

Yeah, jeez... I really hope they can at least add AA for the 360 release.

See above.

 

[VALIS]

The demo itself was kind of a shocker - every single one of the games - HL2, HL2 ep 1, Portal CS and TF, all selectable from a single menu. Bam.

Oh my. Ohhhhh my. *rubs nipples*

 

[SnakeXs]

Valve stated awhile ago that they weren't going to be using the 360's tiling process in conjunction with the eDRAM to achieve AA. They said they had found a better way to achieve AA.



See above.

Just to add a tiny bit of context to the comment, I do believe they said for Steam, not in general. The ever tricky tiling of 360 hasn't been done away with via their method, it was just better for the Steam engine. I think.

 

[Chiggs]

Just to add a tiny bit of context to the comment, I do believe they said for Steam, not in general. The ever tricky tiling of 360 hasn't been done away with via their method, it was just better for the Steam engine. I think.

I remember a poster on this forum sent an email to Gabe and he responded with what I wrote above. I'll see if I can find that post.

 

[SnakeXs]

I remember a poster on this forum sent an email to Gabe and he responded with what I wrote above. I'll see if I can find that post.

Awesome, thanks.

 

[Chiggs]

Awesome, thanks.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=111077&highlight=Valve+360+AA


First post. Looks like that eDRAM's definitely gonna be getting some HDR workload.

 

[SnakeXs]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=111077&highlight=Valve+360+AA


First post. Looks like that eDRAM's definitely gonna be getting some HDR workload.

Yeah, that's what I expected. Possibly a stretch by me, but I still take it as he emant that due to Source being a pre-existing engine. A 360 built engine will still get the most out of it via tiling, but they found a more elegant method for their purposes. I could be wrong, though. =P

Good to know anyways. Thanks again.

 

[beelzebozo]

valve is so illegally bad ass.

 

[DD-11]

What's the release date of this awesome peice of software?

 

[squicken]

They need to get it [the whole package] running as good, if not better than the PC version of Ep2. They need to redeem themselves after the poor Xbox port.

Just my personal opinion, but given the XBOX hardware, I was quite impressed Valve got HL2 to run on it.

 

[Kleegamefan]

I think it got delayed to the new November...

 

[DD-11]

I think it got delayed to the new November...

Please tell me this doesn't mean march. Lie to me if you have to.

 

[shpankey]

The demo itself was kind of a shocker - every single one of the games - HL2, HL2 ep 1, Portal CS and TF, all selectable from a single menu. Bam. Controls are nice too, especially on the vehicles.

damn.

sold.

 

[dark10x]

My purchase hinges 100% on framerate. If they can deliver this great package on a console with loads of polish at a great framerate (with minimal loading), I will buy it. Otherwise, no deal.

 

[JB1981]

My purchase hinges 100% on framerate. If they can deliver this great package on a console with loads of polish at a great framerate (with minimal loading), I will buy it. Otherwise, no deal.

I've never played Half-Life and I've been dying too. This is a guaranteed purchase for me. I don't have high hopes for a smooth frame rate, though!

 

[Bad_Boy]

My purchase hinges 100% on framerate. If they can deliver this great package on a console with loads of polish at a great framerate (with minimal loading), I will buy it. Otherwise, no deal.

And mine hinges 100% on mouse and keyboard support. **** playing a game like portal on a controller setup. No M&KB, no buy. I'll get the PC version if it comes down to that.

Either way, I'll get the game, its a great package nobody can deny.

 

[SnakeXs]

And mine hinges 100% on mouse and keyboard support. **** playing a game like portal on a controller setup. No M&KB, no buy. I'll get the PC version if it comes down to that.

Either way, I'll get the game, its a great package nobody can deny.

You better hope the PS3 M/KB stuff comes to light, if you care about PS3 at all. It ain't happenin' on 360.

 

[Bad_Boy]

You better hope the PS3 M/KB stuff comes to light, if you care about PS3 at all. It ain't happenin' on 360.

Yup, I'm gettin a ps3 in november if all goes according to plan. :/

Anyways, I doubt all developers (especially first party) will enable M&KB, but devs like valve and epic who originate on the PC platform should definately include that support.

 

[rs7k]

Just my personal opinion, but given the XBOX hardware, I was quite impressed Valve got HL2 to run on it.

Same here, the framerate may have been lacking, and there were a few low-res textures, but it was still excellent graphically compared to other top Xbox games. You can't expect the world out of a Celeron with 64MB of RAM.

 

[epmode]

Wow, they added HDR to the original Half-Life 2.. I'm hoping they upgrade PC HL2 sometime in the future. Knowing Valve, I wouldn't be surprised if they do.

<3 Valve <3

 

[shpankey]

Same here, the framerate may have been lacking, and there were a few low-res textures, but it was still excellent graphically compared to other top Xbox games. You can't expect the world out of a Celeron with 64MB of RAM.

the Xbox does not have a Celeron in it. it is a custom CPU.

 

[GhaleonEB]

the Xbox does not have a Celeron in it. it is a custom CPU.

based off the Pentium III, not Celeron.

 

[Pikelet]

based off the Pentium III, not Celeron.

The point still stands, you could not play half life 2 on a pentium 3 without major optimisations

 

[bengraven]

The only difference, aside from the fact that you'll be playing with an Xbox 360 controller instead of a mouse and keyboard, is that the Xbox 360 version looks better. That's right, the Xbox 360 version of Half-Life 2 boasts visual enhancements that are only available in the subsequent episodic content on the PC so, regardless of how powerful your PC setup is, the Xbox 360 game will look better.

That's hot. I know the PC extremists are having a ****ing fit about that, but it's ****ing fantastic.

 

[Moderation Unlimited]

Looks pretty delicious.

 

[Pimpbaa]

Wow, they added HDR to the original Half-Life 2.. I'm hoping they upgrade PC HL2 sometime in the future. Knowing Valve, I wouldn't be surprised if they do.

<3 Valve <3

Perhaps as another bonus to ep2 (upgrading hl2 original if you have)? I could definitely see them doing that.

 

[civilstrife]

In a time where developers take seemingly every opportunity to skimp out on content in their releases, this is such a breath of fresh air. This kind of release is nearly unprecendented.

The last time we saw something like this was with Unreal Tournament 2004, which included ALL of the content from 2003 as well as the amazing new stuff, which was easily enough content for a seperate release.
I think the Half-Life package might trump it though.

The big question mark is what the heck they're going to do when episode 3 is released. I thought it might be too large to download, but my episode 1 folder on my comp is only 394 MB. I guess that's not too bad considering most demos of games are far more than that.

I think it would be very kind of them to include mouse and keyboard support for this. At least for the singleplayer. For Multiplayer, maybe seperate servers by control scheme, or just put the kb/m using 360 players on the PC servers.

 

[Fafalada]

First post. Looks like that eDRAM's definitely gonna be getting some HDR workload.

Valve's HDR method is inherently single pass - so technically it doesn't work out eDRAM at all (well, it doesn't work out any framebuffer to be specific).

 

[Moderation Unlimited]

Valve's HDR method is inherently single pass - so technically it doesn't work out eDRAM at all (well, it doesn't work out any framebuffer to be specific).

Is it baked and not dynamic?

 

[jarosh]

That's hot. I know the PC extremists are having a ****ing fit about that, but it's ****ing fantastic.

yeah i'll go with the insane hi-res texture packs for hl2 on my pc.

 

[Brimstone]

Valve stated awhile ago that they weren't going to be using the 360's tiling process in conjunction with the eDRAM to achieve AA. They said they had found a better way to achieve AA.



See above.

I sent the email to Valve, and Jay Stelly responded.

Me:

Incase you're answering questions about engine technology on the next-gen consoles, I was wondering if Source on the XB360 will use tiling to fit into the 10mb of eDRAM for 4x A.A.?

Jay Stelly:

We're doing our AA a different way - tiling is not a very good way to spend perf to get visual quality.

 

[firex]

game of the generation, again! nothing can stop half life 2, except for half life 3. even playing it without mouse and keyboard, it will still be awesome.

 

[civilstrife]

game of the generation, again! nothing can stop half life 2, except for half life 3. even playing it without mouse and keyboard, it will still be awesome.

Got me thinking...

It has been two years since the release of Half-life 2. Does anyone think they have a small team working on HL3 yet? Perhaps a seperate team than the one working on the episodes.

 

[thirty]

is it just me or does half life 2 not look good anymore? i mean with stuff like gears and resistance HL looks aged and ugly IMO.

 

[bengraven]

yeah i'll go with the insane hi-res texture packs for hl2 on my pc.

To each his own.

 

[thirty]

lumines?:lol

 

[jarosh]

psst . . . where can I get those?

http://halflife2.filefront.com/file/FakeFactorys_Oggs_High_Resolution_Pack;55302
http://halflife2.filefront.com/file/FAKEFACTORYS_HighRes_Characters_Skin_Pack;46684

it's really quite incredible. check out the screens:
http://screenshots.filesnetwork.com/32/files2/58868_8.jpg
http://screenshots.filesnetwork.com/32/files2/46684_4.jpg
http://screenshots.filesnetwork.com/32/files2/55302_4.jpg
http://screenshots.filesnetwork.com/32/files2/55302_2.jpg


just browse through the archive though. there are plenty of other cool texture packs and visual enhancement mods...

 

[JRPereira]

Compared to the HD pc pics and videos for hl2ep2 I saw earlier, those pics look kind of blurry. What gives?