EvaUnit02 on 25/1/2010 at 09:02
Quote Posted by Fafhrd
I think 'new engine' talk is kind of crazy. Source has proven to be ridiculously modular, and the publicized results of their most recent Steam system specs poll indicate that the majority of Steam users are still on mid- to low-end machines. Rolling out a whole new engine designed to compete graphically with Unreal and CryEngine and whatever else would cut-off a massive chunk of their user base.
I'd expect them to announce something about Episode 3 at E3 this year. They may even pull a 'Half-Life 2 Announcement' and say that it's due out by Christmas (and then push it back six months. And then another three). But announcing Half-Life 3 on Source 2? Not gonna happen.
A new engine would definitely target the 360 at least (which doesn't seem to going anywhere any time soon), so it wouldn't such a huge jump in system requirements. Remember consoles are the largest market these days, dwarfing PC sales wise. It'll likely require Shader Model 3.0 at minimum, boo fucking hoo. It's industry standard at this point, we've had SM3.0 dependent titles since at least 2007 (often 360 ports), the latest DX11 GPUs use SM5.0. A 8800GTX from 2006 and can play pretty much every modern game comfortably. The days of the Pentium 4 and Geforce Series 6 are long over, my friend. Stop whining and upgrade.
A newer engine that competes with Unreal 3.0 and CryEngine3 is not such an unimaginable stretch at all, the former was designed for 360 and the latter uses it as the lowest common denominator.
Don't forget that PC engines are scalable, thanks to having variable DETAIL LEVEL SETTINGS. A 'Ultra High" pre-set could be PC exclusive and designed for bleeding edge GPUs and the next gen consoles and Medium to High could likely be fine on a 8800GT/HD3870.
Sulphur on 25/1/2010 at 09:29
Ultra details for high end PCs? Sure, if most developers could be arsed. The majority of crossplat titles give you a higher texture rez setting on the PC and little else these days.
SubJeff on 25/1/2010 at 10:00
Quote Posted by Sulphur
If Valve decided to shoehorn the portal gun into Ep. 3 and it wasn't part of the original plan
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Aperture Science feature in HL2:Ep2 already? Its not a stretch to think that the Portal gun will be in any new episode/game.
Yakoob on 25/1/2010 at 10:02
Quote Posted by Brethren
If this were HL3, fine. New game, new story, new technology, whatever. But stretching out episodic content over a 5 year period just seems kind of...dumb. I just don't get what they're doing.
Well, that is already an improvement over standard ValveTime™
My take is that the "rumour" has been started purposefully by gamespot in order to force Valve to come out and give us a release date.
... which doesn't mean much considering Valve's track record of sticking to release dates.
Quote Posted by dethtoll
who the hell are you
He's J.C. Denton.
Muzman on 25/1/2010 at 10:44
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Aperture Science feature in HL2:Ep2 already? Its not a stretch to think that the Portal gun will be in any new episode/game.
They get a mention as the designers of the teleport system that delivers the anti-strider bombs, from memory. It's a passing reference.
I tend to agree that including a portal gun in the HL world, even with forethought, would end up being a design headache and take forever to test.
Me, I hope the next Ep isn't much longer than the last one, if at all. Ep2 was the only Half Life game that had none of those interminable stretches of fidgeting about with some mechanic (ant lions, say) or stuck in some boring place for ages and ages. They finally got it dead right, by my measure and they shouldn't go back to any old habits.
SubJeff on 25/1/2010 at 11:01
I bet you'll be disappointed then because I think the portal gun will be in Ep3, and given that you are correct about balance bets are it will be in one or two particular sections thus fulfilling that fidgeting mechanic.
clearing on 25/1/2010 at 11:13
I bet Black Mesa will be bought by Valve and will be released as an addon to the next episode.
Muzman on 25/1/2010 at 11:17
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
I bet you'll be disappointed then because I think the portal gun will be in Ep3, and given that you are correct about balance bets are it will be in one or two particular sections thus fulfilling that fidgeting mechanic.
Hmm, sounds reasonable. I liked Portal though, so this might be the one time it doesn't manage to annoy me. (Actually one thing that came to mind was that you'd need it for an end-game where you have to navigate some completely gonzo alien Xen-like place that, judging by most opinions of Xen, will piss off everyone
but me. :thumb: )
EvaUnit02 on 25/1/2010 at 11:31
Quote Posted by Sulphur
Ultra details for high end PCs? Sure, if most developers could be arsed. The majority of crossplat titles give you a higher texture rez setting on the PC and little else these days.
Who said anything about "most developers"? I was talking specifically about Valve.
One motivation to build a high end engine initially targeting PCs today would so that it can be easily used for next gen console development tomorrow. Eg I strongly suspect that this was more or less Ubisoft's plan for Far Cry 2's Dunia.
Quote Posted by Yakoob
My take is that the "rumour" has been started purposefully by gamespot in order to force Valve to come out and give us a release date.
Well considering that Gamespot rumour article was spawned off of Chet Faliszek quotes taken from GAME INFORMER, highly unlikely.
Scots Taffer on 25/1/2010 at 11:34
Whatever, I'm happy to wait and I'll do so with bated breath. Plenty of other games for me to play in the interim and if I get the itch, like I do at present, I have HL2 and Episodes 1 & 2 to run through for fun.
