Half-Life 2 & Doom 3

[Rinnhart]

It's like buying a Ferarri that's modified to only fire six of its ten pistons.

That's a depressing sentence.

[WarLocke]

edit: sup DeeBye, this is the place to chill while SA is down  B)

Now that I have a bank card, I guess I should get off my bum and register over at SA.

'Course, then I have to lurk for 4 more months so I don't get called a noob. :(

[DeeBye]

Now that I have a bank card, I guess I should get off my bum and register over at SA.

'Course, then I have to lurk for 4 more months so I don't get called a noob.  :(

You wouldn't get called a noob. You'd just get B& ;)

Actually, it's not that bad there. Just don't go creating retarded threads for awhile and you'll be okay. You can reply to threads all you want, just as long as you make some sense and inject the funny.

If you do register though, I heartily suggest you also upgrade your account to Platinum. It'll allow you to Search and use the Private Message system, as well as being allowed to attach images to posts (without having to host them yourself) and post polls.

Oh yeah, read the rules before posting anything. And don't do a "Hi I'm new here!" post.

[Nomad25055]

It's like buying a ferrari that's modified to only fire six of its ten pistons

That is just sad. On to other things now. I would think the 9800 series cards would be able to handle HL2 decently, and with the X800's coming out I have a feeling prices are about to drop. But the question still remains: What else might be able to run it? And we still haven't covered anything on CPU's. I for one have an AMD based board and am somewhat curious as I am running off of a 1.3ghz Athlon. As for RAM I would think 512 would go without saying. And what about multiplayer? Will it have multiplayer (most likely)? And on that matter what will it take (connection)? The thought of cable just scares me (cable is really expensive where I live). Oh, I just remembered something. If you purchase a new Radeon Video Card, you get HL2 with it. I read somewhere that ATI originally intended to include HL2 with their cards, and upon its release they would send you a copy (you pay the shipping) -OR- you could download it . But when I read this it also stated that this was said right around the time of the source code theft. After that any and all information I have found on it has said that either HL2 comes with the cards and it is sent to you upon it's release -OR- it comes with a coupon of sorts for 40$ off. Could somebody help clarify this?

Nomad25055 :huh:

[Nomad25055]

Had some problems and long story short I accidenlty double posted <_<

Nomad25055

[Wiccan]

Hail Nomad,

Begins to here the fans of the PS2 cry foul Doom3 will only be ported to come to out on XBOX and computer platforms at the same time the game is released worldwide....so it never going to see Ps2, its hardware can not handle the graphics! :D

Have you seen he website for doom3, the little nivida badge saying "works and looks better on nivida" they dont put that unless they tested the card on the game{and have nivida pay them to place it there got a have sponors for a game that going to be so good going to H2L a run for its money"..... You screw nivida remark may be just bui ati was tested along with boat loads of graphic gards..Nivida 5200 fx won out of all them

[DeeBye]

You screw nivida remark may be just bui ati was tested&nbsp; along with&nbsp; boat loads of graphic gards..Nivida 5200 fx won out of all them

I highly doubt that.

[Nomad25055]

My remarks have many aspects about them that are open to debate 80+% of the time, but this one remark was made for two reasons: (1) - I have had better luck with ATI cards than i have with Nvidia. I have always found that my pc can perform better with ATI cards than with Nvidia. I can run just as well with "half the card" (2) - HL2 comes bundled with ATI cards now :P .

Nomad25055 B)

P.S. I am currently running off of a ATI Radeon 7000 PRO 64mb. It works fine for everything I have done with it so far. But that will change soon. ;)

[Wiccan]

In the development boards the programers stated that they tried the cards so that they know which was stable to run the game nivida and ati was both leading on stabilty testings since both cards have the extra muscle to pull the graphic heavy game along..

dee most game manufacturers will now test game graphic cards to see what works and what wont... this is called research& development, doom 3 and hl2 want to make sure the product works for the consumer...but the programers liked{albiet they liked how it looked on nivid they did not say if it improved the play aspect.... just that game looked scary to them the shadowing,lighting and whatnot} you can have the most powerful graphic card and still have a card that cannot handle something in the program..

I am currently running Nivida fx5200 128 bit card and the games i been playing look nice and handle nice , but i cant wait to give the card a run on doom 3, i've had problems with the ATI series{ yes they are alot cheaper then other high expensive cards i seen on the market}

[Nystul]

The connection of each of these games with a corresponding video chip designer has more to do with business and politics than it does with said video chips actually running the game better. Beyond that, it is important to understand the difference between various cards in the same series and how that difference changes the equation against the competing brand.

More on the original topic, I will probably end up getting Doom 3 at some point or another. I am not necessarily in a rush to pay top dollar for it, especially since I know it will push my computer to the limits (and quite possibly, way beyond the limits). As for these games being ported to consoles, are you serious? Trying to play Doom with a console controller sounds like some form of cruel and unusual punishment to me. I tried to play a first-person snowboarding game on a Playstation 2, and I could barely make the guy go down the hill.

[Nomad25055]

Have you ever played Half-Life on PS2? Its not that hard to play FPS games on a console. I actually found Half-Life easier to play on the PS2 than PC. Besides I think we can all forget about seeing HL2 on PS2. Now Doom 3 on the other hand, will probly be hard to play on a console. Xbox controllers are scary, and in my experience have been sluggish and non responsive at times. I believe Doom 3 would be far better on a PC than a console. Besides it wouldn't be right playing a game without the pain of trying to hit 3 buttons at once on a keyboard :P .

Nomad25055 B)

[Rinnhart]

Never have had a problem with my xbox controllers being sluggish, so I'd assume it was the game or your settings (if it was Halo, by chance, the default responsiveness is quite slow).

I actually like the xbox controllers (controller S, BTW, the old ones shouldn't be used as reference as they can be confused with 800lb. grizzles) more than the PS2's or cube's. PS2's tend to cramp my hands after extended play and the cube's are just so damn small, feels like I'm gonna break them the whole time.

[Nomad25055]

Well guess what I just stumbled upon. A reply to an email sent to Gabe Newell at valve:

Two quick questions.


1. I have the following: 1.7ghz Pentium 4, 1GB of PC2700 DDR Ram, plenty of hard drive space, and plan on getting one of the higher-end Geforce FX 5200's or 5600's, and I have the SB Audigy 2. Will this run ok?

2. Secondly, in the Half-life 2 development process, what was the first thing (back in 1998 or 1999) that you all finished part of and really got excited about? In other words, when did you all think in your heads that this is going to be something amazing?



Thanks.

1. I'd suggest an ATI 9800 for your setup, not NVIDIA.

2. Ken's first demo of the new character technology.

-Gabe

Check out this site. It is where I found this little post among many other insightful posts. :rolleyes:

Nomad25055 B)

Ahhh, here is another interesting tidbit.

Hello Mr. Newell,
How are you and the rest of the Valve team? I like your work so far and I am really looking forward to Half-life 2.
I was wondering if you could answer some questions if you had the time. If not then that is OK.

1) How are things at the offices at the moment? Are people stressed about getting the game out or are things on schedule enough where things are still relatively calm?

People have done this before, so things are relatively calm. It's actually easier to be close to the end than to be in the middle.

2) Do any of you just take a break and play Half-life 2 for fun? Decide not to look for bugs and just play it as a game (whether it be the single or multiplayer portion) or does the fact that you made the game take some fun out of playing it for pure enjoyment?

Not really. It just isn't possible to have been this close to something for this long and play it as a game. I still can't play Half-Life 1 for fun. I keep gritting my teeth and wishing we could have made X better or fixed Y.

3) On a related note, is there any person on the team that still has not played parts of the game?

No.

4) Do any of you still play the original Half-life singleplayer?

We've all played it so many times we can play it in our heads without a computer.

5) Does Dhabih Eng still work for you? How much art does he contribute towards the game? Is there any concept art drawn by him or any of the artists that did not make it into the game in any form and if so can/will that be released to us for drooling purposes?

Yes Dhabih is still here and still doing great stuff. We'll release more of his illustrations as we get closer to shipping.

6) Do you guys listen to music while working and if so what are the popular songs around the office?

We've really fragmented musically. I have been learning to sing khoomei in self defense. Most people have become hyper-eclectic. Eric Smith uses DVDs instead of music for his background audio.

7) Note revealing anything about the story, HL2 seems to be (as far as i can gather) less linear in that there can be more than one way to solve a problem. Will there be multiple endings? More specifically i was wondering if there is an ending if you die. Most games just let you reload but if the player dies do we get information on how things turned out because we
failed?

8) How often (at the moment) do you read forums where people are discussing your game and do you ever feel like joining the discussions?

We'll check on the forums if there is something we need to respond to (like random retailer ship dates), but lately we have had less time to hang out on the forums than we usually do.

9) Metal Gear Solid 2 (and maybe 1 i dont recall) had name tags for dead people and those names were the names of some selected fans. Have you ever thought of doing something like this (incorporating fan names) into the game somehow? If so, can i be Dead Scientist # 42 ?

There will be some surprises in the games. There's at least one Easter egg in the videos that no one has noticed yet.

10) After the game is released, if i send you (Valve) my game box (Limited Edition Hopefully) will you sign it?

Sure. We'd be happy to.

11) Lastly, a more technical question: Do you support gaming on laptops? My laptop is fairly high end as far as laptops go (2.0Ghz, 512 Ram) but it has a Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB vid card. Now this (in my opinion is a great video card especially for a laptop. Will the game run nicely on the system or will i have to suffer because i have a laptop? Some gaming companies dont
like to support laptops .

A bunch of us have laptops we play on when we travel (or when we need to demo), so HL-2 will be laptop friendly.

EDIT: Maybe you should try to email him yourself, the people at valve seem to be answering many MANY emails of this sort. gaben@valvesoftware.com

[Zedd]

To be honest, I don't think the Doom 3 requirements will be that bad. (I don't know about HL2 -- just doesn't interest me in the least)
From http://www.doom3portal.com/info/systemreq.php

From what John Carmack has said the minimum specification for running DOOM 3 will be a:



1000Mhz Athlon/Pentium CPU.
256MB of RAM
GeForce 1 / Radeon 7xxx level of graphics card.


'Full impact' based on some estimates (not official):


1400Mhz Athlon / 1800Mhz Pentium 4 or higher speed CPU.
256MB of RAM + again quite dependant on how memory hungry your OS is.
GeForce 3 (original or Ti 500).



John Carmack long ago (QuakeCon 2001/2002?) said that the GF3/Xbox level of hardware would be full impact, in that dynamic lighting could be enabled and quality would be nearing the maximum, at 30fps and in relatively low resolution (we're talking 640x480).&nbsp;

I can say that I've run the leaked alpha (hey, I was curious ;)), and it was playable on my laptop (GeForce4go 32MB, 1.7Ghz P4-M, 384MB DDR RAM). I'm confident I'll be able to play it on release (definitely not at 1600x1200, full effects, etc -- but as long as I can play, I'm happy).

I've been consistently impressed by Carmack & Co since Doom, so I'm expecting nothing less :)

[FunkyfooKarate]

thanks nomad *entering contest now* commence drooling

[klaptonic]

I am looking forward to doom3!!!

I am also curious if it is possible to find the original doom or doom2 thats compatible with XP?

[Nomad25055]

Well the time has come at last. Both Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 are FINISHED. Right now its a race to get the games on store shelves. Doom 3 should be out in about a month. As for Half-Life 2 I don't really know. All that has been said is it is done and is in the hands of vivendi right now. So whenever vivendi gets its a$$ in gear and starts cranking out the cd's we will be playing HL2 within a few weeks afterwards. Does anyone remember the original Half-Life? It was also delayed for a year before it was released. And if the saying holds true "Good things come to he who waits" then we should be in for one heck of a ride. :rolleyes:

Nomad25055 B)

[Omni]

I am also curious if it is possible to find the original doom or doom2 thats compatible with XP?

Hi,

Click meh.

[Rinnhart]

Doom 95 (Doom, Doom II, + some other stuff) runs fine on my XP box. Probably could find it on a file sharing service and almost certainly could get it from Id.

And thanks, Omni; that's great site.

[pakman]

Yes, I think they will be good games. I played an alpha version of Doom III last year, albeit illegally, but it was fun. We spawned in monsters and they attack each other. The graphics are nice, but we got really poor FPS, but that was to be expected seeing as it was an alpha. However, I will not be buying it. I do not have the money to spend on both, it's one or the other.

I have been waiting for Half Life 2 since the original release was announced nine months ago. The graphics look on par with Doom III. The physics is nice looking. Barney is back without the helmet. I will be buying this when it comes out in the fall since that is when the release date has been pushed to; check here for news about that.

A game that I did recently buy and beat was Far Cry. That game was amazing. The physics was incredible, the environments were breathtaking, the water effects themselves were amazing. Even the AI had some intelligence, they hunt you down. You never have the same battle twice. Truly one of the great games.