Half-Life and Portal series, general discussion (v6) - Games

[QUOTE=Chrille;49487679]I doubt anything has happened in the past two years that would radically shake up the teams, beyond maybe VR as was mentioned and even then I think it's limited. How much of VR development is hardware and technical stuff? The Source 2 dev teams also have some people from the old HL2 team, so I'm assuming they fulfill much the same roles now as they did then, developing the engine. And two years is not a lot in game development time, and especially not in Valve time, so I don't think you should dismiss it so easily. I can see the L4D3 overlap being a point of contention, but I have no knowledge of how that sort of stuff worked in the past at Valve, so I can't really comment on it. In any case, a lot of people from the old teams have contributed to development. [editline]9th January 2016[/editline] although yes, my statement that they were pretty much all working on it was very misleading[/QUOTE] I want L4D3. Feels weird saying that, even though it's been a while since people were mad that L4D2 came out exactly a year after 1.

Since we have no tangible evidence of HL3, I'm pretty much dismissive of everything we "hear or see" about it. I believe its in development when they're showing off a demo. I know Gabe has talked about games as a service, and sadly I finally believe that that's their direction now. CS:GO and DOTA2 pretty much just exist for tournaments and microtransactions (plus TF2). There's no service they can offer with singleplayer products. Even L4D3 probably doesn't even fulfill that idea. Source 2 will probably be more for other devs to use rather than themselves, like Epic Games and Unreal Engine.

coming from that dota update on october 9th that included code for what was thought to be hl3, isn't half life 3 being worked on right now if that is true?

[QUOTE=Trixil;49487890]coming from that dota update on october 9th that included code for what was thought to be hl3, isn't half life 3 being worked on right now if that is true?[/QUOTE] it's probably just engine bits and testing stuff. Who knows whether it'd be in a HL game or some other game.

Don't worry guys, Marphy will take Laidlaw's place. [QUOTE=FlamingBlizza;49479666]Speaking of music from the Half-Life games, here's some Chris Jensen stuff that wasn't in Opposing Force, and includes a longer version of the first HL2 trailer song, as well as CS stuff. (not sure if i'm totally late about this stuff, but w/e) [video=youtube;LmwwconovQU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmwwconovQU[/video][/QUOTE] It's not often these days I see something HL related I've never heard of this before, I'm actually surprised. This makes me even more disappointed that Jensen chose to use his more uninspired songs for the retail soundtrack of OpFor instead of some of the way more interesting music found here. Hell, he could've at least used some in Blue Shift and Decay.

[QUOTE=ZombineTheSplatter;49440070]I was tired of making other things so I made a Half-life styled ambient song. What do you think? [media]https://soundcloud.com/zombine4life/physical-phenomena[/media][/QUOTE]late reply, but do you have a download for this?

[QUOTE=ClarkWasHere;49487538]Oh my god. I'm playing HL2 again and holy shit I learned how to do ABH manually without any scripts. It's so god damned satisfying. And playing through HL2 is still so satisfying. Also HL2 shotgun IMHO is better than HL1 shotgun.[/QUOTE] oh god using ABH I'm going to beat half life in one day holy shit I've never done that before. and it is done. HL2 is a real solid 9.5/10 game.

[QUOTE=ClarkWasHere;49487538]playing through HL2 is still so satisfying[/QUOTE] Does not compute

-latenewssnip-

[QUOTE=ProfHappycat7;49488201]late reply, but do you have a download for this?[/QUOTE] PM me.

So, i just realized something, and correct me if someone has, but ive never seen anyone mention Portal when a discussion about Half-Life 3 comes up. Nobody seems to remember that Half-Life 3, the Borealis, its all based around Aperture, and that the unbelievably huge success of both Portal games might have had an impact on the development of HL3. Couple that with Source 2, and them abandoning the episodic format because they werent happy with it, i can actually reasonably see why its taking so long.

:snip:

[QUOTE=AaronM202;49496087]So, i just realized something, and correct me if someone has, but ive never seen anyone mention Portal when a discussion about Half-Life 3 comes up. Nobody seems to remember that Half-Life 3, the Borealis, its all based around Aperture, and that the unbelievably huge success of both Portal games might have had an impact on the development of HL3. Couple that with Source 2, and them abandoning the episodic format because they werent happy with it, i can actually reasonably see why its taking so long.[/QUOTE] we remember, but there is no reason to care since it's all the same in the end.

Completely unrelated topic, has anyone found out how to enable the depth of field shader in portal 2?

[QUOTE=AaronM202;49496087]So, i just realized something, and correct me if someone has, but ive never seen anyone mention Portal when a discussion about Half-Life 3 comes up. Nobody seems to remember that Half-Life 3, the Borealis, its all based around Aperture, and that the unbelievably huge success of both Portal games might have had an impact on the development of HL3. Couple that with Source 2, and them abandoning the episodic format because they werent happy with it, i can actually reasonably see why its taking so long.[/QUOTE] I remember something around Portal 2's release about how they let Portal use Half-Life as a basis to a degree for universe stuff, and then back-referenced Portal with Episode 2, but by the time the sequel came around they regretted doing that and made Portal 2 so far and away from everything else just to escape the potential confinements the link created that limited their stuff. Or something like that. Of course everyone just takes it as the Combine backing off of Earth and it not being blown up or completely turned into a wasteland in the long-term, but it honestly feels more like, with the expanded lore and such that Portal 2 and its Ratman comic brought to the table, they basically snipped off the branches of everything but Black Mesa and a brief, nonsensical Borealis easter egg, and used that whole 'multiverse' gag as a silent potential excuse to basically finalize cutting itself off from Half-Life altogether.

[QUOTE=TheDevl;49500911]Completely unrelated topic, has anyone found out how to enable the depth of field shader in portal 2?[/QUOTE] +mat_hdr_level 3, mat_dof_override 1, mat_dof_quality 3 Put that as your launch options. mat_dof_enabled "1" mat_dof_far_blur_depth "1000" mat_dof_far_blur_radius "5" mat_dof_far_focus_depth "250" mat_dof_max_blur_radius "10" mat_dof_near_blur_depth "20" mat_dof_near_blur_radius "10" mat_dof_near_focus_depth "100" mat_dof_override "0" mat_dof_quality "0" Play around with these settings in the console. Have fun. [t]http://i.imgur.com/bLFweHQ.jpg[/t] It can look pretty good.

[thumb]https://lebbeuswoods.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/lwblog-vert-2.jpg?w=600&h=779[/thumb] [thumb]https://lebbeuswoods.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/lwblog-high-10.jpg[/thumb] i never knew Lebbeus Woods was a major inspiration for combine architecture, was it ever mentioned in commentaries? found his work through Adam Foster's blog

[QUOTE=sweeps;49501849][thumb]https://lebbeuswoods.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/lwblog-vert-2.jpg?w=600&h=779[/thumb] [thumb]https://lebbeuswoods.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/lwblog-high-10.jpg[/thumb] i never knew Lebbeus Woods was a major inspiration for combine architecture, was it ever mentioned in commentaries? found his work through Adam Foster's blog[/QUOTE] i don't think so, but now that you mention it, a lot of combine architecture does remind me of analytical cubist pieces

You know, I actually think that 'thinking with portals' would be a pretty fucking cool idea for Half-Life 3. The Borealis will probably play a major role, and why not say that its teleportation attempt basically fucked up the space-time continuum around its 'landing' point? After (in-universe) hours of trekking through Combine-controlled tundra, Gordon and Alyx approach the spot where the Borealis is said to have landed. The cliff they are standing upon should give a good view of the beached ship. But as they reach the edge, they see... a slightly hazy orange-blue glow, through which they spot some men wandering around in thick, hooded Aperture labcoats. But D0G seems to see something else. He moves some rubble aside and gestures for Alyx and Gordon to walk through, and as they do they realise- what they just saw was that same spot, from the good part of a century prior. The Borealis is not just a failed large-scale portal attempt; it's a miniature, self-contained portal storm. The Combine seek to harness it to make portable teleportation devices; when their troops can simply teleport inside even the most fortified enemy base, their forces will be unstoppable. The Resistance have heard from the Vortigaunts that harnessing its power correctly could make the Earth a 'temporal deadzone', unable to be invaded by the Combine ever again. As Gordon and Alyx fight through the ravaged, unstable ship, Gordon must put his abilities to the test, taking advantage of the miniature portals which constantly break out through the ship to use gunplay in a new way (with potentially even a weapon with a 'portal gun' functionality of some sort) as well as traverse the twisted combination of human and Combine technology which is starting to look more and more alien. Eventually he must combine all of his new knowledge to face off against the Advisor who killed Eli, [sp]controlled by Breen's consciousness if you want to go with that theory[/sp]. And as the day is finally saved, the Combine destroyed and evacuating Earth before their final chance to return to their home dimension closes forever, a rumble emerges from the belly of the ship, and [sp]Gordon is consumed, being launched centuries into the future... into a seemingly endless yellow field, with a small shack just visible in the distance...[/sp] [editline]10th January 2016[/editline] That whole concept wasn't particularly fleshed-out because I was trying to focus on what you could do with the gameplay more than anything, but I'm sure there's plenty of room for juicy G-Man lore in there.

portals in HL sounds like nothing but a gigantic clusterfuck

It makes sense from a story standpoint in that the Combine seeking them are a very logical goalpoint. Considering humanity made two different types of Portals that both significantly outstrip anything the Combine came up with in terms of capability (not talking size or armies, the Combine beat them on scale easy), it's entirely believable that the Combine would hunt down their research and things like the Borealis. But Portal's.. portals work in its own context for puzzles and small-scale stuff. The whole [sp]portal to the moon[/sp] at the end of Portal 2 basically means their capability in the hands of the Combine or the Rebels could almost immediately decide the entire fate of the conflict, especially if [i]expanded upon.[/i] There's also the fact that Portal 2 basically makes itself a self-aware stream of humor about all the logic behind Aperture Science's ridiculous inventions that make no plausible sense as a running gag, in contrast to Half-Life's pseudo-"realistic" take on sci-fi stuff that uses a lot of theoretical and nonsensical alike for technology that is taken far more seriously. Smashing the two together could easily create the most polarizing Half-Life possible in that regard of things.

[QUOTE=RikohZX;49502858]It makes sense from a story standpoint in that the Combine seeking them are a very logical goalpoint. Considering humanity made two different types of Portals that both significantly outstrip anything the Combine came up with in terms of capability (not talking size or armies, the Combine beat them on scale easy), it's entirely believable that the Combine would hunt down their research and things like the Borealis. But Portal's.. portals work in its own context for puzzles and small-scale stuff. The whole [sp]portal to the moon[/sp] at the end of Portal 2 basically means their capability in the hands of the Combine or the Rebels could almost immediately decide the entire fate of the conflict, especially if [i]expanded upon.[/i] There's also the fact that Portal 2 basically makes itself a self-aware stream of humor about all the logic behind Aperture Science's ridiculous inventions that make no plausible sense as a running gag, in contrast to Half-Life's pseudo-"realistic" take on sci-fi stuff that uses a lot of theoretical and nonsensical alike for technology that is taken far more seriously. Smashing the two together could easily create the most polarizing Half-Life possible in that regard of things.[/QUOTE] I think honestly, any portals in Half-Life 3 would have to be purely level design, with no player input. If they were planned carefully and tested thoroughly, it wouldn't be gamebreaking. I'm not envisaging them as the neat, round, contained portals of the Portal franchise, instead being something more akin to flaming, gushing tears, potentially in the same lurid colours that the Portal... portals use, but much wispier and less stable-looking. Non-Euclidean geometry might also be an interesting way to take things, since world portals accommodate that system very nicely and it would very much be an interesting addition to a shooter game. This is obviously just a very quick concept made up by someone with no experience in game design, but since Valve enjoy basing their games around experiments, I think 'a merger of the puzzling techniques of Half-Life and Portal' would be pretty darn interesting.

[QUOTE=Jamsponge;49502892]I think honestly, any portals in Half-Life 3 would have to be purely level design, with no player input. If they were planned carefully and tested thoroughly, it wouldn't be gamebreaking. I'm not envisaging them as the neat, round, contained portals of the Portal franchise, instead being something more akin to flaming, gushing tears, potentially in the same lurid colours that the Portal... portals use, but much wispier and less stable-looking. Non-Euclidean geometry might also be an interesting way to take things, since world portals accommodate that system very nicely and it would very much be an interesting addition to a shooter game. This is obviously just a very quick concept made up by someone with no experience in game design, but since Valve enjoy basing their games around experiments, I think 'a merger of the puzzling techniques of Half-Life and Portal' would be pretty darn interesting.[/QUOTE] Yeah, that's probably the best way to handle it. Either Portal technology breaks like it did on the Borealis or the Combine try to utilize it and everything goes to hell, maybe, as Gordon has to navigate and survive through a gauntlet of illogical things caused by it all in a series of seamless transitions.

Perhaps your "burning tear through space-time" portals are reflected in the 2006 "burn" portals used in the early Portal trailers?

[media]http://soundcloud.com/vipervgts/genetic-variation-theme-test[/media] How does this sound for HL2 music? I'd appreciate some feedback.

Sounds more Portal 2-ish.

Gordon enters the Borealis' storage room. Inside there is a small pedestal, on which is placed a portal gun. Gordon picks it up and pulls the trigger to see what it does. The gun misfires and shoots a portal inside itself. It bends and twists into a singular point and disappears from existence.

and skulls start falling from the sky as ichthyosaur from ickypop.vmf eats alyx and portalgun creating a singularity and destroying aperture labs

[B][U]Note this is just me speculating on things but[/U][/B], personally with all that's going on, Valve is doing some seriously weird things. Game's are being poorly updated, weird patches weeks later before they fix things. And the feel of things not being playtested for several of their games when they do updates. So valve I respect you but as much as we are a community we won't have a big enough impact to fix their problems. Escrow was a flop, because instead of fixing their system of "[I]Steam Support[/I]", they hamper the progress of the community who is a [U]large based trading economy on a wide scale[/U]. And patch jobs on releasing updates are seeming like they may not have been playtested. Sometimes I feel they don't even play there games or else things would be noticed more. I'm okay with the answer that they have a lot of projects that they're working on, However I'm sick of this half @ssed way of fixing things. Hope you guys/girls know they pain of this and hopefully stick it through. I feel like maybe when all these projects are done thing's will change into a bigger product (HL3). Note though the writer is gone, they still have the story that he left with them that can complete the series. So be hopeful people. (That felt really good to say [B]:D[/B])

What Kojima was to Metal Gear, like wise Laidlaw was to HL. You couldn't imagine either of them without them writing the story. Chet and Erik and good writers, but I wouldn't want to see HL3 become a comedy like Portal 2 was. Apparently if they were indeed working on it, Marc had no part on it at all. [sp]all those people that said the gearbox expansions were not canon, I guess that makes HL3 not canon anymore![/sp]