G4TV To Preview Half-Life 2 Expansion

Voodoo Extreme has word that new technology for the Steam engine, as well as a HL2 expansion entitled 'The Lost Coast', will be shown off on G4TV's Attack of the Show (formerly The ScreenSavers). From the article: "On Wednesday's show, Valve's Doug Lombardi will give an exclusive demonstration of the previously unseen 'The Lost Coast,' an upcoming expansion that utilizes a brand-new technology that Valve is implementing into the Source engine. Called 'high-dynamic range lighting,' this new technology enables a leap in lighting realism from even the current high benchmark set by Half-Life 2 and the existing Source engine."

Comments

G4

[Bootle]

God I hate G4TV and their borg-like consumption of the greener pastures of the one and only techtv

I never watched the show, don't watch any TV and I don't need someone showing me how to plug in an ethernet cable, but the shows were still great fun.

Now I catch a couple minutes of G4 and I want to die (or kill them). How's that for media-induced violent tendencies? I hope the channel sinks like a rock!

High Benchmark

[fozzmeister]

Yeh HL2 is superb, but there is nothing new about it really, the Lighting is not even dynamic except shadows of objects. All the standard lighting is there because it uses the same sortof radiant technology that was in Quake1-Q3 (although at higher detail levels). Yeh sure it looks great, probably mostly because of High Polygon count and High Res textures, and some nifty effects (reflection et al).

If you want to see the "Benchmark" Technology, look at Doom3, Sure its got low polygon count, and low (in comparison) texture quality, But the whole world is lighted at run-time.

In summary, HL2 looks great, and probably as good as Doom3, but its doing nothing new or revolutionary. The future has to be engines like Doom3 even though the computers of today are maybe not quite upto the point of realising that potential.

Valve Should Do Other Things With Their time

[jmole]

I know Valve probably has different divisions that work on different aspects of their games, but if they have enough resources to come out with new improvements to the source engine and a new expansion can't they shift some of those resources to the areas that need more attention?

They are working on expansions when HLDM and CS: Source are practically incomplete. Its been 5+ months (counting beta) that CS: Source still has only two available player models. I just think there are more important things that need to be added(especially VAC2)/fixed with the games already out rather then start on something new. There is a good portion of the servers out there now, which are being exploited with the falling skulls and purple boxes. I could care less about lighting when I can't even play in a server without it crashing due to exploits.

Priorities!

[Dubpal]

Lighting effects and a new level's all well and good, but surely the folks at Valve could be putting their energies to better use?

I for one certainly could have waited another month or two for this release if it had meant they could put more manpower into delivering Day of Defeat: Source or Team Fortress 2 (Valve's very own Duke Nukem Forever) to the people earlier.

With the constant delays their fanbase endured during the development of HL2, releasing something more gamers actually want would have been a tremendous sign of good faith.