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HL2 - Lost Coast Playtest and Tech Details
Wil Harris writes "Bit-tech has been up to Valve's offices in Seattle to play through The Lost Coast, the super-duper add-on level for Half-Life 2. There is an article up talking about the technology behind the level (it's not just HDR!) as well as screenshots from throughout the level, a brief summary of the narrative, and thoughts on Valve's work. There's also a couple of cool photos of the Valve office, including a golden crowbar and Counter-Strike Barbie and Ken dolls."
I mean, isn't the point of HDR to make lightning more realistic? Check this out... seems like they make granite walls out of polished chrome in the HL2 world.
If you're impatient and want to know what the fuss about high dynamic range is all about, try this demo. It's quite pretty looking, far superior to the overused bloom effect in my opinion.
for anyone out there interested in what this HDR business is all about, there's an HDR image builder (http://www.anyhere.com/) out there for mac and linux. the basic concept is that you take a series of photographs at different exposures ranging from extremely underexposed to extremely overexposed (which means this only works really well for still-life shots unfortunately) and the program can compile them into an image that would mimick fairly well what the human eye would see. this is also a good tool for those of you who might be interested in using your digital camera as a luminance meter by using radiance (http://www.radiance-online.org/) to generate falsecolor luminance maps. if nothing else, it'll give you a good idea of how they're generating the lighting for Lost Coast.
Guess it's too bad I don't use electricity anymore. The air conditioning and indoor lighting was kick-ass, but I'm not going to maintain a utility bill just to get out of the 19th century. Sorry, ConEd. You got thrown out with the dishwater, I guess.
I paint my chair red and it looks brand new
But the years roll on and it's not so new
So I get a new chair and it feels so sweet.
But my chair grown old so I decide to paint it one day.
I paint my chair red and it looks brand new
But the years roll on and it's not so new
So I get a new chair and it feels so sweet.
But my chair grown old so I decide to paint it one day.
I paint my chair red and it looks brand new
But no matter how many chairs I get, and how many times I paint them, be it red, or black, or blue, it's still is a chair and I have grown old
Prehaps bed is what I think I need. I've tried of chairs and want some sleep. But Perhaps I 'll get red sheets
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-