HDR patch and new 'super level' coming to Half-Life 2 - bit-tech.net Forums

Tim S · 1st Apr 2005, 11:42

As we know, Half-Life 2 was arguably the biggest gaming story of 2004, which achieved a status of 'instant classic' and is quite often labelled 'The Best Game Ever to be made'. Last night on Attack of the Show, an American TV show focused on gaming, Valve software unveiled a whole new level for Half-Life 2 that will give gamers a glimpse in to the future of PC graphics, with some immensely realistic lighting effects, known as HDR.

Valve's Doug Lombardi gave a demonstration of the upcoming 'The Lost Coast' level that utilizes technology that was implemented in to the Source engine which, until now, has not been seen in a game based on the engine. The technique has, however, been seen in the likes of FarCry and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory - the full version of the latter is released today.

HDR is an abbreviation for High-Dynamic Range Rendering, and creates an amazing leap in lighting realism. We saw how Crytek's method of HDR was implemented back in our FarCry patch 1.3 evaluation, which is only possible on video cards supporting an FP16 frame buffer and Shader Model 3.0 capabilities. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory also requires a Shader Model 3.0-capable video card to make use of the lighting technique.

Valve's HDR method is slightly different in that respect. Half-Life 2 is a title on ATI's 'Get In The Game' program, so it would be a marketing disaster if the new lighting technique did not work on ATI's current video cards.

"This is targeted at the super-hardcore early-adopter guy who's got the latest and greatest stuff and the horse power to cope with these new lighting techniques," said Doug when asked how demanding this new lighting technology would be on today's video cards.

The Lost Coast will be an additional level that is free to owners of Half-Life 2 and it will be released via Steam in the next few weeks. There will also be an update to Half-Life 2 that will give the game some of these HDR effects released in the same time frame.

mushky · 1st Apr 2005, 14:54

Sweet

It's definately time to sell a kidney or two to fund a nice dual-6800GT SLI system.

r3Q · 1st Apr 2005, 15:24

i wish i had a better computer

AsSuLuTo · 1st Apr 2005, 16:40

HURRAH!!

This should rock!

Bindibadgi · 1st Apr 2005, 16:59

HDR in SM2.0b eh, should be interesting. Bet the peeps at Vavle with ATi had gone with SM3 from the word go now :P

Firehed · 1st Apr 2005, 18:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by mushky

Sweet

It's definately time to sell a kidney or two to fund a nice dual-6800GT SLI system.

I'd suggest you go with the sperm bank myself, you can donate more than once

I'd also suggest not selling both of your kidneys....

I'm psyched

RotoSequence · 1st Apr 2005, 18:07

Welcome to April first, where nothing said today is certain

L2wis · 1st Apr 2005, 18:48

I think there might have been something about this in a recent steam update. Sounds wicked but something that many of us won't see for at least a couple of years

lol (speaking for myself)

Tim S · 1st Apr 2005, 23:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by RotoSequence

Welcome to April first, where nothing said today is certain

This is for certain, the show was on last night. I had a torrent of the segment from the program, which is where this news came from.

ScwB · 2nd Apr 2005, 03:43

This is very real. HDR Lighting has been discussed for a while now, and as the poster above this said, Doug put on a show for it yesterday.

mushky · 2nd Apr 2005, 10:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Firehed

I'd suggest you go with the sperm bank myself, you can donate more than once

I'd also suggest not selling both of your kidneys....

Who said anything about *my* kidneys?

fathazza · 3rd Apr 2005, 21:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by mushky

Sweet

It's definately time to sell a kidney or two to fund a nice dual-6800GT SLI system.

id want more than £500 for one of my kidneys

j.rhy@n · 4th Apr 2005, 12:20

so when they talk about High End or Super duper powered computers what spec are they talking about. I think Sli is the way ahead once all games are adapted to it but for the mean time a lot of people will have to do with what they got and Im sure this isnt what game producers want as people wont be able to afford their product..

I guess for a lot of people they will have to wait for the price drop..

Tim S · 4th Apr 2005, 12:41

I would say you are looking at a Radeon X800 XL/GeForce 6800 GT as minimum - we won't know until the patch arrives, though.

j.rhy@n · 4th Apr 2005, 13:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigz

I would say you are looking at a Radeon X800 XL/GeForce 6800 GT as minimum - we won't know until the patch arrives, though.

Well we shall see, Im happy I purchased a X800 XT PE but if this struggles (Dont think so) then SLI is coming my way...

Darkedge · 4th Apr 2005, 15:18

SLI is a dead end - not a permanent solution at all, it's just a fad like the voodoo 2 sli way back. The costs of such a system mean it'll never replace a one video card system (not to mention the bandwidth loss as all SLI is only 8x PCIe not 16x) and as such will always be just high end and not mainstream. I'll give it 2 years of glory now before it dies again.

I think my FX53 with x800XT PE should manage fine.

Oh and to those who would prefer shader model 3 - it's not needed, not for far cry either. Nvidia just moved the goal posts unessesarily with introducing it so quick.

Da Dego · 3rd May 2005, 18:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkedge

Oh and to those who would prefer shader model 3 - it's not needed, not for far cry either. Nvidia just moved the goal posts unessesarily with introducing it so quick.

Oh, you mean like PCIe altogether?

We'll see utilisation of SM3 before we see the bandwidth peak of AGP reached.

1st Apr 2005, 11:42	#1
Tim S Pewlius Caesar bit-tech Staff Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Ascot, Berks Posts: 18,021	HDR patch and new 'super level' coming to Half-Life 2 As we know, Half-Life 2 was arguably the biggest gaming story of 2004, which achieved a status of 'instant classic' and is quite often labelled 'The Best Game Ever to be made'. Last night on Attack of the Show, an American TV show focused on gaming, Valve software unveiled a whole new level for Half-Life 2 that will give gamers a glimpse in to the future of PC graphics, with some immensely realistic lighting effects, known as HDR. Valve's Doug Lombardi gave a demonstration of the upcoming 'The Lost Coast' level that utilizes technology that was implemented in to the Source engine which, until now, has not been seen in a game based on the engine. The technique has, however, been seen in the likes of FarCry and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory - the full version of the latter is released today. HDR is an abbreviation for High-Dynamic Range Rendering, and creates an amazing leap in lighting realism. We saw how Crytek's method of HDR was implemented back in our FarCry patch 1.3 evaluation, which is only possible on video cards supporting an FP16 frame buffer and Shader Model 3.0 capabilities. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory also requires a Shader Model 3.0-capable video card to make use of the lighting technique. Valve's HDR method is slightly different in that respect. Half-Life 2 is a title on ATI's 'Get In The Game' program, so it would be a marketing disaster if the new lighting technique did not work on ATI's current video cards. "This is targeted at the super-hardcore early-adopter guy who's got the latest and greatest stuff and the horse power to cope with these new lighting techniques," said Doug when asked how demanding this new lighting technology would be on today's video cards. The Lost Coast will be an additional level that is free to owners of Half-Life 2 and it will be released via Steam in the next few weeks. There will also be an update to Half-Life 2 that will give the game some of these HDR effects released in the same time frame. __________________ Tim on Twitter \| Tim's Blog \| Tim's Flickr The bit-tech Blog \| bit-tech on Twitter \| Join the bit-tech & Custom PC folding team (#35947) Last edited by Tim S; 3rd Apr 2005 at 00:52.

1st Apr 2005, 15:24	#3
r3Q Supermodder Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Liverpool, NY Posts: 544	i wish i had a better computer __________________ -r3Q Athalon XP2400+ @2.1ghz, Abit NF7-S, 80gb, seagate SATA, GeForce 6600GT, 1gb DDR-400 ram, modded Razer: Viper official moderator at caraudio.com

1st Apr 2005, 16:59	#5
Bindibadgi Richard Swinburne bit-tech Staff Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Omnipwntent Posts: 28,226	HDR in SM2.0b eh, should be interesting. Bet the peeps at Vavle with ATi had gone with SM3 from the word go now :P __________________ Made you look, made you stare, made you clicked this in your underwear! Den of Geek!

1st Apr 2005, 18:07	#7
RotoSequence Lazy Lurker Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: 'States Posts: 4,527	Welcome to April first, where nothing said today is certain __________________ Technology Schmecnology

1st Apr 2005, 18:48	#8
L2wis Hypermodder Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: UK Posts: 659	I think there might have been something about this in a recent steam update. Sounds wicked but something that many of us won't see for at least a couple of years lol (speaking for myself) __________________ Lewis Wells Get Firefox! \| Get Thunderbird! \| Join Bit-tech folding@home

1st Apr 2005, 14:54	#2
mushky gimme snails Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: cambs uk Posts: 5,744	Sweet It's definately time to sell a kidney or two to fund a nice dual-6800GT SLI system.

1st Apr 2005, 16:40	#4
AsSuLuTo What's a Dremel? Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Caterham, Surrey Posts: 13	HURRAH!! This should rock!

2nd Apr 2005, 03:43	#10
ScwB What's a Dremel? Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Canada Posts: 12	This is very real. HDR Lighting has been discussed for a while now, and as the poster above this said, Doug put on a show for it yesterday.

4th Apr 2005, 12:20	#13
j.rhy@n Multimodder Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Germany / Brit Nationalit Posts: 197	so when they talk about High End or Super duper powered computers what spec are they talking about. I think Sli is the way ahead once all games are adapted to it but for the mean time a lot of people will have to do with what they got and Im sure this isnt what game producers want as people wont be able to afford their product.. I guess for a lot of people they will have to wait for the price drop.. __________________ 3DMark 06 9156 Points My Main PC: AMD 64 4600 x2 socket 939 \| Gainward Bliss 8800 GTX\| Asus A8N SLI Premium Edition \| 1 x Samsung 160 gig SATA \| OCZ DIMM 2 GB DDR-400 Kit (OCZ4002048ELDCPC, Platinum) \| Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1

4th Apr 2005, 12:41	#14
Tim S Pewlius Caesar bit-tech Staff Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Ascot, Berks Posts: 18,021	I would say you are looking at a Radeon X800 XL/GeForce 6800 GT as minimum - we won't know until the patch arrives, though. __________________ Tim on Twitter \| Tim's Blog \| Tim's Flickr The bit-tech Blog \| bit-tech on Twitter \| Join the bit-tech & Custom PC folding team (#35947)

4th Apr 2005, 15:18	#16
Darkedge Supermodder Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: UK Posts: 334	SLI is a dead end - not a permanent solution at all, it's just a fad like the voodoo 2 sli way back. The costs of such a system mean it'll never replace a one video card system (not to mention the bandwidth loss as all SLI is only 8x PCIe not 16x) and as such will always be just high end and not mainstream. I'll give it 2 years of glory now before it dies again. I think my FX53 with x800XT PE should manage fine. Oh and to those who would prefer shader model 3 - it's not needed, not for far cry either. Nvidia just moved the goal posts unessesarily with introducing it so quick.