Half-Life 2 (PC)

[Concept]

Without any AA or AF those results are roughly about right for the setup the tests were supposedly taken on.

My rig roughly consists of an Athlon 64 3200+, 1GB DDR and an AX800. So in other words, I have an inferior setup to the benchmark setup, yet I got the scores for the following:

1024x768: 119.51fps (without AA/AF, all settings maxed)
1280x1024: 103.71fps (without AA/AF, all settings maxed)

In the VST, adding AA/AF can bring the fps down around 30/40 on some occasions.

[Concept]

The results in the above post were taken at stock clock speeds. Bear in mind the following is with slight over-clocking (50Mhz of both core and memory)

Here are results with (6xAA, 16xAF, all settings maxed).

1024x768: 99.55fps
1240x1040: 70.72fps

Basically, the tests in that link were taken on a system with a better motherboard, CPU and type of RAM than mine, so the results seem to stand.

Anyway, fifty ballz, judging by the card you have you don't have to worry about achieving a good performance. From what I gather, the difference between the 6800 and x800 range isn't anywhere near as large as it was in the Doom III tests.

I'd rather talk about the game now instead of mindless benchmarks, so I apologise if the above link had you baffled.

[Ish]

Just watched those two Bink videos. I'd seen the train station one before but not the one with all the action sequences strung together.

The sections in the city have a nice clean look about them I thought. As someone said earlier it doesn't seem has 'effect' laden as the Doom 3 engine.

I love the section with the tripod: I'm dying to take some of those out.

All in all very excited now. I've even downloaded steam so I can bag it the minute its released

[Inertia_]

I love the section with the tripod: I'm dying to take some of those out.

Pants-busting spoiler:

In the beta you can drive them.

[Concept]

Sickness. This game needs to come out now.

[Ish]

Oh my. OH MY!

[Concept]

Someone's hacked the VST Half-Life 2 benchmark map and enabled it in the Counterstrike: Source Beta.

I've just tried it out.

The map plays and looks just as fast as it does in the demo. Some of the physics are impressive. Remember that plank of wood in the liquid during the VST? You can splinter the wood and watch it bob and down, affecting the water level. It's also possible to shoot over a tv and fry it in the water near the camera screens.

[Concept]

http://img38.exs.cx/img38/539/test_hardware0000.jpg

http://img38.exs.cx/img38/6017/test_hardware0010.jpg

http://img38.exs.cx/img38/1935/test_hardware0012.jpg

http://img61.exs.cx/img61/1994/test_hardware0028.jpg

http://img61.exs.cx/img61/5093/test_hardware0034.jpg

http://img61.exs.cx/img61/2637/test_hardware0035.jpg

http://img61.exs.cx/img61/861/test_hardware0036.jpg

http://img61.exs.cx/img61/7715/test_hardware0037.jpg

http://img61.exs.cx/img61/6162/test_hardware0045.jpg

http://img61.exs.cx/img61/5113/test_hardware0047.jpg

http://img61.exs.cx/img61/6774/test_hardware0048.jpg

http://img61.exs.cx/img61/1912/test_hardware0051.jpg

http://img61.exs.cx/img61/3971/test_hardware0052.jpg

http://img61.exs.cx/img61/1152/test_hardware0053.jpg

http://img61.exs.cx/img61/7495/test_hardware0060.jpg

http://img62.exs.cx/img62/7566/test_hardware0059.jpg

Okay. Here are some pictures of the VST map in action on a CS: Beta server. Thankfully, because I wasn't caught in the rolling benchmark demo, as I was able to get some much better shots of the Source engine properly in action. You'll have to ignore some of the text from some of the players who were there at the time I arrived.

I think they were teenage Americans waiting for their balls to drop.

[Spatial]

The comments in those pictures remind me why I stopped playing online.

Nice to see that even with a change of engine by Valve and a 3 years absense from online gaming on my part, the Counter Strike retards are still in abundance.

With that little rant out the way all I can say is "Wow !"

If thats what HL2 is going to look like when its done then its going to beat Doom 3 all the way

[Concept]

Tell me about it. Those retarded comments are an example why I come to this place, and how I've not played all that much of Counterstrike: Source online.

To avoid such stupid lack of intelligence.

It's beautiful, it's adaptable and it's fast. Those are the three areas up to now I feel the Source engine really excels in. Anyway... We're almost at Monday now.

Maybe once the pre-loading is fully under way Valve may feel compelled to issue an official release date at last. I hope so.

Anyway, if not that, I have a feeling we'll probably be seeing more Half-Life 2 media next week.

[Len]

Looking good, I particularly like the first shot. Weird to see the t's and ct's in the water but if that's a taster to look fwd to, great news. The comments are lol funny, you just gotta make sure you find a decent crowd to play with as we all know.

On another note I wonder if we'll hear any snippets regards CS2 and TF2 (which has been in dev limbo for years) and what mp components we're gonna get out of the box..?

[Zapp$ter]

Len's spot on. CS is a lot of fun if you have the right crowd. I have a blast playing CS 1.5 with my family and friends over a LAN.

What would you guys say to creating like an ntsc-uk server or something for CS:Source and/or HL2 other multiplayer components? I mean most of you guys seem pretty reasonable and everything. Not like most of the 'tards that play CS online. What do you think? Good idea? bad idea? somebody talked about it before?

[Concept]

If it were possible to hook up with people from here and play CS: Source online when Half-Life 2 is released, then I'd be all for it, definately. I don't think anything has been properly arranged before in setting up decent multiplayer sessions in anticipation for Half-Life 2, probably because most of us are focused on the single-player game. It'll be good to maybe think about sorting something out though.

Browsing a few sites, I recently came across a couple of old videos I hadn't seen before that were taken examining technical aspects of the game at Siggraph.

http://www.fileplanet.com/files/120000/129653.shtml

http://www.fileplanet.com/files/120000/129654.shtml

For anyone who maybe interested...

[Len]

I'll definitely be up for some of the mp action once I've got round to finishing the sp. I'll be playing with a load of my m8's anyway so I'm sure we can all hook up, look fwd to it...

[wazy15]

I still haven't played the first Half Life. Better get round to it so I understand the whole story, as HL2 will have some definite tie-in's with the first.

Waz