Half-Life 2 (PC)

[choddo]

There's a lot of threads on this subject (what spec PC do I need?)

...and the answer is "a quick one". As a rough estimate, any less than 10000 3dmarks in 3DMark2001SE and you're probably going to be a bit hamstrung. There's also a rough guide linked in the thread Brats posted in Q&A. www.half-life2.net I think it was.

OT: By the way Fire, if you've been waiting since Q3 was released for a good FPS, you've obviously been asleep for the last 3 years. UT? Halo? UT2003? RTCW? BF1942? Quake3 is really fairly poor in that company.

[quexex]

Saw the demo movie at ECTS or should I say realtime movie all the stuff they showed was the engine going prerecorded actions and OMG...OMG...OMG...it's totally amazing, having cued for alomost an hour I was expecting the half hour presentation to be 5mins of half life while vivendi pimped all there other wares...how wrong was I 25 mins of halflife 2 onlg demonstrations. Some of it was technologie demos usually followed by an ingame piece demonstrating the technology being used some of the stuff they are doing is excellent this game will rule no doubt about it...However they were running it on a Top Spec machine on a wide screen plasamtron 36inch (at a guess) screen an it chugged quite a bit not unplayably so but it was definatley pushing the envolope of what is possible on a top spec PC! Now I hope this is mostly due to the fill rate required for running in super highres with widescreen display, as most of us will be running at a more moderate res on 17-19 inch 4:3 monitor. I really hope they get it out in time I spoke to a manager down in game and he was convinced it had slipped to November, however this was well before the anouncement at ECTS so we'll see, to be honest they should have gone gold by now if they have any hope fo getting the game to stores world wide buy the end of the month!


Cheers

Quexex

[Spatial]

New info courtesy of Vossy.com's interview with Doug Lombardi ( its a french site and the tranlations a bit crap in places but you get the jist of it )

Vossey.com: One month left for the HL2 release and right now we have no demo, no HL2 playable demo for press and its the same video from E3. Why Valve keep info for itself ?

DL: We want the player to discover the game, weapons and story by himself. You're gonna have all the infomations when HL2 is release.

Vossey.com: We have seen a lot of HL2 in-game screenshot but no menu and no interface screenshots.

DL: Indeed, like I said we leave the surprise to the player.

Vossey.com : Will Half-Life 2 be released on other platforms?

DL : Yes, notably on Xbox. The game will be available on Xbox but not until 2004. The partnership with Microsoft isn?t exclusive and we will also see this game on the next consoles by Sony

Looks like its still on for the 30th so far then 8)

It confirms what I though about promotion of the game - Valve / Vivendi won't need to push this game too hard in terms of marketing and promotion. Lets face it, how many gamers haven't heared of the original or the sequel at this point ?

It'll probably sell by reputation alone, and for those that are oblivious to this they'll mop them up with a marketing campaign when the game launches

They've done the minimal ammount of exposure they felt neccesary, and let the fan sites and screaming fan boys do all the rest

Must be saving them a packet

[nips]

Argh, I need a new GFX card.

I've still got a Hercules 8500, I really need a new one. I'm sure that is what is holding me back...

I just did the 32Mark benchmark and got 7,000... But with a 2.8Ghz processor, 512 Dual DDR, damn fast HDD and stuff...

Ok, Who wants to give me ?200?

[Fire]

OT: By the way Fire, if you've been waiting since Q3 was released for a good FPS, you've obviously been asleep for the last 3 years. UT? Halo? UT2003? RTCW? BF1942? Quake3 is really fairly poor in that company.

O_O

No, I'd still class it as better than all of those. It is the best multiplayer FPS around and is really a different genre to team based WW2 games like RTCW and BF1942(which I quite like actually, bar the awful feel of the guns and how the shots register.. or don't as the case may be). Halo is enjoyable but I don't rate it as highly as seemingly every other xbox owner, certainly not enough to go back and play the single player over and over - the multiplayer is extremely bland and wooden too.

Don't want to rant on about UT, but the series really is and always has been a poorly designed game in comparison to Q3. This is probably why UT2003 is being dropped as a top level competitive game already while Q3 is still going strong after all these years.

[replicant]

Can the source engine be scaled down for lower performance pcs - yes

Is there any point in playing Half-Life 2 with such a system - no

Part of the immersive qualities of fps games comes from their graphics, and the environments and characters their engine creates. Im sorry but playing HL2 with the same of appearance of HL is pointless.

It is a hard reality that if you want to play the game at its best you will need a Direct X 9 can. Plus you will need a fast direct x 9 card.

[Garibaldi Biscuit]

There may be no point to you in playing Half-Life2 at anything but max resolution and full effects set, but I think you'd be surprised at the number of P.C owners who are content to make certain visual sacrifices if it means experiencing a game of HL2's calibre.

Even with all the options ramped way down there's no way this would look identical to the original, even the most generic FPS's today throw around tricks that Half-Life could never match. There's no doubt you'd lose some of the enjoyable spit and polish in the graphics department, but whether that would make playing HL2 an 'inferior' experience is entirely open to personal opinion.

[Brats]

Can the source engine be scaled down for lower performance pcs - yes

Is there any point in playing Half-Life 2 with such a system - no

Part of the immersive qualities of fps games comes from their graphics, and the environments and characters their engine creates. Im sorry but playing HL2 with the same of appearance of HL is pointless.

It is a hard reality that if you want to play the game at its best you will need a Direct X 9 can. Plus you will need a fast direct x 9 card.

Personally, the reasons for me looking forward to HL2 have virtually zero to do with the graphics. It's much more the physics and immersive gameplay that interests me.

I disagree about the "immersive qualities of fps games comes from their graphics". Around the time that CS took off, the Half Life engine was looking very old, but it didn't stop CS from being arguably the most immerseive FPS yet (when it was actually worth playing).

By the same logic, Q3A must have lost all of its immersive qualties as the graphics are no longer state of the art. tell that to the millions of people who still play it.

I'm sure you'll be getting a DX9 card which is bully for you, but you won't be enjoying any more gameplay than people with a DX8 card, it'll just look prettier.

[Fire]

I was having fun playing HL: Blue Shift today as part of my HL2 anticipation.

Obviously if you have a poor system you won't be used to amazing graphics and massive framerates and should be able to enjoy the story and gameplay perfectly well even if it has average visuals.

Counterstrike Condition Zero is still using the original HL engine and I expect it will sell well and be enjoyed by plenty of people prepared to look past the dated (by PC standards) graphics when it is released.

Oh and at the risk of sound like an utter fanboy, I think Q3 still has very impressive visuals. Now that many people have systems capable of running it full visual whack at huge resolutions with maximum texture and geometry detail at over 100fps I think its easy the equal if not better than the vast majority of the latest console FPS in all visual areas except fancy bump mapping and the like you see on Xbox. A lot of new PC games today still use the Q3/Q3TA engine.

purdy

[replicant]

Gari

Even with all the options ramped way down there's no way this would look identical to the original, even the most generic FPS's today throw around tricks that Half-Life could never match

If its running on the base system it will look like the original. This comes from Valve, and a recent article which broke down the scale options of the game. When you hit dx5 cards it is as basic as the original.

Brats

I disagree about the "immersive qualities of fps games comes from their graphics". Around the time that CS took off, the Half Life engine was looking very old, but it didn't stop CS from being arguably the most immerseive FPS yet (when it was actually worth playing)

When CS took off the Half Life engine wasn't looking old. I remember playing the first generation if CS during the latter days of Quakeworld. At that point the HL engine was further advanced that GL Quake due to its hybrid Quake/Quake 2 tech. Also as you are aware the online breed of gamers can be completely different. Its not uncommon for online players to deliberately strip the graphical effects of the engine to the bear bones in order that enemy players are more visible, and theres less destractions to be hand. Something that I never agreed on, but several of my old Q3 clan mates had configs which made it look worse than Quake!

By the same logic, Q3A must have lost all of its immersive qualties as the graphics are no longer state of the art. tell that to the millions of people who still play it.

I think more credit should be given to the Q3A engine. Its not as poor as you make out. Look at games such as Call of Duty which has just gone to demo. Its using the engine, and it looks fantastic. To me Q3A vanilla is still a fantastic looking game esp with AA/AF added to the mix now.

I'm sure you'll be getting a DX9 card which is bully for you, but you won't be enjoying any more gameplay than people with a DX8 card, it'll just look prettier.

I already have one. However you are incorrect about the gameplay aspects. Valve demostrated the camera system of HL2 which enables players to adapt their gameplay by using mobile cameras in their game. This is one of the first features to be sacrificed due to downscaling for the system.

Downscaling also effects the havoc physics, and ragdoll physics engine. As Valve themselves said the engine make will make full use of a 3.2gig P4.

Its also important to realise that when Valve were initially talking about Souce it wasnt a full DX9 engine. Now it is, which adds many more features not seen yet via the E3 movies to the program.

[replicant]

nice avatar fire quad power!

to compliment fire's pick heres a shot of Call of Duty that I mentioned. This is the Q3A engine.

[Brats]

Your comments on CS and Q3A are circling around the main point which is that graphics aren't quite as important to FPS as you imply, but if as you say a lower spec system does compromise gameplay then that is a seperate issue that needs to be thought out.

But the fact remains that graphics alone are not what makes this game interesting and I'm fairly confident that you won't need a top level system to enjoy all the gameplay benefits. There is a gulf of difference between a DX9 system and a DX5 system. Even my old TNT can run DX5 standing on its head.

If what Valve say is true about the game making full use of a P4 3.2 gig, does this not make you concerned being that you have an Athlon? A fast Athlon maybe, but it lacks some of the features of the P4 chipset. Personally, I think this may be posturing by Valve. I still remember Carmack saying that Q3A wouldn't run on anything less than a Gefoce 2 .

If the XBox version of HL2 ever appears and has all of the gameplay touches intact, that would be the version I would get, regardless of graphical compromises. Graphics don't interest me enough to spend big spondoolies on upgrading my PC.

Needless to say, your post was pretty trollsome, seemingly just to get under the skin of those with DX8 cards. Why didn't you just type "Nur, Nur, Nur! My PC's got a DX9 graphics card! Yours hasn't! Who's the Daddy? ,etc, etc,"?

[wazy15]

I am so desperate for Half Life 2 that I have decided to buy a new PC for it. I am just not sure on what graphics card to get, any recommendations?

[replicant]

Your comments on CS and Q3A are circling around the main point which is that graphics aren't quite as important to FPS as you imply, but if as you say a lower spec system does compromise gameplay then that is a seperate issue that needs to be thought out.

A lower spec does compromise certain aspects of the engine. The engine just isn't graphics. There are other aspects too. Thats why games such as Unreal Tournament 2k3 have the option to increase or lower the ragdoll physics.

Of course graphics on fps games are important. Its one genre that really leans on that aspect. A quality fps creates an immersive world through strong level design, well produced architecture and character design. Would HL2, or Doom 3 be as enjoyable and immersive if either based on a series of square rooms with no textures, or world features? Somehow I think the answer would be no.

If what Valve say is true about the game making full use of a P4 3.2 gig, does this not make you concerned being that you have an Athlon? A fast Athlon maybe, but it lacks some of the features of the P4 chipset.

However the design behind the P4, and the XP is completely different. Both companies have followed a different approach. Running benchmarks shows that theres little difference between the performance of my PC and a high spec P4. The only difference is that the mobo, cpu, and memory of my PC cost less than the Intel chip Im running against!

Personally, I think this may be posturing by Valve. I still remember Carmack saying that Q3A wouldn't run on anything less than a Gefoce 2 .

And now he has said in a .plan that these minimum specs for Doom 3 are still valid. Infact if I remember correctly he said it will run on a GF DDR, but it will be very slow.

Needless to say, your post was pretty trollsome, seemingly just to get under the skin of those with DX8 cards. Why didn't you just type "Nur, Nur, Nur! My PC's got a DX9 graphics card! Yours hasn't! Who's the Daddy? ,etc, etc,"?

Hardly. It was a reality of PC gaming. If you want to play the latest games at their best, you need the latest hardware. That was my statement. I don't actually recall mentioning I had a DX9 card at that point. Also you can pick up a DX9 card for 50 quid, so its hardly a "whos the daddy" statement is it?

Your reaction is one of the reasons I no longer post here. Smells a bit like green cheese. Luckily on other forums people are able to post about their even higher spec pcs than mine without being called a troll. Tell you what, next time someone posts a nice pic of their games collection. Post and call them a troll as you obviously feel they are showing off. See the reaction you get!

[replicant]

Wazy

If you need any help then give me a shout on irc. I was trying to help Unlighty build his pc last week and he was surprised at the spec I got him for 500 quid.

It all depends on your budget, but there are cards to suit what limit is ranging from 50 quid dx9 cards to 450 quid dx9 cards.