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Half-Life 3


TheReverend(c)

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Apextreme is still vapourware. Don't expect to hear or see anything from them. HL3 on PS3 is a scoop indeed, I can't confirm or deny that. I'd imagine that it'd actually be on the consoles for both Sony and Microsoft. That's the general rule of PC to console conversion.

 

As for Half-Life 3, it'll be a long time before you see or hear anything about that. First thing's first: the expansion. Half-Life 2: Aftermath is currently in development, and will be the next VALVe project released after DoD: Source and Lost Coast.

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Guest zerodamage
Guest zerodamage
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I still didn't find enough patience to finish Half-Life 2....

 

 

Your loss. The game is a masterpiece from beginning to end. Fantastic story.

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I would say the graphics are a bit more realistic in HL2, but understand that's half engine, half artwork. With a level editor, model builder and enough time I'm sure I can make a HL2 level look absolutely awful.

 

I think one metric that can be used pretty accurately would be to crank up the graphics to "equal levels" on both games (all high, AA same level, same resolution for example) and check the FPS. You'd have to be generous with the FPS, though: Something of just a few frames' difference would be insignificant considering that High and High aren't necessarily the same. I guess it also depends on what you're actually trying to measure...

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Totally agree, Fox.

 

Higher res textures, higher poly models and more attention to lighting detail are all one ups that I think VALVe has over CryTek. That has nothing to do with the engine, though. That's artistry.

 

Some people I've talked to like FarCry better because everything's shiny... Well, that's personal preference, but I didn't think that between each scene, they'd get a waterboy to come out and spray each character down with water.

 

You can do some amazingly beautiful things within the Source engine, compared to the CryTek engine. It just requires a longer art cycle than anybody's ever put into a videogame. Oh, and to really see Source at its highest levels, you need a seriously pimped out videocard. Most videocards see the 1024x768 specular maps, but a highend videocard will default to showing 1280x1024 specular maps on all of the textures. And now that HDR is out, that will only make those high end speculars even more stunning.

 

The engine isn't yet capable of rendering out 2560x2048 specular bumpmaps, but let's face it, most engines can't even display regular textures at that size.

Edited by Norguard
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Yes, I totally agree: Valve put more artistry work into HL2 than Crytek did into Farcry. However, I think part of it is the huge backing HL2 had vs. Crytek as a startup and part of it is the fact that FarCry was more bubble-gum action and fantastic while HL2 was supposed to be a real-world, gritty epic struggle. Style makes a big difference (Bring on the waterboy!). That's not to say "Farcry could totally look better than HL2", that's just one reason that could contribute to the overall look.

 

The next question is, how do you make the claim that one engine is better than another? Obviously we would all take Source over Quake anyday, provided we had a decent enough computer to run Source (there's already a metric). However, how does one compare Crytek and Source? The fact that Source can do more, even though it isn't feasible on the "average" computer? Personal preference? FPS (at what settings? How do you compare them?)? Source may be a bit more powerful, so that may be a bad comparison, but I don't think a good metric exists yet to really objectively judge between two peer engines.

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That sounds about right.

 

Personally, the only way I would consider comparing engines is to get a list of all aspects of the engine and its capabilities, considering a PC which can handle all of the options at a 100+ framerate. Such a PC doesn't exist, but assuming that the PC is totally out of the question, the whitesheet can be a tapemeasure.

 

Likewise, if you take all of the potential out of the engine, and use a P4 2GHz processor with a RADEON 9600XT, you will be able to judge which offers the majority of its current features at the highest framerate. It's impossible to do both. That's one of them, there scientific-like principles: we can know where an object is in space, or where it is in time, but not both in the same calculation.

 

People are still trying to tell me that DooM 3 had the best graphics, and yet, the exact same people tell me that Quake 4 looks attrocious. Quake 4 is just DooM 3 with the lights turned on.

Edited by Norguard
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  • 8 months later...

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