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Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

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Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#241

Post by PittleyDunkin »

satvikpendem wrote: post #187
PittleyDunkin wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is right, but both of those largely escape microsoft branding. I think a better example would be XBox and Windows as a gaming platform (vs macos, though Linux is definitely gaining ground). Windows itself, and especially Teams, have very negative reputations.

Teams, yes, but I don't hear many people having a worse opinion on Windows than the decades before, it seems like it's a vocal minority who care while most people just use Windows and get on with their lives.

> but I don't hear many people having a worse opinion on Windows than the decades before

Well sure, but windows has never exactly been highly praised outside the enterprise world. Much of the praise that is held is mostly nostalgic.

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#242

Post by sheepdestroyer »

talldayo wrote: post #227
KronisLV wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hasn't Unreal Engine 5 gotten a bunch of criticism about a lot of the games made with it having high system requirements, and often playing like a stuttery mess? Though it's hard to tell where the technical decisions end and developers not caring much about optimization (or expecting people to use upscaling even for 1080p) starts. Recently, it was revealed that even the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 benchmarks used upscaling and…

It's complicated. There is Unreal 5 tech that is extremely slow in and of itself (Lumen and Nanite come to mind), but most of the stutter comes from UE5's notorious shader compilation pipeline. Instead of pre-compiling shaders on first launch, UE5 will automatically compile and cache shaders while the user is playing which obviously hits the CPU and causes slowdown in unfamiliar areas. However, it should be noted tha…

What prevents to precompile shaders on windows, in a similar way it's done on those other platforms?

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#243

Post by gordon_freeman »

parasti wrote: post #186
gordon_freeman wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they are also merging Ep1 and Ep2 together into HL2 now and have gradual progression of HL2 to E1 and then to E2. I just browsed my Steam game library and can't find separate copies of E1 and E2 there because of being merged with HL2.

This is in the article.

For folks who don’t read article and come to read comments directly.

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#244

Post by nopelynopington »

wolrah wrote: post #153
bsimpson wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also a $60 purchase that requires a beefy Windows machine in addition to the headset. VR is a small market to begin with, and most VR people can't play Alyx without buying a whole new computer.

> most VR people can't play Alyx without buying a whole new computer. When Alyx first came out I had a PC that was the minimum recommended specs for VR from the day the Vive launched (4790K and Geforce 970). The game ran fine. It sure as hell got better when I upgraded to a 3900X and 3070, but it plays just fine on the original minimum requirements VR PC which was a $1500 PC in 2015. The idea that PC VR requires a ma…

This is very interesting, I've wanted to play Alyx for a long time but could never justify the cost, assuming it needed a very expensive gaming pc. Maybe now I can afford it

Would be a huge selling point for the steam deck if it could manage it on min specs

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#245

Post by keyringlight »

pxoe wrote: post #226
keyringlight wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alyx wasn't just another HL game in isolation though, it was related to their adventures in VR along with developing hardware and APIs for it, and exploring how it works in a game

>it was related to their adventures in VR Which also shows yet another one of Valve's problems with making games, they treat their games like they're "tech demos", so unfortunately they're not as interested in actually moving the stories in their games forward or bringing them to a conclusion. They do a "tech demo", they move on from that tech, leaving the game and it's world and community behind. Plot? What plot? Pe…

For a while I though you could explain Valve best by thinking of them as a gaming technology lab rather than a 'simple' game developer, and most of their hit games have been acquired. The thing that sours me on where they've ended up is outside of steam which has become PC gaming infrastructure their projects have had little influence. The big standout project besides VR has been the deck, which I think is less important as a portable device and more as a baseline for low-spec gaming

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#246

Post by talldayo »

sheepdestroyer wrote: post #242
talldayo wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's complicated. There is Unreal 5 tech that is extremely slow in and of itself (Lumen and Nanite come to mind), but most of the stutter comes from UE5's notorious shader compilation pipeline. Instead of pre-compiling shaders on first launch, UE5 will automatically compile and cache shaders while the user is playing which obviously hits the CPU and causes slowdown in unfamiliar areas. However, it should be noted tha…

What prevents to precompile shaders on windows, in a similar way it's done on those other platforms?

Technically, nothing. It's perfectly possible to precompile shaders on Windows - it's just not convenient or logical for most PC users.

On console, precompiling makes sense because you know exactly what hardware a user will have and you can optimize for one or two sets of hardware. The effort required to automatically package and download these shaders for users on their first load is worth it, so it's a viable fix to shader stutter in games where it crops up.

On Linux, precompiling makes sense because shaders take an extra long time to process due to the DirectX -> Vulkan translation. Since this causes stutter in every game, a precompilation step is pretty much mandatory for everything but conveniently also solves the UE5 stutter issue at it's roots.

On PC, it's basically a maelstrom of worst case scenarios. You don't know what hardware a user will have, so you can't package precompiled shaders. You're not translating shader calls so you have to rely on each version of DirectX's specific DXIL features instead of the unified Vulkan 1.2+ SPIR-V that you get from DXVK. And of course, even if you did get a magic "Compile the Shaders!" program working most users wouldn't bother since they're impatient. Some games try adding optional precompilation screens, but I wager most people just skip them when given the opportunity.

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#247

Post by bsimpson »

nopelynopington wrote: post #244
wolrah wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> most VR people can't play Alyx without buying a whole new computer. When Alyx first came out I had a PC that was the minimum recommended specs for VR from the day the Vive launched (4790K and Geforce 970). The game ran fine. It sure as hell got better when I upgraded to a 3900X and 3070, but it plays just fine on the original minimum requirements VR PC which was a $1500 PC in 2015. The idea that PC VR requires a ma…

This is very interesting, I've wanted to play Alyx for a long time but could never justify the cost, assuming it needed a very expensive gaming pc. Maybe now I can afford it Would be a huge selling point for the steam deck if it could manage it on min specs

I played on Legion Go. It's basically a Steam Deck with newer specs and native Windows support.

It ran, but barely. I probably spent half my playtime restarting the game, trying to find the happy coincidence of playability (because the other sessions were too rough). Being able to play Alyx was one of the reasons I chose the Go over the Deck.

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#248

Post by taeric »

opan wrote: post #193
taeric wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nintendo has some where you can't rent anymore, because the save data is on cartridge. They all have limitations on regions. Again, Steam /could/ do this. Has it? The others have done the things.

3DS saved to the cart and had region-locking. Neither applies to Switch. You can get a JP copy of Splatoon 3, play it on your NA Switch, swap to the NA version of the game, and not lose anything.

Ah, that is good to hear. May pick up a switch game for the kids while in Japan, then.

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#249

Post by danpalmer »

kllrnohj wrote: post #201
riffruff24 wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why they should hire someone else to do the leg work (That's what they used to do anyway). There isn't exactly a lot of unique things in Portal 2 compared to the original but the sheer polish and testing Valve applied to their games (when they want to) is still unmatched.

Portal 2 added co-op as the big gameplay change vs. 1. But Gabe has said Half-Life specifically is what they consider their ground breaking series now. So there won't be a 3 until they can push a boundary again like the first 2 did.

From all the leaks, it sounds like the big change for HL3 is currently advanced materials – destruction, traction, behaviour, conductivity, etc. This would make sense as it plays into the material work in Portal 2 and the deformation work in HL2:EP2-3, as well as the physics puzzles in HL3. Additionally it sounds like gravity may be a core feature of the game.

This is all speculation based on code leaks, and it's possible this is all true and they still don't release anything because the project stalls. Supposedly the game has moved into the later stages of development, but I'm not fully convinced by that part of the leaks.

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#250

Post by nirui »

endoblast wrote: post #212
nirui wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8:54 Holy shit I don't even know one could do something like that, jumping back to the room and hide in complete safety, very smart. Also, at 0:30, turning off that living place hazard is very kind of you. And you also saved Bob and Jim from being cut in half by doing that. Father Grigori might not like it, but he's crazy too.

I think I went off to make a cup of coffee IRL which is why I stayed in that room longer than needed ('Now brother step into the cart!')

While you sipping on that coffee, I was crouched down on the same roof surrounded by the awful sound of the incoming sporty zombies. I hate those things, I still do.
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