... released over at VERC. Interesting read:

http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?go=source_mod_faq

64 times bigger maps.

Nice. :D

Great information there!

/me drools

Can't wait to work with the new hammer etc :D

Imagine what new kinds of maps we could make on this engine, progressive spawning will rock on this as we could have so many nice areas ;)

Originally posted by skdr
64 times bigger maps.

Nice. :D

*draws up plans for dod_london* :D

whats the lowest pc that could run HL2?

*draws up plans for dod_london*


How about draw up plans for dod_europe baby...yyyeeaahhh.

So much new space. Going to take years to complete 1 map...I'm so excited.

Originally posted by Winnebago
How about draw up plans for dod_europe baby...yyyeeaahhh.

errr lol, he said a few minutes to get across the map, not a few days lol, but dod_europe would be sooo cooool. 5000 vs 5000 on a server lol, like planetside.

The only thing that hasn't actually been said and I want to know, is how much faster or efficient is the compiling in HL2?

yeah, but i also want to know more indepth how much current r_speeds will be acaptable in hl2, so we could start mapping for it.

Originally posted by gen.mckee
yeah, but i also want to know more indepth how much current r_speeds will be acaptable in hl2, so we could start mapping for it.

r_speeds might be reduced somewhat by the new engine maybe? In that 500mb movie of hl2 there are some dam huge open areas and there didn't appear to be any r_speed problems. So I'm assuming they've come up with some great way to reduce those nasty r_speeds that will let us develop big, wider, more open and greater maps ;)

yeah, I heard that the hl engin will handle open areas very well... but i was kinda wondering about the numbers, like 700 and 900 make a big difference with my settings.

Originally posted by gen.mckee
yeah, I heard that the hl engin will handle open areas very well... but i was kinda wondering about the numbers, like 700 and 900 make a big difference with my settings.

I doubt they'll tell us till its released most likely, but then again they may tell us.
They're trying to keep alot of stuff secret about hl2 so they might not even tell us r_speed info, but they may 2 ;)

they probably purged the "240 subdivide" worst thing in an engine EVER

omg... look at the 2nd builing, is it curved? i mean CURVED not like a bunch of squares i a cirular patter... its like 10 fps, vs 100 fps, at 10 its choppy, at 100 is faster then the eye can tell, so is that like the 100 fps equivilent for roundness.

sorry if that didnt make sense, im exited lol

Errr, what building? I dont see any. But yeah, I'm getting really excited over this. I think it will stear DoD in a whole new direction(towards bf1942 most likely). Yeah, I'm thinking theres some kind of terrain generator/manipulator. It would take a damn long time to make every single brush for those outdoor areas...

And i was just joking about that europe thing lol. it would be awsome though. Think about it, it would be BFE 24/7 with the line always moving(like in planetside which i have never played). Oh god, I'm going to watch that 500mg movie again, this time prepared. With a diaper.

Originally posted by Sly Assassin
I doubt they'll tell us till its released most likely, but then again they may tell us.
They're trying to keep alot of stuff secret about hl2 so they might not even tell us r_speed info, but they may 2 ;)

ONce you've got LOD system and a host of other technological optimisations, r_speeds shouldn't be much of an issue.

If they included LOD system for Dod v1.0 or the current HL engine, it would be a vast improvement.

Terraing generators are good. Then just shade your own grayscale height map, modelled exactly after real world contour data. Good and necessary for large worlds as u can't afford to vertex manipulate every triangle. Not that vertex manipulation is useless. Vertex manipulation is perfect for shaping accruately your grass patches on the streets, the road pavements, the torn out uprooted ground, the rubble, etc. That's why u'll notice those triangles in the Hammer screenies, easy vertex manipulator bumps patches for all the fine details. TerrainGenerators have a purpose of modelling the large distant worlds and sceneries, vertex manipulation is for the purpose of modelling close-up details that can be touched and felt....down to the gritty details of mud, trenches, etc. If yr map has the best of these 2 worlds, (a good combination of vertex manipulation gritty details and large flowing interactive terrain), you've got the aesthetically best map ever. Problem is: it's always not easy to achieve both. It's usally one or the other. This is how OFP and BF1942 does it.....always the latter: large terrain + prefabs but not much closed-up details.

64x bigger maps? Wouldn't that mean 0.4x64=25.6 kilometers? 4 of these and you get Nogovo! Then again, it's reccomended to split things down to several maps or your cpu might get fried...considering the tons of details per map.

One bad thing is (as of now) multiplayer limit is still 32 as one of Valve team said. With such advancements I would expect rather a 64+ player limit.

You guys read wrong map limits. To be honest it isn't written clear but
"The maximum map size is currently set at +/-16384 (16x the lateral space of Half-Life 1, 64x overall space). It will take several minutes to cross the map in a vehicle."

So map is supposed to be 16 x larger in XY dimensions, so it would be 16x8192=131072. In next sentence it is written that maps has 32768 size, which is supposed to be 16x HL1. One of these values is wrong since in the next question: 1 unit is still 1 inch and Gordon has width of 32.
So overall 32768 is not much. Even 131072 is probably not more than BF42 or DeltaForce:BHD can handle (probably Tribes 2 still can do largest ones).

I dont know if u guys watched the same video as I saw, I was quite disapointed.

i bought the PC Gamer magazine, and on the cover it said "Incredible Video!, HL2, see it in action, you wont belive your eyes."

the video was like 2-3 mins long just showing Gordon walking thru some levels, yea it shows how good the engine looks, but the screenshots showed the same thing!

You should grab that 500+MB video of HL2 official presentation at E3'03.

I wish they would use DPR (Distance Polgon Reduction) and MRT (Model Replication Technology). DPR could easily be coded in if LOD is supported :D, but MRT is probably Unreal trademark technology so we are unllikely to see it. but i wish we oculd it would rock so bad. A street with streetlgihts all the way down but only taking about 110% of the resources need for 1 I mean think about the posiblities! throw in DPR and hell, you have the worlds lowest r_speed street.

What? Unreal copywrited that??

The crappy playstation game Vigilante 8 used it years ago. When you see a model from a distance, the poly count reduced loads.. Bring in the lawyers...

I was impressed by the HL2 video.

32 players should be plenty. Besides the most you usually ever see on a current HL server is about 22.

DPR isnt copyrighted but I'm damn sure MRT is.

In case no one figured this out, maps are a bit over 4 miles.

DOD 2 should have some nice maps then!

But I don't know if anyone would want to play on a map 4 miles big... Battles would last for hours! Well perhaps there could be a mix of large to small.

that would be good, when i get mapping for HL2, the first propermap would be Port Merion, the place where they filmed the TV series "The Prisoner" in the 60's, but not many of u would know what im talking about.

ROFLMAO

That would be the bestest map EVAR! oh I'd have to see that. Hell it would be fun to add in the big white ball to!

beach map will be so nice! a big, hude long omaha beach, with clifs to climb, landing crafs to beach... i cant wait!

Twice the size of charlie would be big enough.

I have never heard of that TV series Nomad. Yeeeeeeaars before I was born! But whatever! Map away!

Some big maps is very cool.
On the other hand, some big maps for 32 players are less cool.

Here is what happened to operation flashpoint: the maps are so big, that the players never use the whole available space. Ususally they fight like we do in DoD: a small area. The same for the other games with big maps.

But big areas does not mean we have to use all that space. In game, travel 15 minutes to be killed is not as much fun as DoD is now.

What will probably happen is that some persons will create a few grounds, used later by other mappers.

Big maps means that we can already start to build the stuff, and convert it later. 16x the actual Hammer size, wow. Time to work as a team guys, and build projects together. HL1 is already a loads of work.

Half-Life was the game of the year, DoD the mod of the century... What will be HL2? lol :D

I've been playing lots of BF1942 lately (the Desert Combat mod) and there you've obviously got much bigger maps with large distances to cover, and vehicles to make it possible.

I don't think the big sizes of the maps would in any way be a problem for a (hypothetical) DOD 2. They make everything so much more fun, if done well. Snipers actually get to use proper sniper tactics. Things like mortars suddenly make sense - especially if they are transportable/deployable and not just static emplacements. And if you then throw in vehicles that are useable (not the crap stuff they tried to do with CS, of course) but like they are done in BF1942 then DOD would really enter a whole new dimension. And of course, the paits/bazzooka/panzerfausts would REALLY have a purpose then.

And of course, there's nothing to say you'd have to use the maximum possible size of the map anyhow.

Big maps may mean DOD would need a spawn system more like BF1942 - where you can choose your spawn location when dead and can spawn at any control point you side owns.

Gives me goose bumps just thinking what DOD could be like with the HL2 engine ....

Also with having bigger maps like they will in hl2 could mean that for dod2 (if they bring it out) could have better territory control maps with advancing spawns and so forth.

For Example: Teams could have say 6 advancing spawns each.

In order to win the map, one team must advance to the other side of the map through their advancing spawn system, having captured the objectives needed to move forward etc. This would also block off areas like in dod_zalec so that people can't sneak through to the other sides of the map etc etc.

The options would be alot wider then they are now.

Also para drop type maps would be alot better too on the hl2 engine, imagine looking up and seeing a sky full of paras dropping on you ;) crank out the MG and spam those paras, though only some would be actual players and the rest just models or something like that.

Disrupting convoys of tanks or trucks etc by using the bazookas and so on would be something that could be done on the source engine alot easier then the current hl engine.

Stalingrad would be a geat one to do in the source engine to, that would absoluty own me :D I'd have to have a full time pack of tissues beside my comp on a map like that :D

if you read it, it says that they isn't so much as "r_speeds" anymore..so why would you bother wondering what they'll be? They said it won't be rendered the same way, which is a good thing, but it won't have "r_speeds" but something else, we'll find out in the coming months. I thought the the distance/model quality thing is already in the game...it's in TF2, why would they not have it in HL2?