Info received from Valve ONLY - NO questions/discussion

[H2HSnake]

Subject: RE: Snake - pay question
Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2003 13:51:32 -0700
From: Gabe Newell <GabeN@valvesoftware.com>
To: 'Sebastian Rybaczek' <abrams@s-mail.com>


Hi Mr Newel.I've got quick questions about playing mods on HL2 MP.
There's a lot of misunderstanding about these pay to play options.I
understand that if I'll buy standard version with mp and mods support I'll be able to play MP and mods freely right?


correct

[the_prodigy]

-----Original Message-----
From: Arzin
Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2003 2:09 PM
To: gaben@valvesoftware.com
Subject: Why hitboxes ?


Hey guys,

Could you tell me in detail why y'all chose to go with hit boxes rather than per-poly ? And how will HL2s hitbox technology be better than the usual hitbox tech we see in games today ? I have my guesses as to why y'all chose it (MP and MODing issues) but I would appreciate it if you could tell me why exactly.

Looking forward to you reply. Thanks alot.

Arzin
_____________

Let's see if I can say this properly.

In Half-Life 1, world collisions and collision culling were handled by gross bounding boxes. If something collided with the bounding box, you could then compare it against a group of hit boxes. This was pretty coarse.

In Half-Life 2, entities can also have an associated vphysics collision
model. This is what the physics uses, and gives per polygon collision
information. Gross bounding boxes are now used mainly for culling. Hit
boxes now have more flexibility (they move with the bone they are assigned to, for example). If you need polygon level collision information (which is useful for a lot of things) then you'll be using the vphysics model and not the hit boxes.

You could, if you wanted to, build a mod that did per-poly vphysics collisions for every entity. However there are lots of times when hit-box
collisions give you all the information you need.

I think the confusion about this arose when someone at Valve was asked "does HL-2 have hit boxes" and the answer was "yes". This was technically accurate, but left off the information the questioner was actually after.

Gabe

[PrimalGod]

QUESTION
I was wondering if you guys have managed to fix the AA problem with the radeon cards. Thanks for your time!


ANSWER
Yes. We use centroid sampling which avoids the standard problem that games that use lightmaps see with anti-aliasing.

[Syphoon!!]

From the Marc Laidlaw interview @ PHL (this was shocking new informationo for me):

http://www.planethalflife.com/featur...views/laidlaw/

Laidlaw: "The Administrator was named but never seen until now."

[VoiD]

A simple question i put to gabe and he replied almost instantly .
Looks like our mods will work with all future valve source releases, of course i never expected anything less from them but its good to know. Whats more interesting is it looks like all updates they do to the source engine to improve future releases(improved graphics and so forth) will immediately be passed onto us Yay for valve.

Anyway here is the email.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Gabe Newell" <GabeN@valvesoftware.com>
To: "'Dan" <lod_dan@yahoo.com.au>
CC: "Chris Bokitch" <ChrisB@valvesoftware.com>, "Robin Walker" <Robin@valvesoftware.com>, "Yahn Bernier" <yahn@valvesoftware.com>
Subject: RE: Mods, and later releases.
Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 09:03:56 -0700


Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 share the same underlying interfaces
for
MODs. TF-2 will add and extend those interfaces, but Steam will update
people automatically to keep people up to date.

It's probably better to think of them as Source MODs rather than
Half-Life 2
or Team Fortress 2 MODs. Source MODs created when Half-Life 2 ships
will
keep working after Team Fortress 2 ships.

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan da man [mailto:lod_dan@yahoo.com.au]
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 5:23 AM
To: Gaben@valvesoftware.com
Subject: Mods, and later releases.


Hey Gabe,

I was just wondering if mods created for halflife 2
will also work on later releases such as tf2, ie if i
create a halflife 2 mod will someone who has never
purchased hl2 but later purchases tf2 be able to use
the mod i created for hl2. Or would a seperate version
have to be created to work on later games released by
valve on the source engine. And if its the later would
these seperate versions be able to play together in
multiplayer?.

Thanks for your time,
Dan.

Thanks for writing; see answers below:



Best wishes,



Bill Van Buren

Valve



-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Brown [mailto:************]
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 10:02 AM
To: gaben@valvesoftware.com
Subject: Texture normal maps and performance...

Hello Gabe,



I watched the video demonstration of how the source engine can copy normal maps of a high polygon object onto a plane. This was very impressive and I can't wait to try it out at the end of September. I have a few questions about it however:



1) What's the performance hit when using normal mapped textures generated from extremely high polygon models, say, 10 times or more than the number shown in the video? What's the performance impact of using these textures commonly throughout the level as opposed to standard textures?



- There is no difference when normal mapping between maps generated from very high poly models, and maps generated from not-so-high poly models – the detail from the high-res model is all baked into the texture map so it’s all just pixels when it gets to the engine.

- As for performance, this will vary with platform – see below:





2) What will the effects look like on DX8 and DX7 cards unable to do the normal map effect? Will it just be a normal texture lit with standard lightmapping, or will we have to make seperate textures for these cards?



- DX9 hardware:

i. Models: specular and diffuse bump mapping are practically free

ii. Map (brush) geometry: diffuse bump mapping is practically free, specular bump mapping is a significant fill-rate expense



- DX8 hardware:

i. Models: no diffuse bump mapping on models. Specular bump mapping is about twice as expensive as rendering an ‘unbumped’ version of a model.

ii. Map (brush) geometry: diffuse bump mapping is practically free, specular bump mapping is a significant fill-rate expense



- DX7 or lower hardware: no normal map rendering






Thanks for your time.



~Chris "SkilledNewbie" Brown

[CyanEyed]

saw a post in the gabe interview thread about multiple gravity, couldnt wait til interview and emailed gabe.

===

Erik Johnson.

Yes.

-----Original Message-----
mailto:<Private =P>@cox.net
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2003 8:56 AM
To: gaben@valvesoftware.com
Subject: vac


who do i ask to unban my wonid from all secure servers? it was banned until 2008 bcuz of hlamp.
p.s. i have a quick question about hl2.. can u have
multiple gravity settings on a map? like in that illusion where there are
people on all sides of a wall?

[coax]

Maybe it has been posted before, but I wondered about the payment plans etc, so I sent Gabe a little email about it, here's his reply:


No, you won't have to pay if you buy the retail packaged product.

You can either go to a store and buy the game (say $50)

OR

you can pay a subscription fee.

If you only play a month, then the subscription fee is the way to go. If we
generate new games and expansion packs then the subscription fee is the
better deal. If we take five years to release any new content, then buying
the full game is the much better strategy.

Hope that makes sense.

[SaiboT]

other than clock-rate, no.

-----Original Message-----
From: James [mailto:grendelassassin@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 11:52 AM
To: gaben@valvesoftware.com
Subject: 9800 Pro/Non-Pro


Hi there Gabe. I've been wanting to get a 9800 Pro, but I've seen that the Non-Pro's are much cheaper and you can flash the BIOS and oc to get Pro speeds.
So my question is this: Will there be any difference visually and performance-wise between a 9800 Pro and a 9800 Non-Pro?
Thanks. =D

-----Original Message-----
From: Victor King [mailto:vking@bigpond.net.au]
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 4:48 AM
To: gaben@valvesoftware.com
Subject: spawn

Hey there Gabe I would like to know if there will be a cheat code in HL2 to spawn whatever enemy u wan't?

I really enjoyed doing this in the game SW: Jedi Knight Jedi Outcast it would be real kewl to spawn a squad of combine soldiers and manhacks and whatch them duke it out.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 11:01 AM
To: John Guthrie
Subject: FW: spawn



Gabe sent me an email saying you had a question about spawning enemies.



Yes, you can use a command called npc_create, which will create a monster of your choice where you are pointing. So you could create manhacks and soldiers and whatever else you wanted and put them in an arena and watch them battle.


You can also tell the humans what weapons they should use. So you can create them with pistols or machine guns or whatever else they know how to shoot.



You also have a command called ‘npc_kill’, which will make the monster die. It is a lot of fun to create a monster on a rooftop, then kill it and watch it slide down the roof and fall down to the streets below.

[Nuclear_Gerber]

omg, gabe answerd me!!
i feel special
--------------------------------

Not true. We have no interest in what's on your hard drive.

When we first heard about this, we were perplexed. Then we realized that
the people who were seeing this were running FAT32 instead of NTFS. In
Windows, if you have the NTFS file system, it zeros out sectors before it
reallocates them. With FAT32, it doesn't. So if you allocate a large file
(it doesn't matter if it's a Steam cache or some other application's files),
in FAT32 if you open that file, you will see whatever data was left over
from the previous writes to those sectors until your application writes over
that data with new data. So on FAT32, Steam allocates 400 MB of space,
fills up 200 MB with game stuff, and the remaining 200 MB contains whatever
was already there.

Does this make sense? You can try it with other large unfilled files on
your system and see the same thing.

Gabe

-----Original Message-----
From: Lior elgali [mailto:nuclear_gerber@hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 1:44 PM
To: gaben@valvesoftware.com
Subject: The big 400 file and what's in it


Hmm...

http://www.*****************/modules...php?storyid=56

True? And why?

---

[Edit- That site is censored for a reason - Munro]

[songwriter]

Kinda pointless but fun none the less......

Hey
I read you guys had a HeadCrab Pinyata last time for Half Life 1 to smash
open when you when gold.
Have you got one this time with HL2?


Gabe: Given my headache right now, I assume we will be using my skull instead.

[Chris_D]

Originally posted by Chris_D
Just recieved confirmation from Gabe that Steam will NOT require an internet connection for LAN or single play. All you LAN partiers out there and guys in Australia with broadband where you pay for the bandwidth that you use or where your bandwidth is capped will not need to worry.

I'd just like to say before I post the e-mail that this is once again a fine example that Valve are NOT idiots like some of you seem to think.
And all you conspiracy theorists can all rest with your "omg teh Vaelv hav a deel wiv meh ISP so tha tehy get moor munnie from meh!!"

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Deeming [mailto:chrisdeem@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 4:16 PM
To: gaben@valvesoftware.com
Subject: Will it never cease?


I'm not sure if it will ever cease or not. The constant nagging question
that people are asking - Will Steam be required to have an internet
connection active when starting up a singleplayer game or a LAN game?

It's giving me a headache

Seen the petition yet?

Chris_D

No, it won't.

There will be a brief transition (like two weeks) when it is necessary, but
then it will go away. It's a temporary issue.

EDIT: If you all want a screenie to prove authenticity, then let me know and I'll post one up.

Got an email back from Gabe Newell of Valve, RE widescreen support in H-L2 -- e.g. 1360x768 rather than 1024x768, or 1920x1200 rather than 1600x1200. Also, who wants to play at 60Hz?

Quick response too, I sent message at 21:24 my time (1:24 PM his time) and got a reply in less than half an hour.

S.

-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe Newell [mailto:GabeN@valvesoftware.com]
Sent: 12 September 2003 21:50
To: 'Stuart Fotheringham'
Cc: Brian Jacobson
Subject: RE: widescreen support in H-L2?

Yes on Widescreen.

Yes you can set the refresh rate in the UI.

-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart Fotheringham
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2003 1:24 PM
To: Gaben@valvesoftware.com
Subject: widescreen support in H-L2?


Gabe

Will H-L2 support screens/monitors of the 16:9 or 16:10 ratio rather than just old square 4:3 ratio screens?

Also, will you be able to select vertical refresh rate as well as resolution? BF1942 has a flag to turn this on, UT2003 lets you do it in the .ini; it would be nice to have it in the setup interface.

Good luck with H-L2!

Stuart

[Chazz]

Good to see the old Gaber still has some humor in this late stage of the game.

-----Original Message-----
From: Chazz [mailto:chazz@contra.kicks-ass.org]
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2003 6:06 PM
To: gaben@valvesoftware.com
Subject: A couple quick questions.


Firstly, greetings and salutations, ye god of the Cult of Half-Life 2. I'm
well aware that it's crunch time and then some over there at Valve, hence,
why these are QUICK questions ;)

1: How is it that you answer some folks' emails almost instantly? Sheer dumb
luck that they happen to catch you in a slow moment and checking your
e-mail? Or perhaps, something more... ::ominous thunder::

Because my secret masters in the sky tell me I need to respond to those
specific messages. And don't forget to qwertzinrdl the granstaafl.

2: The date "February 3rd" and its numerous misspellings seems to have
cropped up as the doubters' latest and by far most popular 'real release
date.' Do you have any knowledge of official statements that would lead to
that conclusion, or was it just the most popular speculation that you will
be laughing heartily at come September 30th?

I have never said any date other than September 30th.

Thank you in advance for your time and patience, and keep up the fantastic
work. If it is of any service, I'll see what I can do about importing some
excellent coffee for you guys, I'm guess you hard working peoples will
probably be needing it ;)

- Chazz