Valve working on new Source engine

Technology and Gaming
#21

I remember Valve saying that each episode was intended to showcase a new technology that they’d developed; HDR in EP1, and pre-rendered cinematic physics in EP2.

So, then, I guess that the developing of a new engine means that EP3/HL3 will be more of a tech demo for a whole new engine than any one technology?

#22

OpenGL had something like tessellation, called TruForm, they stopped supporting it because no one wanted to use it. Now that DX has it, everyone loves it.

#23

Yeah, tessellation has been around for forever and I think OpenGL had it first.

#24

This is just one of the plethora of reasons that valve is the coolest game maker on the planet

#25

So what new technology/changes do you predict, them copying things that are already around, or brand new groundbreaking feature that will make it stand out?

#26

I’m hoping for really neat and original new gameplay mechanics, probably involving physics; maybe we’ll be able to use the gravity gun to tear down walls or something, who knows.

Maybe we’ll finally get to see this mysterious “F-Stop”.

#27

Never heard about that. What is it supposed to be, the F-Stop?

#28

It’s a mystery.

A documentary about the making of Portal 2 mentioned that for the first year of Portal 2’s development, it wasn’t about portals, but rather an amazing new gameplay mechanic that blew everyone away. They eventually shelved it and went back to portals, but it’s still a secret.

All I can tell you is that F-Stop IRL is something related to camera lenses, which makes sense since it would’ve been an aperture technology.

#29

Just read a little about F-Stops and apparently it’s a way to raise or lower the amount of light that goes through the lens of a camera when you’re taking a picture. I have no idea what kind of game mechanic that could be if Valve took the name for the mechanic from the photography term.

#30

Like I said, it’s partially just a reference to Aperture Science by way of the aperture of a camera lens.

Beyond that I have no idea. Maybe it lets you shrink rooms or something.

#31

portals that can scale things? Like in Prey?

#32

Maybe objects that act differently depending on how well they’re lit?

#33

So gameplay mechanics based on lighting? That would be cool and could show off the new engine’s spiffy new lighting.

#34

Maybe it has something to do with focus. The more you focus on something, the better it is visible, but the less of everything else you can see, and vice versa.

#35

Wouldn’t that just be really powerful depth of field? You can turn something like that on in Sikkmod in Doom 3 and it’s just pretty annoying. Unless I’m misunderstanding your post.

#36

Depth of field is fucking horrible in games. It’s made for movies and it should stay that way.

#37

Maybe it lets you freeze time, but only in a specific area; it would open plenty of potential for puzzles, certainly.

Just off of the top of my head, you could drop a whole bunch of boxes into a pit, then freeze the ones on the bottom progressively to make a bridge.

#38

Dof that affects gameplay? Like, you can grab shit that’s out of focus in the background and they’ll stay isolated and out of focus?

#39

there is a garrysmod gamemode that consists of freezing boxes :smiley:

#40

For example:

  • Big maps without loading screens (New technology in map loading)
  • Being able to show off incredible details, high poly models, high res textures and all that stuff while
    there is no need for the best hardware around. (Being optimized as much as possible)
  • Being able to phisically destroy stuff like in Crysis 1, but even better and more realistic.
  • Don’t know if it’s part of the engine, but being able to deliver an intelligent AI
    would also be very impressive since the AI didn’t change much in all these years.
  • Of course, supporting lots of stuff like 64 Bit, Linuxsupport, DX10, 11 and all that shit that I
    don’t know nothing about. Or, even better, converting features DX10 and 11 into DX9
    Valve did that once with the current source engine.

I still have some ideas left, but those are more the content and less part of the engine.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.