Comments on: Laidlaw Lays It Out

By: Theory

Theory — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:08:23 +0000

Source was designed from the start to be upgraded forever. They’ll probably replace all of it over time, but to mix a metaphor it’ll still be the same ship.

By: kadayi

kadayi — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:10:48 +0000

There is still plenty of life in the Source engine, and even now after 3 years there isn’t another engine out there that remotely trades body blows with it when it comes to Sources facial animation and lipsynching technology. I think the next big step in terms of it’s development is being able to handle much larger maps.

By: Brog

Brog — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 23:38:26 +0000

Ging: you’ve gotta be a bit concerned when there’s still bits of Quake code in there!

Because code goes stale after a time? What?

Code doesn’t age. They’ve rewritten most of the game engine, including all of the parts that can take advantage of new technology (rendering, physics, etc.). There’s no reason to spend time rewriting and debugging systems that already work efficiently.
I’m sure they’ve checked through it all to see if there are any improvements that could be made. But Quake code is not bad.

By: Ace

Ace — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:44:58 +0000

Thanks for the thanks, there’s one other story by Marc Laidlaw there which is also good, and a whole lot of other stories by various sci fi authors. I bookmarked the link and have been reading them every now and then ever since I discovered the site. I particularly liked the stories by Scott Westerfeld and Gardner Dozois as well. (for some reason everything on that site loads very slowly, even though it’s basically just text.)

By: Wickedashtray

Wickedashtray — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:44:22 +0000

Ace, thanks so much for posting that link. Absolutely great read.

By: Ging

Ging — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 11:25:33 +0000

oh, for an edit function!

That should probably read “He certainly hints at the fact”.

By: Ging

Ging — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 11:22:25 +0000

Well, I actually was just concerned about how they were going to wrap up the story. I’m all for a new game engine, though obviously that would be looking pretty far into the future.

He certainly hits at the fact that the episodes aren’t going to wrap up everything they’ve shown so far story wise – so I’d be highly surprised if they didn’t do something to help complete the overall story arc (or several somethings) in the future, it’d be interesting to see if they could do something not in the form of an FPS (though I’m not sure what – or how well it would work without the player being Gordon).

By: TychoCelchuuu

TychoCelchuuu — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 06:25:50 +0000

It’s nice to see him acknowledge that HL2 was approximately a short story’s worth of, well, story. I’ve always wondered whether Valve actually realized that the game that took them 6 years or whatever to make didn’t end up adding a gigantic amount to the universe. Not that it wasn’t fun or anything. I’m really happy with the direction the story’s taking, too, and I can’t wait for Episode 3. And maybe a Portal followup. Yes, more Portal. Please.

By: Ace

Ace — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 02:35:09 +0000

Well, I actually was just concerned about how they were going to wrap up the story. I’m all for a new game engine, though obviously that would be looking pretty far into the future.

On a sort of related note, in case anyone is interested, I came across this short story by Marc Laidlaw awhile ago. It doesn’t have anything to do with Half-life but I thought it was very good, though as in Half-life it takes some effort to figure out what the heck is going on.

By: Ging

Ging — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 02:14:25 +0000

It’s not even about “ooh shiny graphics”, it’s just about them actually writing something new. I appreciate that they’ve extended it’s life a lot, but you’ve gotta be a bit concerned when there’s still bits of Quake code in there!

At the same time, if they wrote a new engine, they could make it nice for modders to work with.

By: Pesh

Pesh — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 02:11:44 +0000

Get out of here Evo!

Great interview, too bad the answers were terse. Looking forward to some non-Gordon Half Life in the future.

By: Cruz

Cruz — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 01:33:55 +0000

Say what you will about the “cobbled together” source, you can’t deny that it with all those additions they have made to it, has aged extremely well. Besides, at this point, who is playing the HL games for “ooo shiny graphics” anyway? I thought we were all in it for the story.