Info received from Valve ONLY - NO questions/discussion

I had concerns about the publishing of HL2DM maps for the contest so i fired off an email to valve.

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom ***** [mailto:****@****.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 25, 2004 2:02 AM
To: Doug Lombardi
Subject: City 17 locking doors?

Hey Doug,

I'll try and keep this short and sweet. First off, congratulations to
you and everyone at Valve for making the single best game the world has
seen [right up there above Soccer, even].

Secondly, I've finally been spurred into action by the possibilities of
not only source, but the world of Halflife 2 itself. I am researching
the world of Halflife 2 in order to make a singleplayer mod based in a
city near to City 17, where you play as a [silent, of course] freedom
fighter. Among other questions, which I will leave for another email,
I'd like to know how the locks on the doors in City 17 work? I've been
looking at them [in my less than beastly machine, mind you], and I can't
figure out how they work. I was trying to think up a way for the
character to open the door to their apartment with a pass, or a keycode,
or some form of identification. However, after looking at the locks
themselves, I can't figure out how a person [combine or no] would
authorise themselves as someone capable of access to that door.

I've uploaded two images to a website in the hopes that you could help
me with this problem. I want to try and keep the world as true to
Halflife 2 as possible, and have as many things correspond correctly as
I can.

Locking/Authorisation device:

http://img109.exs.cx/img109/8397/d1_trainstation_010046.jpg

Other side of door [I don't believe this does anything]:

http://img109.exs.cx/img109/1280/d1_trainstation_010049.jpg

Thanks for your help, and again, my congratulations on making the best
game known to mankind thus far, on both PC and console.

Many thanks,
Tom *****

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

From: Doug Lombardi <****@****.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 14:50:58 -0800
Subject: FW: City 17 locking doors?
To: ****@****.com


Hi Tom,

I've asked a few folks around here about this, and each time they just
start beating me relentlessly <g>

Wish I could provide more. Sorry.

Thanks for the kind words about the game, and good luck with your
project and just let us know if you have any other questions, etc.

Cheers

Ben Davison <benjamindavison@gmail.com> Sat, Dec 18, 2004 at 11:37PM
To: Adrian Finol <adrian@valvesoftware.com>
Hi Adrian,

You mentioned in a post to the hlcoders mailing list that the code for
HL2DM will be out "soon" will "soon" be this year? I ask this because
if it comes out within this year there is no point starting our MOD
code wise, because the HL2DM code will fill in a lot of blanks for us.

Thanks for your time.

--
- Ben Davison
- http://www.shadow-phoenix.com
Adrian Finol <adrian@valvesoftware.com> Sun, Dec 19, 2004 at 12:17AM
To: Ben Davison <benjamindavison@gmail.com>
Hey Ben,

Sorry but it wont be until next year. There's a couple of stuff we are
working on that we want to get in the codebase before we release it.

Take care.
[Quoted text hidden]
Ben Davison <benjamindavison@gmail.com> Sun, Dec 19, 2004 at 12:39AM
To: Adrian Finol <adrian@valvesoftware.com>
Thanks for replying Adrian.

Do you mind if I share this with halflife2.net? Also is it just me or
does HLMV crash whenever I close it.


[Quoted text hidden]

--
[Quoted text hidden]
Adrian Finol <adrian@valvesoftware.com> Sun, Dec 19, 2004 at 12:58AM
To: Ben Davison <benjamindavison@gmail.com>
I belive David just fixed that HLMV crash on exit.

And sure, go ahead and post it.

A PM on Steampowered.com:

FROM Yahn Bernier about tf:s

i asked
can u please jus tell me antyhing or at least reply to my email thank
you- a fan

he said

Hi,

Nothing new to report yet.

Thanks for writing in,

Yahn

makes me think is it canceled or has no work been done on it it lonng time... :frown:

My original e-mail to Gabe:

Response from Jay Stelly:

Ryan Sheffer
to GabeN
More options 23/02/05 (1 day ago)
I didn't know who to send this too, but I figured because you were the
big boss over at valve maybe you could help me with something or
redirect this message.
Ive been playing HL2 multiplayer and building maps to mess around in
but I realised there was no swim animation for CSS and I thought this
might be the same problem with HL2 DM as well but I don't know for
sure. I do know that if you die underwater the water sound plays over
and over.
My question is, does valve plan to update the player models with a
swimming animation so we can build those water world maps we all know
and love, and fix the water sound loop?
Plus someone told me that you can shoot underwater with any weapon in CSS.

Thanks for your time gabe, you have truly made an amazing game and I
cant wait for expansions and especially TF2.
--
~skidz

ReplyForward


Erik Johnson
<erik@valvesoftware.com> to me
More options 09:26 (8 hours ago)
Hey Ryan,

Yes, we will be adding this at some point.

Erik

-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 6:20 PM
To: Erik Johnson
Subject: FW: Player Swim Animation in HL2DM and CSS

Looks like we won't be getting the deluge of new content some of you suspected. The mythical "ATI levels" and "The Lost Coast" are indeed one in the same.

My original email to Gabe:

Response from Gabe after about 2 minutes:

Here you go Chris

DigiQ8 posted this in the Aftermath forum

My question to Gabe Newell:

The reply:

Hi Jay, I saw the interview you gave for IGN and was wondering if the loading/streaming optimizations you've made for HL2: Xbox will find their way into the PC version of the Source engine.

Generally, that's the plan. The xbox version of the Source engine is not the typical dead-end separate codebase you'd expect with a port; it's being developed in conjunction with ongoing work on the Source engine by the Source engine's original developers. Many of the xbox features have already made their way into the PC codebase. Some of the technology is xbox-specific, but will be implemented differently on the PC. (e.g. the xbox texture streamer takes advantage of the xbox's unified memory architecture and fairly transparent D3D layer - so we can use async DMA I/O to put a native-format texture directly into the chunk of memory that it will use. We can't get this done as efficiently on the PC because of necessary abstraction in D3D to support multiple video vendors.)

Jay

Not sure if anyone here will actually care about this but it was being discussed at the BMS forums so..

I asked...

Marc Laidlaw replied (very quickly I should add ) with...

and again...

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Edwards [mailto:youwish]
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 11:20 AM
To: Alfred Reynolds
Subject: Data collection in Source

I've been looking at ways to get a wider profile of my computer than
the standard msinfo or dxdiag reports give. As well as SMART data from
my hard drive and a few other useful bits and pieces (stuttering is the
driving force here, not that it matters) I've come across the full might
of vprof.
With that, minidumps, and Steam there's a lot of from what I can
tell unused data collection potential. I'm just curious as to whether
you are considering tapping it?

Thanks for your time.

Didn't rule it out haha

Because this whole AdrianShephard/Gearbox/Valve thing has been pissing me off,

http://photobucket.com/albums/a350/Darkjakk/?action=view&current=adrian.jpg

Didnt feel quoting stuff, But yeah. NOW WE KNOW.

From an email received today from Gabe:-

Q) Do you ever invisage FPS technology that will allow us to engage in co-operative /multi-player play across differing maps at the same time without recourse to a principal server like a mmporpg? So for example on one map my avatar might flick a switch, which causes a door to open on another map that my friend tobes is playing on? (I'm not aware of any game that presently allows this, so forgive my ignorance if this is already possible). One of the first things that struck me about Source was the quality of the characters and it really got me thinking that there exists so much more potential for character driven games (especially co-op) however the one map scenario really restricts things in the sense that, the map exists as an objective to be overcome rather than a virtual space to be revisited. It's a complex question with a lot of what if's about it, but if you have the time to answer I'd appreciate it

A) Yes. This is an idea that goes back to Quake 1. The issue is more game design and having a robust enough system for managing the economy. I don't know of any FPS company that hasn't thought about doing this, so I guess I'd agree it's a good idea that needs a lot of hard work to pull off.


Q2) Are you looking with Steam 3 to add dynamic updates, so we don't need to restart to know whether there have been changes?

A2) Yes. It's one of many reasons to move away from the connectionless approach we had for Steam 1 and 2.

marc: Those things came through during the portal storms, which continue
erratically to this very day. Some of the critters came early
(immediately after the Black Mesa Incident) and adapted to Earth. I
think the poison headcrabs must have eaten something poisonous at one
point, and liked it so much they added it to their repertoire.

The bullsquids are around here somewhere.

-----Original Message-----
From: meh
Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 11:04 AM
To: Marc Laidlaw
Subject: so where did they come from? and where did they go?

never really thought of this before, but... where did poison headcrabs,
fast headcrabs and antlions appear from??
and will we find out where the all the bullsquids went? oh woe become
us!!

marc: Hi,

As you probably know, we don't talk about any of our plans until we've
made public announcements, so I can't say one way or another. I will
say that the Lost Week is one of my favorite parts of HL2.

Marc


-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 11:23 AM
To: Marc Laidlaw
Subject: FW: HL2 expansions



-----Original Message-----
From: meehh
Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 11:18 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: HL2 expansions

are there any current plans to develop a blueshift/opposing force style
expansion pack in the near future for half-life 2? this is where the
player experiences the half-life universe from another character's point
of view.
for example during the week (or 2?) gordon and alyx went missing (this
part of the HL2 universe is begging for it, seeing as the player has no
knowledge of what happened during the the time they were absent apart
from that the uprising has begun) er yeah, thanks in advance

It's virtually certain.

-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Monday, September 05, 2005 2:41 PM
To: Marc Laidlaw
Subject: FW: just a quick question (i bet you hear that a lot!)

yours

-----Original Message-----
From: meehh!
Sent: Monday, September 05, 2005 2:35 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: just a quick question (i bet you hear that a lot!)

in one of the overwatch radio messages i heard:

"rank leader, reminder: 100 sterilised credits qualifies non-mechanical
reproduction simulation "

so do the combine get rewarded with some 'you-know-what' for good work??

;-)

CP/Metrocops are humans at the first level--basically unaltered
volunteers. From here, if you are hardcore, you must volunteer for
modification in order to become a soldier, so advancing in rank requires
surrendering even more humanity.

This stuff was certainly thought through in advance; sometimes we just
make things up though.

-----Original Message-----
From: meh!
Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 11:25 AM
To: Marc Laidlaw
Subject: metrocops human?

hi,
A) are the metrocops standard humans who have not been brainwashed or
augmented?
from what i can tell:

1) Barny has managed to stay undercover as one undetected
2) The overwatch radio message "memory replacement is the first step
towards rank privileges" suggests that if the CPs have to go through
brainwashing of some sort and only then they are they granted access to
higher ranks.
3) The overwatch 'non mechanical reproduction simulation' message, one
can only but imagine.
4) The general 'human-like behaviour of the CPs compared to the
soldiers, such as the can and the trash can incident at the start of the
game

also

do you thoroughly think all of these kinds of things through when
developing the story or do you hope that some fans dont overanalyse
absolutely every small aspect of the story

Erik Johnson: Hi,

The HDR solution we're going to ship will run on virtually any DX9
capable video card. It is a fairly expensive process, so if you aren't
in the x800/6800 family of cards, then performance might not be OK for
you.

In our daily DoD: Source playtests I run with HDR on on a 9800XT and my
framerate is fine for me, but you'll have to try it out on your card
yourself.

Hope this helps.

Erik

To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Father Grigori's age?

How old is Father Grigori? He looks a little young..



Hi, Andrew,

I am not very good at telling ages by looking at people, so I couldn't tell you exactly. To me, he seems just about old enough.

Marc Laidlaw

Earlier post quoted for the sake of continuity:-

A further response from Gabe received today to further questions following that email:-

Q3) With respect to multiplayer/multi-map gaming (I think I just coined that phrase...) is it an area of investigation/development you see Valve looking into as a company? Or will you leave it to your competitors?

Q4) No one really seems to have really picked up on the Imaged Based Rendering Technology (IBRT) that you mentioned in the interview. If I recall correctly you had stated that this was something that Gary McTaggart was developing originally for HL2 but never made the technology cut off deadline in 2002. It sounds quite an exciting technology based on what you say (Genuine ingame busy city streets would be gameplay nirvana imho as opposed to the sleight of hand techiques used in the GTA series). Obviously at the moment the focus is very much on the forthcoming HDR technology, however are we lightly to see a showcase of the IBR tech before the years end or will we have to wait till E3 2006? Also is it something that can be applied retrospectively like HDR (some levels in HL2 will get revised to HDR if I have my facts straight), or is it something that we are might likely to see exclusive to HL3.

Q5) Single player or multi-player mods, what holds the greater interest for you personally?

Kad

-----Original Message-----
From: Helena Kjörling [mailto:ibizza@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 5:29 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Hi!

Hi Gabe!

Thanks a million for taking time to write to me, it really means a lot! Yes my
friend Colt is really special, a man who stands by his word.

Ofcourse I have a million questions, but I don't want to take up too much of
your time, so I'll try to keep it short. First and foremost, I was wondering a
little bit about HDR. Will you use HDR in all your games from now on, or was Day
of Defeat just a try-out? It's really amazin by the way, what technology can do
these days, makes the games look more and more realistic.
And another thing, I read somewhere that you weren't gonna use HDR in HL2, but
when I played last night (for the fifht time) and HL2 upgraded, I saw that I now
could use HDR? Anyway, that's amazing and it took me by suprise!


I talked to Erik Johnson about selling and sending poster and stuff outside USA,
and he told me the sad news that you don't do that? I hope in a near future that
you'll be able to, because I would die for a Gordon-poster (well almost )
Specially from you guys at Valve (ofcourse I can buy one from ebay or whatever,
but so not the same thing!)

My last question is just one for fun. How long did you think about making a game
like Half Life 2, before you actually did it. I mean, where you "before your
time" and wishing years ago that a game like Half Life 2 would be possible to
make, but the technology only allowed you to make a game like Half Life (not
that that's a bad game, but the possibilities sure has changed since then). Or
did you do Half Life and then though about Half Life 2? I hope you get my
point.. just something I've been thinking of

Again, thanks a million for your time! It's really wonderful to see that you
takes time for your fans, makes us love you guys at Valve even more!

Best regards
/Helena, Sweden

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

Hi, Helena.

HDR is a pretty useful technology, and we expect that all of our games going
forward will incorporate it, and we'll be gradually be updating our older titles
to take advantage of it as well.

The HDR option is there, but the lighting, sky maps, env_cubemaps, etc...
haven't been changed. It would take one artist about 100 days to go through and
update everything, so we're waiting for someone to free up to go back and do
that.

Kathy, can you help Helena out on the poster?

When you think about games you think about long-term and short-term at the same
time. For example super long-term we know that people will have direct neural
connections to games (e.g. the electronic vision systems have gone from 16
pixels to 3200 pixels in pretty short order). However we don't know even
vaguely when this will happen (standard deviation of 10 years). We also can't
really think of ways that this fact changes what we are actually doing as there
aren't any long lead-time pieces of work we would need to do to be ready for
this.

That's an extreme case, intended to illustrate the kind of probabilistic
thinking you do at a game company. Other examples are you assume the steady,
rapid growth in graphics performance and functionality (easy to plan for), and
you know that software is going to have to transition at some point to
multi-threaded execution (hard to plan for).

Gabe

From Robin Walker:

-----

Our work on XBox HL2 has involved streaming a lot of our content (It streams everything except entity & brush data). Our plan is to move most of that code back over to the PC version so that everyone can take advantage of this. We don't have a timeframe for that yet, so I wouldn't rely on that happening for you to succeed in your own projects.

-----

Asked about passive-progressive map loading for seamless (or near seamless) level transitions on the Source engine. Good news i guess for the future!

That's my #1 feature.


-----Original Message-----
From: UnGooglable[mailto:noyoudont!@evillaugh.fu]
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 1:32 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: For Steam III

What about setting your settings like nickname, keyboard controls etc.
in the Steam itself instead setting up things in every game again and
again. Would come handy wouldn't it?

Cheers,
xxxxxxxx

Tf2™

Exciting news for me!

Don't post any unanswered questions in here, only e-mails with answers from Valve are allowed.

Day of Defeat: Source retail

I emailed Doug Lombardi about a DoD:S standalone retail version, and this is what he responded with..

My e-mail:

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff [mailto:nospam@nospam]
Sent: Friday, December 09, 2005 2:23 PM
To: Doug Lombardi
Subject: Day of Defeat: Source retail packages?

Hello Doug,
I was wondering if you could tell me if there are plans to release Day
of Defeat: Source as a standalone retail package, and if so, when this
might happen. Currently, all I can find in the stores is DoD:S bundled
with CS:S, but I already own CS:S so I don't really want to purchase it
again just to get DoD:S. I would purchase it through Steam but can't due
to lack of a credit card.
Thanks in advance!

Jeff

His response:

Hi,

Yes. A stand alone retail version is coming in early February for about
$20.

Cheers

CS:S future models

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=381817&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

Neat tiny bits of info coming up!

Yay!

SourceTV

This was posted on CSnation.net, and I didn't found the original new post on GotFrag.

Me:

Alfred:

I recently emailed Gabe, congratulating Valve on EP1 and asking them to put some Team Fortress merch in the store... this is the reply:

\o/