Harreh Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Source was really great for its time, but IMO it needs to be reworked, to bring it up to the standard of more modern engines, like the Unreal 2.5 / 3 Hybrid used in Bioshock, and version 3 used in UT3 (very impressive lighting and shading effects), and hopefully some DX10 goodness. But Valve have said in the past that they won't be supporting DX10 for a while. Y'know those hardware surveys they do? They get a very good picture of how many of their users run a DX10 capable OS, and DX10 capable hardware. From those surveys they can see it's pointless catering to such a small percentage of users. Obviously things these days are certainly more DX10 orientated but nontheless, I don't think that it's by a significant amount yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subject Delta Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 You are missing the point, HDR lighting and slightly better looking textures aren't a major rework. The engine is still DX9, and it struggles with things like large textures, and is far too CPU limited. If you take a beautiful game like Bioshock and see all the fantastic things built into it like deferred rendering, DX10 surface textures, ETC it adds some wonderful extra detail into games. Just talk to the developers of Fakefactory's Cinematic Mod about the limitations of Source. And FYI I was referring to the new version of Unreal with all the DX10 goodness added, which is only a couple of years old. But Valve have said in the past that they won't be supporting DX10 for a while.Y'know those hardware surveys they do? They get a very good picture of how many of their users run a DX10 capable OS, and DX10 capable hardware. From those surveys they can see it's pointless catering to such a small percentage of users. Obviously things these days are certainly more DX10 orientated but nontheless, I don't think that it's by a significant amount yet. Bioshock is DX10 orientated and it also runs in DX9 mode. Valve just don't want to go to the cost of having to rework source. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pajter Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Just because it doesn't look as great as Bioshock, doesn't mean it's a bad engine. It was way ahead of it's time when they released it, and I don't think they should just ditch it and build something new. Valve has been updating their engine outside of Half Life, and until their newest game is released, I can't really say how good or bad the engine is at this moment. :) PS. Bioshock fan? ;) You should be, it's a fantastic game. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subject Delta Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 You are misunderstanding me, I think that the HL2 series are a great bunch of games, and Source is a great engine, I would just like to see one big, grand update so they can deliver something worthy of closing off the series. And yes I love Bioshock :p Mind you, we can always hope for HL3, and some DX10 goodness :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harreh Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Valve just don't want to go to the cost of having to rework source. Yeah, that's my point. And who can blame them if they know that such a small percent of their user base can't use DX10? The last hardware survey was a while ago though and with Windows 7 coming out we'll see more DX10 capable machines in use. edit: I'm not misunderstanding you. It would indeed be nice for them to really blow us away graphically but I'm just saying that I doubt it'll happen given what Valve have said in the past. Not all of us have the hardware to run games at that level - I certainly don't nor do I have the money to get the hardware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pajter Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 You are misunderstanding me, I think that the HL2 series are a great bunch of games, and Source is a great engine, I would just like to see one big, grand update so they can deliver something worthy of closing off the series. And yes I love Bioshock :pMind you, we can always hope for HL3, and some DX10 goodness :p I'm sorry. I wasn't paying enough attention. :laugh: Anyhoo, I do agree with you. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamwhoiam Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Just because it doesn't look as great as Bioshock, doesn't mean it's a bad engine. Sure it does. Those all important visuals and eye candy are what makes a game. /sarcasm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozgeek Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 They're not really using it to translate the dialog for deaf people. :p The real reason why captions exist is the interpret dialogue to the deaf and hearing impaired people so they know what is being said. Deaf is the heavy users of captions. I'm very happy to see a rise in games supporting captions. Long overdue but ingame signing.....amazing to see some people care about deaf people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subject Delta Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Yeah, that's my point. And who can blame them if they know that such a small percent of their user base can't use DX10? The last hardware survey was a while ago though and with Windows 7 coming out we'll see more DX10 capable machines in use.edit: I'm not misunderstanding you. It would indeed be nice for them to really blow us away graphically but I'm just saying that I doubt it'll happen given what Valve have said in the past. Not all of us have the hardware to run games at that level - I certainly don't nor do I have the money to get the hardware. I have an ATI4850, more than good enough to run the games at that level, but again they could just do what was did with Bioshock and design the engine so it can scale things back to DX9 mode if necessary Sure it does. Those all important visuals and eye candy are what makes a game. /sarcasm You try playing a game like Bioshock with the visual niceties disabled. It doesn't make it a bad game, but it certainly dulls the atmosphere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rigby Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 The real reason why captions exist is the interpret dialogue to the deaf and hearing impaired people so they know what is being said. Deaf is the heavy users of captions.I'm very happy to see a rise in games supporting captions. Long overdue but ingame signing.....amazing to see some people care about deaf people. Yes, but this has nothing to do with captions. In this case it is part of the story; Alyx learned sign language and is now using it to communicate with dog so they can do so silently and not give themselves away to the enemy. Valve is just trying to make this part of the story appear more realistic. This is not a feature they are implementing for deaf players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nexus- Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 maybe they can just skip up dx10 entirely and get to 11 which is what ati is working on right now with microsoft. then they can get another video card bundle/deal for half-life 3. I cant wait for another portal episode, or more cross blending the story lines of the two. The idea with technology isnt always to wait until the customer base has the necessary hardware, sometimes you have to push it on your customers and force them to upgrade. What if microsoft kept the 360 around forever because it was 'good enough' and never released an xbox 720? I know different things but kinda the same point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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