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>> PRESENTER: It's been five years
[laughter]
>> PERSON IN AUDIENCE: It looks like hell!
>> AUDIENCE: Wow!
>> G-MAN: We've been rather busy in your absence Mr. Freeman.
>> PRESENTER: The Source Engine gives us capabilities in four main areas: believable and realistic
human beings, graphics that were previously impossible outside of a Hollywood movie studio,
an integrated materials and physics system that create an unprecedented level of interactivity,
and artificial intelligence that welds all of these things together into an experience
gamers have never had before.
A huge number of details go into creating a character like the G-Man: his eyes glint
based on a radiosity calculation of the local illumination (they self-shadow and follow
you as you move), he has 40 separate muscles in his face, and his emotions are based on
a taxonomy of facial expressions created by Dr. Paul Ekman, a research psychiatrist.
This same system--
>> G-MAN: Pay attention, Mr. Freeman; I'm only going to say this once.
>> PRESENTER: ... allows him to speak and he can do it just as easily in other languages
other than English
[G-MAN speaking in a non-English language]
[laughter]
>> PRESENTER: The character technology gives us a broad emotional palette to draw upon.
You will really hate your enemies in Half-Life 2, fear for yourself and your friends, and
maybe discover a few new feelings along the way.
>> PRESENTER: So with characters who react emotionally and are so expressive, we need
a world that is similarly flexible and interactive. The world of Half-Life 2 is very dynamic.
Any surface can have its displacement map altered along with its collision model. The
world is also built out of materials.
So if something looks like wood, then it sounds like wood, scrapes like wood, floats like
it. And if you shoot it, it will fragment like wood.
Materials in the physics system interact with each other. So a set of steel drums floating
will behave exactly how you expect.
Didn't think this would be complete without a giant pachinko machine. You can have constraint-based--
You can have flexible models interacting with complex surfaces. There's no limitation to
the complexity of this interaction. So it's this level of believable and consistent interactivity
that opens the door to a wide-variety of gameplay mechanics.
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: Now this will run on my 486?
[laughter]
>> PRESENTER: The graphics of the Source engine are based around shaders. The same approach
used in movies like Toy Story and Monsters Inc. The walls here are actually bump-mapped
subdivision surfaces. If you look closely at the water you'll see it refracts submerged
objects and properly incorporates the Fresnel term to modulate the surface reflectivity.
3:55
Here you get a sense of the wide-variety of visual effects that are possible using Source.
[laughter]
There aren't many arbitrary restrictions in Source in how you can use these effects. For
instance, you can take one of them and apply them to a human character effectively building
them out of water.
Source also gives us complete control over the outputs and inputs of the system. You
can use them in surprising ways.
So, that's been our technology overview of the Source engine. Now, let's look at Half
Life 2, the game.
Here's the stuff you won't get on your 486.
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: Does that mean I have to upgrade.
[laughter]
>> PRESENTER: It might be time.
[laughter]
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: My spreadsheet ran so well!
[laughter]
>> PRESENTER: This next segment will introduce you to Alyx, one of your friends in Half Life
2, and reintroduce you to Dr. Kleiner, one of the scientists from Black Mesa.
Gordon... Gordon snap out of it. You're staring at me again.
[clanking noise]
Ah, warming up nicely.
Are you sure you don't want me to swap out the polarizer.
That's not necessary. Just checking for potential modular interference in the intersplicer.
Conditions could hardly be more ideal.
I-- I hope so. I'm sorry Gordon, I can't help thinking that this isn't going to work. We
should have listened to my father and done it his way. It's just-- this is the first
time I've had any hope of really striking back at the Combine. And now, we're sitting
ducks unless we can get this thing running. C'mon Dr. Kleiner, is it gonna work or not?
Now, now, there's nothing to be nervous about. Let's see. The master field flux should self-limit
and I've planted the-- [trails off]
[monitor falls off table]
Oh, do be careful.
Listen... scanners! We gotta get moving! Take this.
It's too late... run!
[crash]
Here we're in an old part of town outside City 17, one of the main locations in Half
Life 2.
[gunshots]
08:39 >> AUDIENCE: "Whoa!"
>> AUDIENCE: [Laughter] 09:20
>> PRESENTER: This part of town has been boobie trapped by a friend of yours named Father
Gregorie. He's kind of a survivalist monk. He's left traps all over the place for you
to make use of.
[gunshots]
>> AUDIENCE: [laughter]
>> AUDIENCE: "Whoa!"
>> AUDIENCE: [laughter]
[gunshots]
>> AUDIENCE: [laughter and applause]
[trademark Source engine clicking sound]
>> PRESENTER: Here you get a look at some of your allies who are fighting along side
you.
>> BARNEY: Remember when we thought Black Mesa was as bad as it could get?
[gunshots and music]
>> BARNEY: Cover me, Gordon!
[more gunshots]
>> PRESENTER: Let me just emphasize that these are not scripted sequences; your allies are
choosing when to advance and how to best support you in combat.
[gunshots]
>> AUDIENCE: "Whoa!"
[trademark Source engine clicking sound]
>> PRESENTER: The
allies in the game won't always be human. And in this segment, some of the less-intelligent
aliens they've fooled into thinking that you're one of their commanders. You have something
that has the right pheremone on it, so these antlions will do what you tell them to.
[sound of aliens erupting from the ground]
[gunshots]
[sound of turrets shooting]
[gutteral noises]
[gunshots]
[antlion roar]
>> AUDIENCE: Whoa!
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hey!
>> PRESENTER: There are quite a few wide-open outdoor areas in Half Life 2. The combination
of the physics system and the terrain system make for some really interesting gameplay.
[gunshots]
>> PRESENTER: This last sequence you'll get a look at the Citadel at the center of the
alien Combine. The Combine is a fortress that is slowly eating its way through the rest
of City 17.
>> CITIZEN: Strider!
[gunshots]
>> CITIZEN: Run!
[gunshots]
>> CITIZEN: Strider!
[gunshots]
[explosion]
>> CITIZEN: Strider!
>> AUDIENCE: Whoa!
>> CITIZEN: Get the hell outa here
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: F you!
>> AUDIENCE: [laughter]
>> G-MAN: Well, well... Isn't this just like old times.
>> PRESENTER: