Half Life 2 Source Code Clarification

FrostyBoy · October 31, 2003, 16:17

A mate of mine has downloaded the Half Life 2 Beta, he sat me down, and told me to try it out, so I did, quite a good game, despite the thousands of bugs and incompletions.
I'm not so sure its as good as the first Half Life.
The engine physics are brilliant, you can pick things up and throw them around - which is actually quite useful in the game, not like other fps's with the same physics features. There does seem to be a lot less enemies too, but its still a beta, so who knows..

Anyway, I began thinking about this source code thing... Trying to work out something...

I realised, that this public notice about the Source Code being released was not the REAL reason for Valve pushing the date back. Infact, what they didn't want to tell everyone, was that HL2's beta was released, and THAT'S why the date is pushed back. If anyone took screenshots, grabbed as much game info as they could from the beta, advertised it to the world via the internet. HL2's sales could be seriously effected. So I can see that Valve are having to go back and change the game a bit. Well thats what I think anyway.

Alex · November 2, 2003, 01:06

you mean that what was stolen from Valve is actually playable?

Panag · November 2, 2003, 01:33

hi ,

, snoopy , is this only your personal view , ......

have a nice day

Asmodean · November 2, 2003, 06:41

So what you mean is that they blew the source code thingy out of proportion as a smokescreen, to hide the fact that a playable beta was also stolen??

Asmodean

Solver · November 2, 2003, 10:33

The playable beta is 1.3 GB, and I highly doubt anyone has stolen that. While the HL2 source that was stolen is ~100 MB, and, as I have read, even if you get it to compile, you just get to walk in a small room.

DrSpike · November 2, 2003, 12:01

Hmm, he said his mate downloaded the beta. I haven't seen it.

Panag · November 2, 2003, 12:49

Quote:

Originally posted by Solver
The playable beta is 1.3 GB, and I highly doubt anyone has stolen that. While the HL2 source that was stolen is ~100 MB, and, as I have read, even if you get it to compile, you just get to walk in a small room.

hi ,

sounds reasonable , one can wonder how easy it is to steal from then , and this in a world that can so easely protected , ....

but one must say that this theft has brought forward a lot of free press and pub for the game , ......

have a nice day

Solver · November 2, 2003, 13:31

There's no benefit for Valve. HL2 was already getting enough pub, but their engine has been stolen - which is technology that they developed during years.

Rasbelin · November 2, 2003, 13:51

I gather it has to be rather exciting to get to walk around a little bit, in a small room with all those magnificient physics modelling effects, etc. I think that's what all FPS gamers are day dreaming about.

I couldn't give a ratazz about trying something as little as that. Could be compared to watching ATI's 3D demos.

Panag · November 2, 2003, 15:21

Quote:

Originally posted by Solver
There's no benefit for Valve. HL2 was already getting enough pub, but their engine has been stolen - which is technology that they developed during years.

hi ,

but who would be stupid enough to use it , .......

the hl tech is great , and it definatly is one of those small milestones in comp games development

have a nice day

vovan · November 2, 2003, 15:36

Quote:

Originally posted by panag
but who would be stupid enough to use it , .......

If the code is well-written and fairly easy to understand, I imagine people might use it... After all, if you have a closed-source game, noone will know you are reusing HL2 engine, right? Just change over all the textures and show off your mad graphics-engine-coding skillz.

And if you are going for a copyright, just submit object code and they won't even know you stole the source...

Seems too easy though. There must be some way to detect such violations. Anyone know how that works?

Asmodean · November 2, 2003, 17:26

First off: There is no way that they need anymore publicity for HL2. So those people claiming that they did this as a publicity stunt are just plain silly. No way would they give away their most precious secrets just to gain a few thousand extra sales.

Second: What Valve are going to do now is basically a marketing decision. If they have a ready game now, then the only thing that is standing in the way of an immediate release is the multi player security thing. They have to ensure confidence in the multi player parts of the game, if they want to be as successful as with Counterstrike.

It is all right and good if they feel that they have to change some things in the light of the source theft, but it is not a must. The only important matter is MP. The rest is marketing.

Asmodean

FrostyBoy · November 2, 2003, 17:42

no no, valve pulled no publicity stunts.

Yes, there is a playable version of HL2 out there, it weighs at 1.402gb if I recall correctly, it was stolen from e3, so it is the version that was displayed at e3, the hl2 I played had pretty much all the maps available in the final release (beta), a lot of the maps were incomplete, but mostly playable. it also had maps that I think were for showing off the engine at e3.

Asmodean got it right: "So what you mean is that they blew the source code thingy out of proportion as a smokescreen, to hide the fact that a playable beta was also stolen??"

And yes panag, this is my personal opinion, but I am fairly sure I am right.

But it's not just a smokescreen, its also an excuse, an excuse to push the date back further, because I believe, that if this stolen beta became too popular among the public, it could ruin the sales of HL2, therefore, they are pushing the date back to change HL2's gameplay, so the stolen beta that is out there will become redundant because valve are changing HL2.

Like I said though, it's not because the source code was released, its because there is a stolen beta out there, with pretty much has all the gameplay of a final release of HL2. But they CAN'T just say to the world "Oh, um we lost a copy of HL2, yeah there's this beta version floating around, and yeah you can download it if you want to, so because of that we have to push the date back". - They can't say that, because that's just advertising that there is a beta out there. But they can safely say that there is a HL2 source code out there - which is probably quite useless; and they can use THIS as an excuse to push the date back.

mantismm · November 2, 2003, 19:41

I'm just surprised so many of you so-called 'gamerz' have gone out and supported the beta or anything to do with the 'stolen' source. Whether it's stolen or not - give Valve a break! If you want to see what they can really do, you gotta show them respect and listen to what they say, even if you THINK it is a load of crap.

Me... I'm gonna be a decent human being and just wait for the damn game to be released, there are plenty of entertaining games out there to keep me busy in the meantime.

FrostyBoy · November 2, 2003, 19:56

Did any of us say we supported it?

When I played at my mates house, I wasn't aware of what the game was until about 2-3 minutes of playing, I asked him "um, is this Half Life 2??" he nods and says "yes" with a smile

And I don't think the game is a load of crap, but I do think that Half Life 1 was better (in its day of course). I'm not sure exactly why, maybe its just the enviroment, I find the European setting to be quite dull and unexciting, though the atmosphere they created is great, I just would have preferred some rich neighbourhood in bright and sunny America. I dunno, something like that.