VALVe on HDR

http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/lostcoast.ars

There's a bit of info about HL2's implementation of the new HDR technology, and some bits about DOD:Source.

Cool. I only read half of it though. I love that Valve has a Valve in a room. I saw that on G4

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

I carefully read through the entire article. It's very informative, although I prefer the writer didn't sound so glib.

HDR is more than what I imagined it could be. It's much more than just exposure adjustment. It could just be the missing link between photorealistic games and almost photorealistic ones.

I am excited to see the final result soon. I am also glad that my machine can handle the additional calculation necessary for HDR.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

Photorealism is still far ahead, but HDR seems like a big step forward
although it seems that valves implementation isn't a "full" HDR.

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''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

Yeah, the HDR doesn't work through a refractive material. But that's not too essential.

Just look at how far gaming has gone...

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

You call that old, satchmo? Watch this... :wink:

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

:rolleyes:

Radiosity is a method of rendering an image using only visible light sources, and calculating all the paths that light will take from these sources to illuminate a scene, taking into account the fact that light bounces off objects multiple times. In traditional 3D games, light reflection was only calculated once, and as a result interior areas often had to "cheat" by placing invisible fill lights inside rooms in order for the player to see anything. However, as brightness decreases drastically with every bounce off a wall, without HDR techniques the light streaming in from an outside source would never be bright enough to fill a room. In addition, when using radiosity it becomes possible to simulate the behavior of light when it passes through translucent media, such as the effect when light streams through stained glass windows.

We've only had that for like what, 10 years now?

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http://maze5.net

From the article:

It takes a server farm of 32 computers about 40 minutes to compile The Lost Coast level.

Wow. Mapping with HDR is going to be hell. (Unless they do something to speed up compiles, or processor speeds get high enough.)

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quote:</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>It takes a server farm of 32 computers about 40 minutes to compile The Lost Coast level.
</DIV></DIV>
:shocked:

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Reckless disregard for childrens well being, women and nothing but utter contempt for other cultures.

I love the fact they say in one bullet point (paraphrasing) "HDR will
be easy for modders to implement", and in the next say "you need a
dedicated f**king server farm to compile the maps that use it" :biggrin: They
didn't specify if its HDR that bumps up compile times or just bad level
building practices however :razz:

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I imagine it would take days to compile a map for HDR using a single puny computer, regardless of the architecture.

Perhaps it would take hours just to compile a killbox with a single light source.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

I think we get to try out :biggrin:

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HL2 tutorials 'n' stuff: http://madedog.pri.ee
217.159.236.34:27050 - CSS Server - Clean | koffer.ee

32 boxes * 40 mins = ~20 hours. Thats not so bad. Most big/complicated maps for HL2 take around 10 hours in my experience, and I'm going to bet that TLC is both big and complicated, so its not like its that big of a difference.

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http://maze5.net

32 boxes * 40 mins = ~20 hours.

But that's assuming the number of computers decreases the compile time in a linear fashion. Is that always true?

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

OBVIOUSLY, lost coast takes a long time to compile. however, i dont
think this is because of HDR. lost coast is coming to be the most
complex and intricate level ever designed, with every detail you would
never think to have, that its going to take that long probably without
HDR. while HDR prolly slows down the radiosity thing, or adds another
process to compiling, i dont think thats why lost coast takes so long.

edit: and oh, fock! i fisking went to valve! did i mention that? i live an hour away, did it for school.

course, i parked in the underground lot, so didnt see that entrance. as
for the valve, its in the middle of the main lobby, gabes brother
bought it off a retired naval ship for him. and i have my own picture of that golden crowbar...

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www.nysteo.com

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