Half-Life 2

[weta]

OK I know there must be half a dozen threads concerning Half-Life 2, but from now on let's put everything here, then we all know where to find it.

<CenteR>

Microsoft Hails "Half-Life 2" as New Benchmark in Games for Windows
Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Brings "Unequaled" Graphics and GameplayGamers Hell

VALVE

[JSR]

http://www.game-revolution.com/previ...alf_life_2.htm :thumb:

[Newsfactory]

Ok Weta here's one for you


Half-Life 2 Performance Revealed

You'll see my own numbers tomorrow night at midnight, but we've been given the go ahead to reveal a bit of information about Half-Life 2. I'll keep it brief and to the point and will explain it in greater detail tomorrow night:

http://www.warp2search.net/modules.p...icle&sid=14358 :snip:

hey weta can you delete my last post Half-Life 2 Performance Revealed I can find the delete button : peace:

[JSR]

i thought all that was fixed........this is kind of a bummer in that games can be optipized to suit a particular vendor............so, depending which game you like, you'll be happy or bummed depending on your card..............what a crock, secondary royalties for in demand games, for a price http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=11419

[Newsfactory]

Half-Life 2 benchmark

Big up to DriveEuro for scoring us some Half-Life 2 benchmark Cheers mate.

Note: "Radeon 9600" is actually Radeon 9600 PRO

** Further Notes: Resolution is 1024x768, no extra feature utilisation (AA/AF). Demo used is all the E3 demos, with the results averaged.

Half-Life 2 benchmarks

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7826 :shoot2:

[JSR]

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardwa...preview_part1/ i here nvidia is coming upon pixel shader 3.0............

[Mr.Tweak]

Tough times ahead for nV?

http://www.techreport.com/etc/2003q3/valve/index.x?pg=1

[PersianImmortal]

I could kiss my 9800 Pro...uh sorry FX owners :D

[JSR]

will nvidia's emminent release of pixel shader 3.0 have any effect?

[weta]

JSR As I understand it PS 3.0 won't be supported until Microsoft releases DirectX 9.1, could be wrong though. Clearly as things stand now, Nvidia's latest cards are having a real problem running DX9 software, be it Futuremark's 3DMark03 benchmark or Valve's Half-Life 2 game. Hopefully this is software, not hardware related and can be addressed and resolved in a future Detonator Driver release.

Here's a few interesting quotes on the subject.

Quote 1
Speaking of Nvidia: "Gabe said his company is discouraged about recent "optimizations" which have led to mass confusion for people buying video cards which base their opinions on those benchmarks. He went on to say that it'll only lead to pissed-off end users of their game."

Quote 2
"The Full Precision mode runs 24-bit precision, the way Microsoft's DX9 calls for. This mode runs Half-Life 2 in full splendor - the experience Valve intends for the game to have. There's no doubting that ATI's hardware is clearly superior."

Quote 3
Refering to a benchmark: "Here we have full precision mode versus DX8 mode - NVIDIA's own TI4600 runs this mode better than its current "DX9" hardware."

Quote 4here.

"Clearly DX8-class players of HL2 will be at a graphical disadvantage. Not only does this hold true with water effects, but other areas of the Source Engine as well - Source has been built from the ground up with full support of DirectX 9."

Quote 5Gamers Depot


Half-Life benchmark provided by AnandTech

Clearly a lot more can be learn't in the coming weeks. However if you're considering the purchase of a new high end graphics card, then I would strongly suggest that you wait until HL2 is released and reviews start to show up on different sites, in order to get a true picture of the current situation.

[weta]

This short trailer shows some of the DX9-specific effects possible in Valve's Source engine, the same engine used to power the upcoming Half-Life 2.

Download (116MB) GameSpy registration required
Download (Mirror) IGN Free public access

[weta]

Half Life Source
HL-2 Info
Half-Life 2 Online
Half-Life 2 Files
Half-Life 2 Mods
Beyond Half-Life
HL2 Community
Half-Life 2 Empire

[PersianImmortal]

Basically the upshot of it is the FX cards running PS2.0 full precision cannot run decent framerates (i.e 30fps average at the most with a 5900 ultra...the other FX's are unplayable).

To get decent performance Valve have use optimized codepaths which means that the FX cards are playable, although still soundly beaten by the 9600, 9700 and 9800 series.

The "optimized codepaths" result in substitution of PS1.4 and DX8.1 in place of PS2.0 (full precision DX9.0). At Anandtech they have said this results in a noticeable drop in image quality and banding.

Nvidia say their Detonator 50s will resolve this situation, but a hardware level look at the NV3X architecture shows it is flawed in running shaders efficiently and as more new games come out using the newer shaders the flaw simply won't be able to be covered up by new drivers.

Basically the hardware hasn't got the same raw power as the newer radeons, so they are cutting software corners to make it run faster, but with problems and image quality drops. Even then there's only so far they can go with the software optimizations.

If you're in the market for a card to run HL2 or Doom3 then wait until the games are released, but at the moment the 9600 Pro is the best bang for the buck and the 9800 pro is the outright winner.

[Mr.Tweak]

Very well summed up... :thumb:

[Neil2094]

Do we know how well the 9500 pro will perform in this situation?