Caltrops - Half-Life II ??? - Why Source wins over other engines in all probability

Forum Overview :: Half-Life II ???

by Senor Barborito 08/22/2003, 6:20am PDT

Vomitbird wrote:

I'm sorry, but i don't see how different the source engine is to for instance the status the Quake 3 engine or the Unreal engine has had the last years. It'll probably become the most licensed engine out there, and it'll undoubtedly breed plenty of sweet gaming offspring. Then again, haven't every "industry-standard engine" through the years? Sure, the source engine is capable of fancier gameplay gadgets without having the most high-end coders around, but the production and implementation of content is always a big hurdle. A hurdle the mod-squads traditionally have had a bit of a problem crossing. The latest iteration of the Unreal Warfare engine is a dream for modders, and it has received massive support from the developers. The SDK is tight and supports massive, sprawling levels, user-deployable meshes with AI scripts, vehicles, KARMA physics...still the results are yet to be seen or are mediocre at best.

I just don't see source as all that big a revolution. But like you say, we'll see. Personally, i think there's some basic flaws in the mod-mentality that another fancy engine won't fix.

What it comes down to is how gamers see a product. Half-Life is a base engine that everyone can run because of Counter-Strike. It has THE killer-app for gaming right now, generating thousands of man-years of playtime every month (no joke) across 30,000 servers. Because of this, and the relative ease of modding for HL - though yes, UT2k3 is better and has better tech - HL wins the mod community. It's a base platform everyone can use, does use, and therefore delivers your mod to the largest audience possible.

Valve wasn't being so careful about the ad campaign for HL2 because they wanted a few more sales - they are riding the crest of the wave right now and they could win it all.

Quick rundown . . .

Quake 3: decent-sized enduser community, mildly documented, flexibility aimed at professional developers, small mod community, decent but aging technology.
UT2k3: no enduser community, extremely well-documented to the point of absurdity, flexibility aimed at everyone (and nicely so), almost non-existent mod community, decent technology.
Half-Life 1: largest enduser community in history, fairly well-documented, flexibility aimed at amateur developers, huge mod community, ancient technology.

Half-Life 2: inherits largest enduser community in history, ?, ?, inherits a huge mod community and promises to make new moders, absolute latest technology.

It's safe to assume, based on HL1, that the two '?'s will both be somewhere between HL1 and UT2k3 in implementation if Valve has the smallest shred of sanity. End result: unprecedented victory (even for Valve) in the modding sphere PROVIDED THE SOURCE ENGINE SCALES DOWN FOR LOWER-END SYSTEMS GIVING THEM MAXIMUM AUDIENCE. This also assumes a very clean, nearly bug-free release.

That 'scales down' proviso is very, very critical. If a 1GHz system with a GF3 and 256MB of RAM can't at least run it, Valve has fucked themselves in the ass. If it can, as I said - I'll bet on them winning every single last marble in the game.

Expect professional developers to continue licensing other engines, however - both Doom 3 and UT2k4 will be superb engines for the professional developer, count on it.

--SB