everyone go over to gamespy here and vote....

[Sonictag]

sonictag hl2 and css both use bump mapping.

No, it uses normal mapping.

They even have tutorials out on editing normal mapping on planet half life 2. Normal mapping is more advanced and uses more levels of normals. Bump mapping can just be black and white, but halo appears to use normal mapping textures for their bump mapping.

http://www.fileplanet.com/files/120000/129654.shtml

theres even a video showing off the normal mapping and everything.

[peabnuts123]

sonictag hl2 and css both use bump mapping.

No, it uses normal mapping.

They even have tutorials out on editing normal mapping on planet half life 2. Normal mapping is more advanced and uses more levels of normals. Bump mapping can just be black and white, but halo appears to use normal mapping textures for their bump mapping.

http://www.fileplanet.com/files/120000/129654.shtml

theres even a video showing off the normal mapping and everything.

ahem:









if thats not bump mapping i duno what it is.

[Sonictag]

Yeah, thats normal mapping. Watch the movie!

It starts off with some guy who is obviously very geeky saying:

"and what weve actually done is develop a way to basically take thousands of polygons and simulate it with just a few polygons by generatoring normal maps and using real time shaders to actually process that normal map."

I am not stupid you know. And I do actually have the game, i would know about it. Bump mapping is no where near as advanced as this.

Bump map is basically a greyscale encoded light map used as a second texture to define where it "sticks out" although on Halo, they use normal maps to define the bump maps.

While a height map only contains 1 plane of information - the "Z" (height) plane, a normal map contains 3 vectors of information - "X" direction, "Y" direction and "Z" direction. Thus, each pixel in a normal map encodes which direction that particular point is facing - the "normal vector" of the surface.

You said "If it isnt bump mapping, i dont know what it is" the answer is Normal Mapping, both doom 3 and half life 2 now use this in a much more advanced way processing global lighting and camera direction to process the XYZ directions of it.

[peabnuts123]

ok i understand now, when u said normal maps, i thought you just meant a bitmap, you know?

yea me no game developer, just a modeller.

[Sonictag]

Ok, yeah it is easily confused from what halo does, taking normal maps and using them for bump maps, strange, but anyway, I am a game developer. Meh.

[HunterXI]

Er, that doesn't look like Bump Mapping, that looks like Parallax Mapping...

Go Google it.

[Excal]

Er, that doesn't look like Bump Mapping, that looks like Parallax Mapping...

Go Google it.

H4xmb... after all, it still looks perty. =p

[Sonictag]

Parallax Mapping is slightly more interesting, there have been mods for doom 3 which try to use this as the doom 3 engine supports it. Parallax Mapping does look probably better than normal mapping but can be quite difficult to generate.

HL2 does use normal mapping, defenitly..

Parallax mapping is a method for approximating the correct appearance of uneven surfaces by modifying the texture coordinate for each pixel. Parallax is exhibited when areas of a surface appear to move relative to one another as the view position changes. This can be observed on any surface that is not flat. Parallax can be simulated well by constructing a complete geometric model of a surface, but it can be computationallyexpensive to draw all the necessary polygons. parallax mapping requires no extra polygons and approximates surface parallax using surface height data.

[Excal]

*** Breaks out dictionary...

Ah, Parallax. Sounds egyptian

[peabnuts123]

it sounds interesting, what a good way to do it.

[jsrfmaster]

All half life 2 is is another shooting game.. boring.. I hate REGULAR shooting game..

Halo 2, different side.. its not just a shooting game, but more.. Half life, you get bored in about 3 minutes, halo 2 keeps you going,like an engine.
Its action isnt as great, and its just plain crap. The aliens take up no time at all to think of the shape, textur/color.. its a boring game.

Halo 2, the aliens arent the seven thousand legged things, their something you wouldnt even expect or think of. They kick your balls out of your sack their so good, and the graphics.. my god. I dont know if you can drive in HL2, but in Halo 2, you can board them, not boring, 100/100, perfect, unbeliveable.. HL2, 1/100, boring, wtf is this?

[Edwin]

actually, HL 2 is even with halo 2 in my opinion. Graphics own in both games, as does gameplay. But in HL2 it's more than just shooting, there are things you have to do that can't be done with your guns, and a lot of them. you go through the entire first level without even your hazard suit. you also can drive some, not as much and only 2 seperate vehicles, but both are fun to drive, have realistic physics, bla bla bla. that's another thing i love about HL2, the physics. there are some amazing things with those physics, they are almost exactly true to real life.on more than one occasion you have to find stuff to pile onto large levers so you can get to higher places, for example, early in the game you come upon a section of sewr it appears you cannot pass. there is a large board acting as a ramp, but it goes the wrong way. What do you do? pile cinder-blocks on the other end so it tips the way you need it to go. Or maybe there are some barnacles blocking your path, but you can get at the right ange to shoot em, roll a barrel down at them and slip past while they try to figure out what to do with it. Perhaps there is a gun tower you can't seem to get past, send a few giant antlions in to distract it while you senak around the back and kill it's occupants. Half-Life 2 is just as much fun as Halo 2. Don't knock a sequel just because you were un-satisfied with the original game, at least not before you play it.

[peabnuts123]

i find the only thrill to play halo 2 now is multiplayer, and its laggy and BS so i dont play h2 that often.

i still havent even beaten half life 2 and ive been playing for like a month XD i beat halo 2 in 3 days

[HunterXI]

And I'll bet you saw an "Easy" in there somewhere.

Honestly, have you beaten the game on Legendary? No, I didn't think so.

[peabnuts123]

why, why would i wanna beat it on legendary? u die form 3 hits, thats just dum.

not to mention im playing hl2 on easy too, so it doesnt matter what im playing it on.

[Sonictag]

In HL2, its got things you need to figure out, things you have to find, a good story line, although since I completed I just keep going back to the crane map, that is so fun!

Halo 2 is different, the masterchief character is good, but there is not much of a story line to how there became the master chief.

Half life 2 dominates in graphics, it completly pwnz if you got graphics on full.

[Infern0]

umm whats with ur sig then if ur not into SA?

i made it. and actually,i want some credit for it

[jsrfmaster]

why, why would i wanna beat it on legendary? u die form 3 hits, thats just dum.

not to mention im playing hl2 on easy too, so it doesnt matter what im playing it on.

Nope, you just suck and can't stratizize.

[HunterXI]

why, why would i wanna beat it on legendary? u die form 3 hits, thats just dum.

If you don't feel like playing Halo 2 on a worthy difficulty level, don't complain about how fast and easy the game is.

Furthermore, you argue that HL2 is hard on Easy (another example of just sucking), yet you argue that too hard is stupid? Circular Logic. Put down the game, and go get yourself a decent education.

[peabnuts123]

ok w/e dudes you just go back to the hardass difficulty level u came back from.