I've heard Gabe saying too that the episodes should be HL3 instead of HL2, but it sounded too much as marketing for me (oh look how new and improving it is). It has some improvements, but I have no trouble calling it Half Life 2 Episodes, I think I would find it strange if they would have called the episodes Half Life 3.

It?s good as it is and just call the next one Half Life 3

Dynamic gravitational orientation please.

Quite so! It wouldnt be too hard to implement either...unless they have seriously stuffed up the way they calculate gravity already.

I would love to see an overhaul of the lighting system, though that probably won't come until the the HL3 engine.

I doubt Valve will ever abandon Source, and really why should they? With Steam they can make changes to the engine and update it, and have it work for every game they've made. Odds are they will just keep adding to Source and updating it, and won't ever make a "new" engine in the sense that we are used to.

msleeper wrote:
I doubt Valve will ever abandon Source, and really why should they?

That made me laugh. A lot.

Thats the problem though, the really impressive changes happen when engines are rebuilt.

If we don't have a Source2 engine in the next 5 years then...then I'll eat Shmitz's hat .

A new Alone in the Dark 5 tech demo was released today. I'm not a huge fan of some of the gameplay, but dang, it shows off just how archaic Valves lighting engine is.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/30714.html

Gameplay looks a little, well, off but dang those real time lights are nice!

youme wrote:
Gameplay looks a little, well, off but dang those real time lights are nice!

i'm not a big nerd when it comes to lighting. i don't really care. yeah it makes the game look more "real" i suppose but i've played "FUN" levels before that were bright as hell with no type of dynamic (or even adjusted) lighting...

but damn. dim lights be crazy.

youme wrote:
Oh yeah I remember, more dynamically destructable environments(think worms), but that not going to happen for ages and ages.

This.
Red Faction did it and it was excellent.

Are there any engines that have dynamic lighting aswell as bounce lighting? I mean if a light is close to a red surface will the red colour difuse onto the other surfaces like it does in real life?

notDonut| wrote:
This.
Red Faction did it and it was excellent.

The tech in Red Faction was called Geo Mod, and yeah you're right, it was revolutionary and mind-blowing. Sadly nothing really ever happened with it, compounded by the fact that Red Faction 2 a.) sucked, and b.) barely used any Geo Mod areas.

youme wrote:
Are there any engines that have dynamic lighting aswell as bounce lighting? I mean if a light is close to a red surface will the red colour difuse onto the other surfaces like it does in real life?

I doubt it. Modeling and graphics in general are getting really advanced, but things are still limited by the power of the average gamer's computer. In time I think that lighting engines and other aspects that are traded in for other aspects (physics for lighting like in Source, or audio for AI, etc.) will be about equal to eachother in terms of ability.

I'd think it would be really cool if other NPCs that aren't used in Portal could recognize portals and move/shoot through them.

BlueZero4 wrote:
I'd think it would be really cool if other NPCs that aren't used in Portal could recognize portals and move/shoot through them.

When the Portal SDK code is released, I have no doubt in my mind that will be one of the first mods released.

youme wrote:
Oh yeah I remember, more dynamically destructable environments(think worms), but that not going to happen for ages and ages.

You should try this map:

http://hl.logout.fr/?p=phys_drydock

And on the menu on the left, try the phys_ maps. The download button is labelled "Telecharger" at the bottom.

Oh, yes, I know the guy who made them.
A very cool guy if you want to know !