 Playkid | Skrevet 27/02-04 18:52 | Yes, og dette må siges at være en af de mest spændende!
Men læs selv:
Greetings, and welcome to the February 27th edition of the Bungie Weekly Update, where you can act as a fly on the wall at the wacky happenings at Bungie HQ! Remember that these weekly updates are designed to illuminate Bungie and Halo fans on the game development process –not the game itself. But I am occasionally allowed to bestow a special nugget or two every month or so, therefore consider yourselves lucky this week!
Denne gang postede på b5240, totalt yndlings Halo board:D
Mister Chief;) :
http://img26.photobucket.com/albums/v78/frankie117/MisterChiefandJeebus.jpg
Feb. 27 Bungie Weekly Update | Spiller nu: Halo 3
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| Playkid | Skrevet 27/02-04 20:23 | Det var dog det værste svineri, jeg hader den slags "morsomhedder" ;(
Tråden er dog ikke blevet slettet endnu.
Jeg poster den ægte update når den kommer. | Spiller nu: Halo 3
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 yokanabster | Skrevet 28/02-04 02:56, rettet 28/02-04 03:00 | Bungie Weekly Update!!! (Post #1)
About the Fake Weekly Update
Some Halo fan put up a reasonably convincing fake update this morning on a forum and caused a minor tizzy– needless to say, it wasn't us. Basically, if you're suspicious, just check out www.bungie.net – if we don't link to it from there, it's probably fake. Here's this week's short and sweet update.
Working on the lightmap farm.
Zach just told us he's been working on the lightmap farm. Maybe it's because I've had a brutal head-cold, but I suddenly imagined him, sleeves rolled up, ruddy-cheeked and up to his elbows in the dirt, reek, and good honest work of a lightmap farmer. Of course, what Zach actually does is build a utility to make some computers share a tedious workload. It allows numerous machines (mostly Compaq rack servers) working diligently, to do some boring, time-consuming, but ultimately vital lightmap rendering, so that all that geometry is properly lit when it gets spat out at the other end. Some of the better lightmaps are starting to trickle onto current Halo builds and the results are very pleasing. The biggest difference I see, apart from an overall improvement, is really convincing bright sunshine, and therefore better transition into shade. You almost want to cover your eyes when you step into the light.
So I peek into the lightmap farm, just because I'm curious and Harold, who's the cigar-chewing Teamster-type who runs all of test said that I should get the hell out of the lightmap farm; "Toasted buttercake like you wants to be careful around these here computers. Wouldn't want to get your face elctrificuted, wouldja?" He's working on porting over old Marathon web content to the new Bungie.net. We're kind of doing that in reverse order – moving Halo 2 stuff, then Halo, then Halo PC stuff, working our way back through gigabytes of ancient materials. There's some really cool old pre-Xbox Halo stuff hidden in there, that even people here hadn't seen. We'll let you look at it one of these days…
Mat's Secret Sound Stuff
Mat Noguchi says he's been having some fun with the chaingun. I gotta go find out what he's been doing…
…back. He HAS been having fun with the chaingun. Along with Jay and the other sound guys. Basically they've been tuning surround sound effects so that when debris kicks up around your feet and scatters, the sound effects are parsed correctly into 5.1. The effects will apply to any surface for ricochets and debris – dirt, snow and so on, but even cooler is the sound of flybys. In Halo, when a bullet whizzed by your head, it was actually a stereo effect, so you couldn't use the noise to tell exactly which direction it had come from – that's fully fixed for single and multiplayer this time.
There will be different effects for each weapon, and some of them are artistic rather than realistic. A real sniper bullet for example, would make a very short-sounding noise if you were lucky enough to hear it miss. In Halo 2, for the sake of gameplay – they actually chose a longer, louder noise so that you'd be able to associate that sound with that weapon. Much more detail later!
Chris Creates Life!
Chris Butcher has been tweaking and refining the controls for dual-wielding. As you can imagine, coming up with a scheme that doesn't alienate Halo players is tough, since every button was used in the original game. Suffice it to say that so far it works great and gives you plenty of options for swapping weapons, going back to single-wielding and tossing grenades. Naturally there are limitations – Master Chief can't dual-wield everything – why for example would you want to use two sniper rifles simultaneously? Anyhoo, of all the major game changes – I think this one will be the most smoothly implemented, based on what I've seen and played. It'll be second nature after one or two games.
He's also been playing around with implementing – gasp – ambient life in the new levels. And I mean ambient, you know, bugs, birds, that kind of thing. As opposed to rampaging herds of Triceratops. Small elements like that can really bring an area to life – and combined with the ambient sound effects, it'll make for a much richer environment. But as about thirty people mentioned to me, ambient life would be the first thing to get chopped if it didn't help the game, or if it became problematic for the schedule.
Lorraine in Toy Shocker!
Most of the Bungie team are perversely Halo nerds. They love Halo T-Shirts, mugs, posters, stickers and other junk. No surprise then that their favorite Halo memorabilia is the toys from Joyride. They're cool-looking and actually fun to play with. A few Halo art peeps contribute to how the toys look, but Lorraine McLees is the point person – and hse takes it very seriously, which is why it was a relief when she was delighted by the final prototypes of the new Chief, Grunts and Warthog.
The characters are the three-inch tall variants, and Chief gets to sit in a correctly scaled (and therefore giant) Warthog. Best of all, it's the LAV version, with the triple-barreled rocket launcher. The new armor is fantastic looking, and seeing it in real-life is kind of startling. Makes you realize just how imposing the Chief really is. Plus, he's carrying the battle rifle!
And here's the Chief, all three inches of him!
http://halo.bungie.net/images/site/halo/h2updates/minimc2.jpg
New Multiplayer Map!
Obviously there are lots of new multiplayer maps, but I just tooled around in a big, new, cool one that I predict will be as beloved (by me at least) as Blood Gulch. Of course, I haven't actually played against anyone in it yet, but it's my favorite kind of map – huge, and full of surprises. Just for context, my fave current maps are, Blood Gulch, Death Island (for PC) and Hang 'Em High. I think this new one has the coolest elements from each. If anyone gives a crap, I'll say which one it was after the game ships.
That's all for this week, more next, until then, here's a pastoral scene to help you relax:
http://halo.bungie.net/images/site/halo/h2updates/lightmapfarm.jpg | soon the world will be one big computer
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| Playkid | Skrevet 28/02-04 11:02 | Tak Yokanabster:)
Updaten var langfra lige så spændende som den falske, men lidt fortalt den os dog. | Spiller nu: Halo 3
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| yokanabster | Skrevet 28/02-04 13:15, rettet 28/02-04 13:18 | He he, Men dette er dog sandt!
Foresten, er der nogle kloge hoveder der kan forklare mig hvad en lightmap, som åbenbart skal renderes i en server i flere timer er? På forhånd tak. | soon the world will be one big computer
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| yokanabster | Skrevet 13/03-04 02:05 | Da jeg synes at vi skal blive ved med at poste frankies updates i denne tråd, og ikke vil spamme P:R med updates, kommer her den seneste post fra Halobabies :)
Bungie Weekly Update: March 12th, 2004
Short and sweet this week, just the way you like it.
Nightmare Armor Guys!
Two of the guys from Nightmare Armor, Justin and Sid popped in to show us their latest build of the Master Chief Halo armor. They nearly caused a mass conniption. First we gave them a hermetically sealed tour of the office – where they get to see our microwave oven, Laffy Taffy stash and no Halo 2 whatsoever - and then Sid (who's pretty intimidating in the flesh) suited up and went on patrol.
With his giant Frankenstein shoes and vast hulking mass, Sid really looked the part. The suit was almost perfect, and we couldn't have been more pleased with how it looked in real life. The overall effect was awesome. Bungie old-timers giggled like sissies as he stomped around the office, posing for photos like some lethal Mickey Mouse. Sid was a great sport too, stopping to corpse-hump a fallen BentLlama.
We then took him into the Microsoft Game Studios Cafeteria, where he nearly caused a riot. People actually cheered when a seven foot Master Chief ringer unexpectedly popped in for a Pesto Wrap and a smoothie. Sid, sweating it up a storm inside the (un-air conditioned) helmet, continued to be patient as Justin begrudgingly adjusted a dangling crotch strap. The gun he's carrying is a one-off 3D model of the battle rifle we conveniently had laying around.
Seeing the detail and lovingly crafted accuracy up close, was kind of mind-blowing, right down to the brilliant blue LEDs glowing in the leg parts. Makes us wonder how they got that through airport security.
http://halo.bungie.net/images/site/halo/h2updates/corpseloving.jpg
Magazines!
We've been preparing for two separate visits from two big gaming magazines. Each will run a story some time in the near future on different aspects of the game. We've got a lot of work to do preparing assets and taking screenshots (yes, it's laborious and sloooow) and as the game progresses, the people who can help us are getting busier and busier. The upside of that is that Brian, Zoe and I are able to get our hands on versions of the game with everything turned on.
Currently we tend to play single and multiplayer builds with bits missing – like textures that are turned off while an artist tweaks them, or levels with Joe Staten yelling insane inanities in place of real speech. But pretty soon, we're going to have very polished versions of the little bits we'll be taking screenshots of. Multiplayer we're used to, but I can't wait to get my hands on plot-ruining sections of the Campaign mode.
We also have to round up some very busy, very stressed animators, programmers and designers, so that they're available to chat and well-prepared when these crack (smoking?) journalists show up and ask them supertough questions, like, "What's your favorite color Marty?" and, "Will Master Chief fall in love this time?" Luckily they've been "media-trained" so they don't accidentally give away playable builds and hard drives full of source code. Because that's what they'd do you know.
Drama!
Joe Staten has been polishing and editing cinematics. The new game engine looks glorious when it's applied to the cinemas, and one, the intro to a mid-game level, looks astonishing. Although some pieces of the cinemas are missing, like certain animations, they're very polished looking and now they have the actual actor dialog instead of Joe and Co talking.
The cinemas are tricky for animators, because they contain a ton of animation that isn't in the game, so that has to be custom-created. In the game – the characters have a (huge) set of animations that they cycle through as the AI demands, but in cinematics, two characters, say, shaking hands, has to be hand animated. It's time consuming, but rewarding.
A lot of that work is done, and Joe is busy editing the cinemas for style and impact. One scene was cut yesterday – a cool, but ultimately redundant interaction between two Elites. Must be pretty heart-rending to chop out a week of work, no matter how much smoother it makes the scene play out. But Joe's job is to keep the story bouncing along, and that's exactly what he's doing. Readers complain a lot about the lack of specific information we give here – but I can tell you for certain that Halo 2 is exactly 183% more dramatic than the original.
Idiot! (Me)
Zach set me up with a web server, now I can see my horrific mistakes on the new version of Bungie.net (still coming soon etc) before I post them.
Genius! (Everyone Else)
Aaron and Luis have been automating the stress testing. That means they have about 35 debug Xbox systems running overnight, with Master Chiefs running around pretty much randomly, tossing grenades and jumping around blasting aimlessly. In theory, if he gets near a vehicle, he could jump in and drive it around too, but since the system is automated, nobody's actually around to witness the insane nocturnal antics of 35 Master Chiefs.
The purpose of all this is some very useful data gathering. The guys can come in first thing in the morning, see if anything crashed, look at a newly compiled database and see exactly what caused the crash – or at least what master Chief was doing when the crash happened. In the long run it means that testers are getting more stable builds of the game and reducing test time is a big deal. A similar reduction in lightmap rendering time is also saving time – time that will be filled up making the game better and better.
Flying!
Just watched a cool aerial dogfight – Banshees, turrets and a bigger Covenant ship.Big buildings, cool textures and some genuine surprises. Upside is that months of playing PC Halo mean I should be better at flying Banshees next time around.
All New Mjolnir "Fabulous" Series Armor:
http://halo.bungie.net/images/site/halo/h2updates/misterchiefmadurlmar12.jpg
Frankies update på HaloBabies eget forum | soon the world will be one big computer
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| RQvsnapz | Skrevet 13/03-04 10:17 | Bungie har smidt en lille video ud, der viser lidt af det der skete da Mjolnir-magerne kom forbi med deres kreaion.
The real master chief | I win, you loose
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| yokanabster | Skrevet 13/03-04 11:12 | | Sjov lille film...Foresten lyder det da helt vildt at bungie har 35 masterchiefs løbende, kørende og flyvende rundt 24 timer i døgnet, bare for at crash teste... | soon the world will be one big computer
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| Playkid | Skrevet 13/03-04 11:37, rettet 13/03-04 11:41 | Det lyder også til vi får nyt info i nogle spilmagaziner:)
Fed update.
Edit: Jeg ved ikke om i lagde til det, men ca. 17 sek. inde i filmen er der vist nok en monitor der viser Halo 2.
Det er ikke meget man kan se dog, men banen minder lidt om AOTCR. | Spiller nu: Halo 3
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| yokanabster | Skrevet 20/03-04 02:03, rettet 20/03-04 02:15 | Så er er det weekly update igen. Denne gang med det før viste pic-skan i HI-RES 1600x1200 (woow)nederst)
BUNGIE WEEKLY UPDATE!!!
By Frankie (Bungie Employee) on 3/19 at 04:21 PM
March 19 2004
We have a couple of important guests coming in today, so the update is tight and taut, not to mention shorter than usual.
Environment!
The environment artists comprise my favorite area at Bungie. Why? Because they speak in a language I can completely understand. "Look Frank, a building is kind of like a square with holes in it so people can walk in and out." Sure, they're patronizing me, and even making fun of my accent, but they still do cool stuff. Why just this morning I was admiring a building on an Earth level when I noticed that there was ivy hanging from it. It wasn't hanging there last week, and here it was, green and leafy. One of the artists pointed out something neat too the ivy only hangs on one side of the street, the shady side. That's because ivy won't grow in ferocious, constant sunlight, which is just one of those details that makes a place feel more real. Actually the shadows on one side of the street make for a compelling gameplay experience too, since your foes dart in and out of the shade, making themselves more difficult targets. Jerks!
And that's just one example. The ivy in this case is just one of the things that are placed carefully in the world to make it more "organic," like shrubs and grass and plants and stuff. The ivy is actually a BSP (Binary Separation Plane) with an alpha channel to make the gaps between the leaves transparent, but not all decorators will use this technique, some will be 2D sprites, some shader effects and others simply textures. Basically whatever looks best in any given circumstance, or causes the least impact on processor overhead.
The levels shown featured very nice lightmaps, but look even more impressive with the addition of dynamic lights, everything that's turned on improves the big picture.
Animation!
The Animators have been going through lots of different animations, tweaking, tuning and adjusting some for purely aesthetic reasons and some tied directly to gameplay. The short struggle that happens during vehicle boarding is just such an example. It has to be clear what's going on, and the animation has to be tied in directly with the pace of the game. All Bungie animations are hand-animated, and that's a time-consuming process. Motion capture has its advantages and disadvantages, but hand-animated stuff gives Bungie animators much more control over the process, and motion capture doesn't help when your character is a three foot alien with back problems.
They've also been fiddling around with the way Chief holds the flag. That's right, the flag is being improved! The animation for his run while clutching the flag is being tuned, and the way he grasps it is definitely improved from Halo. Perhaps more interestingly (not that the gripping's not, wellgripping) the flag has improved cloth physics! Har, not exactly mind-blowing, but since you're going to see an awful lot of the flags in CTF, they may as well look cool, right?
One of last week's tasks the dual wielding animation is now getting close to perfect. The change we mentioned in a previous update, to show more sky or ground, depending on where you're pointing, is complete, now the guys are tightening up his arm movements. I have to be honest; it looked pretty much perfect to me already. He also, I should point out, throws grenades in a much more convincing way this time around.
Testing!
Harold and the test teams he heads up both Halo 2 test AND the new Bungie.net re-launch test teams, have been attacking bugs on both the game and the site. The test team basically checks both the game and the site for bugs, checks those bug into a system called Product Studio and passes them on to the appropriate person to get it fixed. A bug can be anything from a typo to a hard crash, and the testing process is really the blood of the production cycle. Without hours and hours (literally man-years) of testing, nothing could ever really get fixed. Wrangling that process is an epic task of cat-herding proportions.
Other Stuff!
Jaime has been working on enemy AI, tuning the aggressiveness primarily to make them melee-attack a little more. My efforts to prevent this fell on deaf ears. I'm scared of Elites you see, ever since that one jumped out at me on Truth and Reconciliation. I nearly filled my pants
Jaime is also working with the team on honing weapons, including the Battle Rifle and the Rocket Launcher, the latter of which has been improved upon in a number of significant, but non-jarring ways. Basically you should enjoy using it more, without knowing exactly why. The Battle Rifle is of course brand new, so you'll probably just enjoy the experience. Right now it's my second favorite weapon. Can't say what my favorite is. But I can tell you that the Battle Rifle makes one of the best noises ever. Brap!! Blapp! Blam!!!
Sound!
No sign of Marty, probably drunk, but Jay let rip with some cool new stuff. The cinematic dialogs have all been recorded and the actors' voices are being implemented and processed into the engine. But cooler yet, the sound dept. are working on a new way of doing surface/object interactions. In the first game the noise of tires on gravel was one sound in Halo 2, it is, appropriately enough, two sounds. One is the tires and one is the gravel. And they interact. The result is not only better sounding, but technically more realistic. A similar thing is happening with DSP effects for noises. Picture the scene you're in a massive pitched battle and you quickly duck into a building the sound of the continuing battle outside, is processed correctly so that your building muffles it. Not just turning down the volume, but adjusting the acoustics on the fly so that the shift is realistic. The noise of an ongoing battle outside is really atmospheric, instead of just quieter.
Like I said, I ran out of RAM today, so Mister Chief is a lo-rez render today.
http://halo.bungie.net/images/site/halo/h2updates/misterchiefscreen.jpg
Halo 2 multiplayer-1600x1200 (Woow) | soon the world will be one big computer
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| Valkyrie | Skrevet 20/03-04 10:27, rettet 20/03-04 10:27 | Wow... Det ser næsten ud som om, på det pic, at MCs armor bliver smadret når der bliver skudt på den!?!
-Val | Well crucify the insincere tonight...
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| yokanabster | Skrevet 20/03-04 23:53, rettet 20/03-04 23:54 | For alle de store halo fans her på playright (Ps2 Playkid & Valkyrie :) der elsker at analysere til døde; her en lille artikel skrevet om screen shottet...
Det jeg mest selv bider mærke i, er den måde, ham den kæmpe spartan falder/dør på. Det ser jo vildt realistisk ud med foden der drejer om...Og hvis han falder over sine egne ben pga. flytbart miljø, er spillet jo allerede oppe og udforske nye fps funktioner. Manden der derimod vifter med armene da han falder ligner en scriptet function og altså ikke som en kludedukke. Jeg håber selv at de afskaffer den lidt mærkelige falde/flyve måde fra halo 1, med en kludedukke/scriptet version!
Lille artikel der sætter konspirations teorierne igang! | soon the world will be one big computer
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| yokanabster | Skrevet 21/03-04 13:15, rettet 21/03-04 13:18 | Nu hvor jeg alligevel taler med mig selv...Det er på ign's, bungies og hbo's fora mange der er er utilfredse med grafikken på billedet, de syntes at grafikken er blevet voldsomt nedgraderet i forhold til e3 demo billederne. Bungie siger selv at "The shot was taken in Slayer mode, and not all the graphical features are turned on, but this is pretty representative, we think. Seriously, go CHECK IT OUT". Altså at ikke alle grafiske features er sat på. Nogen mener at det er det, der ikke gør billedet lige så up-to-date, andre tror at de er for at øje frameraten i multiplayer at grafikken er ligeså high-res. Jeg mener selv at jeg vil vente lidt og se på grafikken med ALLE funktioner
sat til, før jeg tager stilling. Og jo billedet er ikke lige så flot som de 6 e3 demo billeder meeeen vent og se...EKS:
Læg mærke til mc's armor:
Nye MP shot:
http://halo.bungie.net/images/site/halo/screenshots/halo2/h2_mp_01.jpg
http://halo.bungie.net/images/site/halo/screenshots/halo2/h2_mp_02.jpg
E3 Demo shots
http://www.gamersgallery.com/gallery/data/698/1E3_03_tif_jpgcopy.jpg?1428
http://www.gamersgallery.com/gallery/data/698/1E3_01_tif_jpgcopy.jpg?9073 | soon the world will be one big computer
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| Valkyrie | Skrevet 21/03-04 13:30 | Tsk... Whiners...
Grafikken i multiplayer er stadig rigtig flot:)
Glæder mig til at se det i motion! Så man virkelig kan få et indtryk af det!
-Val | Well crucify the insincere tonight...
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| Playkid | Skrevet 21/03-04 20:08 | | Kanont, det var lige hvad jeg havde brug for at se og læse efteren spændende weekend:) | Spiller nu: Halo 3
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| yokanabster | Skrevet 27/03-04 01:39 | Ednu en update :)
Bungie Weekly Update
March 26, 2004
Welcome mah friends, to another weekly look inside the machinery of Bungie Towers. Enjoy. Or be mildly distracted. Whichever.
Mon Frere!
Michel (who's a handsome French Canadian and a huge hit with the ladeez thanks to his combination of Gallic charm, sexy accent and excellent nationalized health care system AND the angriest 23-year old in the world) talked to me about moving BSPs today. A BSP is a Binary Separation Plane, or in other words, a great big chunk of level. The thing about a BSP is that it's all one giant piece (they can be small too) that's interconnected and joined at every seam. That means it's all rendered in one go, and can be manipulated at will – if there's enough processor power. And that's been one of the things the team has been optimizing – big moving BSPs.
The BSPs in question contain some future surprises, but a good example would be say, a drawbridge (nope, the bridge we talked about a couple of updates ago is NOT a drawbridge) with like, a tollbooth, some gun emplacements and a bouncy castle. It's one thing to draw those objects as a Static BSP – quite another to move them around. Optimizing things like that frees up more processor power for AI and other tasks, so it's important to get it done before the gameplay is tuned on those levels.
It's also a weird mix of programming and design – since in a way, a moving BSP acts more like a character or a vehicle than a building or a level. Often the various departments can just get along with polishing their bits, but in an instance like this, close-knit cooperation is a must.
Michel has also been working out the nuances of the weather system with the environment guys. Mmhmm. Weather system. It won't be a big surprise to say that there's going to be rain and snow (it is Earth after all) but weather isn't always wet and cold. One level is set in a dry climate where dust, wind and sand all play a part. Filling out the levels with weather makes a tremendous difference to how "alive" the spaces feel. The snow and swamp levels in the original game are still some of my favorite levels. Rumors of a lava and minecart level are to be ignored.
Parsons, our Studio Manager, hates making big promises (except about how he's going to crush me to death in a rat-filled refrigerator), so I won't tell you what Michel said about how much better the weather effects were this time around, I'll just say they're a "bit" better and leave it at that. To avoid the crushing.
Needlers!
Crack-Cananimator Nathan is pretty much happy with the dual wielding on SMGs, and not much, if anything is going to be done to those, but he's particularly pleased with the way the dual Needlers work. The gameplay subtleties that are going to be introduced as a a result of dual-wielding totally boggle my mind.
Actually, the gun models themselves look super-cool too, and tuning has progressed on the look and feel. One Covenant gun has been altered subtly to make it look better in first person mode – there were some complaints that part of the stock "looked like a shark fin" and was obstructing the view too much.
Sweet Crimeny Jeebus!
David Candland sent around a "virtual" version of the user interface for testing and feedback. It's actually a little PC app that lets you play around in the Halo 2 interface without actually playing the game. You can scroll through the various options (you can change your control setup in mid-game now! Woo-hoo!) and best of all, check out all the Live options.
Scrolling through the various Live functions – regular old Live functions - but in the Halo environment, was weirdly thrilling. I was almost literally dumbstruck just seeing a game invite icon and a Friends List in the Halo interface. The visual look and feel has been hugely overhauled, and everything is tight and together, but it still seems like Halo, straight off the bat.
It's going to be one of those days when the game ships – do I play through Campaign right away? Or do I dive right into a new multiplayer map for some rocket action? I honestly don't know which one I most want to play.
The interface is being tightened up so that it’s always easy to get where you want, from anywhere in the game. Sketch was saying this morning that it's nice we're thinking of the user interface as a part of the game, rather than an afterthought – navigating to a game choice or an option shouldn't be more annoying than playing through the Library with a depleted energy pistol.
Scorpions Rock!
I got a look at some new vehicle models today, including the Scorpion tank. Few things I'd love to tell you about that but can't. I can probably tell you about the new Pelican model however, and it's a doozy. It's fully bump-mapped, impeccably detailed and features a real 3D cockpit, complete with joysticks. You can't fly it of course, but it looks so much better than first time around. My favorite feature, apart from the detail added by bump-mapping everything, is the new glass shader. When you pan around the cockpit glass, it shimmers and reflects convincingly. Adding the extra depth makes it look much more like a working vehicle than in the first game. When I saw it, it was having damage applied to it, so expect to see one or two of them smashed up in Halo 2.
There's also polishing work on grass, water and other objects. One test area featured big clumps of spiny, fleshy plants – Earth plants though, and they'll be featured as decorative bits of Earth City. That test area also showed off some of the new ground and "lawn" texturing, all of which is going to be brought to life in new and interesting ways. A big reflective pond showed off some calm water with convincing transparency (based on the depth of the water) – and I've already seen an impressive wave/reflection effect for the choppier bodies of liquid.
Manual Madness!
What do I do over here, apart from observe people with actual talent and ability? Well, one of my tasks is to liaise with the UX (User Experience) group on the Halo 2 manual. And we're working on it. It'll be cool. Full of instructions! And ESRB info. Hurrah for me! But seriously, the UX group is wicked smart, and planning a manual every bit as cool as the game it describes.
Jaime Griesemer's Patented Brain-Bending Cranium Tonic and Bum Lotion!
Jaime, as ever, blew my mind with the usual stream of stuff we can't talk about, but he's also working on something we CAN talk about. The tutorial! Jaime liked it the first time around, but for the new game he wanted to concentrate on stuff that you need to know to play the game, instead of the usual – this is your shield, this is how you crouch – kinda stuff. The example he used was that flanking is important, so the tutorial should "force" you to learn how to flank, without interrupting the flow of gameplay or narrative. Then you'll learn and know how to apply that the next time you find yourself in a similar circumstance.
Jaime is also pleased to announce that they've beefed up both the Battle Rifle (in an unspecified way) and the Needler. The Needler will now be a gun you look for, instead of one you use as a big purple boxing glove in melee situations.
That's all for this week folks, but watch out for inclement weather, even in dry climates.
IMG | soon the world will be one big computer
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| Valkyrie | Skrevet 27/03-04 11:31 | Yokanabster>
I can probably tell you about the new Pelican model however, and it's a doozy. It's fully bump-mapped, impeccably detailed and features a real 3D cockpit, complete with joysticks. You can't fly it of course, but it looks so much better than first time around. My favorite feature, apart from the detail added by bump-mapping everything, is the new glass shader. When you pan around the cockpit glass, it shimmers and reflects convincingly. Adding the extra depth makes it look much more like a working vehicle than in the first game. When I saw it, it was having damage applied to it, so expect to see one or two of them smashed up in Halo 2.
Ayy.... Ville gerne have styret sådan en satan i Multiplayer^_^
Men det lyder som om at de går amok med details...
Btw vil der så være updates fra nu til, når spillet går gold?:O Det er altså mange updates:P
..... Not that I mind^_^
-Val | Well crucify the insincere tonight...
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| yokanabster | Skrevet 03/04-04 02:50 | En frisk update:
Tomfoolery
Yesterday's April fool's shenanigans were met with a mixture of delight, mild amusement and abject fury. One reader, posting, perhaps ironically, on the fake website he was mad about, was incensed that we were cavorting and gamboling through the fields of whimsy, when we should have been taking screenshots and movies of Halo 2. Even though he went on to say that all of our screens so far are faked. He also described me as the "unfunniest person on Earth" so while he's wrong about screenshot fakery, he's clearly no idiot. That said, screenshots have been a big deal for us this week.
And I know this week's update is teeny. So don't hassle me, man. I'll make it up to you next week.
Screenshottery
Brian, Zoe, Stephen and Lorraine have been fiddling around with some cool new tools that make taking screens a bit easier. That and the fact that the recent builds of the game look better and better, means that future screenshots are going to look even more glorious than they did before. The combination of our new lightmapping and dynamic lighting gives stills an unearthly, painted-looking quality, yet still weirdly photorealistic. I love that aspect of the game's look – reminds me of how video games used to carry their own distinctive "look," like Capcom SNES titles, or the PC version of Doom.
The new Jackal model looks fantastic. His plume is actually composed of individual strands of vaguely insectoid barbs. Zoom in close enough (use your sniper rifle) and you can see that the plumes even have "joints." You'll also get to see how ugly and bump-mapped he is. They really do look manic and ferocious.
And not to dwell too much on Mr. Jackal, but since they invariably carry shields, you might be pleased to know that the shields are more detailed and transparent, so you should be able to hit that little shield notch more easily to take out the ugly cretins.
Musicisciousness
Marty stopped by to talk about the new music and Dolby stuff going into the game. Marty usually works with the (near) finished product exactly like a top movie composer (he says) so he will be sitting down with finished game and cinematics to score it properly. "Sometimes I'll hear the audio in a game, and just know, right off the bat that it was composed and scored before the game was finished. I can't work like that."
If you remember the Star Wars Episode 1 "music video" with John Williams conducting a live orchestra in front of a screening of the movie – that's how Marty works, only with a smaller screen and more computers.
Marty's been concentrating on the Covenant musical themes for Halo 2. The Covenant, as you know, is overtly religious, very formal and very serious. Expect to hear all that wrapped up in a ball of alien noise.
Marty has also built a bunch of Dolby surround mixed ambient sounds – instead of having them be processed on the fly. That means he can build an ambient creepy noise in a room, imagine tinkling metallic alien technology, mixed with a constantly swirling noise of rushing air. Having that kind of control over the ambient sound means that "live" sounds, like a generator your walk by, or a whooshing elevator nearby, can be processed on the fly. Marty says that serves no purpose other than to sound "sweeter."
Butcheration
Chris Butcher sorted/is sorting out a problem with melee combat that lets you use one BRAND NEW weapon and improves other NOT SO BRAND NEW weapons. He's also making melee combat "much more satisfying" in multiplayer modes.
Chris also has a stack of bug to deal with, as high as an elephant's eye. Trawling through this is par for the course at this stage of development. Everyone has bugs to sort through and fix, even the web team. Stupid bugs!
Lightington
Our new lighting guy, Hao, who actually joined us from the Amped team in Salt Lake City (and if you've seen the lighting in Amped, you know how cool an addition he is) has been lighting BSPs (Binary Separation Planes) and I just saw one with everything turned on – bloom lighting, bump-mapping, ordinary lightmaps and dynamic lighting. It was the single biggest shift I'd seen from Halo 1 in terms of sheer contrast. The way light changes from inside to outside buildings now is perfect, and the effect of running from inside a structure to outside is akin to that feeling you get when you leave a movie theater on a sunny afternoon. Only, it doesn't make you need to pee.
That's all for this week folks, and apologies for the shortness. We'll make a longer update next week, with any luck. And below is some insult to injury. Plus, mad props to MakaVeli4LIfe1 – why? Because he asked me to.
Don't eat stuff off the sidewalk. | soon the world will be one big computer
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| Playkid | Skrevet 03/04-04 10:24 | | Tja, lidt interessant stod der dog, men alligevel var der ikke så meget i denne som den sidste. | Spiller nu: Halo 3
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| yokanabster | Skrevet 03/04-04 12:53 | Frankie>
That and the fact that the recent builds of the game look better and better, means that future screenshots are going to look even more glorious than they did before.
Det lyder som om at der er et par screens på vej! Jeg er også glad for at de vil se pænere ud, da jeg ikke var helt tilfreds med det 2. MP billede. | soon the world will be one big computer
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| Playkid | Skrevet 03/04-04 12:57 | Jeg kan nu godt lide dem som de er, men jeg vil nu også gerne se nogle ingame screenshots, altså bare ikke fra den panorama vinkel.
Vi skal nok få flere screenshots at se, jeg tror bare først vi får noget at se til E3:) | Spiller nu: Halo 3
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| The Guardians | Skrevet 10/04-04 20:29, rettet 10/04-04 20:39 | Så har vores ven Frankie været igang igen.
After last week's miserable performance, we're happy to announce a more interesting Weekly Update. This time we'll chat about dialog, sound effects, animation and Xbox Live!
Bungie Depot
Next week, we're doing something cool on the site. Tune in Tuesday for a small surprise. It should be cool – a little thing that the community team has whipped up.
The Griespit
Jaime has been very busy, finalizing Ghost and Warthog handling so the sound guys can work with confidence. The need to make sure that sound ties in correctly with motion is obvious, and all of the sampling, including the gravel on tires recording done with the poor Subaru Outback we abused, is ready to be applied and processed. The Ghosts in particular (in my opinion) are starting to sound brilliantly "alien" and cool.
Jaime has also been finishing up the connections between rooms for one of the early levels with Paul and Dave. He wouldn't elaborate on which level, BUT I can reveal that you might have seen something like it already.
Jaime is also figuring how CENSORED will work on (gasp!) a new CENSORED!
When he wasn't doing that thing we can't talk about, he was working on new triggers for combat dialog. So that Marines and others will say cool stuff when they're supposed to, and won't just blabber away when they're not supposed to.
But one of the coolest things Jaime was doing this week was adjusting the scale, type and shape of damage done by a new weapon. I've tried this one before Jaime's ministrations and it is BRUTAL. And no, that's not a pun on the word Brute. It's just a vicious bone hammering bastard of a weapon.
The Animation Station
John Butkus has been animating his ass, or perhaps more properly, his elbow off. Monday and Tuesday he was going through older (Halo 2) elite/marine animations and just making sure they worked with all weapons when sitting in various vehicle passenger seats. Weird stuff happens with weapons in different scenarios, and as new ones are introduced, it's important to make sure that they look cool under all circumstances. John had a busy week, though...and probably created somewhere in the region of about 80 unique moves. His aforementioned elbow is killing me and he says, "my eyes feel like someone has thrown sand in them, but I wouldn't have it any other way."
Our Princess is in another Castle
Alta, the Bungie Princess, is working on secret goodies as well as a certain annual tradeshow, as she tells it herself, "This week has been chaos! In addition to taking care of the boys as usual, I have been busy working with some different people on some cool things that will start showing up as we get closer to launch. Fans will love what we have in store."
But back to the tradeshow, as Alta continues, "E3 is right around the corner…so I have been dashing around making arrangements for that. We have some cool stuff planned and I am wrapping up details for a mystery guest at Fanfest. There is definitely a buzz around the studio with E3 coming up and the countdown to Halo 2 launch. In the mean time I am just going to get as much time in the sun (yes sun in Seattle) as possible before the true chaos hits. That’s all for me this week. Cheers!"
Alta, please, for the love of all things holy, don't put me in a room with a snorer.
Max Power
Max Hoberman is an exercise in frenetic activity, as he explains, "Sure. I've been swimming furiously, trying to keep ahead of the enormous tidal wave bearing down on me! We got a new multiplayer map playable for the first time yesterday, though the programmers decided it was a convenient day to make some major physics changes so we didn't get a stable build to test. Since this map is dependent on big moving geometry that pretty much screwed us. Everything is fixed now, so we're going to play the map for the first time today. I'll let you know when we do."
"I've also been experimenting with a rocket warthog that tracks, fun (but deadly!) stuff. Oh, and planning for the in-game UI and HUD, something that has been a long time coming! Adrian and I are psyched and he's already started coding for it. Besides that more gobs and gobs of planning for the rest of the summer," says Max.
He continues, "At the same time Dave is working on polish to some of the riskiest, but coolest aspects of our Live UI, our new guy Steve is putting close to finishing touches on textures and lighting for another multiplayer map, and I'm trying to not let anything slip through the cracks. That means lots of meetings about Xbox Live features and a ton of thought into how we're going to finalize some of our most complicated features."
Grudge Be-atch
The Kiosk is back! You know those Xbox display units you get at K-Mart and EB? With the Xbox under a plastic shield, usually demoing recent games? We've got one, and of course, it's got a debug with Halo 2 installed on it. This is where, at any time, staff members can throw down for grudge matches on any of the new multiplayer maps. One such long-running rivalry is between John Butkus and Chris Carney – animator and multiplayer designer respectively. The smack talk is as voluminous as it is colorful.
The most recent match between Carney and Butkus ended in what was described as "an ass-beating" by another staff. Butkus lost badly, but that's hardly surprising. Carney DESIGNED the levels, and rumor has it that he secretly hides geometry imperfections all over his maps called "CarneyHoles" and that he can pop up from these at any time, like an evil wack-a-mole to snipe otherwise superior players. Word also has it, that Carney fills these CarneyHoles with health kits, shield power ups, invisibility and weapons. That's the rumor, anyway.
Staten Station
Joe Staten, cinematic guru and friend of the poor, has been making story stuff happen, saying, "This week revisited Earth-City. I finalized the storyboards for a super-duper, "event" intro, and CJ began creating the videomatic."
On other fronts, he's begun to work with the level-designers to organize and flesh-out their “mission-dialog” (basically, all the interesting things that get said in first-person that isn't part of the combat-dialog system) as well as help Jaime and Damian finalize the combat-dialog spec.
Marty, Michel and Joe have also begun to plan for the second dialog-recording session (late May) that will cover cinematic pickups and all mission and combat-dialog. This is going to be a whopper of a session, and will likely necessitate a week or so of hotel-time with Marty (lucky Joe).
MartyMania
Marty claims "lots of things are making noise." Little metal pieces of things get blown off of other things and drop in the mud, grass, or sand make little sounds like metal dropping in mud, grass, or sand. It’s cool. The tires sound like they’re rolling on gravel, mud, water, you name it and sound like they’re skidding at just the right moments. Basically everything is beginning to sound like you think it should sound, which means you won’t really notice it. Cinematics, combat, and mission dialog are coming along nicely. We like our cast – a lot.
Music is bringing up the rear as usual. More on that later.
So, that's all for next week, until then, Mister Chief appears to be away, but he's left a clue…
Edit: Du kan nu også signe up til Bungie fan fest 04 informationerne for du her: http://www.bungie.net/perlbin/blam.pl?file=/site/0/news/news_detail.html&id=7A73EF70-F694-4F56-BBFC-DF07CE1C79E8
franks billed | I have witnessed countless empires break before me.Spiller nu: Halo 2 [Limited Collect..., Elder Scrolls IV, The: ..., Battlefield 2: Modern C...
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| yokanabster | Skrevet 10/04-04 23:55, rettet 10/04-04 23:56 | Jeg kunne nu ikke finde noget skrevet om Live, selvom han skriver om at han gør?! Ellers interrasante ting. Kan slet ikke vente til E3 :)
Bor du i Danmark? ;) Man skal også bo i usaner land for at signe op! | soon the world will be one big computer
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| Playkid | Skrevet 11/04-04 10:46 | | Fed update, jeg var her desværre ikke i fredags til at se den. Damn, jeg glæder mig til E3 som et lille barn:) | Spiller nu: Halo 3
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| RQvsnapz | Skrevet 11/04-04 17:37 | | Prøv at registrere dig.. så vil du se hvorfor :) | I win, you loose
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| Valkyrie | Skrevet 11/04-04 19:46 | Impressive... Most impressive, but it's not over yet:D
Men jeg savner altså snart nogen rigtige screens og filM:P
E3 er først i maj i år igen ik?:( Darn... Men rygtet siger at der bliver en bungie fanfest for pressen.. Før Halos release sad de og spillede Halo banen(Bane 2) Og det så ret dårligere ud end da selve versionen kom ud(Der er en gammel film af en beta på Bungie.org), så selv om vi sikkert bliver "Blown away" Til E3, bliver vi nok endnu mere til releasen:D
-Val | Well crucify the insincere tonight...
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| RQvsnapz | Skrevet 11/04-04 20:30 | Vi får at se :/
Medmindre jeg husker helt forkert, blev det så ikke nævnt i en af frankie's updates, at de i ugerne op til E3 ville fodre os med nogle ekstra godter?? I så fald må vi håbe på nogle screenshots af noget rigtig ingame action eller et lille filmklip til at falde i søvn på :=) | I win, you loose
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| yokanabster | Skrevet 13/04-04 18:37, rettet 13/04-04 18:38 | Nøøøj hvor den side fed og gennemtænkt! Jeg undrer mig og over og imponeres af at der tilsyneladende ikke er flash på siden.
Men at menuerne foregår i D-HMLT, meget cool.
Ps2Playkid>
Der står bl.a. noget om Xbox live, jeg ved ikke om det var det Frankie nævnte.
Hvor ser du det? Det eneste "live" der spærrede mine øjne voldsomt op, var "Stats" sectionen... er det mon halo2 online statestiker?
En anden ting der er opdateret, er faq'en...
Bungie Halo2 Faq: AI>
Absolutely. The enemies in Halo were no slouches but this time around expect your opponents to be more cunning and tactical in their attempts to annihilate you. Covenant forces will use the environment to their advantage and make your job that much more difficult. You'll see the Covies scurrying under ledges, leaping over obstacles, and climbing up structures. They'll fluidly move with animal-like grace while talking and coordinating amongst their squads. They'll even use flashlights to hunt down MC in the darkness. It will take all of your wits and skills to overcome your adversaries this time around.
The Human forces will also be smarter this time around. They'll work better as a team and flip over objects to create cover. The Marines will also know how to call in support from a Warthog or point out an enemy sniper for an ally to take down.
Link til hele faq'en http://www.bungie.net/Games/Halo2/page.aspx?section=FAQInfo&subsection=FAQs&page=1
Cool og Ekstremt cool side :) | soon the world will be one big computer
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| yokanabster | Skrevet 13/04-04 19:33, rettet 13/04-04 19:33 | | Oki. iiiiihh Bungie.net Site Introduction:
Expect lots of new stories, interviews and yes, Halo 2 stuff in the coming months (this week in particular is going to be packed. | soon the world will be one big computer
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| Born2Play | Skrevet 13/04-04 20:07 | *Self-luv mode on*
Hmmm...Nice! Men ser lidt low-rez ud nogle steder? Eller er det mine øjne (tror jeg). | Swine flu for me and you!Spiller nu: Batman: Arkham Asylum
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| RQvsnapz | Skrevet 13/04-04 21:08, rettet 13/04-04 21:11 | Gad vide hvilket våben der skyder de der små partikler af? Det er vel nok et af de nye våben.
Jeg synes godt nok det spil bliver grimmere og grimmere (grafisk), men jeg håber da at det blot er fordi screens så sjældent er retfærdige over for det endelige resultat når det vises i bevægelse.
EDIT:
Husk nu at hente det "nye" stykke musik de netop har smidt ud :)... et must for alle Halo fans! | I win, you loose
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| Playkid | Skrevet 13/04-04 21:26 | Den forbedrede needler, bare i kølig tyrkis?
Jeg synes også at der nogle steder, virker som om at nogle grafiske elementer ikke er slået til.
Men der er alligevel massere af ting til analyse:) | Spiller nu: Halo 3
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| RQvsnapz | Skrevet 13/04-04 21:42, rettet 13/04-04 21:44 | | Nu er det jo også en multiplayerbane, og de var heller ikke vitterligt smukke i HALO. | I win, you loose
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| Playkid | Skrevet 13/04-04 22:04 | | Jeg synes nu stadigt de ser fantastiske ud:) | Spiller nu: Halo 3
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| yokanabster | Skrevet 13/04-04 22:21 | RQvsnapz>
Nu er det jo også en multiplayerbane, og de var heller ikke vitterligt smukke i HALO.
Ahh, ved du nu hvad ;)
Og jo der ser ud som om at nogle ting ikke grafisk er slået til...Dog er visor reflektioner blevet meget bedre siden MP2 billedet! | soon the world will be one big computer
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| Born2Play | Skrevet 14/04-04 16:59, rettet 14/04-04 17:00 | PS2 playkid>
Jeg synes nu stadigt de ser fantastiske ud:)
For min skyld kunne det være Stickmen og jeg ville købe spillet alligevel ;-) | Swine flu for me and you!Spiller nu: Batman: Arkham Asylum
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| RQvsnapz | Skrevet 14/04-04 17:35 | Hvem ville ikke det? :)
Derfor synes jeg stadig at det er blevet grimmere hver gang jeg har set noget nyt.... men ja,,, det ser ud som om der er nogle ting der ikke er slået til. | I win, you loose
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| Born2Play | Skrevet 14/04-04 23:25 | | Hvis det er multiplayer screens, så er det ret godt klaret IMO. | Swine flu for me and you!Spiller nu: Batman: Arkham Asylum
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| RQvsnapz | Skrevet 15/04-04 06:53 | | Så er der kommet et nyt render... ikke screen ingame desværre | I win, you loose
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| yokanabster | Skrevet 16/04-04 15:18, rettet 16/04-04 15:29 | Nogen interreseret i 8 siders halo scans? (Credit til G-xis på Talxbox.com forums, han er en helt)( siden er nede, så jeg lægger lige billederne ud! (Ps2Playkid fandt dem)
Arghh, HALO 2 MEKKA | soon the world will be one big computer
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| RQvsnapz | Skrevet 16/04-04 16:20 | *Savle*
Selvom det heldigvis stadigvæk er screens der intet afslører, så ser det da lækkert ud. Jeg undrer mig dog lidt over hvor skyggerne er blevet af her på det seneste... | I win, you loose
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