After a fantastic seminar, there are lots of question you readers wants an answer to. We received quite a lot emails with questions for the creators of Counter-Strike, and the questions was answered by Jess Cliffe and Mike Dussault.
Because of many questions we had to pick out the most relevant. So here it is:
Q: Can you give us any more information about when you will release VAC2?
A: Very soon. We don’t have an exact date, but it will be within the next few months.
Thomas BruunQ: Why isn’t the ragdoll effects in hl2 and counter strike source the same? The ragdoll effects in hl2 are much, much better looking.
A: It was a design decision to make the CS:S ragdolls more realistic, but we are planning on tweaking them to make them slightly more like the HL2 ragdolls.
Andreas NorlandQ: What do you guys think is relevant studies for a Level Designer, and does this really count when companies are searching for new Level Designers? What i mean is, if you're talented, but doesn't have any relevant education, would it be hard to get a job? In comparison to a candidate with less talent, but a Bachelor of Art degree from an animation school abroad (example)? If so, or anyways, could you recommend any schools for this subject.
A: An architecture degree is always a good thing to have when learning to do level design. If you’ve worked on a mod, that is a good thing. There are game development schools (a popular one in the US is DigiPen) that are also very good to attend.
Skjalge Mæhre.Q: How the f*ck do i get a mod team both skilled and motivated enough to actually get a finished product? I have myself been in 2 or 3 mod teams (don't even remember the real number), and most seem to fail due to slow development, unskilled people, or people just lose intrest and stop creating content, etc. etc. etc... Any tips? ^^
A: It can be hard to find good people to work on a mod, but it is a crucial decision to get the right people for your team. If you are serious about making a mod, you should email myself (MikeD) or Cliffe, and let us know what you are doing. We also may know people who we can hook you up with. Another way to do a finished product is to join a well known mod team like Dystopia, Sven Coop, etc.
Evind Dahl.Q: How did you make Counter-Strike back in the 90's? I guess you didn't have any SDK or Photoshop. What did you use to make the models, sprites, animations etc?
A: There was an SDK for the original Half-Life which was used for all Half-Life mods, including Counter-Strike. Photoshop was used for the sprites. Animations and models were done in 3DSMAX. With the Source SDK, we are encouraging people to use Softimage:XSI Mod Tool, which is a completely free version of XSI. Carl Erik Hagelien
Q: How to make ice break when you walk on it? Or is it imposible to make realistic ice?
A: fy_iceworld is a map that has ice that can be shot. We don’t have any maps that use ice, but it would be easy to make. You could probably use the shattered glass shader that we use on Windows, without too much trouble. Atle Brekke
Q: What is important when making a level for a game such as Half-Life2?
A: Prototyping a map with placeholder textures is a good thing to do, because then you can test the gameplay before you invest in making the map look good. Make sure to playtest it a lot. Watch over someone’s shoulder without saying a word, and observe and make notes. Feel free to send us your map, and we will provide feedback.
Q:Why is max and maya support from valve so terrible? Planing to do anything about it?
A: We released some older versions of exporters that we had, but very soon we will be releasing new versions of exporters for both products. There is also a max exporter that someone in the community wrote that can be downloaded right now. - Compared to CryTek's Sandbox, Hammer Editor is very hard to maneuver. Do you plan on doing anything with this? With hard to maneuver I mean you can't copy objects in the 3D window, and you have to use the 3d window to zoom in and out all the time.
A: We are always working to improve Hammer and our tools. This year, we are making a particularly large investment in this.
- Are there going to be some kind of “real time/in-game” view in Hammer in the same way as it is in FarCry’s “Sandbox” editor ? (so we don’t have to compile the map to see how it looks in-game).A: This is a good idea. Faster iteration times is something we are making a large investment in this year. - Do you have any plans on adding real-time lightning to Hammer Editor?
Q: Does Valve attempt to buy or support any of the Hl2 mods as you did with CS and DOD ?
A: We hope there will be mods on the level of CS and DoD for
Source, so that we can do just that.
Q: Will HL/HL2 ever become a movie ?
A: We are working with various Hollywood agents, but thus
far we have not found a script to our liking.
Q:In DOD:Source you are still using the old player models. Why?
A: We are currently upgrading all the content for DoD:S.
Q: The quality off the maps in the HL2DM mapping contest was obviously
of very high quality. Will Valve now include more custom maps in CSS/HL2DM
A: We are shipping 3 maps from the contest, and we would like to do this again in the future.
Q: What happened to gordon freeman after the ending with g-man in Hl1
and before gordon wakes up in city 17 in Half Life 2???
A: To explicitly talk about that would ruin the mystery.
Tobias Ørnes Andersen
Q: I Was just wondering what you guy's felt when Half Life 2 Won The-Game-Of-The-Year
award? It must have been an extreeme honor!!
A: We felt very honoured.
Alexander Talstad Hansen
Q: Is it true that you are looking for new talents
for Valve here at The Gathering?
A: We are always looking for new talent. If you have something to show us, please do.
Q: What’s the deal about G-man, I just don’t get it. I’ve played both
of the Half-Life games and I still don’t get it. Is there some clue I’m missing,
or isn’t the story about him been told yet.
A: The mystery surrounding the g-man continues…
The interview is made by Pål Eivind Nes aka Waffle and Mats Frøiland aka Cart
