Dark Interval is a restoration/revision mod that lets you play Half-Life 2 as it could have been. Using Valve's early concepts, we're creating new maps, models, textures, and custom dialogue. The mod is released in episodes, the most recent being Dark Interval: Part I - an intro chapter to the bigger story.
Arcade Interior
(view original)
Post a comment
Good to see this back Cvox, just wish I saw more of ya like old times.
Wow that reflective floor material really sets the room apart from most, like it alot.
I'll make the remark that the reflective shader is pretty expensive, and can cost you up to half of your framerate, so don't expect to see it used often, but we did manage to fit it into a few areas which really benefit from this added detail, and Arcade was among the most detail-demanding areas, so here it is.
Very good decision.
"half of your framerate"
If you are on a machine that can run the Source Engine on 300+ FPS that shouldn't be a problem anyway.
Well, here's the thing. In DI, max fps is restricted to 60. The reason we do that is... engine weirdness. With fps above 60 there were reports of various animation issues and timer issues and such.
I'm now on a Ryzen and full reflections cost like 5 fps, or not even cost anything, it stays at 60.
Before I got my Ryzen, I was on AMD A8 6600K, and then full reflections cost up to 30 fps (so, I would have total of ~30 in a scene with full reflections).
Although it is a DX9 shader, it's still CPU-heavy.
The way it's currently set up, is:
- for any level, I can set its default weather settings (max rain density, or more precisely, whether to use cheap rain algorhitm or new more expensive one), water reflections, and scenery reflections.
- for areas that I know to be expensive, I set its default reflections to world only (it'll reflect brush geometry but not models).
- in the settings - which we rewrote completely, the menu interface - you can select your reflections to either:
- not be present at all (cheapest),
- use always simple reflections (better looking, still cheap),
- use defaults (which I set for the levels in Hammer, so they're built in for each levels),
- or always use full reflections.
The last setting is the most pleasing to look at, but also needs a beefy system. Like, a Ryzen.
This has such a specific feel to it that is unlike anything else in the Half-Life universe. I think that will help make this a memorable place to pass through.
This mod can be described as simply MASTERED.