LOST COAST is OUT!

[CPlusPlusGeek]

I easily did 1600x1200, 4xAA 8xAF all maxed (Including full HDR)

Looks very sweet, I HAVE to have aftermath!

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: CPlusPlusGeek
I easily did 1600x1200, 4xAA 8xAF all maxed (Including full HDR)

Looks very sweet, I HAVE to have aftermath!

I'll agree with that, though. I can't wait for aftermath!

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Avalon
Heh, it told me I didn't meet the specs to run the game, because I've got a Geforce 6200. Unlocked and overclocked, it runs DoD:S great @ 10x7 w/AF, so I hope I'll be fine with the same settings. Downloading now.

It told me I didn't meet the specs either... said my CPU was -23.2GHz the required cpu... It appears that dual core confuses it somehow. Anyway, very nice. Short, but nice. Is Aftermath supposed to support HDR as well?

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: Kalessian

Originally posted by: Elfear
The graphic detail was unbelievable. Kudos to Valve. Unfortunately, my system chugged down into the 20's a lot during gameplay. Run at 1920x1200 4AA/8AF Full HDR. I guess it's time for a system upgrade.

SLi?

Yup, or maybe if I can sell a spare kidney, it'll be crossfired X1800XT's.

 

[kaishaku72]

It's amazing the degree to which I have no clue what "Lost Coast" is...

I guess it's time to learn.

 

[aldamon]

Originally posted by: Avalon
It ran at about 25fps with my card @ 400/680. Once I went into the church, it dipped down to 20fps. This was all at 10x7. Honestly, I'm not sure what some of you are impressed about. I've been playing DoD:Source since that has been released, so nothing in Lost Coast seemed unique or outstanding to me.

I don't think running it on a 6200 at 1024 x 768 (and who knows what else turned off) does it much justice.

 

[Paratus]

Well on my uber l33t 9600XT and P4 3.2E 800x600 2x/4X HDR everything (not sure if my card can "do" everything) ~ 30 fps
at 1280x1024 (my lcd res) 4x/8x HDR evertything a nice constant 8 FPS
That sound you hear is my card being beaten.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Paratus
at 1280x1024 (my lcd res) 4x/8x HDR evertything a nice constant 8 FPS

You don't even need FRAPS for that, just count them as they go by...

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: kaishaku72
It's amazing the degree to which I have no clue what "Lost Coast" is...

I guess it's time to learn.

LOL!

That's a healthy atitude.

Do you own Half-Life 2? If so, just open Steam, and you can download the Lost Coast add on for Half-Life 2. Basically, it's a short extra level to the main game that showcases a relatively new technology that makes games look better called High Dynamic Range (HDR) lighting. Essentially what is does is make darker areas darker and light look more brilliant. You ever notice how when you go outside in a video game, you don't have to squint your eyes..? Well, now you do That's a real simple explanation, but it looks fantastic if your hardware can handle it.

Welcome to AT fourms.

 

[Heinrich]

PERFECT TIMING FOR ME!!!!

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=40&threadid=1723224&enterthread=y

 

[CaiNaM]

looks and plays pretty decent... so obvioulsy hdr + aa can be made to work on nvidia hardware.. does this mean ati's hardware support is not such a big feature advantage?

i would be curious to see a comparison of any performance penalty in using valve's method of implementing hdr.. or would the "hit" be mainly from requiring additional code?

 

[Aquila76]

Wow, that was amazing. Pretty easy, took all of 15 mins to accomplish the objectives and get that warm fuzzy feeling. Second time around I just basked in the goodness and popped a cap only when I needed to. It ran surprisingly smooth on my rig (SLI'd 6600GTs, 3500+, 1GB RAM). Don't have any actual FPS, but I didn't really notice any slowdown/stuttering.

The only 'odd' thing I noticed was on my second runthrough, I jumped out of the basket onto the path to avoid the fisherman endgame, and there were a couple unkillable-yet-already-dead Combine standing in a Jesus Christ pose in various areas of the map.

<====Soundgarden fan.

EDIT: And bad speller.
EDIT2: D'oh! Settings I used: 1280x960, noAA, 4xAF, Full HDR.

 

[hans030390]

I was pretty disappointed by the HDR and shortness of the demo. Considering how long it took them, that is. Had it come out earlier, I would have been more impressed, which I do realize it's a big accomplishment, but I felt it was lacking.

Still enjoyable to watch and play though.

 

[DJSfurry]

well the point of it was to show they had it. it wasnt so much development of the level, just a showcase of what is to come to the Source engine in future updates. the time it took was probably to make sure the game was flawless, as valve rarely has bugs in any of its games. im looking forward to playing in CS:S with HDR in future. i dont know about the performance hit, if its due to HDR or to the high high textures used. i got 20-30 fps in the church with the rig in my sig.

 

[Paratus]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: Paratus
at 1280x1024 (my lcd res) 4x/8x HDR evertything a nice constant 8 FPS

You don't even need FRAPS for that, just count them as they go by...

Damn straight !

 

[Paratus]

Originally posted by: Aquila76
Wow, that was amazing. Pretty easy, took all of 15 mins to accomplish the objectives and get that warm fuzzy feeling. Second time around I just basked in the goodness and popped a cap only when I needed to. It ran surprisingly smooth on my rig (SLI'd 6600GTs, 3500+, 1GB RAM). Don't have any actual FPS, but I didn't really notice any slowdown/stuttering.

The only 'odd' thing I noticed was on my second runthrough, I jumped out of the basket onto the path to avoid the fisherman endgame, and there were a couple unkillable-yet-already-dead Combine standing in a Jesus Christ pose in various areas of the map.

<====Soundgarden fan.

EDIT: And bad speller.
EDIT2: D'oh! Settings I used: 1280x960, noAA, 4xAF, Full HDR.

I noticed the same thing. Most of the bodies ended up in the air - including the head crabs for me.


BTW anyone use the old mans fishig spear with the grav gun to "catch" a couple combine?

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: Paratus

Originally posted by: Aquila76
Wow, that was amazing. Pretty easy, took all of 15 mins to accomplish the objectives and get that warm fuzzy feeling. Second time around I just basked in the goodness and popped a cap only when I needed to. It ran surprisingly smooth on my rig (SLI'd 6600GTs, 3500+, 1GB RAM). Don't have any actual FPS, but I didn't really notice any slowdown/stuttering.

The only 'odd' thing I noticed was on my second runthrough, I jumped out of the basket onto the path to avoid the fisherman endgame, and there were a couple unkillable-yet-already-dead Combine standing in a Jesus Christ pose in various areas of the map.

<====Soundgarden fan.

EDIT: And bad speller.
EDIT2: D'oh! Settings I used: 1280x960, noAA, 4xAF, Full HDR.

I noticed the same thing. Most of the bodies ended up in the air - including the head crabs for me.


BTW anyone use the old mans fishig spear with the grav gun to "catch" a couple combine?

Same thing here with the floating bodies. And yes, the fisherman's spear worked great on the combine.

 

[Sc4freak]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
looks and plays pretty decent... so obvioulsy hdr + aa can be made to work on nvidia hardware.. does this mean ati's hardware support is not such a big feature advantage?

i would be curious to see a comparison of any performance penalty in using valve's method of implementing hdr.. or would the "hit" be mainly from requiring additional code?

That is pretty much the same as saying that since the X800 series can do this HDR, does it undermine the 6800's ability to do OpenEXR HDR?

In other words, I have no idea

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: Sc4freak

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
looks and plays pretty decent... so obvioulsy hdr + aa can be made to work on nvidia hardware.. does this mean ati's hardware support is not such a big feature advantage?

i would be curious to see a comparison of any performance penalty in using valve's method of implementing hdr.. or would the "hit" be mainly from requiring additional code?

That is pretty much the same as saying that since the X800 series can do this HDR, does it undermine the 6800's ability to do OpenEXR HDR?

In other words, I have no idea

Nv cards cant do OpenEXR HDR with AA, and the only way to have both HDR + AA is to manually write the shaders to simulate HDR. Thats what Valve did, and that's the reason why you can have both features enabled, and why it also works on the x800 series. But neither of these is an optimal solution - we need cards that can do EXR HDR + AA in hardware, and then I can see HDR becoming a widely used feature.

 

[jamesbond007]

Just finished the map! I really must say that it was pretty neat to experience. I think it ran very well on my 6800 vanilla 256MB PCI-E card...I really didn't notice any difference in terms of frame loss or slow-down in comparison to the regular HL2 game, so I think it was written very effectively. I play at 1280x1024 with the recommended settings...which is 2xAA, 4xAF, max everything else. I also exhibited 'floating' hanging Combine, but only after I died once. (took an alternate path up the mountain and walked down the stairs that breaks) It's things like this that require further development and take time!

For everyone complaining how long it took to create that 'small' map...they were developing and testing a new technology to run on a game engine. It was merely a sample test and I'm sure from here on out, new updates for the Source engine such as CS: Source, Aftermath, and future developments will come out a lot faster. Just don't get your panties in such a bundle!

 

[Aquila76]

One of the other threads talks about bit-tech benchmarking a timedemo of the game in the Cathedral. Does anyone have their timedemo for this? I'd like to compare my setup to their results.

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: munky

Originally posted by: Sc4freak

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
looks and plays pretty decent... so obvioulsy hdr + aa can be made to work on nvidia hardware.. does this mean ati's hardware support is not such a big feature advantage?

i would be curious to see a comparison of any performance penalty in using valve's method of implementing hdr.. or would the "hit" be mainly from requiring additional code?

That is pretty much the same as saying that since the X800 series can do this HDR, does it undermine the 6800's ability to do OpenEXR HDR?

In other words, I have no idea

Nv cards cant do OpenEXR HDR with AA, and the only way to have both HDR + AA is to manually write the shaders to simulate HDR. Thats what Valve did, and that's the reason why you can have both features enabled, and why it also works on the x800 series. But neither of these is an optimal solution - we need cards that can do EXR HDR + AA in hardware, and then I can see HDR becoming a widely used feature.

but if the shaders are written from scratch to simulate hdr (as opposed to converting existing code), is it really so much more troublesome that it won't be used?

i understand the logic behind hardware support, but at the same time the common denominator (and it will be for a long time) are cards that won't do both, so it would seem to me it would make sense to use the shader method (again, depending on how complicated the code would be) until there's more hardware in the market capable of processing it in hardware... i mean, do you program for the zillions of 6800/7800 and x800 series of hardware out there or a handful of r520's?