Half-Life 2's In-Game Screens

A compilation of clips throughout Half-Life 2 and it's episodes showing what the NPCs looks like outside the cameras point of view.
#halflife2 #sourceengine #halflife

[@croman2000]

Valve understood that prerendered scenes for digital displays would not scale with bigger resolutions so they went out of their ways to make a realtime stream with models

[@thinklife_]

@@croman2000 yea, and it's easier

[@awii.neocities]

also doesn’t take as much storage

[@DogsRNice]

Except the screens are rendered at a low resolution anyway lol

[@carsvengaming5558]

And they knew there mistake with the half life 1 HUD

[@Concon12316]

plus, if there were any last minute changes to any of the models, they wouldn't have to re-render the whole thing

[@SneedFeedAndSeed]

4:06 I like how Barney's cement block camera shakes

[@itdobelikedattho8112]

It's a camera

[@SlimbTheSlime]

wiggle wiggle

[@DonSanchez]

Shake it baby

[@Simaneerr]

0:45 he sensed that someone is watching him

[@Grayson-tk5hn]

THATS TERRIFYING

[@HarryNansen]

@@Grayson-tk5hn It really is

[@jamesbryan287]

It's a default NPC behavior I'm pretty sure

[@sharifahlisa5329]

​@@jamesbryan287 yea it is I tested it in gmod

[@apurpledragon]

Ah so that's why Breen in randomly there when Alyx watches the screen. It's also really neat how Alyx's dad does a typing motion you don't get to see sense his hands are never really visible.

[@CocoTheMii]

3:16 the idea that mossman is actually just talking to a still image of breen is very funny

[@BobTheMartin]

3:20 I like how they just put a PNG of breen in that scene

[@StanislawNiemyjski]

ehrm... actually it's a .vtf 🤓☝️

[@scoutdy6547]

Probably so the map makers knew how to adjust mossman in the scene That or (honestly more likely) the original idea would be that Alex would switch through the cameras at different angles and was there just as a place holder and decided to just stick it to one camera angle and didn't bother delete the photo.

[@mrman2476]

He was only on speaker mode or whatever it's called.

[@apchistuz]

A png is a lossles picture A vtf is either uses lossy DXT1/DXT5 or other uncompressed images like RGBA8888/RBGA8888

[@agentwolf69420]

Dr Breen is now your dating sim...

[@MyScorpion42]

Interestingly, when you talk to Alyx in the rebel outpost just before Highway 17, the monitor is actually an animated texture and not a real time camera

[@gillboy5762]

I think this is probably a remnant of how they did it in the beta before they came up with the real time streaming. Because the feed visually cuts out constantly it still looks pretty fine.

[@racer927]

Though Alyx is still in the map in a hidden room. I wonder if that's to get it so that she speaks her lines and then they're played at the monitor with the radio filter.

[@gillboy5762]

@@racer927 Voices in the source engine MUST come from somewhere. In Portal 1 GLaDoS is a red storage cube in a room out of bounds, in Half-Life 2 they tended to use the actual models for the voices. Even in the beta this was something that had to occur.

[@thisnameisbad3609]

​@@gillboy5762i don't know much about source but i have done a few goldsrc maps. isn't there an entity make specifically to play sounds?

[@Прощай46]

Нет, я с помощью ноклипа летал, там была камера реального времени.

[@Sum1Uknow2019]

Crazy how much animation gets lost when it goes through the screen 4:43 .

[@Axodus]

It's the filter they used, I think it fit the feeling they were going for so I guess the lost animations is worth it?

[@Sum1Uknow2019]

@@Axodus oh yeah it doesn't really matter I just thought it was cool

[@45hr52]

Better to have excessive amounts of Animation than too little of it

[@CocoTheMii]

@@AxodusThe strange thing is that Eli is fully animated despite being almost completely hidden behind Kleiner.

[@MaxLebled]

It's not "wasted" animation in the sense that 99% of HL2 scenes are using a library of gestures and poses that they can composite on top of any human character. It probably only took a couple minutes to add existing gestures to Kleiner there

[@infamoushacker4chan883]

Discovered this while playing with Half-Life in Gmod. Immediately amused myself by spawning in various props where Breen stands and watching them render in real time on the viewscreen.

[@FunnySpaceMan.]

🤝

[@Mal0Imperzia]

Id always kill, replace, or retexture breen like some dumb ARG. One time I replaced him with a ragdoll of him staring at the screen with a silent, wide eyed smile.

[@ιλι]

with wire mod you can make these screens yourself, with the RT screen and RT camera tool

[@Marduk401]

they cut Breen in half but they included Dr. Kleiner's FULL lab for some reason.

[@CalebEdwards-ut7ju]

bc they alr had kleiners lab bc its needed in other chapters but no breen office

[@Marduk401]

@@CalebEdwards-ut7ju it's not needed it's a different map when you go there.

[@CalebEdwards-ut7ju]

@@Marduk401 wait really? Damn they really hate breen

[@Foebane72]

@@Marduk401 They copied and pasted Kleiner's lab, in full or in part, I don't know.

[@usedtissue2328]

in the vr mod, you can see depth in these screens. it looks weird and doesnt match the rest of your vision

[@awsomebot1]

To clarify for others, I don't think you mean depth of Breen vs his background. Rather how his video feed is hovering in front of the actual screen. A ton of games have this problem, especially with decals. On flatscreen, you don't notice it. But with VR's depth perception it's very obvious (I remember seeing it with Alien Isolation's blood decals for example)

[@GoodSirEvil]

​​​@@awsomebot1 however this is an intended feature in this case. The monitor. The combine use doesn't have screens. You can see the cool layering effect in the non vr game as well actually. It's just a very cool hologram effect.

[@DeepWeeb]

@@awsomebot1 Isn't the feeling be more like how the portals in (hum) Portal look? Like, if you tilt your head you start to see what's supposed to be behind it, something that's just not a thing on a screen of any kind. Like a non-Euclidean optical illusion: the wolrd of the TV is bigger inside than the TV's screen

[@KirikkSiSq]

​@@DeepWeeb maybe more like World Portals from Portal 2?

[@NTSA-ox6fg]

4:39 ☝ 🤓

[@alien31ita]

"Alax, Gorgon u gotta go in the cetadail and turn off the xbox live servers"

[@lsl-wo3rh]

Made me chuckle, lmao

[@alfonzo_]

2:41 my dad going out to buy milk when I was 6

[@mr.cheeseisus220]

My milk going out to buy dad when I was 16

[@RedrD-oh6wu]

My dad going out to milk me when i was 116

[@yes_and_so_what]

My dad going out to by milk when I was 1116

[@MohIsmail-mk1fd]

My going dad out to milk buy me 69-uhh- i mean 61

[@mr.cheeseisus220]

@@RedrD-oh6wu don't you think that sound kinda...ya know?

[@Palendrome]

*Lord of the Rings Trilogy* : "We will intensely detail this entire city, even the things the viewers will never see on screen." *Half-Life 2* : "We are not going to animate a single limb that doesn't appear on screen."

[@TheProfessionalRanter]

Ive messed with those breen screens so many times 💀

[@Woogoo336]

Bro is well optimized

[@elektra81516]

Great video! But you missed out one very small screen which shows Gman on a boat in the ocean with some crows. It appears in Anticitizen One just after DOG kills the combine with the APC in a destroyed building on a TV, the same TV that emits the creepy radio.mp3 sound

[@thinklife_]

yea i forgot about that one, i made a community post showing it tho

[@boifo7565]

4:47 eli's movements are still being played even though hes not on the screen! It's cool seeing how immersive they make the cutscenes!

[@RedMenace0]

I know every game has constantly tried to capture the cinematic, seamless feel of half life 2 since it came out, but not a single other game has really captured my heart, no other game has the perfect sci fi action campyness, no other game has genuinely convincing acting, good and funny lines, and a world i genuinely can see past the borders of. Someone needs to make another game that feels like half life. someone give me more protagonists to actually give a fuck about, and moment to moment gameplay thats interesting and constantly changes it up

[@deepikapoddar2831]

Entropy 2

[@Foebane72]

I never gave a f about Alyx, I couldn't stand her, especially the way she kept following me and backchatting me. And she was useless at shooting monsters.

[@TylerLFGM]

I've always wanted to see these... thank you!!

[@mugyeah]

my knowledger.. ITS THINKING!! 💭

[@kuro.mp3126]

You missed the Gman TV secret in Anti-Citizen One

[@thinklife_]

oh yea, ill make a community post or something

[@kuro.mp3126]

​@@thinklife_and also, the alyx tv at the end of "we don't go to ravenholn"

[@thinklife_]

the alyx tv is actually just a texture ​@@kuro.mp3126

[@kuro.mp3126]

@@thinklife_ I uh, thought that. And then I noclipped into the floor, and I saw alyx

[@ApernosOffical]

​@@kuro.mp3126 thats because the NPC needs to be loaded into the map to be able to have their voicelines

[@railworksamerica]

The KZbin auto captions are doing a fine job today

[@JuanGamer0202]

Idk if its the way they talk, but for some reason the automatic captions did fine, that is weird it never works

[@someperson4536]

I thought you were being satire lol

[@ittixen]

The most insane part for me was that the static was a model physically placed in front of the camera, rather than a texture applied to the screen. Laziest hack in history.

[@KrebsonMACROwave]

5:19 In entropy zero 2, Their was a door there.. Turns out it supposed to be a Hallway with no door.

[@thisisnotfunny69]

entropy zero 2 is not canon,

[@OkachaWasTaken]

@@thisisnotfunny69 Who do they think they are? Hunt Down The Freeman? 😂

[@thisisnotfunny69]

@@OkachaWasTaken did i say hunt down the freeman was canon?

[@wedoalittletrolling723]

@@thisisnotfunny69 mods are not cannon, period

[@SniperOnSunday]

Even so, they did a very good job of recreating it.

[@LongNeckedBird]

5:28 one of those gotta be 3650

[@tapehead-jeff]

Sssst, I'm still currently playing Entropy 2, was already hoping this part would be redone in the game seems like it will!

[@tapehead-jeff]

Funny to see these video's being remade after two decades, as a kid playing this game back in the days (I was 11 back then) KZbin was full with the same kind of (lowtech 240P Fraps) videos explaining the same stuff, even I myself made one of those videos back then. It was a real game changer once I found out how to use the console commands and look at these places myself! Edit: People like you really keep this game alive, thanks for that!

[@dogman15]

One other one you missed was the TV showing Dr. Magnusson, that then gets interrupted by a Combine Advisor. And there's the TV showing footage of the Borealis after Mossman's message is played.

[@MathaikurvaEntertaimentsCo]

whenever i see Dr. Mosman"s capture, i always think about that Entropy zero 2 scene, where they go after Mosman, and it just maches perfectly with the one in episode 1

[@FiYogurt]

Same

[@rolling_get]

Welp...cannot unsee torso Breen/Kleiner/Eli. Maybe I didn't need to see how this hot dog was made. Great vid tho, very interesting!

[@ShinomiyaK1]

"Well kum" - The Best sentence in a op

[@therealseagullking]

finding these in gmod was cool.

[@i_am_theguy12]

i saw this before a bunch of other people saw it (about ~280 views), thats neat, doesnt happen very often also good video i am like

[@SonOfTheChinChin]

i cant believe other game engines still dont have texture capturing and streaming like source

[@SkedgyEdgy]

-- they literally do what

[@SkedgyEdgy]

-- even in the ps1 era games did this kzbin.info/www/bejne/j3y5c4qCbatmjqcsi=LXO6eZdFRooYXgU-&t=185

[@MegariskyYT]

Basically every 3D engine in use today has virtual texture support

[@halfsine]

almost every modern engine has that feature, its archaic engines from decades ago that don't have features like that. most fps games NEED this technology to prevent viewmodels from clipping into walls.

[@theblah12]

Name an engine that doesn’t?

[@zstewart]

Its amusing that the on-screen static during the teleport scene is just a box with a static texture that they put in front of the virtual camera.

[@cryptomonique]

alyx does the creepiest look after teleporting at 2:27

[@Yulenka-]

Thank you for such an undue upload! HL2 is a masterpiece

[@Theunion24]

I like how Lamar is just swimming in the air

[@HelenaFelona2008]

The magic of render target cameras

[@coondogtheman]

You forgot the small security screens in dr kliner's lab which are generated by a large panel behind the wall next to the lab.

[@DogsRNice]

One of the versus saxton hale maps in tf2 has one of these

[@timeryar]

fnaf

[@LongPeter]

Flashing the screen-static cards in front of the camera is hilarious. One of those, “This stupid idea will never work, but it’s easy, so I might as well try it…” moments for sure.

[@bulletbeatboxer]

One of the most well done in game screens in any game... such a brilliant idea to just add another camera, be able to add filter effects to the screens. I really didn't seen many other games do it well in that era of games.

[@Foebane72]

Doom 3 had cameras, too. You could even see yourself from behind in one of them, which was cool!

[@DonSanchez]

Wait, these weren't pre-recorded videos? Noice.

[@H2Oredfirefox]

It is kind of funny seeing the same side by side from the cameras point of view as well it's kind of amusing🤔🤔🤔🤔

[@Inventure751]

I always thought it was creepy when the G-man was in Breen's "studio" in one instance, and they modeled his torso too short. It appears when a vortigaunt is powering a TV in Route Kanal

[@liguelxi1610]

I have discovered some of them by myself, when trying noclip out. Thats really interesting

[@Foebane72]

This sort of tech has existed for a long time in 3D game engines. id Tech 4 had such a "virtual camera" ability as well, it was most likely an offshoot of the "mirror" technology they used in Quake 3 Arena. GoldSrc (Half-Life) also had a virtual camera, and I've seen it in Build (Duke Nukem 3D) too.

[@MBS_777]

0:35 Забавный факт, Брина можно грохнуть. Оказавшись тут, навестись на Брина и написать команду на поджог. Брин погорит, затем исчезнет и вроде бы даже его речь пропадет 🎉

[@ad7799]

5:38 I don´t remember seeing Lamard...

[@FunnySpaceMan.]

Due to Gmod noclipping, I am aware of all of these LMAO.

[@TheSizzleDash]

actual live streaming, cool

[@emmanueldelangel3014]

In the part where Doctor Mossman transmits her message to Gordon and Alyx, it looks good in Entrophy Zero

[@H2Oredfirefox]

It always seems that they sometimes added animation to the physical character even though most of the time you don't get to see that on monitors🤔🤔🤔😀😀😀

[@MichaelOfRohan]

Watch it just turn out to be a portal with a different graphic lol

[@GordonFreeman-l3p]

I Like That Breen Is Cut In Half

[@butwhytho6522]

SO if you were going to properly provide a raytraced version, you'd have to flesh out the virtual camera environments to correctly portray light emissions and occlusions in the off-screen environments. Something the existing raytracers miss.

[@MatthewBester]

I found Breen years ago, back in the day but I don't remember Kleiner. Awesome.

[@alioeygamer1239]

i love barney when he said in coming !!

[@GimmilFactory]

Duct tape and wire ties.

[@gvidobarscausks9272]

awesome video

[@Wolfy-02]

There something spooky and depressing about this music, I remember we hear it when enter in the citadel core It really makes me feel uncomfortable, tell me if you feel the same, I'm curious

[@sonicobolt]

I love valve, god bless you Gaben, i hope you're healthy and your beard is as long as Santa's.

[@zussman_]

5:40 what is lamar doing there

[@thinklife_]

he's at the end of kleiners speech

[@lenadams854]

​@@thinklife_ she

[@45hr52]

Swimming in the air

[@itdobelikedattho8112]

​@@thinklife_did you just misgender her?

[@Nightprideenclave_studio]

You can find him in gmod

[@1ndleun_what]

you can even kill dr breen

[@labradoodle1886]

Breen is a gorilla tag player confirmed

[@jungkrist]

Well done 👌

[@suma4m]

Is it possible for the monitors to show in-game objects that player can move, Gordon's model controlled by player, or unscripted NPCs?

[@yazidefirenze]

I can't believe Breen is a youtuber!

[@aggerdanny]

Breen didn’t wear his legs

[@epic_expunged]

i guess hl2 wasnt advanced enough to play videos inside of the game so it becomes easier

[@XibTi_]

All this time they were never pre-recorded videos but in real time?

[@elitesoldier3650]

Professionally made! Deserves a like and subscribe.

[@sagey08]

yo dude, look at the comment above you

[@PloVv-hu4qt]

@@sagey08 What comment?

[@mrman2476]

@@sagey08 "If you spawn something in front of breen does it effect the breencast?" That's the comment above him. What's so interesting about it?

[@sagey08]

at the time of writing my comment the commenter above him is a furry

[@mrman2476]

@@sagey08 Oh bit thaat's funny!! You get a funny badge. ⨶

[@railworksamerica]

good video thank you

[@kiroman258]

Разговаривает со стенкой😂 и летающие туловища с головой гениально

[@PhattyBolger]

I don't understand why they put static behind the character models.

[@SonicTheHedgehogModern]

and! I missed the borealis, there is a part at the end of ep2 where the borealis appears

[@SNOUPS4]

Thanks!

[@kevinmaasik8558]

nice video👍🏻👌

[@WinterGamesYT]

3:30 my parents having an argument be like

[@MiljanBojovic]

0:45 Dafuq are you looking at?

[@NestyCZSK]

can you record how the train works? pls?

[@goofer-content]

ok why they actually make breen say the things tho

[@SlimbTheSlime]

What about Alyx talking to Leon?

[@SimonG258]

5:28 the 2 elites both die here, that makes entropy zero 2 non canon

[@sahaquiel4640]

Fucking how

[@naitor2594]

you're not meant to see them dying though

[@elisa3257]

We knew this

[@Barkevergulsen1713]

If you spawn something in front of breen does it effect the breencast?

[@thinklife_]

yea

[@ApernosOffical]

i did that in gmod once, and put the red teletubby over breen lmao

damn nice !!

[@lenadams854]

5:33 ministridet

[@nguyenhuyhoang1010]

Entropy: Zero 1 & 2 ?

[@sh_ne_]

L video he stole my cs knife :(

[@thinklife_]

NOO~O~O !O@~@#2131234 walmart

[@FürPreußen]

Alyx in the end gained G-Man's abilities.

[@NGabunchanumbers]

I wish you didn't put that super loud music there so that I coulr actually see how the words sync up to the actions. Can anymore make a version where it's actually possible to hear stuff?

[@thinklife_]

the music is not that loud.

[@heythatsprettygood6492]

lit

[@Nolevun_Shorts]

Мне больше с Кляйнером понравилось

[@user-zk5hf4zy3d]

what do you think of that interloper arg?

[@thinklife_]

soy sauce

[@user-zk5hf4zy3d]

@@thinklife_ Okay based

[@MetalboiSage-vi3ew]

Damn

[@JoeAverage3325]

I was gonna make a video about this but i thought nah everyone knows about this and it wouldn't get any views