HL2 Dev Commentary Part 7 - Highway 17

[@dfshjb44]

Really enjoy how you demonstrate what is going on in the commentary! Specifically the part where you took down the gunship twice to show it falling near the player. That extra effort makes all the difference when watching

[@ShyGuyXXL]

I really appreciate that you go out of your way to demonstrate the things the commentaries are talking about whenever you can. Like the barrels carrying over through the loading zone and then even getting out of the car and being like "Yaaay, it worked! Barrel's here!" :D

[@christyguy59]

The bridge section is so iconic and unique. It's a simple concept, but the fact you rarely see the under side of a bridge up close makes it oddly terrifying.

[@fearingalma1550]

the view shake really helps sell it

[@marcobrod796]

haha, I think I actually noticed the birds shitting on my car, but I never knew I could clean it up.

[@maddd1025]

20 years later and i finally learned about the unlimited ammo crate on the buggy ._.

[@Ultimate_Luki]

bro npcs literally tell you about it when you get the buggy ...

[@JamesMaul]

Yep I didn't know about that either... valve playtesters would be shaking their heads and making furious notes

[@drifter402]

You didn't know!?

[@CIinbox]

I was about to post the same thing. Completed the game at least 4 times without knowing about it.

[@you_DK]

I also just learned about during my anniversary update playthrough. Although to be fair, the model is much smaller than regular infinite ammo crates and on the backside of the model. ... And I didn't understand English well enough due to being 9 years old and from Europe. I'm sure a lot of people can remember that struggle.

[@theslamdancekid]

For somebody that knows very little about sound design, hearing Kelly Bailey explain all of the trickery that went into audially simulating the engine transmission as well as the line-of-sight audio dampening with the gunship fights is fascinating. Him and Ted Backman are two Valve OGs that have earned my eternal reverence.

[@Twat2024]

Ive been producing electronic music for 10 years and I'm learning sound design for videogames and kaleys work on half life is a huge reason why the game feels like what it feels, the audio work on this game is legendary

[@midgetsausage]

Kelly Bailey is a goddamn GOAT. Level designer, musician and sound designer, IIRC he even wrote the DSP system for Half-Life 1 himself. He and John Guthrie made the test chamber sequence in the first game too. What an absolutely talented guy.

[@sarcasmenul]

its funny that valve has a good hold on audio design yet the commentary sounds like it was recorded through two cans tied with a string, not to mention half of those guys clearly arent used to speaking in public, very hard to make out what some of them are saying sometimes, and my god, the labored, heavy breathing of fat old men is really not needed.

[@Boamere]

@@sarcasmenulthey probably recorded it on a phone and sent it in

[@slyseal2091]

@@sarcasmenul Artistically it's crude, but having the section-relevant people write and deliver all of the developer commentary makes it a primary source.

[@CatzHoek]

I can only repeat, the fact that you really try to match your actions with the contents of the commentary is really great. For example the barrels you shot through the tunnel when they talk about the transition spaces. I've quickly skipped through a different video of the commentary and it instantly annoyed me how the person just did random things and didn't try to showcase what is being talked about.

[@HeyKyle]

Yeah which makes it funny because I saw someone complaining about him taking “too long” to upload these and that others have already done it before him. Yeah probably because the other creators did a lazy job and rushed to upload them first. This is much better.

[@zmax1muus744]

the fact there wasn't a commentary node on the bridge talking about the soundtrack is criminal

[@HeyKyle]

There seems to be zero mention really of the music in this dev commentary. Which is dissapointing especially since Kelly Bailey is apart of it.

[@lelandrb]

I haven't played this game in forever (watching these instead of replaying) but I am relistening to the bridge music after your comment and I am instantly transported. Wow this had a big impact on me as a kid. Apparently I even liked the video at some point, lol.

[@hardt92]

I watched a play through of someone's first time with HL2 and they completely misunderstood the purpose of the thumpers and went around turning each one off so that it wouldn't "attract" the antlions. They also didn't realize the rocket launcher was laser guided. It was extremely frustrating to watch them play this chapter. Just goes to show that even with all the hard work of the developers you can't make everything foolproof.

[@geekofsteal]

Correct. At a certain point, you just can't cater to people without object permanence. There will always be people who hl2 'just isn't for'

[@mahuba2553]

30:00 by far my favourite part in the entire game. im glad to know that valve really did just take their time with this section specifically

[@cskiller86]

24:02 What a shot! Also, I learned two things today: the seagull crapping on the buggy, and the fact that the weapon on the buggy can shoot through walls.

[@kisaragi-hiu]

20:49 lol, "totally unplayable" joke in the commentary. This is fascinating.

[@cube2fox]

I like the flippant comment. No doubt developers are sometimes annoyed by hardcore gamers whining about every little frame drop.

[@whereammy]

@@cube2fox It actually feels good though, because it's like there's some resistance when crashing through the glass, like hitstop.

[@skylx0812]

Had a glitch and the damn bird wouldn't get off the car. It would fall through to the pavement then waddle around in circles and crap up the road.

[@kakophonien6514]

realistic birb

[@CubanLegend561]

thank you for illustrating and demonstrating the Flying Vehicle Sounds portion, very nice to see it in action. It's crazy to think that this sound feature was natural to me when i first played the game, but that it had to be programmed into the game to make it happen. Thanks for these uploads :) EDIT: Area portals! wow, i never noticed this. Also, Edge Friction, wow i never noticed this either, Amazing.

[@WilhelmScreamer]

The notion that Cubbage s a fraud never even occured to me, he struck me as a genuine fella just teeing you up for success when I played. Its very funny to learn the devs had a very different understanding of the character.

[@actualmessiah6970]

its been out for 1 minute! where is Part 8! i dont pay you nothing to recieve nothing, i expect something! (in the form of linear media)

[@DD-rn4gi]

​​@@treesapien5762 Then why don't you just, you know, watch those?

[@UseZapCannon]

@@treesapien5762 It's a courtesy to be uploading these at all, when people could just play the game and listen to them there

[@actualmessiah6970]

@@treesapien5762 imagine wasting time out of your life to comment on a video about a 20 year old game, by a guy you seemingly dont like. Waste doesnt come close to the word to describe the time your pissing away thinking like this. You could be learning a skill like drawing or an instrument but yet, you give your unwanted opinion. Its not okay to be jealous of someone being liked/popular. and if thats not it and its "greed", that makes you so sad. "woe is him for practicing for years and building a brand from the ground up". i know youre to ignorant to read any of this, let alone understand it, but let me leave you on this final remark. (Bruh imagine taking a week and a half to do what other creators did in a day.) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ what you said. Apply it to you lol "imagine hating so much you comment on it multiple times, when other people (smart people) simply dont watch" p.s only reason i felt the need to comment is because you have no valid points of criticism, youre hating blindly because ________. try and do what he does, have 3 successful channels, be a non native english speaker with perfect english accent, give information in a concise palatable way, and grow up.

[@actualmessiah6970]

@@treesapien5762 yo my guy, you pointed this out. GO WATCH ANOTHER KZbinRS UPLOAD? we obviously dont care about it... youre jealous admit it, you hate the fact someone can get stuff for "seemingly nothing", when you have no idea the work that goes into making long form content. like it or not bro everything takes practice, you have to practice to get better. im genuinely willing to bet he had a portion done beforehand. my best guess on reason he doesnt release them all at once is to raise returning viewers, and viewer retention by make smaller chapter size areas to enable easier consumability

[@VADemon]

@@treesapien5762 No, he said he uploads these as he finishes each.

[@16aastanepoiss21]

To hear how much work they put into each element of gameplay is really Inspiring

[@lelandrb]

Making a fake engine just to drive your sound simulation is mind blowing

[@isaacweisberg3571]

yo philip thanks for all the demonstraitions!

[@UseZapCannon]

The buggy motion sickness issues are interesting to me. I watched Woolie Madden (who is mostly in the fighting-game space and has very little FPS experience) play HL2, and while he got incredibly motion-sick at parts, the buggy parts were never a huge problem for him He had the most trouble in Ravenholm and Nova Prospekt because of all the narrow hallways where he'd have to keep turning around and disorienting himself

[@geoffdb8118]

FOV issue possibly ?

[@UseZapCannon]

@@geoffdb8118 I remember them raising the FOV helped, but I think some of it is just that an FPS game is kind of disorienting to play unless you're spent years playing games with that perspective. You have to get used to seeing/moving through levels that way Like, RollerCoaster Tycoon makes me a little nauseous, because I didn't grow up playing isometric games and it's disorienting to try and figure out when objects are above or behind or underneath each other if you're not used to it

[@JayMaverick]

They specifically fixed the buggy to be less motion sickness inducing, as said in the commentary clip.

[@samik83]

Never knew you could get motion sickness on a flat screen. Wonder what VR would do to them ;)

[@warmachineuk]

In the last commentary, after watching the debris of a gunship fall into the water, the author fires a rocket at a seagull. Monster!

[@britishbeef4890]

You know they are good at game design when they add features you benefit from without noticing they are doing it

[@ArtekGeneral]

9:30 Ohhhh... So that's what they did... I was wondering why there was a Seagull stuck inside the geometry of my car, because i clearly didn't remember running over one when parking. It was this "special" seagull. Man, doing these commentaries after replaying the game first was a good call.

[@the_real_Kurt_Yarish]

11:52 POV you're on your way to buy more beer to drink and a child decides to cross the road

[@ironeleven]

My last playthough of HL2 was using an excellent fanmade VR mod, and holy crap the bridge is even more stressful in VR.

[@weet294]

WAIT, ANTLIONS AREN'T FROM XEN???

[@mrscsi6472]

iirc, nothing is “from xen,” as all the species in it originate from other worlds, presumably fleeing from the combine

[@slav4335]

"buggy model" 🗣️🗣️🗣️💯💯💯🗣️🗣️

[@janbittner1465]

>Decide to lower the FOV to 75 degrees >Create a fast-paced vehicle section that obstructs even more of the screen >"Why are these testers getting motion sick?"🤔

[@cube2fox]

Yeah they could have increased the FOV to 90° once the player gets into the buggy.

[@VADemon]

Serious Sam 3 BFE hurt my eyes while playing. It felt to me the perspective is wrong, but that was before I learned to love a 90° FoV everywhere.

[@robot6346]

I don’t think the loos for and motion sickness correlation was well known back then

[@fearingalma1550]

I believe the FOV expands while in the buggy actually

[@DaDARKPass]

Best chapter in hl2

[@Aim3s]

perfect way to spend my evenings

[@ProductsforProfitsInc.]

3 nodes for bridge is diabolical

[@Whomobile]

buggy model

[@SquareD-JB]

Thank you for your effort! I hope you will do episode 1 and 2 aswell. The Videos out there are crap.

[@spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace]

a 31 minute video for a chapter that takes 31 seconds to beat

[@StephenOBG]

That seagull survived!!! Haha !

[@nsv8613]

20:44 the seeds of Ultrakill

[@Frying1Pans]

will entanglement be part 9a

[@nsv8613]

24:25, and 6 years later Mission Improbable accomplished that…

[@HeyKyle]

Left 4 Dead as well

[@DreadPirateFury]

Wait... I was supposed to jump that ramp at the beginning of the chapter? I always got out of the car and pushed that shit up the hill with the gravity gun.

[@samik83]

My favorite chapter in HL2. There so many novel game play mechanics in this one. I like the wide open spaces. The crane is so much fun when you pick up containers and crush combine. The small battles in between driving gives it a nice pace and of course the bridge is iconic, especially the gunship battle. Driving mechanics are total shit though, not very Valve like, when they usually iterate on things that they are near perfect.

[@persereika9178]

thank

[@ThePlexing]

18:35 accelerated backhop would be funny

[@stayawayfromthoseoranges]

"to get through this area, we're just gonna start an accelerated back hop anᴰ ᵂᴴᴬᵀ ᵞᴼᵁ'ᴿᴱ ᵍᵒⁿⁿᵃ ʷᵃⁿᵗ ᵗᵒ ᵈᵒ ⁱˢ. . . ."

[@uwu-]

So that’s why they removed the hood going from the beta model to the retail model for the jeep. Reducing motion sickness makes sense

[@johnrosim]

thank you

[@Andytlp]

Remember playing through the game with the dev commentary. It was pretty fun hearing how and why things we're made the way they we're.

[@mattymerr701]

You remember it? It was only just added

[@Thisisnotasign]

It was just added you moron.

[@Olivman7]

There was a fan-made edition with commentary paraphrasing stuff from interviews and other material though.

[@Andytlp]

@@mattymerr701 No i remember the dev commentaries playing episode one or two. If you mean half life 2 base game then i suppose.

[@Macrossuu]

once again, thank you for these

[@limoneadeGlass]

Oh man, oh man, I love how they talk about Occlusion! It's such a clever solution! Many games used to have it, but nowadays, for some reason, some developers, decide it's not a necessary thing. It is absolutely necessary. In Fallout 4, many people experience low fps around Boston, even on hefty PC's. This is because Bethesda are dumb and they didn't do occlusion, so at all times small pieces are rendered around Boston, and together with how Creation Engine is made (modified Gamebryo) it tanks frames. Love how Valve's developers are actually smart and understand optimization is not only about taking into account low end PC's, it's about things not bloating out and even affecting high end PC's.

[@fruitylerlups530]

What are you talking about Fallout 4 doesnt use occlusion lol?

[@limoneadeGlass]

@@fruitylerlups530 Maybe things got mixed up a little bit, I don't mean Ambient Occlusion, I mean Occlusion Culling. I mean, it does have Occlusion Culling (called Occlusion Planes in the engine), but it must be manually placed in the Creation Kit in every geometry. The problem is that Bethesda didn't properly implement it, or is non-existent, in the Boston area. Modders have complained about this in the engine before, like with settlements that have too many objects tank the framerate.

[@GameBacardi]

0:54 Does (NPC) wear showerhat ? 🚿

[@LetsRocka]

Please tell me that they added them also to HL2:EP1 and EP2

[@quadmachine4546]

They did

[@WilhelmScreamer]

​@@quadmachine4546 those shipped with commentary already included.

[@hisshame]

“LITERALLY UNPLAYABLE”

[@skylx0812]

I roamed the map gathering up crates an junk and built a wobbly tower against the chainlink fence to see if I could get over them. I think managed to and was walking around in that inclosed area where you have to crash through the window. ...by the by, I think the kiddies are getting restless and would rather see more klikspreading from you than boomer filler.

[@JayMaverick]

Are you calling Half Life 2 dev commentary "boomer filler?" Maybe you're on the wrong channel.

[@Sir......]

dookie..... bird dookie

[@JackWse]

Once again, you'd think that maybe they would have put together.. well maybe the FOv shouldn't be 75, if we're going to do a vehicle.. that might be what's making them nauseous! No it can't be let's just we must find another way! How are you going to look into their eyes if you're higher than 75 at 4x3.. for you kiddos out there that's somewhere around 60ish at 16:9

[@AyesC9000]

The FOV is calculated at 75° based on the vertical height of the display, it's actually wider on a widescreen display.

[@mariusz76a]

I hate this game

[@johnrosim]

yeah

[@amazingnoo9935]

why

[@johnrosim]

@ idk