MINERVA: Episodic, Single-Player Half-Life 2
MINERVA on a MacBook Pro? - posted by Cargo Cult on Wednesday April 5 2006
Thanks to Apple's new Boot Camp, it's true!
This also means I'll be able to get work done on MINERVA while I'm on the move. Which is good, since I'll be away from my PC for most of the rest of the month.
Article Comments (now closed)
2. Please
Posted by JV at 6:05PM, Thursday April 6 2006
It's an obvious Photoshop (ironically involving a Mac). This whole "Boot Camp" thing is a late April Fool.
3. April Fool? Again? Absolutely!
Posted by Cargo Cult at 7:45PM, Thursday April 6 2006
The embarrassing thing is that my laptop runs HL2 better than my desktop PC. I think I need to benchmark map compiling next - the dual-core nature of the MacBook will probably mean it storms ahead of the PC...
4. movies
Posted by krisvek at 12:04AM, Friday April 7 2006
nice selection of movies back there
no comment on the elephant...
6. How it runs
Posted by Cargo Cult at 7:38AM, Friday April 7 2006
In MINERVA, probably around 30+fps at 1440x900, 2x antialiasing, everything-at-max-except-filtering. It looks bloody gorgeous.
Okay, so it's probably nothing like what a high-end desktop machine could manage, but considering that this is a laptop which wasn't bought for gaming (or even running Windows), I seriously can't complain!
7. A bit out of left field, but...
Posted by DarkPrimus at 7:55AM, Friday April 7 2006
Are you going to update MINERVA to be HDR compatible? If nothing else, at least the first map.
8. HDR FTW
Posted by xbskid at 11:49PM, Friday April 7 2006
I vote for HDR if there's time to implement it. I'd rather have new content than adding features to existing content--that can come later. Maybe as something to tide us over til the next MINERVA when Metastasis is complete.
Speaking of which, will the next MINERVA tie in at all with Metastasis, such as location, references to Metastasis, anything?
9. HDR and Episodicity
Posted by Cargo Cult at 6:41AM, Saturday April 8 2006
As a keen photographer, I'd really, really like to add HDR to MINERVA, but currently it requires code support which the basic HL2 DLL doesn't have - and I don't think the updated SDK stuff has been released yet even if I did have a Windows C++ compiler.
I built a test HDR-compiled version of Metastasis 1 a while ago, but it needed big chunks of Lost Coast to run:
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Image:Metastasis_hdrtest0000.jpg
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Image:Metastasis_hdrtest0001.jpg
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Image:Metastasis_hdrtest0002.jpg
So yes, it's something I'd like to see more of - but no promises...
Regarding the code support, I've got some pretty outlandish ideas for the next chapter which will probably need additional code anyway - and as for the chronology, it'll pick up shortly after the first chapter, but not seamlessly. If you think of the chapters in Halo, it'll be a bit like that.
Oh, and pay attention to this blog over the next week for Interesting Things... ;-)
10. Hmm...
Posted by DarkPrimus at 11:32AM, Saturday April 8 2006
Forgot that HDR wasn't quite supported yet. But I'd bet dollars to donuts that after Episode 1 comes out, HDR will be usable via it's DLL and an updated SDK.
11. Moo
Posted by xbskid at 10:02AM, Sunday April 9 2006
Speaking of which, whatever happened to adding HDR content to HL2? Anywho, those screens look wonderful, except for the lit part of the building in the first pic. Texture looks a bit muddy. I love your work, Adam. :)
12. over the next week?
Posted by Omnivore at 4:00PM, Sunday April 16 2006
So I've been paying attention, and so far as I can tell, the only Interesting Thing I would have missed this week was Adam on a plane. As he did not subsequently arrive at my house in Pasadena bearing the next Minerva level and a box of chocolates, I designate his flight Not Interesting.
I remain a refresh whore, but wonder what I've missed...
14. Macbook video drivers?..
Posted by mode at 11:46AM, Thursday April 20 2006
I'd thought that there was no video driver support for the X1600 in Bootcamp yet -- I've even seen a video of Half-Life 2 running very, very poorly on the laptop -- so how are you getting a solid 30+ fps with those settings?
Has a hardware support solution been released in such a short time already or what?
15. Movies
Posted by Darnn at 9:29PM, Monday April 24 2006
I don't have a laptop or a Mac, but what are those movies there? I can make out Fight Club, Memento and Pi... These are some of my favorite movies, so I'd love to know what the rest of them are, plus any other ones you like.
16. Films & Drivers
Posted by Cargo Cult at 8:40PM, Tuesday April 25 2006
Film collection - there's Twelve Monkeys and The Incredibles in there somewhere as well. That pile isn't quite the sum total of my DVD collection, but it's pitifully small. Must rectify situation.
Video drivers for MacBook Pro? This is the official, Apple-sanctioned Boot Camp solution to running Windows XP, which includes updated firmware and proper drivers for nearly all the hardware. It's a bit simpler than the beautiful hack that is the XOM solution - which is now completely obsolete.
Apparently, and scandalously, the MacBook Pro's video hardware is underclocked as standard, so isn't performing at its full potential. Conspiracy theories state it's either the laptop will overheat or it's because Apple is evil, but it's meant to be possible to clock it up to 'full' speed in Windows without any apparent ill-effects. Could be interesting, but since the machine gets a bit warm when running HL2 anyway, I'm going to be extremely careful...
Article is now closed for commenting.
1. Good deal
Posted by Tekgo at 4:27PM, Thursday April 6 2006
I was wondering how well HL2 would run on a bootcamped Macbook. It's very good to hear that it works and I hope that it'll help you work on Minerva.