Lost Coast is here!

HDR is a great new addition to the Source engine. It runs surprisingly smoothly on my 1.8 gHz machine with Radeon 9600 pro, with junk running in the background, at 1280x1024, with full HDR :D
A very fun level, too. Especially considering that it's a tech demo.

The commentary is a nice addition and I really hope that other developers will do the same... it really adds to the replayability of a game. It's very interesting here, too. Lots of level design stuff, and a bunch of information about HDR. (Including seeing, in real time, 3 rendering passes being performed by my computer).

Only one problem: The Steam update that came along with Lost Coast nearly crippled itself. I had to try running it 3 times before Steam openned up without crashing, and it looks like I'm not the only one having these problems.

Even so, the people at Valve are geniuses...

yeah, HDR was only possible on GF6 before. Far cry seems a lot nicer with it, as doesw splinter cell 3. I think lost coast is the first game that does HDR withPixel shader 2. I'll have to check it out :)

The commentary was started with rid@#!* directors cut for PC. That was pretty interesting too.

I think HDR makes for a far more realistic look than normal mapping has achieved so far.

(Man, this forum is censored now!!!, I can't type the name of my favourite FPS)

Lost Coast did some weird stuff to me, it froze, so I tried to control + alt + delete the process but the task maanger would bring up some type of memory error in some program (I dont think it said which) and then say it would be terminated. And, well, I never got it up, and Lost COast stayed frozen in the background. I had to restart.
Except that, Lost Coast was nice and smooth for me! TOo bad it was rather short

Same thing as me, Regular. I gave up the second time it blew up.

Don't go to a lot of trouble to download this unless you really really want to see HDR in action. (And it's a bit dissapointing how they use it here.) The level is playable, but it could hardly even be called a level. Remember the level in HL2 where you had to go across the underside of the bridge and plug something in and then go back? Rememeber how there was a little path along a cliff before that? Well this level last about one minute, and is comprised of climbing up a cliff to a little courtyard and a one room monsatery. All those shots of the coastal town in the distance? That's just a bunch of low poly buildings to add detail to the skybox. You never venture over there.

Probably free up the (380MB!) space this thing takes up shortly. Not worth keeping around.

I was gonna check it out but since I hadn't bothered loading steam up for a few months it had to update, the new interface looks good, uses less memory, but everything needed updates and since I'm 56k at the moment, 558 minutes remaining :(

This looks exciting - I don't know what 'Lost Coast' is, but I connected Steam to the outside world and it is Larging itself - it has just changed its interface to a newer, rounded corner, one.

is it a free download via Steam?

Free as long as you have HL2 yeah

Now for them to add it to the actual game...

did you see the minimum specs for lost cost?

2.6 GHZ
1 gb ram
ATI x800 or Geforce6800

Needless to say I didnt meet any of them with
2.4 GHZ
512 MB
Geforce ti 4200

It wont even let me load it with out meeting the mins. And they give you tons of links on where to buy new hardware.

No thanks....

It's not impressive. I ran it on my kit just fine without slowdown (9800pro and athlon64) but while it looks nice, I don't really think it would be as nice as say, higher quality textures. I'm tired to looking at them close up and seeing the same old blurry rubbish.

Bring on 1024x1024... and high poly counts.

Ah, well you didn't hear the commentaries, which say all about what little details are so spectacular.
I compared HDR and regular myself... the HDR, while not immeadiately noticeable, has a huge impact on the scene. For example, that nice little glare on the beach at the beginning is completely gone without HDR.

Just compare the two, without letting the level interfere with your judgement, and you will see :D

Dark Half: There is a button to load anyways. Of course, you'll need to turn on HDR via the in-game menu. Someone should tell them, though, that it works fine even on my cheesey computer.

(Perhaps I will in 10 hours.)

The whole point is, if you're not impressed as a gamer (which I played it as) then why should you be impressed?

Technical gibberish isn't important or impressive, but the end result is... IMHO

My HL2 usually runs at 1280x1024 8x AA 16X Aniso.

I'll let you know how I get on when I've had a play...

Was wondering about HDR...aside from the fact it allows colors to "bleed" over other colors (which works pretty damn nicely in SeriousSam2 if your vid. card can handle that with 30+ mobs onscreen) in a more natural sense then as if you had a bloom filter, wouldn't it allow for more natural looking night-time environments? Have yet to come across a game that looks "dark" in a night-time environment but doesnt get in the way of your vision completely.
(Far Cry almost does it right, but it still doesnt "look" like darkness)

I finished it earlier and apart from the technical achivements I thought it was a good level as well, sadly my computer was not up to playing it........ Well

Right at the very start there's a commentary where they split the screen in half and you can see all the rendering improvements right there, side by side with the current tech.

If you don't think it's an improvement, I suggest a trip to the optometrist.


Because this wasn't a download for gamers. It was a download for those interested in rendering tech.

It was interesting, if only to demonstrate a very high range of FPS you might encounter when walking through a HDR level.

I think I'd have to turn the AA off to enjoy high frame rates. I refuse to drop res to 1024x768 when I've paid this much for a gfx card.

I think the tech is nice, I just wish there was a way to include it in Half Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source so it's more than just one small demo.

I had a go on it - it didn't look too dissimilar to HL2 - it was okay, but a lot of people would probably not notice anything different to HL2.

Having said that, I suppose it is also graphics card dependent - I might not have been seeing what they intended.

puki: you probably were seeing it (check your in-game video settings). The new effects are good because they are subtle.

As in-game visuals approach photo-realism, you tend to stop watching the screen as you would normally. Most games, you're distracted by the odd way things look (i.e., unrealistic). Good looking games, you only tend to notice important things, like enemies to kill or objects to interact with.

Just lean back from the screen once in a while, you should be able to appreciate the intended aesthetic :)

i can't run it on anything i have here, but my son ran it while i was on the phone, and he had to bring his latest overpriced whizbanger down to 1024x768 to have it run 'smooth as butter' as he puts it...

sounds like he was having fun... theHDR effects were impressive he said...

will xboxes be able to run this stuff...

--Mike

Weird title.. if its finally here, then it isn't lost anymore is it?

Anyway, HDR is great. Im going to use it on my new characters I make in 3D studio for the school assignments.