Incoming!!! Pyro stuff Thursday and Sniper vid tomorrow

[psihomir]

I studied it and its not a map, just a scene. If you pause you can see that where the demo and heavy stands there's not even a door

Well that doesn't mean much... in Meet the Soldier, we can see them fighting in inaccessible areas on Granary, they could just noclip them there (or in Granary's case, remove a wall or two) to get the scene done

Besides, speculating is always fun

But, since they said they're adding community maps, and noone here seems to recognize it, you're most probably right.

 

[TheBladeRoden]

Well, now the new word is that the Pyro stuff comes out tomorrow.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53182

Meet the Sniper in Latest Team Fortress 2 Vignette, Pyro Update Details Arrive Tomorrow

by Chris Faylor Jun 17, 2008 2:05pm CST tags: Team Fortress 2, Trailer
While the achievements and unlockables for the Pyro class hit Team Fortress 2 this Thursday, developer Valve wants to make sure you're familiar with the Sniper as well. In case you aren't well acquainted with some of the other classes, be sure to Meet the Scout, Meet The Demoman, Meet The Engineer, Meet The Soldier, and Meet the Heavy. The remaining three classes--Pyro, Medic, Spy--are expected to receive their long-awaited and undoubtedly humorous introductions in due time.
Though Meet the Sniper was originally slated to debut alongside the details of Thursday's update, including a list of Pyro achievements and weapon details, Valve informed Shacknews that those details are now slated to arrive tomorrow, June 18.

 

[psihomir]

Well, now the new word is that the Pyro stuff comes out tomorrow.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53182

Just to avoid any confusion, only the information on the update is coming tomorrow, the actual update is coming (hopefully) on Thursday

 

[YM]

Well that doesn't mean much... in Meet the Soldier, we can see them fighting in inaccessible areas on Granary, they could just noclip them there (or in Granary's case, remove a wall or two) to get the scene done

No need to noclip, they aren't rendered in the source engine, at least I'm pretty sure they aren't, thats how they get proper shadows and depth of field.

The superior quality models however is just an option you can toggle using the console, makes them look much better, most notably adding the furrows in their brows and removing the stupid rimlighting from their tongue.

 

[dookiebot]

Mmmmmm rim lighting around tongue. Ar-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar

/homer simpson

 

[psihomir]

No need to noclip, they aren't rendered in the source engine, at least I'm pretty sure they aren't, thats how they get proper shadows and depth of field.

The superior quality models however is just an option you can toggle using the console, makes them look much better, most notably adding the furrows in their brows and removing the stupid rimlighting from their tongue.

I believe Valve said they actually are. Meet the Heavy was even released as a technical demonstration of the new Source engine features, if I recall correctly

 

[YM]

I think I remember those 'new features' being the new facial animation capabilities, which can be shown off in other programs, they even announced that they would release their machinima program thing that they use.

 

[psihomir]

We are pleased to announce that the next generation of facial animation technology for Source will be released in Team Fortress 2. By leveraging the rapid pace of advancement in PC graphics, videogames can now match and actually surpass the facial animation used in feature film and broadcast television production. We've released a video of this real-time, in-game, in-engine facial animation in action in support of ATI's launch of the Radeon HD 2000 series. By running entirely on the GPU of the videocard, the facial animation not only looks dramatically better, but frees up the CPU to perform other tasks like physics or AI

That's concerning "Meet the Heavy" Also, DOF is a Source engine effect - you can use it in Garry's Mod, and long ago they announced they would bring it to DOD, though I don't play that and I don't know if it's happened yet.

I'd guess they pre-animate the characters in a 3D editor, then use those animations in the game. The tools we'll get are probably ones that allow us to create such an animation sequence and use it in-game

 

[Koei]

How lame, skdr did good maps but its too close to well and badlands, it doesn't feel fresh enough. I would give valve a high five if they didn't do it and made cp_steel official


Also, it's about time too but I don't have maps in mind that are valve quality other than steel, and skdr his maps. So brandished from your list I honestly don't see it happen

Hey I think this is a great motiviation! Let's finish those maps before the...engi update?

I hope it's not steel. That map lacks space. There is almost zero room to maneuver as a soldier or scout. I prefer Granary, Badlands and Gravelpit over steel any day any time.

 

[Brandished]

How lame, skdr did good maps but its too close to well and badlands, it doesn't feel fresh enough. I would give valve a high five if they didn't do it and made cp_steel official

Also, it's about time too but I don't have maps in mind that are valve quality other than steel, and skdr his maps. So brandished from your list I honestly don't see it happen

I'd think Valve would value gameplay over design and both of skdr's maps, while they do look incredible, are fairly generic 5 cp symmetrical maps. There are already 3 5 cp stock maps, and none of them are even half as popular as 2fort, dustbowl, or goldrush.

If Valve was going to include 2 community maps, they would want not only the authors permission, but the vmf as well as any custom texture/model files it was using. Even if the map wasn't at "Valve quality" during it's last public release, there's nothing stopping Valve themselves from working with the map's author to touch up the map a bit when they're testing/optimizing it before packing it into the GCF for TF2 like they did with dod_salerno.

EDIT:
Well, looks like I'm gonna be out of town through Saturday. I'll have to wait till this weekend to see Valve's press release.

 

[psihomir]

So, the new maps are ctf_turbine and cp_fastlane, if anyone doesn't know yet:

http://www.steampowered.com/pyro/images/cp_fastlane.jpg
http://www.steampowered.com/pyro/images/ctf_turbine.jpg

 

[Narkissus]

Wtf turbine? That really doesnt seem right.

 

[Kelika]

Haven't even played fastlane yet I think...

 

[Jive Turkey]

The details of the update have apparently been "leaked."

Again, why turbine? It's very decent. I would have thought castle was a lock for inclusion. It was one of the first user maps released and every single one of it's betas was not only playable, but uniquely fun. I've had better games on that map than most.

 

[psihomir]

http://www.steampowered.com/pyro/?pw=presspreview

 

[Jazz]

Well, it's Thursday. Where are my achievements?

 

[YM]

Well, it's Thursday. Where are my achievements?

When valve say thursday, they don't mean 00:01 AM thursday. They mean 11:59PM (thats if they release them on thursday at all!)

 

[CycloneYamato]

They are now out but it is wayyyy to insane to play with all of those pyros around. Its much worse than the medic achievement week...

 

[Colt Seavers]

not on the playground servers 3 pyro restrict so far so good

 

[teddyruxpin]

I got my servers tweaked out now for players to get the achvs nice and easy. I also buffed the flaregun and other goodies .

They can be found here:
http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=1313&page=2


-Teddy