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[Burger]

VALVE UNVEILS 64-BIT SOURCE™ GAMING TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED IN CONJUNCTION WITH AMD

Available Now: 64-Bit Half-Life® 2 and Lost Coast™

Bellevue, WA. – December 22, 2005 – Valve, a leading entertainment and technology studio, unveiled a 64-bit version of its Source game engine technology today. The first 64-bit Valve games released will be native 64-bit versions of Half-Life 2 and Lost Coast, and have been developed to take advantage of AMD Athlon™ 64 FX processor-based systems - the ultimate 64-bit gaming platform for PC enthusiasts.

The 64-bit versions of these games are being offered to all Half-Life 2 owners via Steam™, Valve’s online platform for delivering games and digital content directly to users around the world.

"Bringing the Source technology to the AMD64 processor platform is an important step in the evolution of our game content and tools," said Gabe Newell, Valve’s co-founder and president. "This investment in future processing will allow us, and third party developers working with Source, to push the boundaries of the gaming experience."

"AMD Athlon 64 FX processors are targeted for systems designed to provide the ultimate experience for a new generation of power users running demanding applications " said Bob Brewer, corporate vice president, Desktop Division, AMD’s Microprocessor Solutions Sector. "Combining the performance of AMD64 processors with the 64-bit version of Valve’s technology results in advanced and powerful games. This winning collaboration brings customers an amazing product based on the best of AMD64 technology and Valve’s software development."

http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=news&id=496

I wonder what kind of performance increase we can expect ?

Ah, Half-Life. Remember when you found yourself inside that moving tram car in the beginning, waiting a solid thousand or so minutes before you could get out to stretch your legs? Back then, 10 minutes of admiring the graphics of the HL engine was golden… Today, not so much, but it still has its “Ooo’s“ and “Ahhh’s“ of course. What’s the solution to make it as mesmerizing again? You use the Source engine to render it in all of its glory.

The team working on Black Mesa: Source is attempting to do just that. For their late December media update, they have released a few screenshots of the tram car sequence they are recreating using Source technology, as well as a new model render and in-game teaser. Oh yeah, they even have sample sound files from the chapter "We've Got Hostiles" at their website!

Awesome.

 

[BigBoss]

Looks great. I'm currently going through Half Life 2 on the Xbox and there hasn't been a dull moment yet, such an awesome experience.

 

[Tain]

@ 64bit:

Cool. Maybe the game won't run like shit on my Turion laptop? lolol of course it will. I don't need XP 64 to take advantage of it, right?

@ Black Mesa Source:

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.

 

[Templar Wizard]

Delish.

hopefully, it will be more than just eyecandy...

 

[IVYLancets]

Does anyone know if XP64 is required for this? In fact, is this exclusive to AMD64 FX or will this do it for all AMD64 CPUs?

 

[MightyHedgehog]

WOW@BlackMesaSource! Damn, wish my computer were a bit better for that...looks great!

 

[Ark-AMN]

Can't wait for Black Mesa Source, thats what I was hoping Half Life: Source was going to be like. It's been a while since I've played through the original anways and this upgrade will hopefully be a great way to relive the classic

 

[blackadde]

yes you will need a 64-bit os to run the 64-bit executable.
yes it will work on all amd x86-64 chips (fx, opteron, x2, athlon64 etc).
no there will not be a magical performance boost.

 

[DonasaurusRex]

im thinking you will need xp64 to run this, otherwise..i dont see why they would even make an announcement about writing the source engine in 64 bit. And no its not an FX exclusive, all A64 cpu's contain AMD64 bit extensions.

Not sure what to expect performance wise, espcially since most video card drivers are very new for XP64. Most games that make the move to 64 bit have more geometry in their models and stuff though.

 

[Funky Papa]

*rips frenulum*

 

[MrPing1000]

I long for Black Mesa Source and have done since it was announced. I live in fear of it being cancelled or struck down by Valve (although I doubt it will).

 

[Sean]

Black Mesa Source looks great. Can't wait to play it!

 

[DSN2K]

I long for Black Mesa Source and have done since it was announced. I live in fear of it being cancelled or struck down by Valve (although I doubt it will).

believe Valve are infact backing it somehow.

 

[rod]

speaking of half life 2 xbox...how does it run on the 360?

 

[Mashing]

*masterbates furiously*

 

[Funky Papa]

It looks like Valve touched up something. Now aztec is much more humid. It looks kinda odd, because the illuminated parts are good looking but the dark ones have way too much reflections. The floor is too shiny.

 

[Forsete]

BMS looks awesome, my most wanted MOD atm.

 

[quetz67]

sorry, what exactly is that "Black Mesa Source", a HL2 addon like Aftermath?

 

[bbyybb]

It is a user created modification, they are attempting to redo the entire first half life but with a new twist on it.

Ambitious lot that team is.

 

[Lince]

It looks like Valve touched up something. Now aztec is much more humid. It looks kinda odd, because the illuminated parts are good looking but the dark ones have way too much reflections. The floor is too shiny.

yeah I've noticed it too, below is the console command to turn this effect off:

mat_fastspecular 0

 

[Xrenity]

Textures look awesome

 

[Funky Papa]

Thanks lince.

 

[Lukkas]

so even if you have a amd64 cpu this update does nothing if you arent running windowsxp 64 edition ?

 

[Error Macro]

Well, the update screwed up the specularity maps and the player shadows are gone in CS now.

Since this seems to have happened to everyone, I wonder: is there any testing going on at Valve? Any at all?

 

[Dr_Cogent]

I am fairly confident you have to run a 64 bit OS (i.e. 64 bit XP) to run this 64 bit game.

 

[Prine]

So what is this? Remake of HL?

Can i play it without beating HL2??

Edit: nevermind!

 

[Funky Papa]

Well, the update screwed up the specularity maps and the player shadows are gone in CS now.

Since this seems to have happened to everyone, I wonder: is there any testing going on at Valve? Any at all?

Some pals are having performance issues too, like unplayables speeds. Valve, you are awesome, thanks for the Christmas present!

 

[Dr_Cogent]

All 64 bit gets you is more precision. It's not like the game is going to magically run a ton faster. It may run every so very slightly faster due to some conditions, but you aren't going to see a world of difference, and it may run even slower than the original - who knows. 64 bit is great and all - but it doesn't really make the game "better".

People are duped by hype as a result because they don't know better.

 

[Niko]

All 64 bit gets you is more precision. It's not like the game is going to magically run a ton faster. It may run every so very slightly faster due to some conditions, but you aren't going to see a world of difference, and it may run even slower than the original - who knows. 64 bit is great and all - but it doesn't really make the game "better".

People are duped by hype as a result because they don't know better.

I may misunderstand, but isn't 64-bit related to the amount of bits being crunched through the processor at one go, rather than the precision of a number?

And what is the benefit to 64 bit? It's been trumpeted for a long time, but I have never heard of a benefit.

 

[djtiesto]

How is the Xbox port of HL2? I'd much rather buy the game on disk than have to worry about signing in through Steam every time I want to play, so I've ignored the PC version. But I liked the first game enough to warrant playing the second game... see if its as good as everybody says it is What are the differences between the 2 versions?

 

[DonasaurusRex]

I may misunderstand, but isn't 64-bit related to the amount of bits being crunched through the processor at one go, rather than the precision of a number?

And what is the benefit to 64 bit? It's been trumpeted for a long time, but I have never heard of a benefit.

its both, either you can do more smaller sized data chunks like for example (real quick one) 8 8-bit data chunks on 64bit as opposed to 4 on 32bit. Thats not exactly how it works on all processors because there are check bits and what not but you get the idea. It also adds precision per chunk of data if it requires it. Integers do not require precision, floating point data types do, inside each data type that requires precision there are bits, so say you have a 16bit data type that has precision. You would get say 12bits to make any number using binary, and then the other 4 bits would be used for the precision of those numbers (decimal spaces basically). He said it could be more accurate because with 64bit processors the registers can be wider which means more precision bits and the computer can estimate things with more precision. Or at the same time like you said it can process way more chunks of data in less cycles due to the registers being able to accomodate more data.

The real improvement will probably be in server performance, the benefit of 64bit is evident in server apps. So perhaps there will be some CS games with 64 or more people running smooth as butter with this new 64bit engine.

 

[Panajev2001a]

the move to 64 bits is in one direction a performance hit (more space wasted for pointers for example and that does not help the cache, etc...) and in another direction a nice performance boost (potentially): x86-64 mode gives you access to 8 more General Purpose Registers as well as 8 more XMM (SSE/SSE2/SSE3) registers for a total of 16 GPR's and 16 XMM Registers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/white_papers_and_tech_docs/x86-64_wp.pdf

 

[ToxicAdam]

It's just nice to see Valve pushing the envelope continually. There are so few PC-centric developers, its good to see them trying new things rather than cashing in.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

I don't believe the 64 bit version of Far Cry required xp64.

 

[Deg]

Yeah it ran fine on 32bit pentiums. :lol It does take more resources however but not massively so.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

Anyway, I just loaded up Steam, and it updated HL2, HL2dm, Lost Coast, and CS:Source. In the update news it mentioned that the games will automatically detect your OS and CPU and run the appropriate version of the game. I wonder how I can even tell which version it chooses?

 

[Hooker]

When on WinXP, it'll choose the 32-bit extension.

When on WinXP64, it'll choose the 64-bit extension. You can start Steam with the -32bit extension and it'll run the 32-bit extensions on a 64-bit machine and OS

(make sense?! )

 

[Shogun]

Am in the process of playing through Half Life for the first time. Got a Pentium 4 660 and XP x64. It booted up the 64 Bit version, which had no record of my saves, I don't know if it delelted them. I started up from the last chapter and all the saves had no node data for the AI, so the AI disabled. I made a hotfix in the Dev Console and there was a second update later so I am not sure what fixed it but it works ok now, smoother in some places, signifigantly slower in others.

 

[JRPereira]

Black Mesa source looks freaking great. Can't wait to try it.

 

[Mejilan]

Here's a dumb question, can you run XP 64 on a non-64 bit machine?

 

[Suikoguy]

Here's a dumb question, can you run XP 64 on a non-64 bit machine?

Nope, stops you from installing.

 

[Ferrio]

Here's a dumb question, can you run XP 64 on a non-64 bit machine?

That is a dumb question.

 

[Mejilan]

Thanks Suiko.

That is a dumb question.

I know, but with Microsoft, you just can't always know!

 

[Error Macro]

Does anyone know if the problems with the update got fixed?