Valve have said in their latest Steam update that they are "getting much closer to having Lost Coast ready to release."
The extra level to Half-Life 2 will showcase the new high-dynamic range (HDR) technology, and will be available free to Half-Life 2 owners who meet a set of as-yet unannounced system requirements.
The company also reveal that they plan to include HDR in their future game releases, including the delayed Day of Defeat: Source.
Attached to the update is a side-by-side comparison video, that shows a Half-Life 2 scene both with and without HDR:
One of the fundamental pieces of HDR rendering lies in "dynamic tonemapping." In the Source engine, by varying the exposure of a scene based on how much light is visible, we can accurately simulate a range of brightness that is beyond what a computer monitor is physically capable of displaying. A real-world example of this effect happens every time you walk from a very dark room to an outdoor area with very bright sunlight -- your eye takes a few moments to adjust to the variance in the amount of light hitting the retina. If you have a video card that supports HDR, you'll be able to see this in the engine when Lost Coast is released.
Static screenshots of HDR fail to capture this effect, but if you click on this image you can watch it happen in a scene from the Lost Coast. Note that the left-hand side of the screen is running in Fixed Aperture (non-HDR) mode, and the right-hand side with High Dynamic Range.
Steam update (24 June) - Download the video
Half Life 2: Lost Coast HDR overview
Eurogamer: Half-Life 2: The Lost Coast preview
Half Life 2: Aftermath set for September release? (24 May)
Eclipse: New total conversion Half-Life 2 mod
Half Life 2 In The Real World
Discussion >>
Add Igniq.com to your MySpace Friends
