DirectX 10 vs. DirectX 9 - At present DirectX 9 is the render path in use for Team Fortress 2. This is a direct result of there being such a small percentage of persons that actually have a DirectX 10 enabled card, at least according to the results of the hardware survey.

As with their previous technologies, Valve has stated that they will add in greater support for DirectX 10 features as more and more people adopt the new technology. Instead of pushing the boundary forward (as some companies feel compelled to do), Valve takes a refreshing approach by monitoring what hardware their consumers actually have and what they use. The company then caters to what a bulk of their consumers use while still keeping their options wide open by including new features for those on the bleeding edge and continuing support for older technologies.

Multicore Support - Team Fortress 2 only makes use of multiple CPU cores for its particle system. However, both Episode 2 and Portal make use of the Source engine’s new scalable multicore system.

Their multicore solution will scale dynamically with however many cores you have on your system. The more cores you have, the more Source engine subsystems will be offloaded to these cores. What are these “subsystems� I speak of, you may be wondering. Areas such as the particle simulation, the materials system, and artificial intelligence are just a few of these subsystems that can be offloaded onto other cores for increased performance across the board.

However, there are some drawbacks to this. There will obviously come a point where the performance gain from offloading these subsystems to additional cores is hampered by a weak GPU. As is the case now with single and dual-core solutions, making sure to strike a balance between a strong CPU and a GPU that can keep up.

[ad]Source Technology (cont.)
HDR in the original Half-Life 2 (PC) - There was nothing concrete stated about the possibility of seeing the old Half-Life 2 maps updated with HDR effects. However, it could just be a “matter of time� before the maps are released for the PC version. Due to the programming similarities between the PC and 360 versions, it would actually be relatively easy to bring the 360’s HDR maps to the PC environment.

The problem lies in the size of the download. The addition of HDR would more than triple the size of each individual map, making for quite the hefty download. As it stands, Valve is currently evaluating their options and considering what might be the best method to allow persons to download the HDR enabled maps if they want them, and allows those who do not want them the option not to download the sizable content. That is, of course, if the HDR maps for Half-Life 2 do come to the PC.

64-bit Support - Essentially, the answer here is much along the same lines as the answer for why there are no significant DirectX 10 features in use. There just aren’t enough users to warrant a substantial investment of time and resources into creating a strong 64-bit option. This isn’t to say that 64-bit support is completely dead, but if the demand is there, and the number of persons using 64-bit continues to grow, Valve will invest more time into this area of development.

Dropping DirectX 7 Support - Again, much along the same lines as the 64-bit support and DirectX 10 support, only on the opposite end of the spectrum. At present, less than 5% of the Steam users run their game with DirectX 7 and the decision was made to cut DX7 support for future Source titles developed by Valve (Source (http://www.steampowered.com/status/survey.html)). It’s just another example of how Valve is trying to focus on the majority of what their users are running, while still making strides to slowly advance their engine to keep up with the increases in graphical quality.

Linux Support - They have nothing official to state at this time about the support for Linux either with Steam or any Steam title.

Current Source Titles
Counter-Strike 2 - Officially, there is no Counter-Strike 2. That’s not to say there won’t be a CS2 at some point, but with the release of Team Fortress 2, the multiplayer cabals at Valve will try to strike a balance of work efforts between CS: Source, DoD: Source, Team Fortress 2, and their other current MP offerings.

While there may not officially be a Counter-Strike 2 in the works, brief glimmers of hope did emerge. If, a Counter-Strike 2 were to be created in the future, the team would like to take the same approach with it as they did with Team Fortress 2. The methods that I speak of deal with creation process of the game, not the art direction. They tried to keep the fundamental gameplay mechanics the same from TF2, but changed just enough that it felt fresh and new. If CS2 ever came to be, this is the approach they would use to create it. Keep things relatively familiar but offer up enough changes, enough additions that it would warrant the title of being called the sequel to the most popular online FPS ever.

New Maps for CS: Source - Nothing concrete was mentioned about new maps for CS: Source. However, given that the Orange Box has just wrapped up and attentions can deviate from Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2, we may see a few surprises from the Valve crew. Nothing has been confirmed though.

HDR for Old CS: Source Maps - The HDR remakes of the CS: Source maps were put on the back burner given the activity surrounding the Orange Box development. Again, we may still yet see all of the past maps given the HDR treatment if things pick back up on the CS: Source development front now that attentions can be focused elsewhere for a bit.

I need to stress though, nothing has been confirmed for the HDR updates, or for the new maps for CS: Source, or for any bug fixes. Just keep those fingers crossed for new updates to hit in the coming months.

Steam and the Steam Community
�Light� Version of Steam - A number of people asked me to find out if there would ever be a “light� version of Steam. It would essentially be a stripped down version of Steam with absolutely no frills at all.

To those that asked about this, the answer is that Valve has no plans to offer up a “light� version of Steam. They firmly stand behind their work, and are constantly trying to improve upon it. The integration with Friends, the Steam community, and future titles almost tends to make it impossible to separate the components. Each area integrates with the other, and stripping out one feature would cause more harm than good over the long run.

They see great potential in the features being included with Steam, especially with the recent addition of the Steam Community. A few staff members stated that they don’t even use the game browser any more. They simply look to see if a friend is playing and opt to quickly connect to their server. That is the type of tight-knit community the developers are wishing to achieve across the board.

Steam and the Steam Community (cont.)
Friends as Stand-alone - Another common question people had was whether or not Valve would consider making the Friends system a stand-alone program much like AIM or MSN Messenger.

While they said that it would technically be very doable, there just aren’t any plans for it. The Friends system extends beyond merely chatting with other persons; it’s a means to connect to game servers and the Steam Community. Having it as a stand-alone program would be rather worthless given the level of integration currently at work.

Future Achievements - More titles will include the achievements introduced with Team Fortress 2. I can confirm that both Episode 2 and Portal have their own set of achievements that will tie into the community.

User Content Distribution - Mentioned near the beginning of Steam’s life cycle, the idea to distribute user created content through Steam is not a new one. However, it still remains a focus for Valve to get user created content out to the masses.

There are nothing coming out in the short term, but 2008 was mentioned as a possible period we’ll see a solution come about. The major issue right now is that the aggregation of the content would be difficult, but various options are being worked on. Nothing was specifically mentioned about the hidden P2P settings buried inside Steam, but that may come into the spotlight for this very purpose.

This question actually popped up after a discussion with the Portal team about user created content. There’ll be more on that later though.

Immediate and Not So Immediate Plans
Episode 2 Pre-load - As of this writing, Episode 2 has not yet been offered up for pre-load to the public. Portal just started to pre-load last night for users, and to those with Team Fortress 2, the download for Portal was a relatively small affair.

Look for the Episode 2 pre-load some time this week. EDIT: It seems as though the pre-loading phase has begun tonight!

The Wii - At present there are no immediate plans to develop a title for the Nintendo Wii, at least nothing announced. The reason is that because it’s so different from the 360 and PC environments, the coding for the Wii would have “broken� them. Far in addition, time and new learning processes would have set them even further back had they decided to bring Orange to the Wii.

Additionally, other titles that are not Half-Life related aren’t really being looked at. This is, again, due in part to how vastly different the system is compared to the familiar 360 and PC environments. Interesting thing to note, there may not have even been a PS3 version of the Orange Box if EA didn’t offer to code that port. It would have put far too much strain on the company, and many more delays would have surely occurred.

Episode 3 - Officially, there is not even a hint of speculation on when we’ll see Episode 3. Valve is taking more of an Id approach to matters now, and will try not to announce a date until things are set in stone.

This also has a lot to do with decisions they made to Episode 2’s story line. At the end of Episode 1 (and if you haven’t finished it yet, don’t read the rest of the paragraph!), we were treated to a video where we see Alyx hanging from the end of the train car. Dramatic, no? The problem is that that scene is scrapped from Episode 2. The video was just of a snapshot in time of where the Episode 2 development was. They (Valve) really want to avoid that as it breaks up the flow and continuity of the story if things are changed over time, and they do tend to be changed.

Valve wants to avoid situations like that, and they want to avoid situations where a date is given and then delayed however long. Quite the smart decision on their part.

Episode 3 Bundle Deal - They have nothing to announce at this time.

Cell phone titles - When asked if they were considering entering the cell phone game market as other companies have (Id with their Doom RPG being an example), they had no specific plans in mind. It was mentioned that there were those on staff that would absolutely love to do a title on cell phones, so perhaps it’s only a matter of time. Perhaps.

Team Fortress 2 Maps and Game types - Let me just start this by saying that the hugely popular Hunted game type is being worked on, but with a few changes.

The major problem with this game type was that success as the defending team really depended on not only how well your defenders were, but also how skilled the person playing the VIP was. Obviously, if the VIP was someone who hadn’t played before, things ended quite fast. Valve is retooling this game type and we’ll hopefully see it in a future update.

New maps are being worked on, though I didn’t personally see any new maps first hand. I do know that Jess Cliffe is hard at work on a new map for Team Fortress 2. No ETA on when we might see it though.

[ad]Parting Thoughts
I didn’t get into too many specifics about particular games in this. Those will come the rest of the week with my previews for the titles I played and had a chance to talk to the developers about. At the end of each preview, I’ll have a new, smaller list of information concerning each title that I picked up from my interviews conducted. Trust me when I say, there’s still a lot more to talk about.

I’ll finish things off with a small list of items that just couldn’t fit anywhere else.

• I saw and held a new plush toy - A Half-Life 2 Strider. Very awesome.
  
• Team Fortress 2 class specific t-shirts anyone?
  
• The Team Fortress weapons you see in various pictures? To see them is one thing. To see them in person is another. And then to actually hold them in your hands? Out of this world.
  
• A capture the flag version of Well was in the works for TF2, but was scrapped in favor of the control point version you see now. This was to give more of a focus on various areas of the map instead of just a singular point in each base.
  
• Gabe Newell has a 50-inch monitor. In fact, this is his monitor (http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/v3/pg/kuro/top/product/0,,2076_310069731,00.html).
  
• Sadly, Mr. Newell himself wasn’t there when I went on the tour.
  
• There are snacks galore on two out of the three floors that Valve occupies. You’ll see the snack area on the floor I spent most of my day on in one of the pictures in the gallery. I hear word from Mike B. from Valve that the third floor doesn't get much love in the snack department. There was a brief spike in Snickers bars, but that was short lived.
  
  The snack area on the main floor was even more extensive than the one on the floor where I was playing. However, Jess Cliffe is pushing hard to get pure sugar poured into the gaps between the snack bowls. A man can dream.
  
• I was able to view a few of the cabals they have set up at the offices. The multiplayer cabal was a rather large room, no barriers or anything set up between stations. From an outsider’s perspective, it really seems as though this is how things should be done within a development company. A lot of information flowing from all areas, and your co-workers within view at all times should you need assistance or if you just want to show them something amazing you just created.
  
• The Valve staff members love to play Team Fortress 2 at the end of the day. On my walk around, if there wasn’t someone coding, then they were more than likely engaged in some Team Fortress 2 action.
  
• Finally, I saw no “big red button.â€?

• None of this would’ve been possible without Doug Lombardi, Valve’s PR go to guy and man about town. Many thanks for extending the opportunity to me to play these titles and conduct these interviews. It is extremely appreciated.
  
• Katie Engal who got plans finalized for my flight and hotel bookings.
  
• Robin Walker, who gave me his insight on Team Fortress 2 while I exclaimed my undying love for the title and its predecessors.
  
• David Speyrer, project lead for Episode 2. Even after answering my more technical questions, he took the time to hunt down the elusive answer to what exactly the extended HDR was.
  
• Kim Swift and Jeep Barnett, both from the Portal team. It was amazing to see and experience their first major retail release, and even more impressive when I realize they are not much older than I am.
  
• Jess Cliffe for showing me around the offices and for the fine Italian dining. Don’t worry; I’ll get you that information you wanted.
  
• John Jensen, aka: rizzuh. You might know him as someone who loves pizza. I’m sorry to say that no mass quantities of pizza were consumed at any point during the trip. It was great to have finally met the person I’ve been working for years for. It was quite enjoyable talking about all of the members behind their backs, and next time the drinks are on me.
  
• The Left 4 Dead team for giving me the opportunity to play their title. For being so far away, it’s already looking to be quite polished, and a hell of a lot of fun to play.
  
• Finally, good luck to Alex with that smoke alarm.