Video
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Half-Life 2: Episode Two Unused Particle Effects
This video demonstrates a number of particle effects that went unused in Half-Life 2: Episode Two.
During Episode Two’s development, Valve were working on overhauling the particle system within the Source Engine to replace the previously hard-coded particle system that their previous games had utilised.
One of the changes Valve worked on in addition to this was overhauling the impact effects to use their new particle system. However, unfortunately, this didn’t see the light of day for Team Fortress 2, Portal or Episode Two and instead was disabled by the console variable ‘cl_new_impact_effects’ by default.
In addition to this, the new impact effects themselves were broken in Episode Two’s release, so even enabling the console variable would fail.
As a side-note; Ignore the HUD, level and other oddities in this video, this is my own custom modification that I’ve been using to produce future upcoming videos in relation to the ‘Prison Evolution’ videos. Apologies for any confusion.
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Half-Life 2 Prison Evolution (25th September 2002)
This is part of a video series showing the gradual evolution of the Prison in Half-Life 2. It’s not intended to demonstrate gameplay, as most of these levels, in their original form, weren’t playable. Because of the number of levels to cover and the amount of time it takes to clean them up enough to be viewable, these will be kept as quick glances.
The level you’re seeing here is from a VMF named cafeteria, which appears to have been produced by David Sawyer; who was a designer at Valve, who produced most of the iterations of the Prison that we’re going to see.
This is a relatively small level, which seems to be an early version of a cafeteria portion of the Prison. The purpose of this level was likely to establish gameplay dynamics and general themes.
The control room is unusual, as it features a glass panel embedded in the floor, of which the player can look through. This was likely to show the result of pulling the switch but it’s difficult to tell.
There’s also a control room hidden in the middle section of the level, which isn’t accessible typically. It’s not clear why this is.
A few of the models and textures used in this level were missing and hence had to be replaced. Obviously this means that this isn’t 100% representative of what the levels may have looked like back when they were originally created, but it’s probably pretty darn close.
Music was produced by Chris Jensen as part of “Mishaps in the Reactor Chamber.” A collection of songs originally intended for Opposing Force that went unused.
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Half-Life 2 Prison Evolution (30th July 2002)
This is part of a video series showing the gradual evolution of the Prison in Half-Life 2. It’s not intended to demonstrate gameplay, as most of these levels, in their original form, weren’t playable. Because of the number of levels to cover and the amount of time it takes to clean them up enough to be viewable, these will be kept as quick glances.
The level shown in this video was given the VMF name, prison_block. It appears to be a level produced by David Sawyer, who was a designer at Valve, who produced most of the iterations of the Prison that we’re going to see. This is part of a collection of levels produced by Valve during the development of Half-Life 2, that were leaked onto the internet in 2003.
This is the earliest revision that I’m aware of, which represents the prison that we end up seeing in the final game in its earliest form.
The level appears to be a collection of different sections of what was likely intended to become or part of, a much larger level which we’ll see in a later video. This was likely done to experiment with different gameplay dynamics and establish a general theme for the levels.
Development of the level also seems to have otherwise been somewhat progressive, with some portions of the map seemingly appearing less polished or using older assets than some other areas. Each area seems to have been cordoned off for testing and its development, so portions of the level were likely created independently from one another as time went on.
Very little of this level survived into the final game, but some of the overall design survived in a heavily revised form.
Many of the models used in this level were missing and hence had to be replaced. Obviously this means that this isn’t 100% representative of what the levels may have looked like back when they were originally created, but it’s probably pretty darn close.
Music was produced by Chris Jensen as part of “Mishaps in the Reactor Chamber.” A collection of songs originally intended for Opposing Force that went unused.
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Rayman 2 September 1999 Demo
Just to clarify, there wasn’t any sound included in this build, hence why there isn’t any audio.
This was an additional demo for the Windows platform, released a few months before the game’s final release in December.
This build follows the previous one released in August. Interestingly it’s the same level and it appears pretty much the same as the final game, minus Rayman having his more powerful attack a little earlier in the game than he usually would.
Compared to the previous build, it seems a number of issues have been resolved and there’s likely a few additions. For starts, sprites on the screen appear smoother in this build and it also appears that lighting is functioning as expected in this build too. It’s also worth mentioning that the colour of the text is different in this build compared to the previous. Additionally, a very obvious change is that Rayman’s face is now animated correctly.
Wikipedia article can be found here.
Additionally, if you enjoyed this I recommend looking at my Patreon, if you’d like to support future content such as this.
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Rayman 2 August 1999 Demo
This was a demo for the Windows platform, released a few months before the game’s final release in December.
There’s a few differences in this build of the game compared to the final release; some audio is different, Rayman’s face in general seems less animated and expressive, and some other minor differences. I’d like to do a more complete analysis video on this at a later point.