[StefanS]

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/?article_id=571781

In an interview with AMD Technical Program Manager Lars Weinand the German based website PC Games hardware unearthed that AMD is working closely with game developers with regard to the eagerly awaited launch of its R600 GPU. As expected game devs had already access to the R600 for quite a while in order to test DX10 methods and effects. While Weinand didn't want to name a concrete developer, PC games hardware speculates that it could in fact be none other than Valve Software.

[Farid]

I see smoke, could there be a fire underneath it?

With that said, if this marketing deal is true, what will be the game Valve will show for this R600 deal? HL²... Again?

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

What have Valve got coming up? AFAIK, it's Team Fortress 2, Portal, and HL Episode 2, none of them massively cutting edge when it comes to graphics.

[bigtabs]

Originally Posted by Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.

What have Valve got coming up? AFAIK, it's Team Fortress 2, Portal, and HL Episode 2, none of them massively cutting edge when it comes to graphics.

And haven't they been massively delayed again, like until 2008?

Maybe they've got some tech demo or oddball game using havok GPU physics? That could be it. Valve have a good history with their havok. I'm sure AMD would love to appear to be the first with HavokFX up and running, with a big name developer providing the experience. If popular conception was that only R6xx could do these spectacular things with upcoming source games, it would shift a lot of cards for them.

[trinibwoy]

I guess they got tired of seeing Nvidia at the top of the Steam charts

[Ike Turner]

Well, Many new features have been added to the source engine latetly : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_engine

and http://www.halflife2.net/forums/show...&postcount=861

http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...0&postcount=32

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Originally Posted by Ike Turner

Well, Many new features have been added to the source engine latetly : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_engine

and http://www.halflife2.net/forums/show...&postcount=861

http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...0&postcount=32

It's not going to be a DX10 powerhouse like Crysis though is it? It's not even DX9 manditory like UT3/Crysis. I suppose they might be rustling up something special like Lost Coast, but it's not the same as a big launch with an upcoming triple-A game to say "look at this great game, works best on our hardware as endorsed by the devs."

It's really just a tech demo if there isn't a full game showcasing the hardware.

[Arnold Beckenbauer]

They can use VALVe's multi-core benchmarks for their Barcelona launch.
But I don't think, they will cooperate with VALVe at R600's launch. I hope, it's not Halo 2. Maybe it's FS X with promised D3D10 path.

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/show...91#post2204991

For Episode One they used SM 2.X, because X800, X700, NV4x and G7x can it. For Ep. 2 VALVe will use 3.0, not more.
http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Sto...1818.53359.htm

For those who recently upgraded their PC video cards to support DX10, you’ll be happy to know that both Episode Two and Team Fortress 2 will support the advanced technology of these cards, even if the PC is running Windows XP. On the low-end front, Valve still plans on supporting PCs that can only run DX8 applications. Valve’s attempting to also support DX7, but couldn’t confirm if it’d go back that far with technology.

I bet, it's HDR method 3 with MSAA.
Edit:
What do I mean?
What can NVIDIA's NV40/G70? They can filter FP16 textures. What can't they? MSAA on FP16 render target ("FP16-MSAA").
What can AMD's R520/R580? They can do MSAA on FP16-RT, but they can't filter FP16 textures. That's why we got HDR implementation Nr. 4.
And now look at this: http://www.driverheaven.net/articles...es/Slide27.JPG
http://www.driverheaven.net/articles...es/Slide28.JPG
R600 and G80 can do MSAA on FP16-RT and they can filter FP16 textures. I bet, it's HDR implemetation Nr.3 with full FP16 support. There is no magic.

[SugarCoat]

Originally Posted by Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.

It's not going to be a DX10 powerhouse like Crysis though is it? It's not even DX9 manditory like UT3/Crysis. I suppose they might be rustling up something special like Lost Coast, but it's not the same as a big launch with an upcoming triple-A game to say "look at this great game, works best on our hardware as endorsed by the devs."

It's really just a tech demo if there isn't a full game showcasing the hardware.

even calling crysis a "DX10 powerhouse" is overdoing it. The devs of Crysis have already stated mutliple times that pretty much all of the graphics and effects are DX9 and that they will only be using DX10 to help in performance related areas.

[AlexV]

Since then, realising that DX10 needs pimping, they`ve turned the boat a bit, stating that extra graphics-fu will be available only on DX10. I guess we`ll see. But certainly no DX10 powerhouse .

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Originally Posted by SugarCoat

even calling crysis a "DX10 powerhouse" is overdoing it. The devs of Crysis have already stated mutliple times that pretty much all of the graphics and effects are DX9 and that they will only be using DX10 to help in performance related areas.

It's the only thing we've got. Halo 2 isn't exactly pushing the graphics envelope despite its marketing led DX10 baseline.

[AlStrong]

Originally Posted by Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.

It's the only thing we've got. Halo 2 isn't exactly pushing the graphics envelope despite its marketing led DX10 baseline.

Halo 2 has never been touted as using DX10. Or maybe I just misunderstood you. Halo 2's vista-only status has been marketed as due to the incorporation of Live Anywhere.


And what about Hellgate London