Half-Life 2 to Begin Pre-Loading This Month?

[Jonbo298]

Saw this salivating info. on HL2 that I know Jason1 will love.

August 10, 2004 - Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for another frustratingly ambiguous but tantalizing tidbit from Valve Software. It appears that initial assets for Half-Life 2 will pre-load to subscribers of Valve's Steam service later this month. In addition, it looks like the Counter-Strike: Source beta will be available to Condition Zero owners on August 18.

In a post to the forums on hl2fallout.com, Valve's Gabe Newell said:

"Just got out of a review meeting. 8/11 the Cafe's turn on (tomorrow). 8/16 CZ/ATI users pre-load. 8/18 CZ/ATI turns on. 8/17 HL-2 pre-load starts (textures, audio and other stuff that doesn't change)."

The Steam service separates the processes of downloading game data to a subscriber's machine and actually unlocking the game for play. The Counter-Strike: Source beta referred to above, for example, has already begun preloading for certain users (Condition Zero owners are elegible for the beta), but will not be active for play until officially "released" by Valve.

While we can't know until we receive an official comment from Valve, Gabe's post suggests that the company will pre-load elements of Half-Life 2 which will not change between now and the time when the title goes gold and eventually ships. Obviously, if the game code itself is still being revised (i.e., the game's not complete yet), it will not be pre-loaded.

Certainly Gabe's brief post does not tell us just how far Half-Life 2 is from completion. However, like other recent indications and rumors, it does suggest that Valve is deliciously close to that magic, golden point. Could it be a glorious September after all?

http://pc.ign.com/articles/537/537861p1.html

If this is true, I can't wait to get some of them HL2 files on my computer. Now if Gabe would just say the game will be released at hte end of August, I'll be giddy as a school girl:D

[Canyarion]

............ what's the use? :hmm:

[Jonbo298]

It signifies that HL2 might be out in either August or September if they start pre-loading the textures and whatnot. Meaning the game is 1 step closer to that magical Gold

[Jason1]

Okay this sounds like great news, but ive got one question...Will it pre-load for everyone who is currently running steam? I mean, what if a person knew they werent even going to buy Half Life 2, could they refuse it? Or am I wrong, is it only going to pre-load for like...people who allready have that special ATI key thing...like you have jonbo? And also, one last ? mark. What about the people that arent even running steam, and are just going to buy the retail version? Wouldnt the retail version have all the files needed for play on it? If so, what would be the point of pre-loading any files at all? So many questions...

[Jonbo298]

AFAIK, it will pre-order for people who probably have ATI voucher card things or people who pre-ordered off steam (I'm guessing..Gabe didnt say how the HL2 pre-load will work).

The pre-load will be for people like me who are getting it off steam only. People who buy the boxed retail will probably have steam on the CD and it will install it so you can play Couterstrike Source online (the multiplayer for HL2) and so steam can distribute any updates for HL2 to you also.

[Canyarion]

Who's steam?

[Jonbo298]

Steam is a program used by Valve. It serves as the main hub for all its games Like Half life, Day of Defeat, Counterstrike, etc...and used to authenticate you have a legit copy of a game if you want to play multiplayer, etc...

[Jonbo298]

More Interesting and cool info. about the pre-load that gabe posted on HL2 Fallout Forums

Right now we have about 60 Steam content servers running around the world. They are throttled to 100 Mbps, but can handle ~800 Mbps if necessary.

In terms of network bandwidth, we're currently running at 4 Gbps, and will boost to 7 Gbps when we start pre-loading. We have the option of increasing that to 14 Gbps with a phone call (admittedly a really expensive phone call).

Since Half-Life 2 is ~2 GB (or 16 Gb) over the wire, we can serve up about a person/second with a complete copy of the game. These are idealized numbers - the real capacity planning numbers are quite a bit lower.

So pre-loading is a good thing, being able to play before you have a complete copy of the game is a good thing, and having buckets and buckets of bandwidth is a good thing. It's interesting that videogames in addition to being a larger aggregate audience than almost any TV show (and a lot of countries total Internet traffic) are also now becoming one of the largest consumers of bandwidth on the net.

I'm curious if people know of other single applications consuming more than 10 Gbps.

http://www.hl2fallout.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2594&hl

All I can say is holy sh*t!

[Ace195]

I can't wait this is going to be awsome :)

[Jason1]

That sounds like a lot of bandwidth.