For years, whispers inside the gaming community regarding a project codenamed "HLX" might have gotten many hoping it is the Half-Life 3, in all likelihood. Recently, some rather exciting findings in Valve's other shows, Deadlock and Dota 2, have sparked that flame once more, indicating that this mysterious thing might be pretty close to the end of its development cycle after all.
Tyler McViker's reports say that the recent updates to these Source 2 engine games have been heavily filled with the HLX-related changes. Not "a few knobs," but significant updates that regularly appear when a game is preparing for its final polishing stage.
One of the more significant indicators? A rewritten save and load system from the ground up. That may not sound like headline material, but consider this: there's no other Source 2 game that even uses such a system (even Half-Life Alyx borrowed from an older engine version). Building such a foundational feature as saving and loading from scratch, allowing for comprehensive editing of all facets of any entity in the game world to be represented in the saving file is MASSIVE-the kind of work that developers do in buttoning everything up not in early or middle phases of creation.
Also, new "player flags" have come to light. They appear to be made to identify some status of a particular player, like whether it is impossible to save at the moment, whether the player is running a vehicle, or if he is a passenger in an NPC-driven vehicle. Again, these fine-tuning details typically come toward the end: seconds from launch and designed to smooth out the player experience and make it more logical.
Quite frankly, these developments are exciting, and currently, there's a huge indicator pointing to some activity, but this should be taken with a grain of salt. Even if HLX were to be declared finished for the internal development, that obviously wouldn't mean that an announcement would be soon. Game companies, Valve among them, operate on their own clocks. So, as the "not-E3" time trickles in, it's better to remain realistic.
Apart from the development completion hints, the recent game updates added even more files directly related to HLX, giving a pretty tantalizing picture of what this game may include:
- Visual Improvement: The use of "meshlets" promises more advanced graphical capabilities.
- Vehicle Gameplay Focus: Attributes surface properties for vehicle interactions only, with much more added for transporting players and NPCs in vehicles.
- Dynamic Environments: An "electrical interactions" system, similar to how fire or material deformation works, hints at electrifiable surfaces and props.
- Smarter Enemies: An improved sight and hearing system could mean tougher and more reactive AI opponents.
- More Interactive Worlds: A "wind system" affecting volumetric fog and moving players, NPCs, and objects could be made possible (perhaps via fan systems). Sounds very engaging.
With the evident input being made into HLX, one cannot deny the veracity of the fact that Valve is indeed definitely working on building something quite massive. If all rumors are true and this is indeed the final round in the Half-Life saga, fans might finally get to see the conclusion they've been waiting for-the end of several decades-not another cliff-hanger ending, one hopes.
Things are clearly in place for something awesome to happen. Only time will tell exactly what "HLX" is, but these latest loose findings have given the gaming world plenty to speculate and dream about.