Valve isn’t ready to disclose anything Half Life 3 related yet. But that’s alright, because we have some extremely talented people who are showing us what hidden potential lies in a Half Life 2 remake. Logithx for instance is an extremely talented artist who’s spending his free time bringing Half Life 2 back to life using Unreal Engine 3. The result is rather impressive, and if Half Life 3 will look even remotely good as his first renders, I’ll be personally satisfied. I feel like underlining the fact that these renders are made with Unreal Engine 3, not Unreal Engine 4, which has recently been released for developers.
In case you haven’t recognized the area (which, frankly, you can’t be blamed for), this is City 17, in all of its Unreal Engine 3 beauty. Of course, this rework involves tremendous amounts of work, and pretty much every texture and model has been remade from scratch. We don’t know if Half Life 3 is or isn’t developed at the moment (we suspect it is), but Valve should really consider hiring this guy. The detailing is amazing, despite perhaps being a little over the top. Notice how the lack of field of view effects makes everything look perhaps way too detailed. Regardless, it’s a sight for sore eyes, and gets us dreaming about a full Half Life 2 remake with these visuals.
Logithx is also working on moving his work to Unreal Engine 4, which offers even more tools and resources. “I’m working every day to port this to the new Unreal Engine 4 but as I mentioned in my original post there’s lots of work that was unfinished, not to mention that I have to redo all the materials and many textures because of the awesome physically-based shading in Unreal Engine 4.” If you were wondering, the talented artist isn’t getting paid for his work. This is purely a passion and hobby project, one that deserves both respect and recognition. Perhaps with some more press coverage, he can some day work in the industry and contribute to Half Life 3. Valve is notorious for hiring talented people from unexpected places, and such work within a portfolio should certainly grab some attention.
In the mean-time, we’ve seen some indications that Valve has a new Source engine up and running, and a Left 4 Dead 2 remake (or even a sequel) could be in the works. This leads us to think that the technology to bring a masterpiece of a Half Life 3 game to life is now available. So how about it Valve?