Half-Life - A Look at Water

Documenting Half-Life’s two rendering modes, and how they handle the various liquids you step in, swim through or get dangerously irradiated by. Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 0:28 - Software Changes 1:52 - OpenGL Features 2:28 - Code Origins 3:11 - Final Notes BGM: Koriand’r - Breathe Note: Half-Life’s 1997 prototype contains an OpenGL mode, and the release of GLQuake earlier that year shows GoldSrc’s 3D acceleration capabilities were being developed alongside software rendering. In light of this, my use of the words “changed“ or “updated“ are inaccurate, as is the idea that software rendering was what the game was specifically designed for. The Software-esque water mentioned in the outro was developed by Admer456 for their upcoming “Advanced Development“ mod being worked on here: