Valve has confirmed the completion of all work on the new Half-Life 2 Lost Coast HDR level and its plans to release it through its Steam platform next week.
Valve has used the latest update of its Steam client to inform Half-Life 2 owners of the news regarding the new Lost Coast level which is, in fact, an HDR-lightning showcase level. Through the update, Valve has commented on Lost Coast, ...our current plan is to release Half-Life 2: Lost Coast next week. Lost Coast is a free level for everyone who owns Half-Life 2, and serves as an HDR technology demo based in an unreleased section of the "Highway 17" chapter of Half-Life 2.
For those of you not clear on what exactly HDR stands for, it is High Dynamic Range also sometimes referred to as, High Dynamic Range Imagery (HDRI) or High Dynamic Range Rendering (HDRR). Dynamic Range is the ratio of the largest value of a signal to the lowest measurable value. Current 16-bit integer-based formats use color component values from 0 black to 1 white but don't allow for what is known as over-range values.
HDR allows for the appearance of color values beyond the normal range in an effort to produce a more lifelike rendering of a 3D scene. With HDR the game can mimic some of the effects we experience in life, for example, that of our eyes adjusting to sudden light.
Valve also used the Steam update to inform users of the company's future plans which do not seem to include any news on the eagerly anticipated expansion to H-L 2; Aftermath. According to Valve, after Lost Coast is released, ...we'll be working on getting some new content for both Counter-Strike: Source and Day of Defeat: Source, along with an update to the SDK, out the door. More info coming on that next week..
