Bungie Weekly Update/02-16-01

This is the Bungie Weekly Update for February 16, 2001, written by Matt Soell.

Bungie Update
This morning the Seattle region saw its first substantial snowfall in several years. Up to ten inches in some areas, if you believe the Seattle Times. The collective response to a little snow in this land of gas-guzzling four-wheel-drive SUVs fitted with ski racks was to scream like little girls and hide in the basement. The schools are closed, the parking lots half-empty, and the Microsoft hallways almost bereft of life. But did a few paltry inches of snow prevent Bungie from showing up to do the requisite day's worth of ass-kicking? Hell no. Thus, in the Bungie spirit of standing tall and strong while our so-called peers wuss out with muttered excuses, I begin this week's Halo update.


 * Shadows work now, though they're not finished. The shadow of a tree (yes, The Coolest Tree Ever In A Videogame) swaying in the wind, for example, isn't quite right. Should be fixed soon.
 * The transparent water shader is in, and while that isn't finished either it looks beautiful already. One of the planned improvements is depth fogging.
 * Collision models have permutations now. This means that character models with permutations - a different head shape or longer arms, for example - will react appropriately when shot.
 * The Jeep kicks up dirt again. It'll kick up other sorts of debris as appropriate, though that code isn't in yet.
 * Those of you who've expressed a concern will be happy to hear that we're testing lens flares.
 * Controller support is 90% there.
 * We've started working on the HUD. After much debate the team came up with a design that everyone likes.
 * Matt got contrails working again.
 * Holograms mostly work - there's still some debugging to be done. Shiek showed me a hologram of a structure floating in midair, which cast soft, glowing lines on the ground and walls of the room as it spun. Sweet.
 * The chain gun for the Jeep is now fully textured. Rob is working on a new gun intended for fodder-type opponents; the geometry is almost done and texturing should be another couple of days.
 * The script for Halo's single-player campaign is about 30% done. (Don't confuse this with the story itself, which is more-or-less finished at this point, and should completely satisfy those of you who like Bungie games for the story.)
 * Chucky got the super-hi-res screenshot code working. I can't imagine what we'll use it for. ;)