"Entities"
{
	"entity"
	{
		"classname" "point_commentary_node"
		"targetname" "Tech: commentary_new illumination material"
		"origin" "-2608.062012 -5001.852051 -921.049927;"
		"angles" "0 -160 0"
		"precommands" ""
		"postcommands" ""
		"commentaryfile" "#commentary\ep2-comment013.wav"
		"printname" "Illumination Shaders"
		"viewtarget" ""
		"viewposition" ""
		"prevent_movement" 0
		"speakers" "Steve Kalning"
		"synopsis" "The antlion web sacks, grubs, and workers show off a new illumination shader we developed especially for this level.  We began with concept art for the web sacks, modelled those, then added a material parameter that allows the model's self-illumination to be modified based on the angle at which the player views them.  The end result is an object that looks lit from within by a weird volumetric light."
		"parser_id" "13"
	}
	"entity"
	{
		"classname" "point_commentary_node"
		"targetname" "Vortigaunt Stun Attack"
		"origin" "-3242.801514 -4973.306152 -930.822205"
		"angles" "0 -168 0"
		"precommands" ""
		"postcommands" ""
		"commentaryfile" "#commentary\ep2-comment041.wav"
		"printname" "Vortigaunt Stun Attack"
		"viewtarget" ""
		"viewposition" ""
		"prevent_movement" 0
		"speakers" "John Guthrie"
		"synopsis" "We wanted players to work cooperatively with the Vortigaunt just like they did with Alyx in Episode One.  We didn't want to make the Vortigaunt too powerful or he might take away from the player's fun; but we also wanted him to be a good ally to have around.  One solution, shown in this scene, was the shock attack where the Vortigaunt would stun a group of antlions, so that the player could finish them off."
		"parser_id" "41"
	}
	"entity"
	{
		"classname" "point_commentary_node"
		"targetname" "Antlion Worker"
		"origin" "-4180.851563 -4880.389160 -1122.224365"
		"angles" "0 103 0"
		"precommands" ""
		"postcommands" ""
		"commentaryfile" "#commentary\ep2-comment012.wav"
		"printname" "Antlion Worker"
		"viewposition" ""
		"prevent_movement" 0
		"speakers" "Joshua Weier"
		"synopsis" "The antlion experience in Half-Life 2 was characterized by a mindless, constant onslaught of bugs rushing your way.  We devised the antlion worker for Episode 2, as a way to add depth and variety to the underground sequences, by leveraging new types of gameplay.  Unlike normal antlions, the worker chooses to avoid direct confrontation, skulking in the background and lobbing acidic globs from a distance.  This extends the amount of time players spend with each creature.  By contrast, an encounter with an ordinary antlion is over in seconds.  The spitting behavior was derived from the bullsquid of Half-Life 1, but was updated to fit the more physical world of Half-Life 2.  To that end, the spit globs are not merely sprites, but physically simulated objects, flying through the air along realistic trajectories."
		"parser_id" "12"
	}
	"entity"
	{
		"classname" "point_commentary_node"
		"targetname" "Punting Antlions"
		"origin" "-3509.157227 -2746.647461 -1058.452271"
		"angles" "0 49 0"
		"precommands" ""
		"postcommands" ""
		"commentaryfile" "#commentary\ep2-comment042.wav"
		"printname" "Punting Antlions"
		"viewtarget" ""
		"viewposition" ""
		"prevent_movement" 0
		"speakers" "Matt Wright"
		"synopsis" "This cave was originally designed with a pit in the middle, so the player could punt antlions into it with the gravity gun.  In playtest sessions, however, very few of our playtesters actually used it in this way.  The pit stayed in the room, but we changed the path to allow the player to descend into it and come back out."
		"parser_id" "42"
	}
	"entity"
	{
		"classname" "point_commentary_node"
		"targetname" "Tech: New shaders for caves"
		"origin" "-3508.198486 -2199.004395 -1048.013306"
		"angles" "0 -45 0"
		"precommands" ""
		"postcommands" ""
		"commentaryfile" "#commentary\ep2-comment020.wav"
		"printname" "Cave Shaders"
		"viewtarget" ""
		"viewposition" ""
		"prevent_movement" 0
		"speakers" "Chris Green"
		"synopsis" "Texturing of these caves provided a couple of significant challenges. We had never made such a large scale area completely out of displacements before. The convoluted topology of the surfaces made them especially hard to UV map without unpleasant-looking seams and texture warping. After some early attempts, we decided that we were not going to be able to map this area using conventional UV-mapping, so we decided to write custom shaders especially for the caves.  Our custom shader combines multiple axis-aligned projections based upon the surface normal.  This largely fixed our problems with stretching and seams.  Since we wanted to provide dramatic lighting in these areas, particularly when lit by the flashlight, we augmented the Source engine's radiosity bumpmapping with a new piece of technology.  This allows us to create a form of bumpmaps in which the bumpmapped surface details actually cast soft shadows across the surface. This emphasizes the surface bumpiness, especially when the light is at grazing angles."
		"parser_id" "20"
	}
	"entity"
	{
		"classname" "point_commentary_node"
		"targetname" "Vortigaunt personality/character"
		"origin" "1045.069946 -4458.790039 -1140.420044 "
		"angles" "0 86.1800003052 0"
		"precommands" ""
		"postcommands" ""
		"commentaryfile" "#commentary\ep2-comment037.wav"
		"printname" "Giving the Vortigaunts Personality"
		"viewtarget" ""
		"viewposition" ""
		"prevent_movement" 0
		"speakers" "Danika Wright"
		"synopsis" "Turning the vortigaunt into an expressive character was a challenge for animators, given that he doesn't have what you'd call a traditional face.  To bring out his personality, the animators concentrated on shifting bodyweight and broad hand gestures.  Most importantly, where human characters tend to move their heads a lot for emphasis, we concentrated his performances on expressive spinal motions."
		"parser_id" "37"
	}
	"entity"
	{
		"classname" "point_commentary_node"
		"targetname" "Elevator Feedback"
		"origin" "414.751709 -5141.621582 -925.968750"
		"angles" "0 -154 0"
		"precommands" ""
		"postcommands" ""
		"commentaryfile" "#commentary\ep2-comment048.wav"
		"printname" "Elevator Feedback"
		"viewtarget" ""
		"viewposition" ""
		"prevent_movement" 0
		"speakers" "Jay Stelly"
		"synopsis" "Wherever possible, we try to mine our robust physics engine as a source of novel puzzles; it is especially valuable for giving realistic feedback to the player solving the puzzle.  In this scenario, we designed the elevator to sink slightly whenever the player steps on it, giving instant intuitive feedback that it reacts to weight.  This made it far more likely the player would understand that he was dealing with a counterweight puzzle."
		"parser_id" "48"
	}
	"entity"
	{
		"classname" "point_commentary_node"
		"targetname" "Zombine Grenade"
		"origin" "583.836853 -5215.989258 -1875.016968"
		"angles" "0 -68 0"
		"precommands" ""
		"postcommands" ""
		"commentaryfile" "#commentary\ep2-comment045.wav"
		"printname" "Zombine Grenade"
		"viewtarget" ""
		"viewposition" ""
		"prevent_movement" 0
		"speakers" "Charlie Bergen"
		"synopsis" "We like to lull players into a trance, then startle them.  Here, we convince players they are expected to explore and solve puzzles for a long time, then we abruptly change the mode of gameplay by throwing grenade-lobbing zombines at them."
		"parser_id" "45"
	}
	"entity"
	{
		"classname" "point_commentary_node"
		"targetname" "Glimpses of the Future"
		"origin" " 1794.700439 -5742.381348 -1061.567871"
		"angles" "0 -90 0"
		"precommands" ""
		"postcommands" ""
		"commentaryfile" "#commentary\ep2-comment050.wav"
		"printname" "Glimpses of the Future"
		"viewtarget" ""
		"viewposition" ""
		"prevent_movement" 0
		"speakers" "Ido Magal"
		"synopsis" "Whenever possible we try to give the player a glimpse of their eventual goal, even before they realize it is their goal.  While we try to design such moments intentionally, sometimes the opportunities present themselves.  In this case, while setting up the gag where the rail car slides into the abyss, we opened a hole in the wall and discovered a view of the distant thumper.  It became clear that we could tailor the view across the giant cave to foreshadow the spot where Gordon would eventually end up."
		"parser_id" "50"
	}
	"entity"
	{
		"classname" "point_commentary_node"
		"targetname" "Spectator Segments"
		"origin" " 1500.200073 -9405.818359 -477.968750"
		"angles" "0 102 0"
		"precommands" ""
		"postcommands" ""
		"commentaryfile" "#commentary\ep2-comment054.wav"
		"printname" "Spectator Segments"
		"viewtarget" ""
		"viewposition" ""
		"prevent_movement" 0
		"speakers" "Leslie Hall"
		"synopsis" "The vortigaunt's dispel attack is a radial explosion that takes out a swarm of antlions.  It looks most impressive when seen from above--but that's not a perspective the player gets very often in the tunnels.  We designed the exit from this battle purely to give the player a view from above so the vort could put on a show.  [NOTE: good spot to take over the player's camera to swoop down and spawn antlions and trigger the vort's attack]"
		"parser_id" "54"
	}
	"entity"
	{
		"classname" "point_commentary_node"
		"targetname" "Antlion Fatigue"
		"origin" "2061.299316 -10133.696289 -477.968750"
		"angles" "0 -66 0"
		"precommands" ""
		"postcommands" ""
		"commentaryfile" "#commentary\ep2-comment055.wav"
		"printname" "Antlion Fatigue"
		"viewtarget" ""
		"viewposition" ""
		"prevent_movement" 0
		"speakers" "Eric Strand"
		"synopsis" "Originally, this room came directly after a long stretch of combat with antlions, and opened up into more of the same.  Players who opened the door were faced with another swarm, which they were expected to clear with a whole bunch of handy grenades.  However, most playtesters were fairly tired of antlion combat at this point, so we decided that a complete break from antlions would be an even better alternative to blowing up more of them with grenades."
		"parser_id" "55"
	}
	"entity"
	{
		"classname" "point_commentary_node"
		"targetname" "Guardian Glimpse"
		"origin" "3305.875244 -10030.305664 -533.315796"
		"angles" "0 0 0"
		"precommands" ""
		"postcommands" ""
		"commentaryfile" "#commentary\ep2-comment057.wav"
		"printname" "Guardian Tease"
		"viewtarget" ""
		"viewposition" ""
		"prevent_movement" 0
		"speakers" "Jason Deakins"
		"synopsis" "A glimpse of the antlion guardian in this level sets up anticipation for the more extended confrontation in upcoming areas. The player needs to know what he's getting into, so that the vortigaunt's warnings will all make sense."
		"parser_id" "57"
	}
	"entity"
	{
		"classname" "point_commentary_node"
		"targetname" "Basket Puzzle"
		"origin" "4062.618652 -8252.126953 -533.376953"
		"angles" "0 90 0"
		"precommands" ""
		"postcommands" ""
		"commentaryfile" "#commentary\ep2-comment058.wav"
		"printname" "Basket Puzzle"
		"viewtarget" ""
		"viewposition" ""
		"prevent_movement" 0
		"speakers" "Randy Lundeen"
		"synopsis" "For most of this episode's development, there was a counterweight puzzle in this area--one the player had to solve while under attack by antlions.  Although it was a clever puzzle, we felt that the underground experience was already long enough, so we removed it and streamlined the path to the nectar.  Having too many obstacles made it hard to keep up the sense that recovering the nectar was an urgent task."
		"parser_id" "58"
	}
}