L4D Slides, Impressions, Interview - 8/4/08

In our last news post, we linked to some stories explaining a presentation done on Left 4 Dead graphics technology by Valve employees Randy Lundeen and Moby Francke. Valve has now published the slides from the presentation on their website [warning: PDF, 6.61MB] The slides are in the form of a 63 page PDF file. The first half of the slides, 1-31, detail their work on Team Fortress 2. Left 4 Dead starts on page 32 with a brief overview and then gets right into the graphics talk.

Thankfully the slides are all labeled. Screenshots start on slide 36 and allow you to compare and see specifically what each filmic effect the developers have been talking about actually does. The filmic effects include color correction, grain, vignette, local contrast enhancement as well as changes depending on stress level and gameplay. Slides 43 and 44 provide screenshots with all filmic effects on and off for comparison, which you can see a part of below:

The presentation goes on to show headlights, fog, particles, shadowing and puddles and is worth looking at.

We found a thread on the 1UP message boards from a lucky soul living in Bellevue, WA (where Valve is headquartered) that got some hands-on time with Left 4 Dead. We know there are a lot more people out there that have gotten the chance, so if you're one of them and haven't shared your story please post on our forums.

Gamasutra has released an interview with Doug Lombardi talking in part about Valve's acquisition of Turtle Rock Studios, and finally Kotaku has revealed their picks for the Game Critics Awards for Best of E3 2008. The games up for nomination are located here, where L4D tied for second-most nominations of any game, with four. Kotaku chose Left 4 Dead as Best PC Game, Best Action Game, and Best Online Multiplayer Game. The Game Critics Awards tallies the votes of 36 media outlets, so hopefully the other 35 were given the same chance to play Left 4 Dead! For more information on the awards, the process and the judges, head to their website here. Winners to be announced tomorrow, August 5th.