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118-583: Novint's flagship consumer product is the Novint Falcon , a USB haptic device intended to replace the mouse in video games and other applications. The name of the Novint Falcon comes from the fact that the falcon is a predator of the mouse. The Falcon has removable handles, or grips, that the user holds onto to control the Falcon. As the user moves the grip in three dimensions (right-left and forwards-backwards, like

236-514: A "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom. Forbes reported on February 9, 2011, that the game had sold 12 million copies worldwide. In a review of The Orange Box , IGN stated that although Half-Life 2 has already been released through other media, the game itself

354-459: A 3 Degree of Freedom (3 DOF) grip that tracks rotations of the handle, two of which Degrees of Freedom are actuated and can present forces to the user. 3D touch software has been a primary focus of Novint since its inception, and Novint has had more focus historically on software than hardware. Novint's software was created to give users an accurate sense of touch in computing. Novint creates software in several different categories. It has developed

472-583: A Resistance outpost whose occupants provide him with a dune buggy . He drives along the coastline to reach the Combine prison of Nova Prospekt, where Eli and Mossman are being held. Gordon and Alyx reunite, locate Eli, and discover that Mossman is a Combine spy. Before they can stop her, Mossman teleports herself and Eli to the Citadel. The teleporter explodes moments after Gordon and Alyx use it to escape Nova Prospekt. Returning to Kleiner's lab, Gordon and Alyx learn that

590-565: A T-shirt and sample of the Prima strategy guide. Both the disc and Steam versions require Steam to be installed and active for play to occur. In September 2005, Electronic Arts distributed the "Game of the Year Edition" of Half-Life 2 . Compared to the original CD release of Half-Life 2 , the "Game of the Year Edition" also includes Half-Life: Source . In 2006, Valve partnered with Taito to release Half-Life 2: Survivor , an arcade game for

708-555: A baseball with a catcher's mitt. Finally the tutorial allows a user to shoot a virtual slingshot which can be used to shoot cans off a fence. Newton's Monkey Business contains 24 mini games which contains a variety of mini-games showing many different types of game interactions. The Feelin It sports pack has several sports games, including bowling, a home run derby, a three-point shootout, table tennis, and Feelin It Golf. One of Novint's earliest games

826-445: A built-in hub that connects to the physical USB cable. USB device communication is based on pipes (logical channels). A pipe connects the host controller to a logical entity within a device, called an endpoint . Because pipes correspond to endpoints, the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Each USB device can have up to 32 endpoints (16 in and 16 out ), though it is rare to have so many. Endpoints are defined and numbered by

944-406: A character in a game can be felt, such as the feel of a recoil of a gun, the motion of a golf club, or the accelerations of a car. The Falcon in essence is a consumer robot. It consists of its grip connected via three arms to a roughly conical body, which sits on a U-shaped base. Each of the three arms moves in and out of the Falcon's body. The default grip is a small spherical grip with 4 buttons on

1062-738: A consumer device, and on June 18, 2006 (Tom Anderson's 32nd birthday) Novint launched the world's first consumer 3D touch device, having effectively brought the cost of the hardware down two orders of magnitude (1/100 of the original cost). At that point in time, Novint had a strong hardware solution, but felt that it needed better game support, which was one of the main focuses of the company. In May 2008, Novint made an agreement with Electronic Arts to license 7 AAA game titles. Novint then signed licensing agreements with other publishers and developers, including Valve . In June 2009 Valve released updates to Half-Life 2: Episode One , Half-Life 2: Episode Two , Portal and Team Fortress 2 adding game support for

1180-414: A delay without a new release date. He said later: "We were paralyzed. We knew we weren't going to make the date we promised, and that was going to be a huge fiasco and really embarrassing. But we didn't have a new date to give people either." The graphics card manufacturer ATI had arranged a promotional event on Alcatraz Island to coincide with the planned release of Half-Life 2. Unable to pull out of

1298-624: A flashlight (along with haptic cues to make the movements easy to control), while down-down could make the character crouch. The G-Cube will be able to be used universally in other applications, such as mapping forward-up to 'cut' while forward-down could be mapped to 'paste'. Beyond the FalconHD titles, there are 3 levels of game support for F-Gen. They are F-Gen Bronze, F-Gen Silver, and F-Gen Gold. F-Gen Bronze will just be basic mouse support with customized inputs. F-Gen Silver will have basic forces. F-Gen Gold will have strong force feedback support. With

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1416-513: A free download to anyone who purchased Half-Life 2 . Lost Coast acted as a technology demonstration , showcasing new lighting techniques and high-dynamic-range rendering in the Source engine . Half-Life 2 was followed by the episodic sequels Episode One (2006) and Episode Two (2007). Since the release of the Source engine SDK , a large number of modifications (mods) have been developed by

1534-407: A low level driver software called HDAL, which stands for Haptic Device Abstraction Layer. HDAL handles the low level communications between the Falcon and the computer. Novint has created a software layer above HDAL, called HFX (i.e. Haptics Effects), which is used for creating force effects in games. Novint has developed a variety of applications for its professional projects. Novint has also published

1652-515: A major update to celebrate the game's 20th anniversary. Episode One , Episode Two and Lost Coast were all merged into Half-Life 2 and delisted from Steam, allowing players to purchase the trilogy together and play it from the same executable. The update also added 3.5 hours of developer commentary, a feature previously only in games from Lost Coast onwards. Finally, the update upgraded the game's visual fidelity, implemented numerous bug fixes, and added support for Steam Workshop content. The game

1770-613: A mouse, but also up-down, unlike a mouse), the Falcon's software keeps track of where the grip is moved and creates forces that a user can feel, by sending currents to the motors in the device. The Falcon's sensors can keep track of the handle's position to sub-millimeter resolution, and the motors are updated 1000 times per second (1 kHz), giving a realistic sense of touch. The surfaces of virtual objects feel solid, and can have detailed textures applied to them. The weight and dynamics of objects can be simulated so that an object's inertia and momentum can be felt. The actions and interactions of

1888-653: A new coding schema (128b/132b symbols, 10 Gbit/s; also known as Gen 2 ); for some time marketed as SuperSpeed+ ( SS+ ). The USB 3.2 specification added a second lane to the Enhanced SuperSpeed System besides other enhancements so that the SuperSpeedPlus USB system part implements the Gen 1×2 , Gen 2×1, and Gen 2×2 operation modes. However, the SuperSpeed USB part of the system still implements

2006-469: A number of video games, some of which were developed by Novint directly and some of which were existing games in which Novint added support for the Falcon. An independent group has also developed an open source driver library for the Falcon. The Falcon is packaged with 3 applications; a tutorial, a game called Newton's Monkey Business, and the Feelin It Sports Pack. The tutorial allows users to feel

2124-503: A predominately sword-fighting game; Insurgency: Modern Infantry Combat , which focuses on realistic modern infantry combat; and Jailbreak Source have been opened to the public as a beta. In September 2022, after a decade of development, fans released Half Life 2: VR Mod, allowing Half-Life 2 to be played in virtual reality. As part of its community support, Valve announced in September 2008 that several mods, with more planned in

2242-410: A prequel, Half-Life: Alyx . Like the original Half-Life (1998), Half-Life 2 is a single-player first-person shooter (FPS) in which players control Gordon Freeman . It features combat, exploration, jumping challenges, and puzzle-solving, and narrative elements conveyed through scripted sequences . Weapons include a pistol, submachine gun, shotgun, and the powerful Combine pulse rifle. With

2360-477: A release date of September of that year. They failed to meet the release date, leading to fan backlash. In October, the unfinished source code was published online, leading to more backlash and damage to the team's morale. Half-Life 2 was released on Steam on November 16, 2004. It won 39 Game of the Year awards and, like its predecessor, has been cited as one of the most influential first-person shooter games and among

2478-522: A second. Novint has developed several grip accessories. On the consumer side, Novint developed a pistol grip, which is the shape of a pistol handle and attaches to the Falcon in place of the spherical grip. It has a main trigger button, and 3 side buttons. It was intended for use in First Person Shooter (FPS) games, but is generally an ergonomic grip that can be used for many applications. Novint has also developed several professional grips, including

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2596-731: A small dll patch to fix a bug that had emerged in the button functionality. Both the beta and the patch were released only on the Novint forums. USB Universal Serial Bus ( USB ) is an industry standard , developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), that allows data exchange and delivery of power between many types of electronics. It specifies its architecture, in particular its physical interface , and communication protocols for data transfer and power delivery to and from hosts , such as personal computers , to and from peripheral devices , e.g. displays, keyboards, and mass storage devices, and to and from intermediate hubs , which multiply

2714-534: A standard to replace virtually all common ports on computers, mobile devices, peripherals, power supplies, and manifold other small electronics. In the current standard, the USB-C connector replaces the many various connectors for power (up to 240 W), displays (e.g. DisplayPort, HDMI), and many other uses, as well as all previous USB connectors. As of 2024, USB consists of four generations of specifications: USB 1. x , USB 2.0 , USB 3. x , and USB4 . USB4 enhances

2832-425: A system, F-Gen, where its community and users themselves could add support for games and applications, share their work, and get more game and application support more quickly, that is more robust. F-Gen was designed to be a community tool. It includes a strong scripting language and the ability to add F-Gen 'Tools', which can add functionality to F-Gen. The F-Gen drivers emulate a mouse, and are customizeable, making

2950-625: A tethered connection (that is: no plug or receptacle at the peripheral end). There was no known miniature type A connector until USB 2.0 (revision 1.01) introduced one. USB 2.0 was released in April 2000, adding a higher maximum signaling rate of 480 Mbit/s (maximum theoretical data throughput 53 MByte/s ) named High Speed or High Bandwidth , in addition to the USB ;1. x Full Speed signaling rate of 12 Mbit/s (maximum theoretical data throughput 1.2 MByte/s). Modifications to

3068-421: A transport pod to Breen's private office, near the Citadel's apex, where he and Mossman are waiting with Eli and Alyx as captives. Breen reveals that he plans to use them as leverage during negotiations with the Combine, contradicting what he had told Mossman. Angered, Mossman frees the captives and Breen attempts to escape using a teleporter. Gordon destroys the reactor and Breen falls into the abyss. Moments after

3186-426: A variety of additional games across a wide variety of genres. As of 2009, Novint had published over 50 titles that work with the Falcon. A majority of Novint's game library is based on existing games that Novint added touch to. Novint is currently releasing 2 types of game support, FalconHD and F-Gen. FalconHD games are games in which Novint has licensed source code access for a game, and integrates forces directly into

3304-403: A virtual sphere that can have a variety of textures applied to it. For instance, choosing an ice texture presents a hard, slippery surface to interact with, while sandpaper feels rough, and molasses presents a viscous texture the 3D cursor can move through. The tutorial also shows the feeling of dynamics through a ball attached to a rubber band which can be swung around, and a simulation of catching

3422-480: A week to play through the game. Major changes by this point included the cutting of the Borealis , the replacement of the jet ski with a hovercraft, and introducing the physics-manipulating gravity gun earlier in the game. Feedback was positive across the company. Newell recalled: "The fact that you could go from one end of the game to the other was a really big thing for us. Then we knew it just had to get better – but it

3540-500: Is full-duplex ; all earlier implementations, USB 1.0-2.0, are all half-duplex, arbitrated by the host. Low-power and high-power devices remain operational with this standard, but devices implementing SuperSpeed can provide increased current of between 150 mA and 900 mA, by discrete steps of 150 mA. USB 3.0 also introduced the USB Attached SCSI protocol (UASP) , which provides generally faster transfer speeds than

3658-485: Is IN while the TOKEN packet is an OUT packet), the TOKEN packet is ignored. Otherwise, it is accepted and the data transaction can start. A bi-directional endpoint, on the other hand, accepts both IN and OUT packets. Half-Life 2 Half-Life 2 is a 2004 first-person shooter (FPS) game developed and published by Valve Corporation . It was published for Windows on Valve's digital distribution service, Steam . Like

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3776-409: Is basically pointless? If Half-Life 2 isn't viewed as the best PC game of all time, it's going to completely bum out most of the guys on this team." Newell gave his team no deadline and a "virtually unlimited" budget, promising to fund the project himself if necessary. They used Valve's new in-house game engine , Source , developed simultaneously. Whereas Half-Life was set in a single location,

3894-529: Is indeed a fantastic roller coaster of a ride, not as great as the original but still leagues above most other shooters." Edge awarded Half-Life 2 with its top honor of the year with the award for Best Game, as well as awards for Innovation and Visual Design. The game also had a strong showing at the 2004 British Academy Video Games Awards , picking up six awards, more than any other game that night, with awards including "Best Game" and "Best Online and Multiplayer." Computer Games Magazine named Half-Life 2

4012-402: Is made using two connectors: a receptacle and a plug . Pictures show only receptacles: The Universal Serial Bus was developed to simplify and improve the interface between personal computers and peripheral devices, such as cell phones, computer accessories, and monitors, when compared with previously existing standard or ad hoc proprietary interfaces. From the computer user's perspective,

4130-503: Is still enjoyable on a console. They also noted that the physics of Half-Life 2 are impressive despite it being a console game. However, it was noted that the graphics on the Xbox 360 version of Half-Life 2 were not as impressive as when it was released on the PC. GameSpot's review of The Orange Box noticed that the content of both the Xbox 360 releases, and PlayStation 3 releases were exactly alike,

4248-476: The Game Developers Choice Awards , where it was also given various awards for technology, characters, and writing. The editors of Computer Gaming World nominated Half-Life 2 for their 2004 "Single-Player Shooter of the Year" and overall "Game of the Year" awards, although it lost to Painkiller and World of Warcraft . They wrote, " Half-Life 2 , everyone's default pick to win this year,

4366-510: The Half-Life 2 community. Mods vary in scale, from fan-created levels and weapons, to partial conversions such as Rock 24 , Half-Life 2 Substance and SMOD (which modify the storyline and gameplay of the pre-existing game), SourceForts and Garry's Mod (which allow the player to experiment with the physics system in a sandbox mode), to total conversions such as Black Mesa , Dystopia , Zombie Master or Iron Grip: The Oppression ,

4484-594: The best games ever made . It was ported to the Xbox , the Xbox 360 , the PlayStation 3 , macOS , and Linux . By 2011, it had sold 12 million copies. Half-Life 2 was followed by the free extra level Lost Coast (2005) and the episodic sequels Episode One (2006) and Episode Two (2007); all were compiled together and made playable from the base game as of November 2024. In 2020, after canceling Episode Three and several further Half-Life projects , Valve released

4602-501: The pheromone item, enemy antlions become allies and can be called to the player or sent to attack enemies. Half-Life 2 introduces detailed physics simulation . With the new gravity gun , players can repel objects or pull them from a distance. For example, objects can be fired at enemies, held as shields, or placed to reach new areas, and enemy grenades can be caught and thrown back. The player must also use physics to solve puzzles. Half-Life 2 also adds vehicle sections in which

4720-485: The 5, 10, and 20 Gbit/s capabilities as SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps , SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps , and SuperSpeed USB 20 Gbps , respectively. In 2023, they were replaced again, removing "SuperSpeed" , with USB 5Gbps , USB 10Gbps , and USB 20Gbps . With new Packaging and Port logos. The USB4 specification was released on 29 August 2019 by the USB Implementers Forum. The USB4 2.0 specification

4838-538: The BOT (Bulk-Only-Transfer) protocol. USB 3.1 , released in July 2013 has two variants. The first one preserves USB 3.0's SuperSpeed architecture and protocol and its operation mode is newly named USB 3.1 Gen 1 , and the second version introduces a distinctively new SuperSpeedPlus architecture and protocol with a second operation mode named as USB 3.1 Gen 2 (marketed as SuperSpeed+ USB ). SuperSpeed+ doubles

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4956-459: The Black Mesa research facility, Valve wanted "a much more epic and global feel" for the sequel. One concept had the player teleporting between planets, which was discarded as it would make continuity between levels difficult. At the suggestion of the art director, Viktor Antonov , who was Bulgarian, the team settled on a city in an Eastern European location. In this early concept, players would start

5074-518: The F-Gen Beta release, all PC games can be played with the Novint Falcon. Novint and Novint's community are adding specific drivers within F-Gen to add more forces to many games. In 1995 Sandia National Laboratories, a United States government laboratory, bought one of the world's first commercial 3D haptic devices, and began developing haptic software. Sandia did core haptic research and research on how to use

5192-535: The Falcon work with any PC game or any PC application. Users can adjust the movement scales for the Falcon's control, and save settings for various games. Grip buttons can be mapped to different controls in games. Novint is developing a gesture recognition system, called the Gesture Cube or G-Cube, in which a user can easily access 36 simple to remember gestures to activate any key press or macro. A movement such as moving right then moving forward, will be able to turn on

5310-480: The Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008. Other records awarded the game in the book include, "Largest Digital Distribution Channel" for Valve's Steam service, "First Game to Feature a Gravity Gun", and "First PC Game to Feature Developer Commentary". In 2009, Game Informer put Half-Life 2 5th on their list of "The Top 200 Games of All Time", saying that "with Half-Life 2 , Valve redefined

5428-588: The Hollywood bluster of Halo and Call of Duty ." Half-Life 2 won Crispy Gamer 's Game of the Decade tournament style poll. It also won Reviews on the Run 's, IGN 's Best Game of the Decade and Spike Video Game Awards 2012 Game of the Decade. In December 2021, IGN named Half-Life 2 the ninth-best game of all time. After canceling Episode Three and several further Half-Life projects , Valve released

5546-540: The Japanese market. Valve re-released Half-Life 2 as part of the 2007 compilation The Orange Box for Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 . On May 26, 2010, Half-Life 2, Episode One and Episode Two were released for Mac OS X . In 2013, Valve ported Half-Life 2 to Linux and released a free update adding support for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. An NVIDIA Shield Tablet -exclusive port for Android

5664-510: The Novint Falcon. In December 2009, Novint launched the first beta version of F-Gen, a tool which allowed mouse-like use of the Falcon in Windows. The program also included a scripting functionality that theoretically allowed users to integrate the Falcon into practically any game. In February 2010, Novint launched their second beta version of their F-Gen software, integrating their proprietary G-cube functionality. Later that same month they released

5782-676: The Steam system. On November 29, 2004, Judge Thomas S. Zilly, of U.S. Federal District Court in Seattle, Washington, ruled that Vivendi and its affiliates are not authorized to distribute (directly or indirectly) Valve games through cyber cafés for pay-to-play activities according to the parties' current publishing agreement. Zilly also ruled in favor of the Valve motion regarding the contractual limitation of liability, allowing Valve to recover copyright damages for any infringement as allowed by law without regard to

5900-487: The SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference. USB 3.0 adds a new architecture and protocol named SuperSpeed , with associated backward-compatible plugs, receptacles, and cables. SuperSpeed plugs and receptacles are identified with a distinct logo and blue inserts in standard format receptacles. The SuperSpeed architecture provides for an operation mode at a rate of 5.0 Gbit/s, in addition to

6018-451: The USB 2.0 bus operating in parallel. The USB 3.0 specification defined a new architecture and protocol named SuperSpeed (aka SuperSpeed USB , marketed as SS ), which included a new lane for a new signal coding scheme (8b/10b symbols, 5 Gbit/s; later also known as Gen 1 ) providing full-duplex data transfers that physically required five additional wires and pins, while preserving

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6136-416: The USB interface improves ease of use in several ways: The USB standard also provides multiple benefits for hardware manufacturers and software developers, specifically in the relative ease of implementation: As with all standards, USB possesses multiple limitations to its design: For a product developer, using USB requires the implementation of a complex protocol and implies an "intelligent" controller in

6254-401: The USB specification have been made via engineering change notices (ECNs). The most important of these ECNs are included into the USB 2.0 specification package available from USB.org: The USB 3.0 specification was released on 12 November 2008, with its management transferring from USB 3.0 Promoter Group to the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) and announced on 17 November 2008 at

6372-541: The USB 2.0 architecture and protocols and therefore keeping the original four pins/wires for the USB 2.0 backward-compatibility resulting in 9 wires (with 9 or 10 pins at connector interfaces; ID-pin is not wired) in total. The USB 3.1 specification introduced an Enhanced SuperSpeed System – while preserving the SuperSpeed architecture and protocol ( SuperSpeed USB ) – with an additional SuperSpeedPlus architecture and protocol (aka SuperSpeedPlus USB ) adding

6490-553: The account before being allowed to play, along with installation difficulties and lack of support. Half-Life 2 earned 39 Game of the Year awards, including Overall Game of the Year at IGN , GameSpot 's Award for Best Shooter, GameSpot 's Reader's Choice — PC Game of the Year Award, " Game of the Year " and "Computer Game of the Year" from the Interactive Achievement Awards , and "Best Game" with

6608-494: The base using the city's canal system using an airboat , eluding Combine forces. At the base, Gordon reunites with Alyx's father, Dr. Eli Vance ( Robert Guillaume ), and meets Dr. Judith Mossman ( Michelle Forbes ). Alyx introduces Gordon to her pet robot, Dog , and gives Gordon the gravity gun. Combine forces storm the base and capture Eli and Mossman. Gordon diverts through the zombie-infested town of Ravenholm , aided by its lone inhabitant, Father Grigori ( Jim French ), to

6726-406: The cost of 3D haptic hardware was still very high, over $ 10,000. Novint felt that to again move towards the consumer space, it would need to develop a consumer level hardware device itself. Novint took on the daunting challenge of taking a $ 15,000 haptic device, licensed from its partner company Force Dimension, and turn that device into a consumer level device, robust enough for gamers, yet still have

6844-846: The data transfer and power delivery functionality with ... a connection-oriented, tunneling architecture designed to combine multiple protocols onto a single physical interface so that the total speed and performance of the USB4 Fabric can be dynamically shared. USB4 particularly supports the tunneling of the Thunderbolt 3 protocols, namely PCI Express (PCIe, load/store interface) and DisplayPort (display interface). USB4 also adds host-to-host interfaces. Each specification sub-version supports different signaling rates from 1.5 and 12 Mbit/s total in USB 1.0 to 80 Gbit/s (in each direction) in USB4. USB also provides power to peripheral devices;

6962-665: The details of people involved in the leaks. In March 2004, Gembe contacted Newell, saying he was a fan and had not acted maliciously. Newell worked with the FBI to invite Gembe to a fake job interview, planning to have him arrested in the United States; however, police arrested him in Germany. In November 2006, Gembe was sentenced to two years' probation . Valve implemented new policies to protect against leaks, such as requiring journalists to attend their office to play it before release. In 2004,

7080-506: The development of USB in 1995: Compaq , DEC , IBM , Intel , Microsoft , NEC , and Nortel . The goal was to make it fundamentally easier to connect external devices to PCs by replacing the multitude of connectors at the back of PCs, addressing the usability issues of existing interfaces, and simplifying software configuration of all devices connected to USB, as well as permitting greater data transfer rates for external devices and plug and play features. Ajay Bhatt and his team worked on

7198-402: The device during initialization (the period after physical connection called "enumeration") and so are relatively permanent, whereas pipes may be opened and closed. There are two types of pipe: stream and message. When a host starts a data transfer, it sends a TOKEN packet containing an endpoint specified with a tuple of (device_address, endpoint_number) . If the transfer is from the host to

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7316-400: The endpoint, the host sends an OUT packet (a specialization of a TOKEN packet) with the desired device address and endpoint number. If the data transfer is from the device to the host, the host sends an IN packet instead. If the destination endpoint is a uni-directional endpoint whose manufacturer's designated direction does not match the TOKEN packet (e.g. the manufacturer's designated direction

7434-550: The event, Newell gave a prepared speech, demonstrated the Source engine, and left without addressing questions. On September 19, the Half-Life 2 source code was obtained by a German hacker, Axel Gembe, who had infiltrated Valve's internal network months earlier. According to Gembe, he shared it with another person, who leaked the code online in early October. Fans soon compiled a playable version of Half-Life 2 , revealing how unfinished it was. The leaks damaged morale at Valve and slowed development. Fans also provided Valve with

7552-515: The fidelity to be used in surgical simulations. By 2006 Novint had taken the expensive, high-end design, and working with Lunar Design, made a consumer level prototype. In June 2006, Novint went public on the OTC:BB under the ticker symbol NVNT. In late 2006, Novint put together a partnership with V-Tech to manufacture the Falcon in China. At CES in 2007, Novint announced plans to launch the Novint Falcon as

7670-432: The following ECNs: A USB system consists of a host with one or more downstream facing ports (DFP), and multiple peripherals, forming a tiered- star topology . Additional USB hubs may be included, allowing up to five tiers. A USB host may have multiple controllers, each with one or more ports. Up to 127 devices may be connected to a single host controller. USB devices are linked in series through hubs. The hub built into

7788-462: The fourth-best computer game of 2004. The editors call it "a masterful single-player experience that plays a constant game of one-upmanship with itself." It won the magazine's "Best Technology" (beating out Doom 3 ) and "Best Writing" awards, and was a runner-up in the "Best Sound Effects", "Best AI" and "Best Voice Acting" categories. Guinness World Records awarded Half-Life 2 the world record for "Highest Rated Shooter by PC Gamer Magazine" in

7906-783: The future, were being integrated into the Steamworks program, allowing the mods to make full use of Steam's distribution and update capabilities. Half-Life 2 introduced a community workshop as part of their 20th-anniversary update. In 2023, Nvidia announced Half-Life 2 RTX , a collaboration with fan developers to add ray tracing and other graphical upgrades using Nvidia tools. Half-Life 2 has an aggregate score of 96/100 on Metacritic based on 81 reviews. Sources such as 1UP , GameSpy , The Cincinnati Enquirer , The New York Times , and VideoGamer.com gave it perfect scores, and others, such as PC Gamer , IGN , GamesRadar , and Eurogamer , gave near-perfect scores. It

8024-445: The game by boarding the Borealis , an icebreaker bound for the city. Nova Prospekt was conceived as a small rail depot built on an old prison in the wasteland and grew from a stopping-off point to the destination itself. After observing how players had connected to minor characters in Half-Life , the team developed the characterization, with more detailed character models and realistic animation. The animator Ken Birdwell studied

8142-463: The game was handled by Vivendi Universal Games through their Sierra Entertainment subsidiary. A demo version with the file size of a single CD was made available in December 2004 at the website of graphics card manufacturer ATI Technologies , who teamed up with Valve for the game. The demo contains a portion of two chapters: Point Insertion and "We Don't Go To Ravenholm..." . The soundtrack

8260-521: The game. F-Gen games utilize Novint's F-Gen application to add controls and forces into games. Mods, or modifications to games, will continue to be developed by Novint and its community, but mods will generally become classified through F-Gen support. F-Gen was developed to create a larger number of supported games and applications for the Novint Falcon with the understanding that the control and forces for many interactions in games/apps could be implemented without source code access. Novint therefore developed

8378-448: The host controller is called the root hub . A USB device may consist of several logical sub-devices that are referred to as device functions . A composite device may provide several functions, for example, a webcam (video device function) with a built-in microphone (audio device function). An alternative to this is a compound device , in which the host assigns each logical device a distinct address and all logical devices connect to

8496-499: The laboratory of Dr. Isaac Kleiner ( Harry S. Robins ) but is subdued by Combine officers. He is rescued by Alyx Vance ( Merle Dandridge ), who guides him to the laboratory. Kleiner's attempt to teleport Gordon to the Resistance base fails, and Gordon is momentarily teleported to the Citadel, the headquarters of Dr. Wallace Breen ( Robert Culp ), the former Black Mesa administrator and the Combine's puppet ruler . Gordon progresses to

8614-411: The last of which transforms the game from a first-person shooter into a real-time strategy game. Some mods take place in the Half-Life universe; others in completely original settings. Many more mods are still in development, including Lift , The Myriad , Operation Black Mesa , and the episodic single-player mod Minerva . Several multiplayer mods, such as Pirates, Vikings and Knights II ,

8732-964: The latest versions of the standard extend the power delivery limits for battery charging and devices requiring up to 240 watts ( USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) ). Over the years, USB(-PD) has been adopted as the standard power supply and charging format for many mobile devices, such as mobile phones, reducing the need for proprietary chargers. USB was designed to standardize the connection of peripherals to personal computers, both to exchange data and to supply electric power. It has largely replaced interfaces such as serial ports and parallel ports and has become commonplace on various devices. Peripherals connected via USB include computer keyboards and mice, video cameras, printers, portable media players, mobile (portable) digital telephones, disk drives, and network adapters. USB connectors have been increasingly replacing other types of charging cables for portable devices. USB connector interfaces are classified into three types:

8850-609: The many various legacy Type-A (upstream) and Type-B (downstream) connectors found on hosts , hubs , and peripheral devices , and the modern Type-C ( USB-C ) connector, which replaces the many legacy connectors as the only applicable connector for USB4. The Type-A and Type-B connectors came in Standard, Mini, and Micro sizes. The standard format was the largest and was mainly used for desktop and larger peripheral equipment. The Mini-USB connectors (Mini-A, Mini-B, Mini-AB) were introduced for mobile devices. Still, they were quickly replaced by

8968-539: The maximum signaling rate to 10 Gbit/s (later marketed as SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps by the USB 3.2 specification), while reducing line encoding overhead to just 3% by changing the encoding scheme to 128b/132b . USB 3.2 , released in September 2017, preserves existing USB 3.1 SuperSpeed and SuperSpeedPlus architectures and protocols and their respective operation modes, but introduces two additional SuperSpeedPlus operation modes ( USB 3.2 Gen 1×2 and USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 ) with

9086-504: The new USB-C Fabric with signaling rates of 10 and 20 Gbit/s (raw data rates of 1212 and 2424 MB/s). The increase in bandwidth is a result of two-lane operation over existing wires that were originally intended for flip-flop capabilities of the USB-C connector. Starting with the USB 3.2 specification, USB-IF introduced a new naming scheme. To help companies with the branding of the different operation modes, USB-IF recommended branding

9204-421: The next year. For several months, Newell let the team work without his input so he could provide unbiased feedback, and focused on developing Steam , Valve's upcoming digital distribution service. The team presented the showreel to Newell, showcasing physics, environments such as the Borealis , and a dialogue-heavy scene with the scientist character Dr. Kleiner. Newell felt the showreel did not adequately show how

9322-452: The number of a host's ports. Introduced in 1996, USB was originally designed to standardize the connection of peripherals to computers, replacing various interfaces such as serial ports , parallel ports , game ports , and ADB ports. Early versions of USB became commonplace on a wide range of devices, such as keyboards, mice, cameras, printers, scanners, flash drives, smartphones, game consoles, and power banks. USB has since evolved into

9440-537: The one-lane Gen 1×1 operation mode. Therefore, two-lane operations, namely USB 3.2 Gen 1× 2 (10 Gbit/s) and Gen 2× 2 (20 Gbit/s), are only possible with Full-Featured USB-C. As of 2023, they are somewhat rarely implemented; Intel, however, started to include them in its 11th-generation SoC processor models, but Apple never provided them. On the other hand, USB 3.2 Gen 1(×1) (5 Gbit/s) and Gen 2(×1) (10 Gbit/s) have been quite common for some years. Each USB connection

9558-487: The only issue with the PlayStation 3 version was that it had noticeable frame-rate hiccups. GameSpot continued to say that the frame rates issues were only minor but some consider them to be a significant irritation. Several critics, including some that had given positive reviews, complained about the required usage of the program Steam, the requirement to create an account, register the products, and permanently lock them to

9676-523: The optional functionality as Thunderbolt 4 products. USB4 2.0 with 80 Gbit/s speeds was to be revealed in November 2022. Further technical details were to be released at two USB developer days scheduled for November 2022. The USB4 specification states that the following technologies shall be supported by USB4: Because of the previous confusing naming schemes, USB-IF decided to change it once again. As of 2 September 2022, marketing names follow

9794-462: The original Half-Life (1998), Half-Life 2 is played entirely from a first-person perspective, combining combat, puzzles, and storytelling. It adds features such as vehicles and physics-based gameplay . The player controls Gordon Freeman , who joins a resistance to liberate Earth from the Combine , a multidimensional alien empire. Half-Life 2 was created using Valve's Source game engine, which

9912-462: The original Half-Life and the Day of Defeat mod to the new engine). The "Gold Edition" additionally includes merchandise, such as a baseball cap, a strategy guide and CD containing the soundtrack used in Half-Life 2 . The boxed retail copies of the game came in two editions — Standard and "Collector's Edition". The "Collector's Edition" differed from the physical items in the "Gold Edition", and includes

10030-518: The peripheral device. Developers of USB devices intended for public sale generally must obtain a USB ID, which requires that they pay a fee to the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF). Developers of products that use the USB specification must sign an agreement with the USB-IF. Use of the USB logos on the product requires annual fees and membership in the organization. A group of seven companies began

10148-535: The physics would affect gameplay and that the Kleiner scene was overlong. Reflecting on the feedback, Laidlaw concluded that the character drama had to support interactivity and gameplay. In September 2002, the team completed a second showreel, featuring a buggy race along the City 17 coast, an encounter with headcrabs on a pier, an alien strider attacking the city, and a greatly shortened Kleiner sequence. In October, Newell told

10266-559: The player controls an airboat and a dune buggy. After the alien invasion at the Black Mesa Research Facility , a multidimensional alien empire known as the Combine has conquered earth. Approximately twenty years after being placed in stasis, Gordon Freeman is inserted into a train bound for City 17 by the G-Man ( Michael Shapiro ). Helped by the undercover Resistance member Barney Calhoun (Shapiro), Gordon attempts to reach

10384-401: The player's sense of presence and create new gameplay. To experiment, they created a minigame, Zombie Basketball, in which players used a physics-manipulating gun to throw zombies through hoops. In mid-2001, to test the physics and non-player characters , Valve built a battle between rioting citizens and police. In late 2001, Valve began creating a showreel , hoping to demonstrate it at E3

10502-449: The positions of the arms. The position of that haptic cursor is therefore controlled by the Falcon's movements, and is used by the Falcon's software to determine the forces to be applied to the user. Currents are sent to the motors at the 1 kHz servo rate to present the user with an accurate sense of touch. In this way, a force can be applied to the grip in any direction, up to the maximum force (over 2 pounds of force), every 1/1000 of

10620-473: The publishing agreement's limitation of liability clause. On April 29, 2005, Valve and Vivendi announced a settlement. Vivendi would cease distributing all retail packaged versions of Valve games by August 31, 2005. Vivendi was also to notify distributors and cyber cafés that had been licensed by Vivendi that only Valve had the authority to distribute cyber café licenses; their licenses were revoked and switched to Valve's. Valve partnered with Electronic Arts for

10738-601: The reactor explodes, the G-Man reappears and freezes time, praises Gordon's actions, and returns him to stasis. Development of Half-Life 2 began in June 1999, six months after the release of the original Half-Life . It was developed by a team of 82, or around 100 people including voice actors. Valve's president, Gabe Newell , wanted to redefine the FPS genre, saying: "Why spend four years of your life building something that isn't innovative and

10856-456: The retail distribution of its games, including the Xbox version of Half-Life 2 . Half-Life 2 was simultaneously released through Steam, CD, and on DVD in several editions. Through Steam, Half-Life 2 had three packages that a customer could order. The basic version ("Bronze") includes only Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source , whereas the "Silver" and "Gold" editions also include Half-Life: Source and Day of Defeat: Source (ports of

10974-533: The standard at Intel; the first integrated circuits supporting USB were produced by Intel in 1995. Released in January 1996, USB 1.0 specified signaling rates of 1.5 Mbit/s ( Low Bandwidth or Low Speed ) and 12 Mbit/s ( Full Speed ). It did not allow for extension cables, due to timing and power limitations. Few USB devices made it to the market until USB 1.1 was released in August 1998. USB 1.1

11092-465: The state of the device. The body contains 3 motors, each attached to one of the Falcon's arms by a cable that is wrapped around a capstan on the motor. As each of the 3 arms moves, an optical sensor attached to each motor keeps track of the movements of the arm. A mathematical function called a Jacobian is then used to determine the position of a three-dimensional cursor in Cartesian coordinates based on

11210-477: The syntax "USB  x Gbps", where x is the speed of transfer in Gbit/s. Overview of the updated names and logos can be seen in the adjacent table. The operation modes USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 and USB4 Gen 2×2 – or: USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 and USB4 Gen 2×1 – are not interchangeable or compatible; all participating controllers must operate with the same mode. This version incorporates

11328-402: The team returned after Christmas to long hours, stressful working conditions, and no guarantee that Half-Life 2 , which was costing $ 1 million a month to develop, would be finished soon. However, Newell felt that momentum was gathering, with the team producing about three hours of gameplay per month. In March, they created the first version playable from start to finish and stopped development for

11446-411: The team they would announce Half-Life 2 at E3 2003 and release it by the end of the year. As with the original Half-Life , the team split into "cabals" working on different levels. Designers created levels using placeholder shapes and surfaces, which then were worked on by the artists. Valve announced Half-Life 2 at E3 2003, with demonstrations of the characters, animation and physics. The reaction

11564-496: The technology for scientific visualization. It was one of the first companies in the world focused purely on the software side of the field of haptics. Anderson led the project at Sandia until 2000 at which point he founded Novint. Novint acquired an exclusive license to the technology and began to commercialize it. Novint's vision was that the technology could fundamentally change computing, adding one of our most basic human senses and experiences to computers. Given this vision, Novint

11682-417: The teleporter malfunctioned and that a week has passed, during which time the Resistance has used the attack on Nova Prospekt to launch an armed rebellion against the Combine. Aided by Barney and Dog, Gordon fights his way to the Citadel. Inside, a security system vaporizes his weapons but inadvertently super-charges the gravity gun; this helps Gordon to progress in climbing the tower. He is captured and taken in

11800-415: The thinner Micro-USB connectors (Micro-A, Micro-B, Micro-AB). The Type-C connector, also known as USB-C, is not exclusive to USB, is the only current standard for USB, is required for USB4, and is required by other standards, including modern DisplayPort and Thunderbolt. It is reversible and can support various functionalities and protocols, including USB; some are mandatory, and many are optional, depending on

11918-489: The three existing operation modes. Its efficiency is dependent on a number of factors including physical symbol encoding and link-level overhead. At a 5 Gbit/s signaling rate with 8b/10b encoding , each byte needs 10 bits to transmit, so the raw throughput is 500 MB/s. When flow control, packet framing and protocol overhead are considered, it is realistic for about two thirds of the raw throughput, or 330 MB/s to transmit to an application. SuperSpeed's architecture

12036-513: The top. The buttons are the Novint Logo for the primary button (which is similar to an 'N'), an upside down triangle (similar to a 'V'), a lightning bolt (similar to an 'N'), and a plus (similar to a 'T'), which collectively make the letters 'NVNT', the consonants in Novint's name and its ticker symbol as a public company. At the front flattened point of the Falcon's conical housing is a Novint Falcon logo that lights up in different colors to indicate

12154-468: The type of hardware: host, peripheral device, or hub. USB specifications provide backward compatibility, usually resulting in decreased signaling rates, maximal power offered, and other capabilities. The USB 1.1 specification replaces USB 1.0. The USB 2.0 specification is backward-compatible with USB 1.0/1.1. The USB 3.2 specification replaces USB 3.1 (and USB 3.0) while including the USB 2.0 specification. USB4 "functionally replaces" USB 3.2 while retaining

12272-463: The way first-person shooters were created". Half-Life 2 was selected by readers of The Guardian as the best game of the decade, with particular praise for the environment design. The Guardian journalist Keith Stuart wrote that it "pushed the envelope for the genre, and set a new high watermark for FPS narrative". One author commented: " Half-Life 2 always felt like the European arthouse answer to

12390-496: The work of the psychologist Paul Ekman , who had researched how facial muscles express emotion. The writer Marc Laidlaw created family relationships between the characters, saying that it was a "basic dramatic unit everyone understands" but rarely used in games. The voice cast included Louis Gossett Jr. , Robert Guillaume and Robert Culp . Valve integrated the Havok physics engine , which simulates real-world physics, to reinforce

12508-433: Was "an important step in the evolution of our game content and tools", and that the game benefited greatly from the update. Some users reported major performance improvements, though the technology site Techgage found stability problems and no notable frame rate improvement. In January 2022, Valve updated Half-Life 2 with a new interface designed for its portable Steam Deck device. In November 2024, Valve released

12626-432: Was a free download called Haptics Life 2 , a Half-Life 2 mod in which the mouse controls have been replaced with Falcon controls and 3D Force Feedback was incorporated. As a result, weapons recoils, the weight of carried objects, damage dealt to the character, and character and vehicle accelerations are all conveyed by the Falcon to the player. Each gun in the game has a different, tangible recoil. Novint has developed

12744-432: Was all there." After several months of bug fixes and playtesting , Half-Life 2 was completed on October 13, 2004. Valve made a 1 GB portion of Half-Life 2 available for download in an encrypted format through Steam on August 26, 2004. On the day of release, Steam customers were able to pay, unlock the files, and play the game immediately, without having to wait for the game to download. In retail, distribution of

12862-459: Was developed simultaneously. Development lasted five years and cost US$ 40   million. Valve's president, Gabe Newell , set his team the goal of redefining the FPS genre. They integrated the Havok physics engine, which simulates real-world physics, to reinforce the sense of presence and create new gameplay. They also developed the characterization, with more detailed character models and animations. Valve announced Half-Life 2 at E3 2003 with

12980-478: Was in a legal battle with Valve over the distribution of Half-Life 2 to cyber cafés . Cyber cafés were important for the gaming market in Asia, where PC and broadband penetration per capita were much lower in most territories. According to Vivendi, the distribution contract they signed with Valve included cyber cafés. This would mean that only Vivendi could distribute Half-Life 2 to cyber cafés — not Valve through

13098-545: Was originally focused on consumer applications, but quickly found itself in a situation where the dot com bubble was bursting and the markets were collapsing. Investments in 2001 were difficult to come by for an early stage company, so Novint focused its efforts on higher end professional applications. Novint spent several years focusing on custom development for a variety of companies including Lockheed Martin , Chrysler , Chevron , Mobil , Aramco , Sandia National Laboratories , and Harvard University , among others. In 2004,

13216-525: Was positive, and the game won the E3 Game of the Show award. Newell also announced a release date of September 30, 2003, hoping this would motivate the team. They worked long hours to meet the deadline, but by July it was clear they would miss it. Rumors spread of a delay. On September 23, Valve released a statement targeting a release for the holiday season, leading to fan backlash. Newell had been hesitant to announce

13334-524: Was released on 1 September 2022 by the USB Implementers Forum. USB4 is based on the Thunderbolt 3 protocol. It supports 40 Gbit/s throughput, is compatible with Thunderbolt 3, and backward compatible with USB 3.2 and USB 2.0. The architecture defines a method to share a single high-speed link with multiple end device types dynamically that best serves the transfer of data by type and application. During CES 2020 , USB-IF and Intel stated their intention to allow USB4 products that support all

13452-420: Was released on May 12, 2014. On December 22, 2005, Valve released a 64-bit version of the Source engine for x86-64 processor-based systems running Windows XP Professional x64 Edition , Windows Server 2003 x64 , Windows Vista x64 , or Windows Server 2008 x64 . This enabled Half-Life 2 and other Source games to run natively on 64-bit processors, bypassing the 32-bit compatibility layer . Newell said it

13570-473: Was temporarily free on Steam which led to a new peak of 64,085 concurrent players, surpassing the previous record of 16,101 set in August 2021. Valve also released a two-hour documentary detailing the game's production and company history through interviews with the game's developers and previously-unpublished concepts and art. Valve released a deathmatch mode titled Half-Life 2: Deathmatch in 2004. In 2005, Valve released an extra level, Lost Coast , as

13688-434: Was the earliest revision that was widely adopted and led to what Microsoft designated the " Legacy-free PC ". Neither USB 1.0 nor 1.1 specified a design for any connector smaller than the standard type A or type B. Though many designs for a miniaturized type B connector appeared on many peripherals, conformity to the USB 1. x standard was hampered by treating peripherals that had miniature connectors as though they had

13806-470: Was the fifth game to receive ten out of ten from Edge . Critics praised the graphics, physics, story and gameplay. Maximum PC awarded Half-Life 2 11 on their rating scale which normally peaks at 10, calling it "the best game ever made". In the United States, Half-Life 2 's PC version sold 680,000 copies and had earned $ 34.3 million by August 2006. It was the country's 17th best-selling PC game between January 2000 and August 2006. It received

13924-535: Was written by Kelly Bailey . The soundtrack, containing most of the music from Half-Life 2 and many tracks from the original Half-Life , was included with the Half-Life 2 "Gold Edition" and sold separately from Valve's online store. In 2022, fans discovered that the texture used for a corpse model originated from a real photograph of a corpse published in a medical textbook on treating burns, leading to criticism. On September 20, 2004, GameSpot reported that Sierra's parent company, Vivendi Universal Games ,

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