Gravity Gun (Evolution)
Contents
Physgun
The Gravity Gun came in two incarnations: The Physgun and the Physcannon. The former is a physics manipulation tool first and a game mechanic second. It can grab items up to 4096 HU away, can't move fully only very heavy objects, and has a right click that welds items together.
In order to weld, right click two places or objects, and drag the first "blob" to the second. They will begin aggressively sparking - if you release now, they will be welded together. The ammunition counter, if emptied and reloaded, will destroy all "blobs" and their welds.
Valve intended to use this in the game by having the player weld items together and create staircases from physics props.
It was eventually replaced due to difficulties with integrating it mechanically, leading to the Physcannon succeeding it.
Version 1: "Old" Physics gun, January 2000
The truly original Physgun, created shortly after Valve licensed Ipion Virtual Physics (later bought out by Havok). !! how do we know this date?
3ds Max Files
3DS Max files often contain an edit history offering insight into how the models were created. There are three distinctive versions of the mesh - an incomplete one with only the metallic materials, another tapered (a common technique used in Half-Life, seen also with v_hkgr9). While this is clearly been cleaned up, there's some interesting bits of history within. Only the final model has any rigging, implying it was the only used.
Final
Tapered
Earliest
Texture Number Anomalies
The following materials are in use in the file (their textures included alongside the captions):
Map #0, "Bigcynd.bmp"
Map #1, "Cylinders.bmp"
Map #2, "Cylinderend.bmp"
Map #4, "Back.bmp"
Map #9, "Claw.bmp"
Map #10, "Bigcyndend.bmp"
Map #11, "Bigcyndcap.bmp"
Maps 14-20 are reused as bumpmaps.[1]
Map #21, "Gloved_sleeve.bmp"
Map #22, "RubbergloveCHROME.bmp"
Map #23, "Hand_pak.bmp"
However, this leaves the following maps nonexistent:
- 3
- 5-8
- 11-13
If we split between the two periods of material additions, we get the following result:
The third texture is missing, and the fourth is the view-projected back of the Physgun. This implies the third might have been the original metallic material, which was replaced once the view-projection was done.
High Resolution Half-Life Hand Textures
Although other high quality Half-Life textures have been found, these commonly reused hand textures have never been seen before. They are compared with normal (SDK) examples. The glove chrome texture is the same as normal, although it doesn't have the 8-bit compression.
The HL1 hand textures are the very last textures added to the model, and the texture gaps above could have easily contained these two (or more) textures.
Original
New
Original
New
Concept Art Usage
A concept art piece released with Raising The Bar in 2004 is based on this model.
Black Suit Hands
When the model was earlier created, it didn't use the Half-Life textures originally. In fact, evidence supports it used the flare gun's hand textures. While the mesh is modified to use the HEV textures, it has numerous leftovers. Why was it changed? Gabe's disliked that incarnation of the suit, and it may have been crudely switched to Hl1 textures before a new, HL1-based HEV suit could be made.
Observe the strange cut corners- not shared in Half-Life hands.
Ditto
With only scaling, we can naturally fit the glove UVs to this texture.
With custom UVs, the geometry of the arm fits well to this texture.
Version 2: Icon Physics Gun
This appears in the Leak in materials/sprites/w_icons4b.vtf. No model for this version exists, although since mostly everything else in these icon sheets has a model it likely existed.
Version 3: "New" Physics Gun
!! quote exchange here
Reportedly, this is the replacing version of the Physgun. It again eschews the details on the barrel before re-adding them to the final version.
Version 4: Leak
This is the final model made for the Physgun before it was scrapped. It adds the red rotators.
Textures
"bulkhandle.vtf"
"clutch.vtf"
"Endpiece.vtf"
"Glueblob.vtf"
"hose.vtf"
"hull.vtf"
"needle.vtf"
"pegs.vtf"
"prong.vtf"
"tube.vtf"
"redrotator.vtf"
"tube.vtf"
Gravity Gun
Version 1: 2002
This is the earliest iteration of the physcannon. Although its current texture is in the Leak, Pelpix's render of it used a different earlier texture[2].
It was first shown off in the Steam Developer Conference in 2006. In the 2016 leaks The model was initially shown by Pelpix, and the compiled model released later by the bean stealer. The sources appeared at a later unknown point.
It uses a very different mesh than what is seen in future iterations, resembling more of a rusted metal contraption provocative of the more dirty aesthetic seen in most beta weapons and concept art.
The texture used for this version is most likely made using the same method used for most Half-Life 1 weapons.
Other Images
A different image using the Leak texture, released by OddDoc in response to PelPix.
A render of the Gravity Gun with a placeholder texture with the text "PLACE HOLDER MODEL", leaked by PelPix.
Textures
"physcannon_temp.vtf"
Version 2: Leak
This version of the Gravity Gun is the one present in the Leak. It changes from the entirely separate model used to a mixture of the older physcannon with newer work on top of it.
This version is when the weapon took the shape of the Gravity Gun that we know and love and much like other weapons in the leak, has a higher resolution texture than that present in retail but unlike other leaked weapons, the higher-res texture is actually used.
Physgun similarities
"v_physcannon_sheet.vtf"
Texture Reference
The orange area of the Physcannon is based on a stock photo of a jet engine. We don't have the exact image, but a very close one:
Version 3: Final
This is the final iteration of the Physcannon, used in Half-Life 2 and its episodes. The texture is unchanged, but like all weapons appearing in retail is made 512x from 1024x.
This article about evolution of a subject could be expanded.
Textures
"v_physcannon_sheet.vtf"
