HL2 Source Code Leaked!

Someone leaked the Half Life 2 source code! This is very very bad news for Valve. What do you guys think?

Aww, that sucks. Lotsa people worked hard to make that game, having it stolen from them is horrible. I write code myself, and the stealing of a script is a huge misfortune to befall a scripter.

That blows... but I'm finding it a little hard to feel sympathy for them. Ever letting the source code sit on a net connected machine was an act of supreme stupidity. I hope they're able to catch the thieves and make an example out of them... a finely ground meaty bloody pulp of an example.

It's possible that the code wasn't hacked, but instead physically stolen from thier office. That happens sometimes.

Good point I'm not sure what the deal was. Can you imagine what it was like in the Valve offices when they found out?

I believe that the code was stolen through an Outlook bug. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Half Life source was always free to use and change, it brought us the great mods like CS, DoD, TFC, etc.

Was the HL2 code a big secret?

Considering they make big bucks licensing out the HL2 engine to other developers, I'd say yes.

Did they release the entire HL source? If so wasn't it a year or two after the game was first released? I'm not sure. I would think giving away the entire source code would be a bad idea.

Well if a lot of the programmers work remotely, you really have to have access of some sort. The fact thet it was compromised through an apparently e-mail introduced keystroke copier, which stole the passwords, just hammers home the fact that we should never just open emails if we don't know the source.

The original announcement

This just proves the fact that you should never use Outlook, and if you do anyways, you get to learn painful lessons ;)

Well the real bummer is that along with the HL2 engine, they also stole the killer AI, Havok, and the Miles Sound System. This was more than a sneak preview.

man thats just crap,especially considering valve's generosity with the half life 1 source,it was free for all to work with it.

its going to be the same thing with half life 2 i believe,everyone will still be able to create mods just so long as you dont charge a penny for em you can create what you want.

companies will still have to pay for the engine though if they want to release a game based on it.

the issue here though is the game has not been released yet so no one should have access to it.

and who knows where it will be now,for all we know it'll end up on the net with thousands downloading it long before the game is released.

hope the bastards get caught they'll be up to their asses in fine's and end up in prison.

why cant people just wait for release? sheesh

if its good enough that its worth stealing isnt it good enough that the dev's deserve your money for their product?

i cant wait for release,come november 14 im not going to see the light of day till new years lol.

actually i been reading abit more on this,and it seems worse then i thought actually.

for mod making and such there are development tools,the source code i believe is never given out,it is the actual code that does the calculations and such for the game,and tells the game when to do what or display what.

the worst issue here is that with full access to the source code these people ca create TONS of major hacks for the game.

so that means that when HL2 is released there may already be a million different super hacks available.

the only way to avoid this now is for valve to push back the release date AGAIN to rework the code so that hacks made with the original will cause a crash or just wont work.

defineately a bad situation all around.

these bastard hackers and piraters hurt the gaming community so much.

this kinda stuff will make developers move more and more towards forced online authentication systems and more and more anti hack systems which cause multiplayer to lag mroe then it needs to.

Um, no offense Chau, but did you even read my post? It's not about them getting the game in advance; there's no game data there. And the engine is rather minimal, compared to the fact that now the two companies Havok and Miles are ALSO completely ruined.

I've worked at a game company and we used 3rd party libraries similar to what companies liek Havok and Miles offer. 99% certain that the HL2 team didn't have Havok source code, only a developer library. Its doubtful that Havok and Miles are ruined cause a dll got in the wrong hands.

Too bad about the HL2 team though. One can only hope that it wasnt commented too much and the peopel that get a hold of it wont know what they are lookign at or how to use it

heh,yep read my second post.

i read up on it mroe.

they dont have a complete game unless they managed to get other stuff along with the source code,but the worst issue here is going to be the hacks i think.

these guys if so inclined will be able to make hacks using the source code.

Oh heh sorry Chau.

And as for Madox: Oh, sorry, I thought they got the WHOLE engine. (havok and Miles) weren't they integrated though?

Well my only experience is from working with the NetImerse engine (used by Dark age of camelot) and the LithTech engine (used by No One Lives Forever). Both of them gave us DLLS to use, and some helper classes that we integrated which made use of the DLLS. All the neato code you really want to see we didn't have - just had the DLL.

I believe you could get the source code but the license you'd have to pay for was ludicrous. So actualy you may be right, if they paid for it

Well it looks like they have started rounding up the perps, who were stupid enough to post it to various sites and then brag about having it. The feds will NOT go easy on them this time - or anyone who was stupid enough to think they were safe downloading it. I'm kind of amazed at the fairly widespread anger at the game developers for not releasing the game; do these idiots think that the developers for some reason do not want it out in time for the holidays?

There are a hell of alot of reasons why games get delayed and release-dates slip, and it all boils down to money at the end of the day. The only people that see the game as a 'game' are the players and the developers... everyone else, the agents, the publishers, the marketing companies... they just see $$$'s. It's sad, but thats the foundation the business is built on.

Of course, developers like Valve have the kudos to make their own delays if they feel it's justified, and personally I would always prefer a great game late, rather than an adequate game on-time!

However, I wouldnt be at all suprised if this delay was a marketing company's scheme to raise pre-orders and sales... of course that would have been the plan BEFORE the source was hijacked! One wonders what impact that is going to have, as Valve may have to re-work some code to make the crackers lives harder.

Incidentally, I heard from a (trusted) collegue in the industry this morning, who said that out of curiosity he downloaded the HL2 source, and it compiled fine, and he even loaded a HL1 map and walked around! Apparently the Steam and Havock source are in there in full. Sheesh!

By the way, I totaly do not condone his actions, but man, what a mega blunder on Valves part! I've heard them get nothing but critisism in developer circles. Very sad.

I wish them all the best, but I fear they will just lose too much money over this to stay in the game

hell no,half life 1 revolutionized the FPS genre and sold millions aswell as spawned many awesome mods and is STILL being played HEAVILY some 5 years later.

half life 2 is going to be the same,it will revolutionaize the genre again and will sell millions,they wll make more thne enough money to survive this bump in the road.

im slobbering over the game and cant wait to get my hands on it,i'll end up spending hours just playing with the physics.

In reality, I suspect the amount of actual damage to Valve is not that great.

The bulk of the problems associated with this (in terms of monetarily) will be from securing their network. The hackers will get a bit of a leg up now as far as writing craks and cheats go but still, they get nothing they couldn't have gotten from some good reverse engineering tools. They just got it a bit faster.

As for Valve losing money from licensing of the engine: They *still* own the copyright and it is *still* illegal for other companies to use this source for their own projects. Any game developer who was intending on licensing this engine will still do so - the alternative is to get sued into oblivion.

If there happens to be a smaller company that might not have been able to afford the license fees .. and actually uses the stolen source to make their own ... well, just imagine what Valve will do to them.

Mostly what happened is Valve got caught in a very embarassing situation that will soon be forgotten, except among some of the underground. HL2 might be delayed a tad. Otherwise, it will just be "business as usual" soon enough.

Humbly,
Antagonistic Protagonist

oh wonderful.

thanks to these hacking jackasses half life 2 is now pushed back to april.

you see they didnt just take the source code,infact they took enough to make a full playable demo,althoguh not with all the game features.

and thats not all,basically they got 1/3 of the source code plus some maps and such.

the BIG issue is vlave's steam client is imbeded in HL2's source code as well since its the multiplayer system that will be used,and steam is also a subscription system that they will release HL2 and other games and mods on.

these guys could use the source code to make CRAZY hacks for the game tha work completely with the code,and they cold use the code to possibly get people's credit card info and such aswell as distribute the game free online.

i believe they may have even gotten some of the host side steam code which makes this stuff easier.

there is no way valve could release as is if any of this is even a remote possibility.

so they basically have to go in and rework a bunch of the code and make it completely safe from hacks and such using the old source code.

if these guys are caught they are SCREWED,for one valve is a very community involved company,gabe newell is very involved personally with his fans and has asked for help in tracking these guys down.

plus there are IRC transcripts of some guys gloating over this,and hopefully they can track em down soon.

these guys ruined things for so many people who were waiting for this game,and also cost the dev's possibly millions.

Agreed 100%, it's just completely understanding what happened at this point.

The FBI and DHS are both pursuing this case at this point. The person or persons who originally did it will be caught, and will be looking at MASSIVE fines and five to fifteen years in a Federal prison. Any subsequent downloaders will face the seizure of all their equipment and a fine, so do avoid the impulse to take a look...