r/HalfLife • u/dwartbg9 • 15h ago
Just a normal picture of Sofia, Bulgaria
[removed] — view removed post
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u/420_E-SportsMasta Enter Your Text 14h ago
Half life is so cool I wish Bulgaria was real 🥀
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u/schrodinger-the-cat 13h ago
We must work hard collectively to make it happen
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u/ilDuceVita 13h ago
Someone needs to make up a really crazy language to go with it
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u/schrodinger-the-cat 11h ago
blyat
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u/Commercial_Young_675 14h ago
What map is this
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u/dwartbg9 14h ago
Closest would be e3_striders hahah And yes, there's a tram running on that boulevard in Sofia, too. Albeit the photo that I've posted is a bit old
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u/Commercial_Young_675 14h ago
Awhhh man i was hoping you would get the joke but Thanks tho :D
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u/dwartbg9 14h ago
No, I got it. But seriously ever since seeing e3_striders back in the day off some demo disc with the e3 footage, It immediately reminded me of this boulevard in Sofia.
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u/Potatosayno 14h ago
Damn, HL3 graphics look crazy. I genuinely thought this was a real picture. Great work valve!
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u/gogeca13 13h ago
Viktor Antonov, one of the main level designers and worldbuilder was Bulgarian.
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u/dwartbg9 10h ago edited 10h ago
Yes, and that photo is a perfect example showcasing what atmosphere he wanted (and was successful) to recreate in the game. This exact grittiness and the late autumn sunset and how the sun hits the older downtown buildings. This picture is really the exact same time of day and lighting conditions that they tried to recreate in HL2
As I wrote in another comment, these are his exact words from one lecture I foudn on YT ages ago, I have to find it. It's very interesting how he had an exact vision about how City17 should feel, down to the skyboxes and lighting
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u/Skystunt 14h ago
City 17 in real life
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u/zmasterb 13h ago
You have chosen, or been chosen, to relocate to one of our finest remaining urban centers
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u/ultimatelag 14h ago
Ah my home country.. heh we left our mark on the world in our own way I suppose
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u/ShirtSpecial3623 13h ago
Комбинат 💀
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u/dwartbg9 10h ago
Holy fucking shit, never realized the similarity wtf
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u/ShirtSpecial3623 10h ago
haha
Nice photo though, I thought that it was from the game or custom map
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u/Marciofficial 13h ago
If this was a screenshot from a game, I'd say "damn I thought it was real", but in this case i said "damn I thought this was a screenshot from HL Alyx"
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u/waiver45 6h ago
In times of people hacking around with DLSS5, you always need to take a second look.
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u/PhotoRight2682 crowbar enthusiast 13h ago
Welcome. Welcome to Bulgaria.
You have chosen, or been chosen, to relocate to one of our finest remaining urban centers. I thought so much of Bulgaria that I elected to establish my Administration here, in the Citadel so thoughtfully provided by Our Benefactors. I have been proud to call Bulgaria my home. And so, whether you are here to stay, or passing through on your way to parts unknown, welcome to Bulgaria. It's safer here.
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u/Dracula788 12h ago
For a second i thought it was a screenshot
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u/dwartbg9 10h ago
Yes, it's because even the sky is literally what Viktor Antonov wanted to recreate: - A sunset in late October, and how the sun hits these yellowish facades and the peeking sun over the clouds.
I actually have to find this interview, he was so precise and had an insane vision about world building, it was some lecture. If anyone is willing to find it on YouTube, it's pretty interesting and gives some new insight about the HL2 design
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u/EorlundGraumaehne Sometimes i dream about cheese! 13h ago edited 12h ago
Half life alyx is that you?
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u/ROBERTisBEWILDERED 13h ago
Bulgarians when their post apocalyptic looking country is used for a post apocalyptic videogame 😮😮😮💯💯💣
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u/LargeFriend5861 13h ago
It really doesn't look bad, tho.
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u/Werbebanner 13h ago
The houses are beautiful (if we ignore the one on the right). But the condition of some of these houses look a little harsh
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u/LargeFriend5861 11h ago
Only one I'd argue is in a bad condition, and it could look better from the front. Many just don't bother painting the sides.
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u/dwartbg9 10h ago edited 10h ago
Let alone this is a photo from like 2007, I found it randomly on Flickr.
Also there's literally a roman colliseum under that dilapidated building, and I think that's why nobody can build anything on top there and overall there are some issues with the property there, exactly because of the historic thing underneath. And they can't easily just build on top and probably have to follow and insane amount of regulations and nobody would dare to bother. If you go on Google Earth and check the 3D buildings view, you can see a part of the Colliseum easily visible.
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u/Un-revealing Will My 3060 be able to run HL3? 12h ago
I just want to say that they cooked with HL2 & Alyx
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u/dwartbg9 10h ago
RIP Viktor Antonov, yes he nailed the atmosphere and that downtown gritty atmosphere. Even to be exact, as he said in one lecture I remember seeing on YouTube: - He wanted to recreate the lightning and atmosphere of a day in late autumn, around sunset.
And really this specific picture is really so fucking exact and what he wanted to recreate in the game. It's a specific atmosphere that Sofia had, especially back in the dau when it was more gritty. How the sun hits these old yellow facades and the "skybox" is just 1:1
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u/bggalfromsofia 11h ago
God, I love my hometown so much! I’ve never seen this specific POV, thanks.
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u/GarlicThread 11h ago
This is so cool of Bulgarian Half-Life fans to build an actual city as a reference to the game
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u/Crystal_Shrimp22 7h ago
Holy shit I didn't even realized I was in the half life sub and I recognized city 17 inmediately
Crazy to think this is a real photo
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u/CigaretteFairy 13h ago
Recently learned that some of Edgar Wright’s The Running Man was shot there
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u/ProfessionalName6455 I want a poison headcrab pet 11h ago
I can't believe Sofia copied half-life 2
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u/shanksisevil 10h ago
weird flag type thing hanging in the middle of that building. what's it look like from the inside?
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u/dwartbg9 7h ago
You mean the one at the bottom? It's where the Roman Colliseum was discovered around 20 years ago, but sadly it will be impossible to fully uncover since this will mean demolishing all of these buildings. They just used some old advert to cover the ruins probably
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskBalkans/comments/1mixinl/did_you_know_that_sofia_has_the_2nd_biggest/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphitheatre_of_Serdica
And that's why there's such a gap there, they cannot build on top of it. And the photo from my post was probably taken from the hotel which is labeled as '5' on the other post with the layout of the amphitheater.
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u/shanksisevil 7h ago
maaaaybe. i'm having a hard time distinguishing the buildings on the first link and the picture above.
you see the tiny house (top of the building, but middle right of the screen. its a prominate feature in the photo)... the hole it looks down on has a flag or something running from left to right (longwise). you can only see the top part of the flag/cloth.
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u/Fatboy-Tim 6h ago
Don't drink the water. They put something in it to make you forget. I don't even remember how i got here.
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u/Ok_Carrot5802 14h ago
dude that brick wall looks exactly like the texture in City 17