Anyone looking to do a Visual C++ PoC...I can suggest the Half-life 2 Engine!?

I just saw this email going around, and had to post about it.

I started playing Half-life back in 2001, when I was running my own micro-consulting firm (they used to refer to these as boutique). The guys upstairs loved it, and so did my team, so we would run a cat-5 cable up the fire escape (we were on different floors) to hook up our networks, then play for about 8 hours at a time. I graduated onto Counter Strike as most people did, and then onto Condition Zero (which I’m still having fun with). So it blew me away to watch this webcast this morning on Building with Source: Using Microsoft Visual C++ and Other Tools to Create Custom Games Based on the Half-Life 2 Engine. This was done at a recent MSR Faculty Summit, and included Mike Dunkle and Mike Dussault from Valve.

Now, the presentation is a little sluggish as they guys get started, but when they hit full throttle, even I needed a little Dave time! I mean, I like to think I know a thing or two about programming an such, but watching these guys, I feel very small and inadequate…very small indeed ;) I especially love what these guys have been doing in terms of getting the HL SDK into the hands of students, bloody awesome!

Anyway, from what I hear, for those getting down to the Tech.Ed 2005 Student Day in Australia, there is going to be some coverage of this…I can’t wait!