Penumbra

Penumbra
Also known as: Penumbra (Tech Demo) Developer: Frictional Games Publisher: Frictional Games Platform: Windows Released internationally: 2006 This game has unused areas. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has revisional differences.

It all began when Frictional Games was on a thesis job, which became a 2005 platformer called Energetic.Frictional Games' founder Thomas Grip explained that he cleaned up the engine (which was of course a bit rushed in some places). Then, in the end, he mostly added a 3D layer on top of the 2D. This means one could still make a tile game using the HPL engine.

To do: There's more stuff at the Penumbra Wiki.

Debugging Options

In Penumbra/redist, there is a file called settings.cfg. In it, there is the following line of text:

<Debug ShowHealth="false" ShowSoundsPlaying="false" LogResources="false" /> 

Changing these options to true will enable the following:

• ShowHealth - As the name says, this shows the player's health.
• ShowSoundsPlaying - See the file names of the sounds playing and how loud they are playing.
• LogResources - Creates a file named hpl.txt in the redist folder, showing resources as they're being loaded into the game.

Hunter

The Hunter has a texture file, as well as some animations made for it. However, the model maker left Frictional before its model could be made. As a result, only the Roach is present as an enemy throughout the whole demo. Furthermore, its textures are only present in the original 1.0 release.

Unused Graphics

A fairly detailed texture map for a corpse. However, there aren't really any corpses to speak of.

Unused Maps

In level01_02_entrance.hps under the "OnStart" script (runs the first time a map is loaded), there's a mentioned setup link to a nonexistent map called level01_01_tunnel.dae.

void OnStart()
{			
//----SET UP LINKS-----------------------
	/*SetupLink(	"link01", //Link name
			"level01_01_tunnel.dae", //New map
			"link02", //Positon on new map
			"","", //Stop and end sound.
			0.5f , 0.5f);//Fade out and in time (seconds).*/

Considering that "level01_02_entrance.dae" is the "second" level and when thinking of Penumbra: Overture, it is possible that the removed map was the tunnels before actually reaching the entrance where the tech demo starts.

testbana2.dae

This test map (literally translated from Swedish) consists of a "blank document" cube, with flashlight batteries and flares on the floor. It might have been created to test if items can be picked up.

Kitchen

There are a few completed objects, but most of them only have basic textures remaining.

Bathroom

Slightly less complete, with no completed models.

Unused Text

<CATEGORY Name="Misc">
    <Entry Name="Greeting">Welcome to The Hatch, a mighty fine game!</Entry>
    <Entry Name="CokeCan">Coke can</Entry>
  </CATEGORY>
  <CATEGORY Name="Tests">
    <Entry Name="Ballon">Can you get a ballon into the fancy "particle-accelerator"? If you do, hold your breath while the ballon slowly twinkles upwards.</Entry>

Under the category "Items":

<Entry Name="SteelPin01Part1">Steel pin part 1</Entry>
    <Entry Name="SteelPin01Part1Desc">Part 1 of the steel pin.</Entry>
    <Entry Name="SteelPin01Part2">Steel pin part 2</Entry>
    <Entry Name="SteelPin01Part2Desc">Part 2 of the steel pin.</Entry>

Apparently, the steel pin was to have another use considering the plate cutter in the workshop, but the two items are set to not be active in level01_06_workshop.hps, indicating this was cut for not having any particular use.

Revisional Differences

In 2007, before Penumbra: Overture was released, a v1.1 patch for this tech demo got released which upgraded several things.

• Graphics card support, like the GeForce 3 - 4 and Radeon 8500 - 9250 series.
• French, Italian, Spanish and German translations added.
• Nicer manual layout.
• New textures, including for props that originally only had blank-colored UV maps for textures. The background title graphic was also changed:

Original	v1.1

• Some new music (with intro song music_story.ogg changed to fit the suspense and eeriness). The main menu music was also changed a little bit:

Original	v1.1

• Support for more graphics options (anti-aliasing, anostrophic filtering, texture quality, etc.).
• Improved graphical quality (better specular, refresh rate check, etc.).
• Various bug fixes in some places, notably the Storage room, the corridor, and the second floor level.

External Links

• Original 1.0 download
• Frictional Games download, for patch and full 1.1 version