SourceEngine
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Valve's new 'Source 2' game engine has the low price of $0
Half-Life 2. Counterstrike: Source. Team Fortress 2. Left 4 Dead. Portal. Besides being developed by Valve, what else do those games share? They all run on the company's Source Engine that's been used since the first two released 11 years ago. Well, Valve has a new engine coming, officially, and it's aptly dubbed Source 2. Valve says that the focus of the engine this time 'round is "increasing creator productivity." The idea is to democratize game development and make it easier for amateurs (and budding indies) to use the toolset and enable them to, as Valve tells it, participate in the creation and development of their favorite games. In fact, the company specifically calls out the importance of user-generated content as a reason for making the engine easier to work with, which, undoubtedly plays into the millions of dollars its paying out to Steam Workshop creators.
Valve's Gabe Newell confirms work on new game engine, still won't answer your Half-Life 3 queries
"So what do you wanna know about that's not Half-Life 3?" Valve president Gabe Newell, laughing, asks a crowd of 4chan members who recently visited the Washington-based studio. The group's first question, however, was just as worthwhile. What's up with that supposed new game engine? "We've been working on new engine stuff for awhile," Newell says. It's tough to hear what he says next, but it sounds like, "We'll probably just roll it out in one of our games" (subtitles of the video read: "We've just been waiting for a game to roll it out with"). Thankfully, a followup question directly addresses Newell's ambiguity. "Is it going to be more than just an update to Source [Valve's first game engine]? Is it an entirely new engine?" the 4chan member asks, which Newell directly (and concisely) responds to with a simple, "Yeah." See the full back-and-forth beyond the break. Newell doesn't directly refer to the in-development engine as "Source Engine 2," so it's possible (albeit unlikely) that he's referring to a separate engine altogether, or (even more unlikely) Valve has more than one game engine being created. We've yet to hear back from Valve for clarification. Oh, and if you want an update on Half-Life 3, Newell re-confirms that "Ricochet 2" is being worked on, so take that as you will.
Valve reportedly preparing second-generation Source engine, kinda explains the Episode Three delay
ValveTime has dug through the Source Filmmaker code to reveal references to "Source 2," reportedly a next-generation revamp of Valve's famous game engine. Given that the three major consoles are all due a refresh, it's unsurprising to see preparations being made. That said, however, the second (and major) launch title for the original Source was Half Life 2, so we're gonna be getting a complaint letter ready if we don't get some more time with Gordon, Alyx and Dog in a beautifully rendered future dystopia.
Valve Source Filmmaker makes a movie out of any Source game, now you're directing with Portals (video)
Creating machinima with a video game engine usually requires accepting one of two truths: either that it will require a lot of fudging or that it will have all the sophistication of playing with action figures. Valve Software isn't very happy with that dichotomy, which is why it's posting its very own movie-making tool, Source Filmmaker, as a public beta. Any game that runs on the Source engine, whether it's Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2 or another in the family, can have gameplay run-throughs edited and dissected right down to custom facial expressions. As Valve expounds in the video after the break, throwing a gaming-grade PC at the task gives directors the advantage of seeing exactly how any changes will look in the final scene; there's no rough wireframes or pre-rendering here. Budding Francis Ford Coppolas can sign up for an invitation to the Filmmaker beta at the project page. If you'd just like to see how far someone can go with the end results, we've also included the latest Team Fortress 2 character profile video, Meet the Pyro, after the jump.
CHIP-8 emulation comes to Half-Life 2, you can finally retire your Telmac 1800 (video)
We've seen quite a few programming projects lately, from CPUs built in the world of Minecraft to a full-blown Game Boy emulator in JavaScript. And now? Wiremod forum member Techni has taken the CHIP-8 virtual machine and got it up 'n running in the Garry's Mod sandbox for the Source game engine. Sure, CHIP-8 has been around since the 70s, and since it's small and easy to program it has a following that persists to this day -- but that said, we never expected to see it running Space Invaders from inside a game of Half-Life 2, in all its 8-bit glory. That's what we call progress! Or at least a satisfying hack. See it in action for yourself after the break. [Thanks, Jason]
Steam on Mac preview roundup: all but identical to PC
With that hotly-anticipated May 12th release date just around the corner, you might be wondering how Steam on Mac will perform. You're in luck, because some of our favorite Mac news sites have just finished testing the software's closed beta. The verdict? It's practically the exact same as the Windows version, except there's almost nothing to buy. Save for the Growl-like notifications at the top of the screen, the UI is all but indistinguishable, and as promised,data and purchases (if playable) automatically carry over in their entirety from your Windows Steam account. Team Fortress 2 even has cross-platform capability, allowing Mac users to play online with their Windows counterparts, though several journalists noted you might want to invest in a two-button wheel mouse if you don't want to be found out. Source Engine performance on Mac wasn't quite as good as on Windows in tests using the exact same hardware (thanks, Boot Camp), but admirably comes close nonetheless; Electronista was able to maintain a similar framerate in Portal just by disabling two levels of anti-aliasing. Not all Mac users will be able to partake in these games, however; though a MacBook Pro with a discrete 512MB GeForce 8600M card could run them well and a GeForce 9400M laptop managed on low settings, those with only integrated Intel graphics chips might find themselves in for a painful surprise. Read - Electronista Read - MacRumors Read - MacWorld Read - AppleInsider
Steam for Mac beta reveals possible Linux compatibility in the pipeline, penguins rejoice
Gaming on Linux? That's not something we hear every day just yet, but it looks like the good folks at Valve might be considering a penguin revolution. In one of the latest beta releases of Steam for Mac, Phoronix spotted a mention of the open-source platform in the launcher script, and we were also able to verify this code ourselves. Furthermore, the eagle-eyed Linux blog has previously seen a handful of evidence hinting Linux compatibility for Valve's Source gaming engine. We're probably still a ways off from any announcement (if ever) so for now, let's just leave the guys alone -- we don't want to distract them from bringing the Portal goodness to our Macs now, do we?
Joystiq gets the dope on 360 Source
Sure, we all know that Valve announced the release of it's 360 Source engine to 360 developers. But that wasn't enough for Joystiq. No, they had to go and ask questions. They needed answers straight from the proverbial horse's mouth. As if they were journalists or something. The short but sweet interview covers the differences between the 360 middleware engine and the free PC version, the ease of cross-platform portability, and integrated networking possibilities (i.e. Live). Check it out if you're so inclined. Anybody have any pet source projects they'd like to bring to the 360?
Joystiq interviews Doug Lombardi about Xbox 360 Source
Yesterday, Valve released the Source Engine middleware for the Xbox 360. But what does that mean for Xbox 360 games, PC games, and modders who use Valve's free version of Source? Valve intends for big developers to fluidly move between the two platforms. But the announcement also means one less hurdle for home developers to release an Xbox game, assuming they attract a publisher to clear the maze of licensing and distribution.Valve's Director of Marketing, Doug Lombardi answered a series of emailed questions to delve deeper into these issues. He explained the general difference between the free and middleware versions of Source, how this announcement could still apply to modders, and how PC and Xbox versions of Source games could technically be networked immediately.
360 gets Source, developers cheer
Valve announced today that it is now offering the 360 optimized version of its Source engine. The Source engine powers Valve's very successful Half-life 2, as well as the upcoming Portal and Team Fortress 2. Gabe Newell, president of Valve, had this to say:"The combination of Source and the Xbox 360 provides game designers throughout the industry the chance to create powerful entertainment experiences. Whether they're pursuing a traditional FPS, RTS, RPG or delving into new genres, Source and the Xbox 360 are designed to offer the flexibility and tools to allow designers to pursue any design imaginable."The availability of this engine to 360 developers means two things. One, developers can make games quickly and more efficiently. Two, Valve will be making oodles of money. At any rate, it looks like the Unreal Engine just got some new competition (maybe more when the Offset Engine shows up). In the end, it's not like it really matters. We just want our Counter-Strike Source, am I right?[Via OpenXBOX360]
