Any plans to move past Source?

scooterlibby

Senior member
Feb 28, 2009
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I know that the Source engine gets updated, but it is damn old nonetheless. Has Valve made any comment about a new engine if the future? I'd love to see a new CS or L4D with better graphics (not that they're horrible at all, but, you know, something on the level of Dunia or Frostbite).
 

Zenoth

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2005
5,202
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I don't think that the Source Engine needs any significant upgrades/updates, in my book it's already good enough, its age shouldn't be the sole reason necessary to warrant updates in my opinion, although there's only one thing I don't like about this engine and it's how objects/entities/models react when they're touching each others underwater, there's always one of the two (or more) objects that will get "catapulted" out of the water, because the engine considers the concerned object as one that's trying to get out of water such as a player trying to get on top of a floating platform, that effect can easily be seen in Half-Life 2 (and the Episodes) as well as TF2 when for instance in 2FORT two or more players will fight underwater (being enemies, they need to touch each others and not clip into each others as players of the same team would) and very often, if not always, the one player that happens to be partially submerged will be propelled into the air out of the water and then the effect will repeat to the other player and vice versa until either of them ends up dead or move away, it's something that is inherent to the engine and cannot be fixed (from what I've read in discussion forums anyway).

But outside of similar minor (although annoying) issues the Source Engine is one of the most stable, efficient and scalable engine I've ever seen, I wouldn't want it to turn into a new CryEngine, we already have one such engine, additionally the current graphics that the Source Engine can do on a technical level is way beyond anything you can see in L4D, Half-Life 2, the H-L2 Episodes and even TF2, if you want a proof of that download the the FakeFactory Cinematic Mod for Half-Life 2 and look at how good character models and textures can be when the engine is being pushed to its limits. What Valve is giving us by default is just enough to meet standards and is highly influenced by the Valve's own hardware surveys that they've been doing over the years, they adapt their engine and its capabilities along with the settings we have in-game based on the results of their observations on their consumers' hardware capabilities. If tomorrow every Steam users would have at least a Quad Core CPU at 3.0Ghz with a DX10.1/11 capable GPU or SLi setups with 6GB or RAM and 64-Bit OS'es then perhaps they would consider making "considerable" upgrades, but it ain't the case.
 
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VulgarDisplay

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2009
6,188
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I'm trying to download the cinematic mod and having a hell of a time. I got 4 out of the 7 .rars off filefront and now it refuses to download any of the other ones. No idea what the problem is. I was so excited to play through the half life games with updated graphics.

The only gripe I have with the cinematic mod is that he turned Alyx into adriana lima. That's blasphemy to any true PC gamer.
 

fatpat268

Diamond Member
Jan 14, 2006
5,853
0
71
I'm trying to download the cinematic mod and having a hell of a time. I got 4 out of the 7 .rars off filefront and now it refuses to download any of the other ones. No idea what the problem is. I was so excited to play through the half life games with updated graphics.

The only gripe I have with the cinematic mod is that he turned Alyx into adriana lima. That's blasphemy to any true PC gamer.

One of the earlier versions of the mod had a decent looking model that actually looked like Alyx. I'm not sure what changed and why they changed her into that butter face adriana lima.
 

Gothgar

Lifer
Sep 1, 2004
13,429
1
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They are doing some pretty damn good stuff lately with it.

Sure it could use an update, but gameplay > graphics
 

Sylvanas

Diamond Member
Jan 20, 2004
3,752
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Sooner or later Source is not going to be able to rely on 'yeah but we make good games on an old engine'. Someone else will come along (or have) that will make good games on an up to date engine which will only put Valve in the position of being stuck in the past.
 

TwinsenTacquito

Senior member
Apr 1, 2010
821
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Once they run out of great ideas for the Source engine, I guess they'll have to move on so that they can get CS3 and DOD3 and TF3 out again.

I'm all for Opposing Force: Source. I demand a fish gun.
 

HybridSquirrel

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2005
6,161
2
81
I know that the Source engine gets updated, but it is damn old nonetheless. Has Valve made any comment about a new engine if the future? I'd love to see a new CS or L4D with better graphics (not that they're horrible at all, but, you know, something on the level of Dunia or Frostbite).

cs pro mod is basically cs 1.6 with l4d2ish looking graphics. still shit imo. I dont think they will ever come out with a new engine to be honest...and if they did people would bitch and moan.
 

Demo24

Diamond Member
Aug 5, 2004
8,356
9
81
cs pro mod is basically cs 1.6 with l4d2ish looking graphics. still shit imo. I dont think they will ever come out with a new engine to be honest...and if they did people would bitch and moan.


Uh, I don't see them simply stopping making games and the source engine won't last forever. It's an impressive engine but I suspect either a heavily revised version or a new variant is in the works. At least that's the only reason I can see why they've been neglecting some of the past games like CSS and DODS. I suspect we will know more when Portal 2 arrives and we see what it's running.
 

VulgarDisplay

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2009
6,188
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I'm really hoping they show Episode 3 at e3 this year. Maybe we'll see what tech it's running on then.
 

scooterlibby

Senior member
Feb 28, 2009
752
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I will check out the mods to see the full potential of Source. Again, I'm not trashing it or saying that graphics take precedent over game play, but it would be nice to see improvements in the areas of vegetation and physics/destructibility. Water and fire - Source has those down pat.
 

skace

Lifer
Jan 23, 2001
14,488
7
81
And yea, I agree completely with Zenoth. People need to get away from upgradeitis and realize that the Source is a solid engine. My major issues with it all revolve around network code and I have no hope that Valve will improve their code in that area anytime soon.
 

dguy6789

Diamond Member
Dec 9, 2002
8,558
3
76
Sooner or later Source is not going to be able to rely on 'yeah but we make good games on an old engine'. Someone else will come along (or have) that will make good games on an up to date engine which will only put Valve in the position of being stuck in the past.

Nobody plays Valve games because they look good(although some of them do look great). People play Valve games because they are good games. The only PC developer left that makes games anywhere near Valve's quality is Blizzard(who also choose gameplay over graphics). It's not very hard to make better games than EA, Activision, or Ubisoft.
 

Skurge

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2009
5,195
1
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I will check out the mods to see the full potential of Source. Again, I'm not trashing it or saying that graphics take precedent over game play, but it would be nice to see improvements in the areas of vegetation and physics/destructibility. Water and fire - Source has those down pat.

Easy for you to say when you have a gtx260 :p

I too would like to see some upgrades, as you said with physics/Destructibility and vegetation.
I would like to see better textures as well.
 

Martimus

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2007
4,490
157
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I figure that HL3 will be rendered with a new engine, designed for DX11. HL2: Ep3 will likely still use the Source Engine, but I expect a new engine about the time the next generation of consoles is released.
 

2dt Drifter

Senior member
May 23, 2007
253
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... It's not very hard to make better games than EA, Activision, or Ubisoft.

^This.

I hated the Havok engine when CSS came out.. now I can't even play 1.6 anymore (I started playing CS back in '00 when it was in beta too) A new engine update would be badass, and I don't think Valve is dumb enough to remove gameplay dynamics for purdy graphics.