Did Valve just soft launch the Source 2 engine?

By +Frank B.
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Grand Master

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Did Valve just soft launch the Source 2 engine?

 

Valve appears to have stealthily soft-launched the long-awaited Source 2 game engine alongside the overnight release of Workshop Tools for Dota 2, Dota modders are suggesting.

 

Central to the theory is while Dota 2's assets remain the same in this update, the code is decidedly different - in particular, all files that would share a name with the Source engine are qualified with the number 2, including engine2.dll, vconsole2.exe, vphysics2.dll.

 

"Everything in this package is a new game," wrote RoyAwesome on the Dota 2 subReddit, a user who has been collecting evidence so far. "It's all the Dota assets and code ported over to Source 2. That's why Hammer is different. That's why the console is different.

 

"The general consensus around the Source reverse engineering community is that this is really Source 2."

 

This has since triggered a debate over whether the Workshop is an example of the engine itself, or rather is just related to the tech.

 

The tools themselves have relatively high system requirements, including a 64-bit version of Windows and DirectX 11 compatible graphics card. In response, Valve has acknowledged "this is a developer focused release and currently has high system requirements." But the company is yet to make a statement regarding the possible Source 2 connection.

 

Valve confirmed it was working on Source 2, a successor to its long-running Source engine, earlier in 2012. The news was confirmed at the time in a video featuring studio head Gabe Newell.

 

"We've been working on the engine itself for quite a while." said Newell. At that point, the audio becomes muffled, but according to the transcript provided by the video's author, Newell added, "We've just been waiting for a game to roll it out with." He also said it's a new engine altogether, not a mere extension of the existing Source technology.

 

We've reached out to Valve for further details and will update when more information is available.

 

Source: Polygon

 

Half-Life 3 to follow? 

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Grand Master

+Frank B. Subscriber²

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Gabe could be trolling everyone... again! :p

The ultimate troll would be a soft launch of HL3.

 

As a Linux-only release.

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Athernar

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I don't think this is Source2 proper simply because Valve have already confirmed they've transitioned the engine to OpenGL and were in the process of gradually removing the "D3Disms" from their HLSL->GLSL converted shaders.

 

This is probably an older branch of the engine carried over with the ported Source2 toolset.

Grand Master

Max Norris

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I would switch in a heartbeat

For one game? Kind of in a "meh" frame of mind as far as Half Life goes.. it's been so bloody long not even sure if I care anymore. 7 years and counting since Episode 2.
Grand Master

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I would switch in a heartbeat

 

yeah i would too.  and once i finish this game, i will switch back to windows 8.1 in 1/2 a heartbeat ;)

 

 

anyway, i fooled around with linux for 3 year during my degree, so installing it on a separate hdd seems more like fun, then a chore

I rather have Left 4 Dead 3 instead of Half-Life 3 at this point.

NOOOOOOOOOOO.     At the time of release, each half-life game was amazing SINGLE PLAYER experience.

this is what i look for. 

 

 

not to run around with friends or, god forbid, BOTS... (i am too old to have friends that have a lot of spare time to sync with my spare time to arrange a team play - work, kids, etc...)

Grand Master

+Red King Subscriber²

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A company who de-facto put Half Life into the "Duke Nukem Forever" bucket, told its fans that it will be going the Linux/OpenGL route, refuses to support Windows 8 and touch input, pushing its own Linux gaming console, ruined TF2 by making it FTP Role Playing Game, and has had the same engine since HL2 came out...

Chill, lower your expectations, these guys are only good at selling other people's games.

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