The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community has stirred a rumor – Valve is about to release the game on a new engine! There is a lot of talks, but we are not chasing a wave of excitement. So what the transition to a new engine means for the game?
In this post:
What is Source 2?
This is the new engine from Valve. The engine is a set of software that is necessary for the game to work. It is responsible for literally everything: physics, sound, lighting and more. Source 2 was introduced in 2015. Since then, the company released 3 games on it: Artifact, Dota Underlords, Half-Life: Alyx and ported Dota 2 to it.
CS:GO is working fine, why does it need a new engine?
Because the first Source is out of date. It does not support a heap of modern technology and causes difficulties in supporting the game. Creating maps on it is a very laborious process. Porting to Source 2 is beneficial for both developers and players.
What technologies are we talking about?
First of all, these are graphical APIs, namely DirectX of the latest versions and Vulkan. Now the game uses DirectX 9 and this causes difficulties even for the employees of Valve themselves. Also on Source 2 it’s easier and faster to create maps. The physical engine will also change. Rubikon will take place of Havoc from Source 1.
What is Rubikon? Will there be new physics in the game?
We do not know. The transition to a new physics engine will definitely affect the gameplay, but if necessary, Valve can keep the key elements of the gameplay – shooting, moving and throwing grenades – unchanged. Or maybe not.
Okay, grenades can be learned again. What about Vulkan and DirectX?
Valve considers Vulkan more important than DX 12. Vulkan not only draws a cool picture on the screen but also handles computer resources well. This means that there will be higher performance or better picture on the same hardware. And also, these APIs can work well in multi-threaded mode – the weak point of the current CS:GO.
Does this mean it’s time to buy a new processor with dozens of cores?
No, if the computer is not older than five to seven years, then with a probability of 99%, the transition to a new engine will only make it better. There is a chance that a small part of the game community will suffer, but the vast majority will be a significant gain. The jump in quality can be, as in the transition from CS 1.6 to CS Source.
And when will CS:GO be transferred to a new engine?
According to rumors – even today, but we do not believe in speculation. Only Valve employees know the porting date.
