Source Game Development Engine is a successor to GoldSrc and developed by Valve Corporation. Source is written in C++ programming language and it’s SDKs can be compiled in multiple Visual Studio versions as well as GCC Compiler. This 3D game development engine that does not bear a numbering scheme for its versions because it is created in continuous progressive updates. The successor of Source is Source 2. This is a cross-platform game development engine and provides compatibility for Windows, OS X, PS 3, Xbox, Linux, Xbox 360 and Android.
The basic purpose behind the creation of this engine was to advance incrementally along with novel technologies, as contrary to retrograde breaking-compatibility “version jumps” just like its opponents. The engine categorized various systems as distinctive modules, independent upgradation is possible. The Valve Corporation automatically distributes the updates amongst its various clients using Steam. In general, you will observe some irregular breaks in this compatibility series.
The release of “The Orange Box” & “Half-Life 2: Episode One” both introduced the latest versions of the engine. These latest versions does not provide compatibility for older version of games as well as mods until the required upgradation is done to the code or content by the developers. In either of the cases noticeably less work is required for the upgradation of its versions as compared to the other available game development engines.
Table of Contents
- 2006 Version
- 2007 Version
- Games Developed using Source
- Source 2
- Games Developed in Source 2
- Other Resources
2006 Version
The Source 2006 division is the terminology that is particularly used for Valve corporation’s games that used technology integrated with the publishing of the game “Half-Life 2: Episode One”.
Color correction and HDR (High Dynamic Range) were initially executed in the year 2005 using “Day of Defeat: Source” that demanded the shadersof the engine to be written again.
Episode One presented a feature called Phong shading as well as other trivial features. Furthermore, an impressive image-focused rendering technology was in process for “Half-Life 2”, before its final release the company decided to exclude it from the engine. In the year 2006, the Gabe Newell has mentioned that as a chunk of technology, it would be his first preference to add to the Source engine as a support for much larger scenes, which of course are not possible with objects that are strictly polygonal.
2007 Version
The 2007 version of Source signified a full-scale upgradation for the publishing of famous “The Orange Box”.
One of the top notch feature of this branch of Source engine is that a “threaded-particle system” which is totally artist-driven has reinstate the previous hard code affects for all the games in-between. For its support, an under development tools framework was developed, which also provides assistance for the primary builds of Source Filmmaker.
Moreover, the facial-animation system is another phenomenal feature that has become hardware dependent on advanced video cards for “broadcast television and feature film” quality. The compatibility of The Orange Box for various platforms allows a big code refactoring that basically allows the engine get the benefit out of various CPU cores.
It is important to mention here that till the publishing of Left 4 Dead, compatibility on the PC was not stable and experimental.
Multi-processor support was later back ported to “Day of Defeat: Source” and “Team Fortress 2”. Valve Corporation created The Orange Box compatible for Xbox 360, whereas the compatibility for the console is available into the primary code-line of this game engine.
This release of Source comes with cross-platform play, asset converters as well as Xbox Live integration.
To your interest, program code is portable from a computer system to Xbox-360 by just recompiling it.
The release of engine for PlayStation 3 was externalized to EA (Electronic Arts), but there were many issues/errors throughout the process.
Games Developed using Source
The list of games developed using Source is very long, some of them are as under:
Half-Life 2
DOTA 2
Download Link: https://www.dota2.com/home
Source 2
Source 2 is the descendant of Source game engine launched by The Valve Corporation in March, 2015 at Game Developer Conference. Source 2 is an open-source game engine provides assistance for the Vulkan graphical API. It has also used a novel physics engine known as Rubikon. It allows the developers to produce the content in a more faster and efficient manner. This 3D cross-platform engine provides support for Windows, Android, OS X, Linux and iOS.
Valve declared that Dota 2 which was initially produced in the Source, will be imported to Source 2 in an upcoming update as “Dota 2 Reborn”.
Games Developed in Source 2
Dota 2 Reborn
Download Link: (https://www.dota2.com/reborn/part1)
Other Resources
- Developer’s Homepage: https://www.valvesoftware.com/en/
- Game Engine Documentation: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SDK_Docs