Source 2

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Source 2
Source engine logo and wordmark.svg
Developer(s)Valve
Written inC++
PredecessorSource
LicenseProprietary

Source 2 is a video game engine developed by Valve as the successor to the original Source engine. The engine was announced in 2015, with the first game to use it, Dota 2, being ported from the original engine that same year. Since then, Valve's Artifact, Dota Underlords, and Half-Life: Alyx have all been made with the engine.

History[]

Plans for a successor to the original Source engine began following the release of Half-Life 2: Episode Two in 2007.[1][2] The first engine tech demo was created in 2010 by remaking a map from Left 4 Dead 2.[2] Images of this were leaked onto the internet in early 2014.[3] At the 2014 Game Developers Conference, Valve employee Sergiy Migdalskiy showed off a Source 2 physics debugging tool being used in Left 4 Dead 2.[4] Source 2 was first made available to the public via Steam Workshop tools for Dota 2 in 2014 prior to it being officially announced at the 2015 Game Developers Conference.[5] There, Valve stated their intent for it was to allow for content to be created more efficiently.[1][6][7][8] Valve also stated that it would support the Vulkan graphics API and use a new in-house physics engine called Rubikon, which would replace the need for the third-party Havok tools.[4][9][10]

Gabe Newell, president of Valve, said that the company were prioritizing the development of their own games before they would release the engine and its software development kit to the public as a means of ensuring the highest quality for developers; adding that they were intending to make the engine free to use for game developers as long as the game is published on their Steam service.[5][11][12]

In June 2015, Valve announced that the entirety of Dota 2 would be ported over to Source 2 in an update called Dota 2 Reborn.[13][14][15][16] Reborn was first released to the public as an opt-in beta update that same month before officially replacing the original client in September 2015, making it the first game to use the engine.[17][18][19][20] Source 2 has also been used for Valve's Artifact and Dota Underlords, with the engine later being supported on Android and iOS for the latter.[21][22] The engine also supports the creation of games in virtual reality, being used in SteamVR Home, the Robot Repair tech demo within The Lab, and Half-Life: Alyx.[23][24] Source 2 tools made specifically for creating custom content for Half-Life: Alyx were released in May 2020.[25]

Games[]

Year Game Developer Note(s)
2015 Dota 2 Valve Ported from Source in 2015; originally released in 2013
2016 Robot Repair A tech demo included within The Lab; the rest were created using the Unity engine[26]
2018 Artifact
2020 Dota Underlords First released in early access in 2019
Half-Life: Alyx Made for virtual reality headsets
TBA Sandbox Facepunch Studios Stylized as S&box. Development shifted from Unreal Engine to Source 2 in 2020.[27]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Marks, Tom (March 23, 2020). "Valve Explains Why Half-Life 2: Episode 3 Was Never Made". IGN. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  2. ^ a b Keighley, Geoff (2020). Half-Life: Alyx - Final Hours.
  3. ^ Phillips, Tom (January 28, 2014). "Source 2 images show next-gen Left 4 Dead 2 prototype - report". Eurogamer. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  4. ^ a b Migdalskiy, Sergiy (April 14, 2014). "Physics for Game Programmers Debugging". Game Developers Conference. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
  5. ^ a b Kollar, Philip (March 3, 2015). "Valve announces Source 2 engine, free for developers". Archived from the original on March 5, 2015. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  6. ^ Walker, John (November 11, 2012). "Gabe Newell Might Have Announced Source 2, Possibly". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
  7. ^ Mahardy, Mike (March 3, 2015). "GDC 2015: VALVE ANNOUNCES SOURCE 2 ENGINE". IGN. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
  8. ^ "Gabe Newell on Source 2: "For us, it's useful. For other devs, it's not as useful as Unity"". PCGamesN. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
  9. ^ Mahardy, Mike (March 3, 2015). "GDC 2015: Valve Announces Source 2 Engine". IGN. Archived from the original on March 4, 2015. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  10. ^ Migdalskiy, Sergiy (March 2015). "Physics for Game Developers: Physics Optimization Strategies" (PDF). Game Developers Conference. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  11. ^ "How Open-Source Allowed Valve To Implement VULKAN Much Faster On The Source 2 Engine". PCGamesN. February 16, 2016. Retrieved November 12, 2017.
  12. ^ Savage, Phil (March 5, 2015). "Source 2 will be free; won't ask for royalties". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
  13. ^ Anthony, Sebastian (August 8, 2014). "Valve quietly releases Source 2 engine, Source 2 version of Dota 2, and new Hammer map editor". extremetech. Retrieved August 8, 2014.
  14. ^ Plaugic, Lizzie (June 13, 2015). "Dota 2 is getting overhauled with a new game engine". The Verge. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
  15. ^ Martin, Michael. "Valve Announces Dota 2 Reborn". IGN. Archived from the original on June 29, 2016. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  16. ^ Macy, Seth. "Dota 2 Now Valve's First Ever Source 2 Game". IGN. Archived from the original on September 10, 2015. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
  17. ^ Nunneley, Stephany (June 13, 2015). "Dota 2 being revamped with Source 2 engine and upgraded DotaTV experience". vg247. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
  18. ^ Boudreau, Ian (June 13, 2015). "Dota 2 Will Update To Source 2 Engine Soon, Valve Says". gameranx. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
  19. ^ Livingston, Christopher (June 12, 2015). "Valve announces Dota 2 Reborn, new engine coming". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on June 15, 2015. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
  20. ^ Macy, Seth. "Dota 2 Now Valve's First Ever Source 2 Game". IGN. Archived from the original on September 10, 2015. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
  21. ^ Bailey, Dustin (March 8, 2018). "Artifact will use Source 2, bringing the engine to iOS and Android". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on March 9, 2018. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  22. ^ McWhertor, Michael. "Valve's Auto Chess competitor is Dota Underlords". Polygon. Archived from the original on June 13, 2019. Retrieved June 13, 2019.
  23. ^ Heaney, David. "Half-Life: Alyx Highlights Valve's Powerhouse Physics Engine". UploadVR. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
  24. ^ Hollister, Sean (November 21, 2019). "Half-Life: Alyx is officially coming March 2020, and here's your first look". The Verge. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  25. ^ "Half-Life: Alyx now has Steam Workshop support and official mod tools". PC Gamer. May 15, 2020. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
  26. ^ James, Paul. "Valve Releases 'The Lab' Unity Renderer for Free". RoadToVR. Retrieved March 29, 2018.
  27. ^ Newman, Garry (October 27, 2020). "New Engine". sandbox.facepunch.com.
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