The Source Engine is a 3D game engine developed by Valve Corporation. Its unique features include a large degree of modularity and flexibility, an artist-driven, shader-based renderer, accurate lip sync and facial expression technology, and a powerful, efficient and completely network-enabled physics system.
The Source engine was first shown to the world by being the power-horse behind the hugely anticipated Half-Life 2 which was released in late 2004. Since then the Source Engine has been upgraded with the release of such titles as Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, Team Fortress 2 and the Left 4 Dead series to name a few.
Whilst it has been years since the release of the Source Engine they haven't yet unveiled a 'next-generation engine' as the Source engine is always updating and is just as relevant in the gaming world today if not more than when it debuted in 2004. It has been aided by the release of the free Source Development Kit (SDK) which include such features as HDR for developers to use in their projects. Hence the reasons stated we have yet to see 'Source Engine 2'.
On July 10th 2012, Valve released the 'Source Filmmaker' - a freeware client to allowed anyone to make movies inside the Source Engine. More information on the Source Filmmaker can be found here.
Below you can find a list of amazing features that the Source Engine boasts:
Renderer
- Version 2.0 (and below) shaders, bump mapping, LOD on models and world
- Author shaders with HLSL
- Cube and environment mapping
- Dynamic lights, vertex lighting and light maps, many light types including flickering, pulsing etc.
- High-Dynamic Range lighting
- Water with refraction and fresnel effects
- Advanced particle system that can emit sprites or models
- Projected shadows allow for a large number of characters per scene
- Occluder entities for visibility blocking
- Indoor/Outdoor environments
- Deformable terrain
- 3D skyboxes extend the horizon and add parallax on distant objects
- Dynamically rendered organics (grass, trees etc)
- Subdivision surfaces, diffuse & specular bump maps
- Real-time radiosity lighting
- Effects include but are not limited to: particles, beams, volumetric smoke, sparks, blood, environmental effects like fog and rain
- Scalability
- Dx6-Dx9 hardware supported
Materials System
- Instead of traditional textures, Source defines sets of materials that specify what the object is made from and the texture used for that object. A material specifies how an object will fracture when broken, what it will sound like when broken or dragged across another surface, and what that object’s mass and buoyancy are. This system is much more flexible than other texture only based systems.
- Materials can interact with objects or NPCs such as mud or ice for vehicles to slide/lose traction on.
Multiplayer Network Code
- Time and gamer tested by millions of gamers around the world
- Support for both LAN based multiplayer and Internet based multiplayer games
- Prediction analysis for interpolating collision/hit detection
- Optimizations for high-latency, high-packet loss 56k connections
Advanced Characters
- Detailed and believable characters
- Realistic eyes
- Focus on player/object, not simply parallel views
- Proper eye “bulge” for realistic eye reflections
- Simulated musculature provides outstanding emotions, speech and body language
- Language independent speech, characters can naturally speak in many languages
- Skeletal/bone system for animation
- Layered animation system can synthesize complex animations out of several pieces
Related Articles
After months of hard work and much deliberation we are proud to announce the winners of the Day of Infamy community level design contest!
In addition to winning cash and a heap of hardware prizes from Corsair, several of the maps will have the opportunity to be included officially in game as we head towards full release!
Outlined below are the winners and feedback from our lead level designer Jeroen Van Werkhoven.
1. MERCURY
A Beautiful medium sized map with a strong setting and theme. The level has a high fun factor due to its significantly designed objectives. The fort is an excellent example of that, the moment you’re pushed back by the enemy to protect the airfield it feels like taking part in a WW2 movie. Lighting is solid, but the bloom is a bit too much, especially when exiting an interior your eyes have to adapt to the brightness which can be a bit frustrating at times when fighting off the enemy. The overall art direction of this map is stellar, and the attention to detail is exceptional and deserves a lot of credit.
2. KRUPPSTAHL
Well executed industrial themed map. The warehouse and factory interiors are well done. Some of the interiors could benefit from additional props to improve their authenticity. Lighting is stellar, good contrast between interior and exterior areas. Gameplay is great overall. However, due to the large scale of this map, some of the areas feel a bit to open and hard to cross. Overall the map is a lot of fun to play and easy to memorize due to its strongly defined areas.
3. BREST
The art in this map is awesome and goes greatly with the theme. There are many memorable play spaces that help the player to navigate through the map more easily. The dock is a great example of this. Also, the 3dskybox adds an extra dimension to the map look and feel. Gameplay is great overall but suffers a bit from linearity. The objectives are well designed but lacking some strong defensive positions. Also, spawn placement could use some work to avoid spawn camping and to improve balance. It wouldn’t harm to extend the map a bit to give the player a bit more breathing room around their main spawn areas. Brest is a great looking map with a lot of potential, huge thumbs up for the custom art.
4. BURE
Icy map with great potential. The iced river and bridge is a notable area and provides the map with a strong identity. The buildings feel great overall, but they lack character and detail. Lighting does its job for the setting but is a bit behind in contrast and overly-bright in areas. The art direction could use some extra attention, texture choice and props aren’t always consistent with the setting. The great design of the church is visually appealing and a fun fighting ground. Gameplay wise this map is very challenging. It’s very hard for the attacking team to cross the bridge. The attacker’s side could use some higher buildings with accessible floors and extra cover on the bridge. These additions will improve the balance and fun factor of this map hugely. The breakable windows is a nice extra but the amount could be reduced a bit to avoid repetition and to make it clear for the player that the windows are in fact breakable.
5. TOBRUK
Unique theme and setting but needs a lot of work on construction and scale to match other maps. Most of the streets are quite empty. They could benefit from a bit more cover and detail to make it more appealing for the player to advance through the streets. The buildings look generic and can use more detail and textures, a bit more color wouldn’t hurt the visual side of the map. The gameplay is solid, and firefights are quite memorable when fighting from building to building. The dusty feel helps with selling the setting and makes it a lot more intense when bullets are flying around your head. Something to consider is to replace the church with a different structure, maybe a hotel or something else that fits better in the environment. Overall Tobruk has a lot of potential, and we hope to hear more from it in the future.
You can view the full announcement on the New World Interactive blog.
Day of Infamy - Community Mapping Contest Top 10!
Day of InfamyAfter several months of hard work from the modding community, New World are proud to announce the 10 finalists from our Day of Infamy community mapping...
Steam’s 2016 Top 100 Sellers Include Indie Hits
News 3 commentsThe best-selling games on Steam last year aren’t just the triple-A juggernauts.
New Year’s 2017 – A change of name and a change of game
Screaming Steel: 1914-1918 22 commentsIn this article we'd like to explain our absence, and what's going on with WW1: Source in general. We'll talk about what's been happening with the project...
Genetic Variation Progress: Article #8
Half-Life 2: Genetic Variation 11 commentsSome more up-to-date details on what we're actually doing. It's been a while, so we have a bit to show.
Post a comment
Profile
Community Rating
Highest Rated (19 agree) 10/10
Even tho it is aging and it is beginning to show its weakness comparred to other more modern engines, it is still my most preferred engine and the only one I was able to get into succesfully. And with all of the updates Valve is giving it, I think the source engine will be with us for a long time. I wouldn't really recommend this for a commerical product, just because there are so many more modern engines out there that will be a lot easier in the long run (like UDK), but all of the commercial games…
Nov 16 2010 by Half_Kill
Lowest Rated (2 agree) 1/10
The Source Engine is an outdated piece of shit that makes you spend 60% of your time trying to find alternative ways to make something because of the amazing number of bugs the SDK contains. I want to make a laser that dissolves any NPCs ; I can't because the beam doesn't do any damages even if I set the properties/flags rightly. So I try to parent a trigger_hurt to the beam but even if I set "Damage Type" to "Beam", it is only turning a NPC to a ragdoll and doesn't dissolve it as I wanted. Great…
Apr 4 2012 by EnnemyOfficer
Twitter
Tags
Embed Buttons
Link to Source by selecting a button and using the embed code provided more...
Statistics
You may also like
Phaser
MIT
Clockwork Engine
Commercial
Imperial Game Engine
Commercial
CryENGINE V
Commercial
Cyclone Game Engine
Proprietary
Godot Engine
MIT
This comment is currently awaiting admin approval, join now to view.
anyone know what engine i should use to make my own game
This comment is currently awaiting admin approval, join now to view.
This comment is currently awaiting admin approval, join now to view.
That is a stupid question because no one can know what engine is the best for "your game", all we can do is suggest the engine we like the most, but sometimes what we like is not "the best".
The only way for you to know, what is the best engine for your game, is for you to experiment with them, and imo the best engine for any game, is the engine we as a developer/moder know the best, trying to find a engine perfect for your game is stupid and is the reason that many wannabe game developers never release anything.
Source 2 HYPE
Polygon.com
HYPE is real!
One of my favourite engines to work with.
Sadly, the tools are a bit out-dated compaired to other commercial engines.
Well the hammer editor is a GREAT tool even today.
Also with source 2 valve is going to make the tools easier to work with, so that's always something to look forward to.