Source 2, according to Valve’s introduction, is a 3D engine developed by this software company and is the successor to its predecessor, Source. Source 2 was officially introduced in March 2015 and has since been used in Dota 2, Artifact, as well as Half-Life: Alyx, Valve’s newly released VR game. Source 2 has also been applied to the Panorama interface (released in June 2018) to make it more user-friendly.
The current Panorama interface of CS:GO also utilizes Source 2.
Rumors about CS:GO being upgraded to Source 2 have been continuously surfacing recently, with numerous credible sources confirming this. This will surely be great news for the entire CS:GO community as the game is now 8 years old, and while the Source platform made the game simple and accessible, it has become outdated over time and risks being left behind by direct competitors.
In a recent stream, Tyler McVicker, the owner of the popular YouTube channel Valve News Network with over 300,000 subscribers, revealed details about the launch timeline of Source 2 and shared important information about this new engine platform and the changes it will bring to CS:GO.
Specifically, Tyler shared that Source 2 is ready and could be updated by Valve at any time, earlier than the previously rumored date of May 18th: “I heard this from reliable sources, and they said it will be released soon, possibly even today.”
However, he also advised everyone not to have overly high expectations for Source 2, remarking that “Source 2 may end up being worse than the current Source 1 version.” Explaining this comment, Tyler stated that it is likely CS:GO will release an open beta version on Source 2 (similar to Dota 2 Reborn) and it will take several months to fix bugs and refine it to make it accessible to all players. Furthermore, there will not be any significant graphical changes as about 95% of the current graphics will remain intact. There will also be no remarkable upgrades for current maps like Dust2; however, some maps may be revamped, and the addition of new maps is entirely possible.
One more thing Tyler shared on the stream is that map designers (he mentioned FMPONE and ZooL, two well-known map creators in CS:GO) will benefit the most from Source 2 as they will have more powerful tools to create higher quality products.
You can watch Tyler’s stream HERE. (he talks about Source 2 in the first 20 minutes of the video)
Since Tyler’s stream over 24 hours ago, we can still expect an update as the deadline of May 18th is approaching, which is also the day the ESL One: Road to Rio tournament concludes, making it the perfect time for Source 2 to make its debut. We hope that with the arrival of Source 2, CS:GO will bring exciting features such as smoother gameplay, a more beautiful interface for community servers, demo mode, or even the ability to play DeathMatch/aim_botz while searching for a match.