Source SDK Base

SDK Base Info & SDK 2006, 2007 (Legacy)

SDK Base 2013 (About)

Setup - SDK Base 2013 SP

Setup - SDK Base 2013 MP (TF2)

SDK Base Beta

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Source SDK Base is a game/tool available to all Steam users which is locked to a particular engine branch. Compared to basing your mod on a "real" game, use of SDK Base massively increases your potential audience and prevents incompatible engine updates from making your code or the mod unusable.

Source Engine Test (sourcetest)

All Source SDK Bases comes with Source Engine Test, which contains the stripped down version of Half-Life 2: Lost Coast for benchmark purposes (Video Stress Test), reduced to only the preprogrammed camera following a path that leads the viewer up the mountain. After the sequence completes, the user is presented with a dialogue showing their system performance & framerate and an option to upload them to Valve (which requires sv_cheats to be enabled, and likely no longer works since the old Steam servers used to upload benchmark result has been shutdown).

Versions

There are currently four versions of SDK Base: the original Source 2006 version (AppID 215), the Source 2007 version, also known as Orange Box version (AppID 218), and two Source 2013 versions - SP (AppID 243730) and MP (AppID 243750). The MP version (as of 2025) is currently based on Team Fortress 2 branch, but previously used to be Source 2013 Multiplayer.

Alien Swarm deserves mention here too, as it is also freely available and also provides source code.

In most cases, it is recommended to base your game on Source SDK Base 2013, as it's more up to date than previous branch. Source SDK Base 2013 has two sub-branches, with the multiplayer branch (now Team Fortress 2 branch) having some additional features such as BSP compression, static prop lightmaps, bicubic lightmaps, radial fog, and more major changes. Meanwhile, the Alien Swarm engine branch add some new engine features (including features first introduced in Left 4 Dead) which were not present in Source 2013, but they can be backported to SDK 2013 (or earlier). Additionally, Alien Swarm branch lacks Linux support.

Older version of SDK Base (2006, 2007) are provided in order to play older mods.

Setting up Source SDK and Source SDK Base

Install Source SDK Base 2006/2007 from Steam->Library->Tools or from the links below:

• Install/Run Source SDK Base 2006 (AppID: 215)
• Install/Run Source SDK Base 2007 (AppID: 218)

To get the SDK source code, download Source SDK:

• Install/Run Source SDK (AppID: 211)
• After installing Source SDK, go to ...\Steam\steamapps\common\SourceSDK\vpks, open depot_211_dir.vpk (using VPKEdit or GCFScape), go to src_mod folder, there will be two folders:
  • ep1 - contains Source 2006 gamecode
  • orangebox - contains Source 2007 gamecode

Source SDK Base 2013 SP / MP (TF2 branch)

For Source 2013 version of SDK Base, see Source SDK Base 2013 page.

Content

• The stock gamecode is a duplicate of Episode One's or Episode Two's, depending on which version (see below) you are using. But the only content available is that of Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Lost Coast: while Zombines and Hunters exist in the code and can be spawned, they appear as errors because their models are not included. If you want to use episodic things, you will need to mount the appropriate game.
• SDK Base might provide mods with Lost Coast's content, but dedicated servers do not. Multiplayer mods should either not use anything from Lost Coast, or include what they do use in their dedicated server download.
  Tip:In Source 2007 or later you can remove the sourcetest SearchPath from gameinfo.txt and Lost Coast will disappear. Unfortunately, doing this under Source 2006 (Episode One) will make the game crash immediately!

Bugs and Fixes

There are two small glitches and things that need to be changed:

1. The main menu has a "Visual Stress Test" option instead of anything useful. Copy resource\GameMenu.res from another suitable game into your mod.
2. Episode Two's flashlight and weapon pickup icons do not appear. Open resource\ClientScheme.res and add this to the Fonts section:

   		WeaponIconsSmall
   		{
   			1
   			{
   				name		HalfLife2
   				tall		32
   				weight	0
   				antialias 1
   				additive	1
   				custom	1
   			}
   		}
   

In addition, Source SDK Base 2007 is unable to mount Half-Life 2: Episode Two content from provided depot VPKs, because of a missing config file and the VPKs being switched around with Base 2006.

See Fixing VPK mounting for older Source SDK Bases in order to fix it.

Content (2007)

• Source SDK Base 2007
• Source Engine Test (stripped down version of Half-Life 2: Lost Coast) (sourcetest)
• Source Engine Test assets files (vpks - depot 215)
• Base Source shared / Half-Life 2 assets (hl2)
• Base Source shared / Half-Life 2 assets (vpks - depot 206, 207, 208)
• Half-Life 2: Episode One assets (vpks - depot 213, 381)
• Half-Life 2: Episode Two assets (vpks - depot 421, 422, 423)
  • Note:EP2 assets is missing by default, due to being switched around with Base 2006.
• Source 2007 engine branch

Note:Source SDK Base 2007 depot also includes "Source 2007 Binaries 2" (depot 317), which is actually Source 2009 binaries. These can be only obtained through Steam developer console (using download_depot 218 317 command).

Content (2006)

• Source SDK Base 2006
• Source Engine Test (stripped down version of Half-Life 2: Lost Coast) (sourcetest)
• Source Engine Test assets files (vpks - depot 215)
• Base Source shared / Half-Life 2 assets (hl2)
• Base Source shared / Half-Life 2 assets (vpks - depot 206, 207, 208)
• Half-Life 2: Episode One assets (vpks - depot 213, 381)
• Source 2006 engine branch