Source 2013

The Source 2013 engine branch (also called SteamPipe branch) is the final iteration of the Orange Box engine branch. It was introduced by Valve in 2013 to replace the archaic GCF file format with the VPK format introduced in the Left 4 Dead engine branch. Major shifts in content mounting occurred, and all Valve games using the Source 2009 and Source Multiplayer engine branches were upgraded to this branch. Half-Life: Source, Half-Life Deathmatch: Source, and Half-Life 2: Lost Coast was also upgraded to this engine branch from the Source 2006 engine branch. The custom folder was added to make modding easier and was added as a mounting path for each individual Source game.

While SteamPipe was praised for simplifying how the Source engine mounts content and including previously-unreleased Team Fortress 2 code, it also broke countless numbers of mods and worsened problems already present in the Source 2009 branch, requires more space due to some Source 2013 games (except , , etc...) containing duplicated Half-Life 2 base content, plus bugs started to appear in Half-Life: Source. It also does not have most of the features that the engine branches from the Left 4 Dead engine branch onwards had. However, the engine branch has been polished over time, with various bugs from previous Orange Box branch have been fixed (such as Dropship container gun being non-functional in Half-Life 2, NPCs eyes not blinking, etc...) and is now the main branch in use by modern non-licensed engine mods.

Source 2013 is split into two sub-branches, titled Source 2013 Singleplayer and Source 2013 Multiplayer, which replaced the Source 2009 and Source Multiplayer branches, respectively. The two sub-branches are mostly interchangeable, but they use separate codebases, and the Multiplayer branch has some features which are not available in the Singleplayer branch.

Tip:Despite the names, both branches can be used for singleplayer.
Due to the benefits provided by the Multiplayer branch's additional features (static prop lightmaps, BSP compression, more ambient cubes per visleaf, and slightly newer code), the Singleplayer branch should only be used if using a base mod such as Mapbase, or if making a single-player mod that does not modify game code.

As of 2024, all Source 2013 games are actively being maintained with bug fixes by Valve and third-party developers.

Features

Screenshot of the Gamepad UI from Half-Life 2, introduced in 2022.

New since the Source 2009 (including Source Multiplayer) engine branch is:

VPK files and custom folder

First introduced on Left 4 Dead engine branch and onwards, it was later available on Source 2013, which replaced the old GCF format. This also adds support for reading any files from "custom" folder, which makes installing mods easier without overwriting original game files. In some Source 2013 games, such as Black Mesa, users may need to create the custom manually.

Linux and other platform support

The engine can now run on Linux, Android (for Nvidia Shield), Nintendo Switch and other operating systems/platforms. However, support for these OS outside of official games may be spotty.

Static prop lightmaps (only in )(also in )

Static props without bump maps can now use lightmaps (albeit with limitations).

Per-texel color tint masking for models

$blendtintbybasealpha is ported from the Left 4 Dead engine branch. Source 2013 includes an exclusive additional parameter, $blendtintcoloroverbase.

BSP compression (only in )

BSP maps and packed files can be losslessly compressed on both server and client.

Newer Features

Features introduced with later updates to the branch.

Swaying trees (only in )

A material parameter that gives the effect of trees swaying in the wind.

64-bit binaries (only in )

Allows the game to access more than 4GB RAM and have slightly better performance.

Note: 64-bit is not available on Mac.
Half-Life 2 was the first game to receive 64-bit update back in 2005, when it ran on Source 2004. It was later removed for unknown reasons, but it also had some technical issues at the time.

VScript (only in )

A powerful new scripting system primarily using Squirrel or Lua. Third-party games may have different VScript implementation.

Gamepad UI (only in )

Introduced in 2022, Gamepad UI is a modern controller-oriented UI designed for consoles and handhelds like Steam Deck. With the new Gamepad UI, it was more scalable across any resolution (including 4K and higher), unlike the regular VGUI (which, the higher the resolution, the text and UI will become smaller). This UI can be also enabled manually by using -gamepadui command line argument (which will also enable Vulkan renderer that may not work on some older GPUs unless -dx9 is used in combination of -gamepadui).

Vulkan renderer

A low-overhead, cross-platform graphics API, successor to OpenGL.

First introduced in 2022 with Half-Life 2 and Portal, then Black Mesa and Team Fortress 2. Portal with RTX also uses Vulkan as part of the RTX Remix runtime.

WebM video playback (only in )

Used for game intros or cutscenes in some games. Replaces Bink video. WebM allows smaller video file sizes without significantly degrade the video quality.

Availability

See also:  Category:Source 2013 engine branch games

Gamecode for both the Source 2013 Multiplayer and Singleplayer branches is included in Valve's Source SDK 2013 repository.

Warning:By default, the SDK 2013 code does not contain many recent updates, new features and bug fixes (such as Dropship gun fix) that was introduced in Half-Life 2 and Portal (since the new Steam Deck update) respectively, nor the "upcoming" builds on Steam, along with the rest of Source 2013 games. Alternatively you can use the SDK 2013 community repos which have these bugs fixed by default.

Source 2013 Singleplayer

Valve

• 2004 Half-Life: Source (formerly , )
• 2004 Half-Life 2 (formerly , , )
• 2005 Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (formerly )
• 2006 Half-Life 2: Episode One (formerly , )
• 2007 Half-Life 2: Episode Two (formerly , )
• 2007 Portal (formerly , )
• 2013 Source SDK Base 2013 - Singleplayer (AppID: 243730 - Click to Install)

Third-Party

• 2015 Half-Life 2: Update (earlier version)
• 2019 Mapbase
• 2022 Divinia Chronicles: Relics of Gan-Ti
• More...

Source 2013 Multiplayer

Valve

• 2004 Counter-Strike: Source (formerly , , )
• 2004 Half-Life 2: Deathmatch (formerly , , )
• 2005 Half-Life Deathmatch: Source (formerly , )
• 2005 Day of Defeat: Source (formerly , , )
• 2007 Team Fortress 2 (formerly , )
• 2014 Source SDK Base 2013 - Multiplayer (AppID: 243750 - Click to Install)

Third-party

• 2008 Empires (formerly )
• 2009 Obsidian Conflict (formerly )
• 2008 Zombie Panic! Source (formerly /^[confirm])
• 2011 No More Room in Hell (formerly /^[confirm])
• 2013 Counter-Strike Online 2
• 2014 Fistful of Frags
• 2016 BrainBread 2
• 2018 Hunt Down the Freeman (formerly )
• More...

Third-party Source 2013 branches

The following games use neither nor , but rather use custom (heavily modified) branches forked earlier versions from both Source 2013 branches, with newer features added on. As such, they may or may not include all features from newer first-party versions of Source 2013, such as LZMA-compressed BSPs or lightmapped MDLs.

• 2006 Garry's Mod (which also support some features from Alien Swarm, Portal 2 engine branch and onwards, such as partial VTF 7.5 support; formerly , )
• 2015 Black Mesa (has it's own branch known as Xengine, had features such as CSM, deferred lighting and more; formerly )

See also

• Source SDK 2013
• Source SDK 2013 community repos