Alien Swarm engine branch
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![](/w/images/thumb/9/9c/Alien_Swarm_-_Screenshot_2.jpg/300px-Alien_Swarm_-_Screenshot_2.jpg)
In-game screenshot of Alien Swarm, running on Alien Swarm engine branch. The screenshot demonstrates the new "depth of field" effect.
![](/w/images/thumb/d/df/Tilegenlayout.jpg/300px-Tilegenlayout.jpg)
The TileGen mapping tool in Alien Swarm.
The Alien Swarm engine branch was released in 2010 with
Alien Swarm. It succeeds the
Left 4 Dead engine branch and precedes the
Portal 2 engine branch.[1] Unlike previous and later branches, this is the only Source engine branch (post-Orange Box) that has it's source code publicly available.
Features
New since Left 4 Dead engine branch is:
- TileGen
- A new quick-build mapping tool. Level designers create connectible rooms and corridors which can be arranged either by hand or programmatically. TileGen maps can be played in-editor, and/or can be exported to Hammer for further refinement.illuminate an entire scene.
- VTF version 7.5 and PCF version Binary 5 PCF 2
- The latest versions of Source's texture and particle formats.
- Depth of field
- A real-time depth of field shader blurs backdrop scenery.
- Vertex animation
- The ability to animate vertexes directly is now supported.
- Various entity improvements
- Numerous entities have been improved and have new features, such as
env_fire
andenv_projectedtexture
. - Water debris flow
- Water now supports the ability to use a base texture layer that is flowed using a flow map. This implemention is less advanced than
Portal 2's, however.
- Lightmap influence on cubemapped materials
- Lightmaps can now tint cubemap reflections in the
LightmappedGeneric
shader. - Steamworks integration
- Unclear how useful this will be, as currently Steamworks distribution is required to implement persistence, Steam Cloud, achievements, etc.
Availability
See also: Category:Alien Swarm engine branch games
Gamecode for this branch is included in the Alien Swarm SDK .
2010
Alien Swarm
2012
Alien Swarm Deferred
2012
Source Filmmaker
2014
Lambda Wars
2017
Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop