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Screenshot in-game of
Counter-Strike: Source, using the Source Engine.


Screenshot taken in-game of
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which uses a newer branch of the Source Engine.

Source is a 3D game engine created by Valve, it is the successor to
GoldSrc. Source has been used by Valve, third-party companies, and (much like GoldSource) countless community mods by people around the globe. Today, it is slowly being replaced by
Source 2 engine, but it's still being commonly used today.
Contents
Renderer
- Version 3.0 (and below) shaders

- Bump mapping and Normal mapping on models and the world
- Author shaders with HLSL
- Cube and environment mapping
- Phong shading for models
- Dynamic lights, vertex lighting and lightmaps, many light types including flickering, pulsing etc.
- HDR (in all games since
) and SDR/LDR (not in
and later) lighting
- Water with refraction, real-time world reflections and fresnel effects
- Water also supports flow mapping (in all games since
)
- Water also supports flow mapping (in all games since
- Advanced particle systems that can emit sprites or models
- Render-to-texture 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
- Real-time cascaded shadow mapping that comes from the skybox (in all games since
)
- Effects include but are not limited to: particles, beams, volumetric smoke, sparks, blood, & environmental effects like fog and rain
- Scalability
- DX8-DX9 hardware supported (DX6-DX9 with modifications and fixed-function shaders)


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 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 speak naturally in many languages
- Skeletal/bone system for animation
- Layered animation system can synthesize complex animations out of several pieces
Physics
- More responsive world with realistic interactions
- Sounds & graphics follow from physics
- AI characters can interact with physically simulated objects
- Ropes/cables, machines, constraint systems, ragdoll physics
- Can be controlled by level design
- Kinematic animated bone followers
- Custom procedural physics controllers
- Vehicles
- Wheels slip and skid
- Realistic suspensions with springs on each wheel
- Realistic leaning during acceleration/deceleration and turning
- Individually tunable parameters such as horsepower, gearing, max speed, shift speed, tire material, tire friction, spring tension/dampening, etc.
- Multiple players in a vehicle in multiplayer
- Hovercraft support for cheaper simulation
Advanced AI
- I/O system allows level designers to control AI
- Sophisticated navigation: characters that run, fly, jump, crouch, climb stairs and ladders, and burrow underground
- AI senses things using sight, sound, and smell
- AI relationships determine friend/foe status of other entities
- Battle AI allows squads of AI characters to operate together, know when to advance, retreat, lay cover fire, etc.
Sound System
- 7.1, 5.1 surround sound, 4 speaker surround
Bug:On system running Windows Vista and later, due to the game engine using DirectSound and older version of Miles Sound System, the game may output only 5.1 surround despite 7.1 selected or 7.1 audio may not work properly without custom
dsound.dll
(such as Creative Alchemy, DSOAL or IndirectSound).Note: Some Source games (such as
Alien Swarm,
Portal 2 and
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive) may not include options to enable 7.1 surround sound without using console commands.
- High-quality 3D spatialization
- Custom software DSP
- Automatic DSP based on environmental geometry
- Microsoft ADPCM-compressed WAV files
- 16-bit 44.1 KHz (CD Quality), stereo wave data with all features
Warning:48 KHz audio (DVD Quality) is not supported.
- MP3 decompression (requires Miles license)
- Support for audio streaming on any wave [Clarify]
- Real-time wave file stitching [Clarify]
- Pre-authored Doppler effect encoded waves
- Pre-authored distance variant encoded waves
- Commentary system
UI
- Server browser — Displays all active game servers and allows a player to choose which one to participate on. Players can filter and sort server lists in order to speed up the display and selection of a server.
- VGUI — Valve's custom GUI interface mimics most of the Windows controls but is rendered using the Source engine for both in game and out of game uniform UI display. Some features:
Programming
- All code written in C/C++ using Visual Studio .NET 2003 and later. Easily and quickly derive new entities from existing base classes
- Internal context sensitive performance monitoring system
- Graphics performance measurement tools built into the engine
- Modular code design (via DLLs) allows swapping out of core components for easy upgrading or code replacement
- VScript scripting system allows using external coding languages, such as Squirrel and Lua, in maps to create more complex systems (in all games since
) (also in
)
Tools
HLFaceposer
- Facial expression tool used to craft speech and emotions
Valve Hammer Editor
- WYSIWYG World editor
- Create world brushes
- Terrain editor
- Place detailed world models and AI NPCs
- Set navigation points/paths for NPCs
- Place triggers, clip brushes, logic, etc.
- Allows level designer to hook up I/O between entities to control AI within the game
Half-Life Model Viewer
- Full model previewer
- Rotate models in any direction
- Set up hit boxes
- View physics hull
- View normals
- Wireframe, shaded or textured view modes
- Studiomdl
- Model compiler
- VBSP, VRAD, VVIS, VMPI
- Map compilation tools (bsp, lighting and visibility)
- VMPI — distributed compilation tool allowing level compiles to be spread across many PCs greatly reducing compile times
- Exporters
- XSI, Max and Maya
.smd
exporters for exporting 3D models
- XSI, Max and Maya
Games on Source
Valve
Games made by Valve.
2004
Counter-Strike: Source
2004
Half-Life 2
2004
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
2004
Half-Life: Source
2005
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
2005
Day of Defeat: Source
2006
Half-Life Deathmatch: Source
2006
Half-Life 2: Episode One
2007
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
2007
Portal
2007
Team Fortress 2
2008
Left 4 Dead
2009
Left 4 Dead 2
2010
Alien Swarm
2011
Portal 2
2012
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
2013
Dota 2 - Formerly, now using Source 2 since 2015.
Third-Party
Games and mods made by third-party companies and mod teams.
Released
2004
Vampire The Masquerade - Bloodlines
2006
SiN Episodes
2006
The Ship
2006
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
2006
Zombie Panic! Source
2007
Zeno Clash
2009
Vindictus
2010
Bloody Good Time
2010
Blue Portals
2011
Dino D-Day
2011
E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy
2011
Nuclear Dawn
2011
No More Room in Hell
2011
Postal III (delisted)
2012
Dear Esther
2012
Revelations 2012
2013
Tactical Intervention (delisted)
2013
The Stanley Parable
2013
Consortium2013
Counter-Strike Online 22014
Insurgency
2014
Titanfall (delisted)
2014
Contagion
2014
Lambda Wars
2015
Portal Stories: Mel
2015
Blade Symphony2015
Double Action2015
The Beginner's Guide
2016
INFRA
2016
Titanfall 2
2016
Day of Infamy
2017
Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop
2017
Entropy : Zero
2018
Hunt Down the Freeman
2019
Apex Legends
2020
Black Mesa
- Black Mesa was originally released in 2012 as a mod running on
Source 2007. Fan remake of
Half-Life.
- Black Mesa was originally released in 2012 as a mod running on
2020
G-String2021
Portal Reloaded
2022
Divinia Chronicles: Relics of Gan-Ti
2022
Entropy : Zero 2
2022
JBMod
2022
Jabroni Brawl: Episode 3
2023
Military Conflict: Vietnam
Unreleased
This section are for unreleased 3rd party games that are not publicly released or is in Beta/Early Access.
2023 (Upcoming)
Portal: Revolution
2023 (Upcoming)
SwelterTBA
Director's Cut
TBA
infestusTBA
Momentum Mod
TBA
Half-Life 2: Remastered
TBA
Portal 2: Community Edition
TBA
PUNT
More Third-party Source Engine games