Source 2006
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, a tech demo. HDR was later added to 
Day of Defeat: Source (2005) and 
Source 2006. This image compares between LDR, LDR with Bloom and HDR.The Source 2006 engine branch, also known as the Episode One engine branch, and the last Old Engine branch, was first introduced in 2006 with 
Half-Life 2: Episode One, with previous multiplayer games (
, 
, and 
) also being upgraded to the Source 2006 branch then. Some features of Source 2006, such as HDR rendering and color correction, are first demonstrated in 2005 with Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and Day of Defeat: Source (both of them appear to have run on a later version of Source 2004 when initially released). 
Half-Life 2 was also upgraded to this branch, but does not utilize any new features (HDR, color correction) from both late Source 2004 branch and Source 2006, aside from BSP 20 (because one of the maps were recompiled with changes).
It was distributed in base source engine 2.gcf. While it was succeeded by the Source 2007 (also known as Orange Box) branch, Source 2006 continued receiving engine updates until December 2009, and in 2010, all first-party Valve games (except 
and ) were upgraded to Source 2009. This branch requires Half-Life 2 content to operate.
The engine versions for this branch are 2733 (EP1) up to 4044 (Protocol 7).[1]
The SDK and SDK Base game for this branch are free to all Steam users.
Features
New since 
Source 2004:
- High Dynamic Range rendering (DX9 SM2)
- Originally introduced in Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (runs on newer version of Source 2004), but generally attributed to Source 2006.[2] A simulation of brightness values outside computer monitors' actual range, and of aperture adjustment. Not to be confused with HDR display output.
- Film grain post-processing effect
- Used in Day of Defeat: Source.
- Color correction
- Alter the color balance of an image to achieve a desired effect. For example, in Day of Defeat: Source, the color has been adjusted to be more desaturated.
- Phong materials
- Diffuse reflections for skin and other roughened surfaces on models.
- Facial animation upgrades
- More detail and intenser shapes for close-up performances.
- Commentary System
- Allows DVD-like director's commentary to be embedded inside levels.
- Dynamic interactions
- Dynamic interactions between NPCs using special animations.
- Lightwarp textures (DX9+ SM3)
- 1D textures that tint a material per-texel depending on their brightness.
- Direct3D 9 - Shader Model 3 (DirectX 9.0+ feature level/dxlevel 95)
- Unlocks greatly improved shader performance.
- Detail prop shapes
- Improved detail sprites that sway in the breeze and bend away from nearby players.
- BSP version 20
- New BSP version, with new lumps.
- Patching levels with lump files - update entity lumps, changing a .BSP file's entities without recompiling the maps.
Note:Some features above are only available with Direct3D 9, dxlevel 95 (DX9.0+ level) or later.Removed features
- DirectX 6.0 (dxlevel 60) compatibility level
- Support for DirectX 6.x GPUs has been partially dropped, but is still usable.
- Steam Friends & Parlor Games menu
- Originally present before it was eventually removed in favor of Steam Overlay which is introduced around September 2007. Old Steam servers eventually get shut down years later, which make Steam Friends no longer functional.
Availability
Game code for the 2006 branch is included in the now-deprecated Source SDK app. To compile the code for 2006 branch, see Compiling under VS2005.
All Valve games introduced with Source 2006 and previous titles that are upgraded from Source 2004 to Source 2006 are now currently using Source 2013 Singleplayer or the Team Fortress 2 branch (previously Source 2013 Multiplayer).
Usage
The following games still run on Source 2006:
Valve
- 2006 Source SDK Base 2006
Third-Party
- 2006
The Ship: Murder Party and The Ship: Single Player - 2006
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic - 2007
Eternal Silence - 2007
Fortress Forever - 2007
INSURGENCY: Modern Infantry Combat - 2007 Iron Grip: The Oppression
- 2009
NEOTOKYO° - 2010
Vindictus
- Heavily modified, and uses proprietary file format to store game files. Also support Direct3D (DirectX) 11,
Nvidia PhysX, 64-bit.
- Heavily modified, and uses proprietary file format to store game files. Also support Direct3D (DirectX) 11,
Known issues
Bug:All Source 2004 and 2006 games suffered from the gray fog bug, which was affected on newer GPUs (since GeForce 8000 series or newer AMD/ATI GPUs) and newer drivers. This has been fixed on NVIDIA systems since driver version "516.5x" (confirmed on RTX 3060),[3][4] but is likely still present on AMD/Intel. This issue is not affected when using dxlevel 81 or lower, only dxlevel 90 or higher.Bug:Switching resolutions in some of Source 2006 games, may cause the right side of the HUD (ammo) to be improperly scaled. Some console text such as one that displayed by enabling cl_showfps or cl_showpos 1, will be either cut off or completely hidden. (tested in: GMOD 9, HL2 old engine)System Requirements
Minimum Specs :
- OS: Windows 98 / ME, 2000, XP or later
- CPU: 1.2 GHz
- RAM: 256 MB
- Nvidia GeForce FX 5700, ATI Radeon 9500 (with 128MB VRAM)
- Direct3D 9.0 compatible video card (with atleast DirectX 7.0 compatibility level or higher)
Note:Due to Steam dropping support for previous version of Windows, Windows 10 or later is required to run any Source 2006 games that use Steam DRM.References
| References | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
