I have to feel a little sorry for those that hyped them selves up to the point of believing that Valve would announce Half Life 3 yesterday, despite Valve not actually having a press conference at 3pm on the 3rd of the 3rd. They did, however, have a talk scheduled about physics in games. Valve’s Source Engine – which launched with games like Half Life 2 and Vampire The Masquerade – was one of the first engines that really placed an emphasis on physics. And now, There’s a brand new one. Yes, Valve finally revealed the engine we all knew they were working on, Source 2.0.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t announced alongside a new Half-Life, or even a new Left 4 Dead. No new Team Fortress either. Dota 3? Nope. It will, however, be free.
“The value of a platform like the PC is how much it increases the productivity of those who use the platform. With Source 2, our focus is increasing creator productivity. Given how important user generated content is becoming, Source 2 is designed not for just the professional developer, but enabling gamers themselves to participate in the creation and development of their favorite games,” said Valve’s Jay Stelly. “We will be making Source 2 available for free to content developers. This combined with recent announcements by Epic and Unity will help continue the PCs dominance as the premiere content authoring platform.”
Valve, as I surmised, will be backing Khronos’ next iteration of Open GL, Vulkan, quite heavily, and the Source 2.0 engine will be Vulkan compatible. Much like DirectX 12, Vulkan is a a cross platform, cross-vendor 3D graphics API – only it’s completely open. It’ll allows game developers to get the most out of the latest graphics hardware, meaning better games for you.
Presumably, this will be the last iteration of Source ever released, because as we know, Valve is incapable of releasing anything that ends in 3.
Valve’s announced quite a bit more in the way of cool stuff though.
Last Updated: March 4, 2015
Admiral Chief
March 4, 2015 at 10:38
So, a press conference on the 3rd of the 3rd at 3?
And NO HL3? LOL, Valve sure are master trollers
Admiral Chief
March 4, 2015 at 10:38
So, a press conference on the 3rd of the 3rd at 3?
And NO HL3? LOL, Valve sure are master trollers
Rock789
March 4, 2015 at 10:57
They clearly hate all fans of their games… The more popular the game, the more Valve hates them! :p
WitWolfy
March 4, 2015 at 11:34
Must be because it isnt 2013
Axon1988
March 4, 2015 at 13:12
Heh, it’s because it’s no 2033 actually…
Viking Of Science
March 4, 2015 at 10:40
And so the wait for Source 3 begins….
Viking Of Science
March 4, 2015 at 10:40
And so the wait for Source 3 begins….
Norm
March 4, 2015 at 10:43
Haha… guess there will never be a Source 3!
Hammersteyn
March 4, 2015 at 10:43
I think most people are beyond caring really.
Rock789
March 4, 2015 at 10:56
There will be no Dota 3, HL 3 or Portal 3 (or even Left for Dead 3)… EVER! You know why? Coz Valve clearly can’t count that high… 😉 :p
Seriously though, I didn’t actually expect a HL3 announcement… But it would’ve been nice…
Lord Chaos
March 4, 2015 at 11:09
That would explain the prices during sales. 😛
Rock789
March 4, 2015 at 11:13
Well, they never offer $3.33 or even $3.33… Wait! It’s true!!! Myth confirmed!!
Pariah
March 4, 2015 at 11:12
Great. So now I have to download UDK AND Source
Danie Nell
March 4, 2015 at 12:23
Dont forget Unity, it was also announced yesterday that the new free version contains all bells and whistles.
Pariah
March 4, 2015 at 12:27
I have Unity already. I’ve got more experience using the UDK though, and since UE4 is now free I’ll probably just use that. Saying that, I still like to try all the tools available, so Source 2 should be interesting.
Danie Nell
March 4, 2015 at 12:34
UE4 is amazing and extremely powerful. Personally i just find Unity easier to jump into and get stuff done. Probably because i work with c# daily….blueprints just dont do it for me.
UE4 editor is awesome though.
Pariah
March 4, 2015 at 12:36
See, I’m 100% a visual artist, 3D modeling, animation, lighting, texturing, and UI design – the coding is something I have to get into. I’ve not yet delved too deep into any of the engines’ coding, so there’s that. I just look at (for now) the ease of use from an artist’s point of view. 🙂
WitWolfy
March 4, 2015 at 11:37
Want HL3?? Make your own! Valve doesnt care about making games anymore IMO, they’re making more money with Steam then they ever did with game development.
Galbedir
March 4, 2015 at 14:12
Release Controller, Release Steambox, Release VR set, Announce Virtual Reality HL 3 – PC and Steambox Exclusive….Profit.