Valve officially announces Source 2 and Steam Link at GDC

Technology and Gaming
#1

Valve has formally announced Source 2, alongside their streaming product called Steam Link. Steam Link will stream Steam games at 1080p 60fps and will retail for $49.99 in November of this year. Steam Controller has also been priced at $49.99 and will release alongside Steam Machines later this year.

https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-announces-source-2-will-release-it-for-free-to-content-developers/

https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-announces-50-steam-link-streaming-box-and-steamvr-for-november-release/

#2

Told you guys Source 2 would be announced. I wasn’t expecting it this early though. I guess it’s even more likely that we’ll see Source 2 demos at the Vulcan press conference on the fifth.

#3

Announced on 3/3/2015 on the 13th anniversary of Steam. Just give us a fucking CLUE man.

#4

HYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYPPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Can’t wait to see the features list and what they’ve changed. I was not expecting this today, just a conference on physics.

#5

We know that they are working on their own physics engine rather than licensing one like they did with Havok for Source 1. It’s called Rubikon. Maybe that means they’ll be working on physics that most standard physics engines don’t do. Maybe we’ll be getting physics based animation system kind of like Euphoria, but for all animations. Like procedural animation. I also remember Valve said they had to cut down on how the gel in Portal 2 worked because of consoles so maybe they’ll be experimenting more with liquid physics.

Also I imagine that Source 2 will support everything that UE4, Cryengine 3, RAGE, and other modern engines do, like tessellation, dof (bokeh), deferred rendering (so dynamic lighting), soft shadows, etc. I’m certain we’ll get some demos of the engine at the Vulcan presentation.

#6

I hope porting Source content is suuuuuper easy. Even better if Source filetypes are for some reason natively supported.

#7

Yay…

#8

I wasn’t expecting it yet, either. I had thought we’d see a reveal at the Vulkan conference.

#9

Oooh, that’s pretty neat. I’ll wait to pass judgement until they reveal more, but this has potential, to say the least.

#10

FAPFAPFAPFAPFAPFAPFAPFAPFAPFAP X/
But seriously, will they port the HL2 games to S2?

#11

I’ve wanted HL2/Episodes on Source 2 for a while now. Hope so.

#12

If this port will be like HL: Source, then better not.

#13

Calling it, they’ll release Half-Life 2[sup]2[/sup], and when it turns out to be a straight port like HLS, a team of modders will spring up to recreate the entire game to fully utilize Source 2. :stuck_out_tongue:

#14

And it will take over 10 years as well.

#15

I guess we can wait for a City 17 if that’s the case.

I would hope they would have learned after ten years that HL: Source was the wrong way to go about things.

#16

Features I want to see in Source 2:

  • Normal mapped decals
  • Multiple materials supported on single models
  • Ability to change material parameters on the fly more easily
  • Better texture lighting (on par with light_spot and light_environment quality)
  • Texture lighting can emit from models
  • Easier implementation of VGUI
  • All or most of the enhancements that Source hasn’t had implemented yet from other AAA engines
#17

I think we might have a bright gaming future, especially with VR before us. ValvE was always known for thinking outside the box and bringing the gamers and the developers together… that’s why they made SteamOS, the Steam Machines and VR Device (after the departure from oculus, now with HTC) and porting things to Source 2 and Source 2 itself more open and accessible in the first place.

Get hyped:

youtube.com/watch?v=ZKK74Wh-J10
youtube.com/watch?v=b_Y8ktmSAzI
youtube.com/watch?v=VJxiVJdPaWo

To be honest, I don’t expect perfect graphics from Source 2 (or HL3 or whatever new game will use Source 2 as launch title). I would like a great, open, powerful engine that’s capable of VR, great performance also on low-spec systems (like Source also was and still is) and improved physics.

#18

I still hope it has a significant improvement in graphics, maybe up to par with Unreal 4. I would think it’d be even better optimized than Source 2, hopefully.

#19

This’ll be a good excuse to dust off my old Source mapping skills. I was starting to burn out on modding Skyrim, anyway.

#20

I enjoy mapping in Source too, though I wouldn’t say I have skill, 'least not beyond blocks and flat walls in Portal 2. But I really look forward to trying out Source 2’s equivalent to Hammer!

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.