When CS:GO was created a decade ago, the game was based on the Source engine developed back in 2004. It first appeared in games such as Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source. Since then it has been updated several times, and in 2015 Valve showed the game already on the next version, called Source 2. Since then, the company has been using it as the main engine for its products. Another game from Valve that is massively popular, namely Dota 2, has already received an update in 2015 with the transition to a new engine with Source. But for CS:GO, the introduction of a new engine has been delayed.
Why do we need to change the engine?
The engine – is the basic mechanism that ensures the functioning of the game. It determines how the game handles textures, how visual effects and physical interaction of objects are calculated, how optimization is implemented, what features are available to developers. The very fact that the game still uses a decade-old engine can create problems: it means that, as one former Valve employee wrote, it retains «mountains of ancient code that no one understands anymore». Because of this, it becomes more difficult to fix bugs or add new features.
Besides, the engine update should improve the game performance(Source 2 does not always interact well with modern software such as DirectX), and will also make life much easier for skinmakers and mod creators. Many of them expect that functions that can now be realized only with special tricks will become more accessible.
What else to expect from the update?
It is possible that the transition to the new engine will bring not only technical improvements, but also other innovations. One of the most controversial – possible disappearance from the game of references to «terrorists» and «counter-terrorists». Other competitive shooters that were created later than CS:GO have already followed this path, initially choosing more neutral side names. Yes, these terms are familiar to players, but for Valve they have become a source of problems with advertising and promotion of the game, so it is not excluded that they will change.
We should expect that the number of bugs in the game will decrease, and fixing the detected ones will become easier. At the same time, it is possible that due to the update of the physical component of the engine players will have to get used to other schemes of spreading or rethink the trajectories of jumps. However, we can hope that, given the importance of such things for professional cyber sportsmen, the developers will avoid too drastic changes that could cause discontent of the community.
When can CS:GO be updated?
The fact that Valve is actively working on moving the game to a new engine is evidenced by the data that datamainers find time and again. In particular, lines of code with «s2»were found in the game's files, and textures and even entire maps for the new engine were found in other Valve games.
Many people were expecting a major update for the game's tenth anniversary, but it never happened. So for now we can only wait for news from Valve, which, as usual, is in no hurry.