SOURCE 2 IN CS:GO, WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

Once again, news is swirling that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will be moving to Source 2. While this has been a constant topic of conversation throughout CSGO's existence, not everyone really knows what it would really mean for CSGO players.

Source 2 is a game engine designed by Valve that has been used by the publisher since 2015. It is the successor to the 2004 Source engine, which ran Left 4 Dead, Half-Life 2 and many other games. While Source has a number of highly successful titles to its name, the 18-year-old engine is past its prime. As CSGO grows and continues to be a force in competitive gaming, the outdated engine becomes a bigger problem.

Source 2 is likely to offer a great deal to fans of Valve and CSGO, but there are some tradeoffs. Here's what a port would really mean Source 2 for the game and its players.

CS:GO portability would bring better graphics

The most obvious and immediately recognizable impact of a Source 2 port for CSGO would be improved graphics for players on high-end PCs. Although those playing CSGO on older hardware could be burned by Source 2most players would see some level of graphical improvement.

Parts and pieces of CSGO have been moved to Source 2 in the past. Fans have carried maps and CSGO weapons to Source 2 games like Half-Life Alyx to give players an idea of what it could be like.

The experiment showed what the difference would look like at the very least, even before Valve add additional polish. Lighting and shadows are noticeably better in Source 2, with much greater contrast between shaded areas and those in direct light. It is unknown what a full Source 2 port of CSGO would look like, as lighting could affect weapon masks and agent models in various ways. The game should look better overall for those with high-end hardware, regardless.

Source 2 likely to give smoother performance to some CS:GO players

Some CSGO players may expect older software to run better on newer hardware, but this is not always the case. While older game engines were designed with older hardware in mind, newer game engines are often designed to run more efficiently on modern hardware. A move to Source 2 would likely impact different PCs in various ways, but most CSGO players should be optimistic about its personal impact.

On top of that, there is a possible cleanup of the CSGO client. CSGO is a 10 year old game with fragments of old code and redundant code linked to various features. This "spaghetti code" can cause problems from both a gameplay and performance perspective.

The migration of CSGO to Source 2 would likely come with other optimizations that should generate a more efficient and cleaner client. As with graphics, the performance impact should be a net gain for most players.

Ultimately, CSGO is overwhelmingly profitable for Valve on a large part because it is very accessible to players on all types of hardware. The company is likely to commit to keeping hardware requirements relatively low in any transition to Source 2 for CSGO.

Several undesired game changes

CSGO players should be optimistic about a Source 2 port when it comes to performance and graphics. The area where everyone may be most concerned is the effect on actual gameplay.

Former employees of Valve They specifically discussed the impact that Source 2 could have. In short, it could basically change everything about CSGO.

"If CSGO Source 2 really comes online, there will be differences... Even the smallest rendering detail contributes to how it works and feels. CS:GO. If you change the smallest details, the game is different... That code can't be touched because it would break things, sometimes in extremely subtle ways. It would take very careful software engineering to pull that off," said former CSGO developer Richard Geldreich '2021.

By changes to the game's physics engine alone, CSGO could be radically transformed.

The slowdown when a player stops moving could be changed in a way that makes the spike work differently. Many long-range smoke lineups would be rendered unusable. Bunny hops might no longer exist. And, of course, there would inevitably be a multitude of bugs and glitches after such a transition.

The impact could be relatively minor for lower level players. Those of professional caliber will need to re-learn much about CSGO.