![]() It launched with the various other new Source features with Half-Life 2: Episode Two.ĭynamic shadows in a map always come from the same predetermined direction.ĭynamic shadows in a map always react dynamically to every light source. These facial improvements included increasing the detail around the eyes and mouth, increasing the number of facial shape targets – think of these as movements of muscle groups – by about 50%, rewriting the rules that control how these shapes blend and increasing the intensity of many of our existing shapes." Dynamic lighting and shadowing 2Ī new dynamic lighting and shadow mapping system was released for Source, replacing the somewhat limp existing system. For Episode One, we wanted to extend the characters' facial systems to support more intense performances with a wider range of facial expressions, that would hold up better at close range. "When we designed the Half-Life 2 facial system back in 2000, our goal was to get a natural-looking performance at a moderate distance. Ken Birdwell explains the upgrade's features in the game's commentary track: When Half-Life 2: Episode One was released on 1 June 2006, it introduced the second version of Valve's proprietary facial animation system. Official licensees and Valve themselves have all made use of the technology since its release.Īlyx Vance animated with the Source engine's facial animation system, here in Episode Two. However, whilst in theory all Source engine games and mods were able to use HDR immediately after its release, the game code required to 'hook in' to the new system was not made available to modders until eleven months later, on August 4, 2006. Entirely new features such as High Dynamic Range (HDR) Rendering have been shown to require developer input, however.įirst seen in Day of Defeat: Source, then shortly after in Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, HDR was the first major instance of Source's modularity in use. For instance, if Source is upgraded to support hardware physics, every Source title on Steam will instantly benefit. When coupled with Steam, these updates can be distributed retroactively and automatically. This allows for the easy upgrade and modification of certain features without breaking other areas of the engine or breaking engine continuity (that is to say, there need be no 'version jumps' from 1.0 to 2.0). Source is designed from the ground up to be highly modular. Facial expressions Full range of human and non-human facial movements Based on Professor Paul Ekman's Facial Action Coding System Over eighty-four "digital muscles" Lip-sync Works in tandem with facial expressions Auto-generated, but completely configurable Stored in sound file itself for localization Modularity and notable upgrades Scalability Supports DirectX 6 and upwards Modularity allows for all current and future Source projects to scale back to DirectX 6 if they desire. Audio Full DSP system Full surround sound support Software only Low and high frequency components merged depending on surrounding area and relative position of origin. Networked physics Originate from Havok 2 physics engine Highly-tuned by Valve Processor-efficient Software only Fully networked with low bandwidth requirements Vehicle physics including torque, power, gears, tire material, suspension and mode. Inverse kinematics to ensure that characters' limbs react to environments. Animation Any animation can merge seamlessly with any other animation at any time. Rendering Shader-based DirectX 9 with Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 3D skybox an area can be displayed as a skybox at up to 16x its actual size with full 3D parallax. ![]() For a full overview, see Source Engine Features on the Valve Developer Community Wiki. On June 17, a beta update of Dota 2 using Source 2 was released.Ī Half-Life 2: Episode One scene running on the Source engine, demonstrating high dynamic range, rim lighting, phong shading, facial expressions, and realtime cameras. It supports a new API based on OpenGL called Vulkan, improved performance on older and newer systems, reduced latency, an updated physics engine, 64-bit and DirectX 11, and better cross-platform support. On March 4, 2015, Valve announced Source 2. Since its release it has been heavily modernized by Valve, with the "Orange Box Update", when the aging Source engine was updated with new features for the release of Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal. The Source engine debuted in October 2004 with Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source. Source supports both 32-bit and 64-bit environments and the Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Ubuntu (Linux), Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PlayStation 3 platforms. Its unique features include a large degree of mod-ability, flexibility, an artist-driven, shader-based renderer, industry-leading lip-sync and facial expression technology, and a powerful, efficient and completely network-enabled physics system. The Source engine is a game engine developed by Valve Corporation.
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