Valve CEO, Gabe Newell, spoke with Develop magazine about the future of their Source Engine used in their video games. According to the man in charge himself, Gabe has said Valve has no plans on releasing a brand new Source Engine 2. The current Source Engine has been in development since 2004. Over the years it has been improved upon in what Newell calls an “incremental update model”. The idea behind it is to continually fix, improve, and polish the current game engine instead of rewriting one from the ground up.
So far the Source Engine has been holding its own over the years. Left 4 Dead 1 and Left 4 Dead 2 both used improved versions of the Source Engine and their graphics have been satisfying. Sure the Source Engine will not give us Crysis-like graphics, but not everyone can run Crysis on their computer. Valve uses their Steam software to track what hardware all of their users are using. You can see the latest Steam hardware and software survey here. I can’t see Valve ever releasing a game engine that pushes the latest graphic card limits. It’s not in their business model. They want to appeal to casual gamers because there are more of them than the hardcore gamers who spend big bucks to keep up with the latest hardware.
What does this news mean for Left 4 Dead 3? Should we see L4D3 in the next year or two, you can forget about it being developed on a new Source Engine. Left 4 Dead fans can expect to see L4D 3 on the same Source engine as L4D1 and L4D2, but more polished and improved. Don’t discount Left 4 Dead 3, or any other future Valve game because it uses the same old Source Engine. Maybe their engine is capable of producing Crysis-like graphics but it is held back because not many people can run those settings. Only Valve knows what their game engine is capable of and when it has reached its max potential. Until then, we will continue to fight the zombie hordes on the same Source Engine Gordon Freeman used to fight the Combine.
View Comments (151)
I think its a good idea to use the same as lfd1 and 2
I really don't mind the just okay graphics in l4d and l4d2, they give the series it's own atmosphere. Those can be left alone, but i would like to see updated features to make the game more realistic.
Some think Source 2 is outdated but it doesn't matter. It's the content and multi-player that make L4D & (2) so special. There's not a lot games that force this kind of cooperative play. And it is so dynamic. Pub stomping with friends or getting your ass handed to you by a really good team. I can't wait for L4D3. The only thing I think that would make it better are options and unlocking special skills for certain achievements. Survivors can unlock crawling when incapped, getting up from hanging on a ledge, increased headshot potential, less melee fatigue, increased speed. Same with specials, hunters have better aiming, smokers can drag someone a little, boomers can puke while walking etc. etc. Oh and last but not least...MORE MAPS FOR CONSOLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think there is no need for new game engine l4d2 graphics are good enough although some things needs to be improved
Not 100% true. When Half Life 2 was released, it took a powerful machine to play at the time. Maybe they've changed. I dunno
honestly, i think the graphics need to stay the way they are. most people have said that the L4D2 graphics were a great improvement over L4D but i disagree, the graphics may look better and shinier and stuff, but the L4D graphics look much more...eh..apocalypse-ey. ya know what i mean? L4D just looked more grody and like it was a dirty zombie apocalypse, L4D2 almost looked like just a normal town that was not experiencing a zombie apocalypse. although, i think this is partly due to the fact that so much of L4D2 took place during the day when all of L4D was at night but still, i personally definitely prefer the L4D graphics so i hope they don't make it too fancy. gameplay mechanics and features are the only thing that they should work on in my opinion. and in response to Natazer, who said they should add unlockables and upgrades to skills and stuff like that. i VERRRRY STRONGLY DISAGREE. im sorry but L4D is one of the MOST balanced multiplayer games out there, the reason i dont like Call of Duty so much is because of all the douchebags that play it and because of how unbalanced it is, the reason its so unbalanced and the reason that so many douchebags play that game is because its alllll about unlocking stuff, if your not unlocking stuff, your not doing it right, thats how Call of
Duty makes it feel. when a game becomes about unlocking things and leveling up, douchebags and unbalanced gameplay are born, L4D is about the fun co-operative gameplay and lets keep it that way!
did you just call us call of duty fans douchebags?
i do agree about keeping left4dead a classic but still...you called us douchebags...you can call us anything you want but that doesn't change anything you #^%@#%^$!!!
They need to add the shadows and lighting from Alien Swarm, add better water and use some parallax occlusion mapping to make floors and rock faces more believable.
Yeah I'm glad they're making a third L4D because I need at a third one in the series to be satisfyed, and I sure hope they make it only for xbox 360, PC, and not for PS3 because L4D is one of my most favorite horror game series, and I don't want it getting on PS3!
you dont want it on PS3 But others do. Dont be so selfish whats wrong with you people
why? that sounds rather mean
Cuz many ppl think xbox is better than ps3...
Like him
Just wanna back up the concept of keeping the graphics the same and to disagree strongly with the whole idea of being able to level up and what not, thats why you join steam groups that run special servers for that kinda stuff, don't get me wrong the crawling concept is a good idea, but where would the fear of being raped by zombies or a tank that just won't get off of you until you are dead go, it would disappear thats what, because I have noticed that when you crawl in L4D2 at least in the special server that allows it, common infected cannot hurt you at all so it kinda defeats the purpose of being able to go down and what not.
I think the new one should be darker like the 1st one
can some body tell me whats wrong with my system when i play L4d1 it load n play versus but when i play L4d2 n get in the lobby and when it time to play it wont load all the way just when i play versus but everthing else on L4d2 i can play so can somebody help me and tell me what can i do r whats wrong