Ex-Valve Developer Explains How Source 2 Might Affect CS:GO

Former CS:GO Developer Reveals How Source 2 Port Might Affect the Game

This is how Source 2 will impact the performance, gameplay, and graphics of CS:GO.

Aditya Singh Rawat
Updated On: 
Highlights
Former Valve developer, Richard Geldreich, gives his opinion on how the Source 2 port might affect CS:GO in terms of graphics, gameplay, and performance.
He believes that even after upgrading to the Source 2 engine there is no guarantee that the graphics and performance of CS:GO would improve.
As for the gameplay aspect of CS:GO, Geldreich said "That's up in the air".

There has been a lot of chatter recently about Valve developers seriously working on a Source 2 port for CS:GO. Despite all the speculations, the community is not too bothered because such reports have been making headlines for quite some time now, but discussions about how the new game engine will impact the game have definitely been on the rise.

To explain how a Source 2 update might impact CS:GO, former Valve developer, Richard Geldreich, came forward to shed some light on how it might affect the performance, gameplay, and graphics of the game.

How a Source 2 port might impact CS:GO in terms of graphics, gameplay, and performance

Richard Geldreich, a former Valve developer, gave his insight and expert opinion on how moving over to the Source 2 engine might impact CS:GO, during a recent interview with WIN.gg.

Already elements from Source 2 have been incorporated by CS:GO to update its UI (User Interface) but a complete overhaul has been rumored to be right around the corner for more than half a decade.

The Panorama UI in CS:GO is a Source 2 asset

Theoretically speaking Source 2 should result in better graphics and overall performance for CS:GO, the tradeoff being that it could hamper the core gameplay.

Giving his own input on the matter Geldreich said that the graphics and performance improvements are not guaranteed with a Source 2 port because, "(Valve) has lost a lot of its graphics talent. I suspect they'll just take the Source 1 stuff, copy and paste it, and throw some gloss on top."

As for gameplay related issues which CS:GO offen struggles with due to the Source 1 engine being old and clunky, Geldreich did not have a solid answer as to whether Source 2 will make improvements upon this or not.

"The Source 2 codebase was a beast and (Valve) lost so much talent I doubt they can optimize it much. The Source 1 codebases were optimized by some really solid engineers over the years, but switching to more modern graphics APIs versus the now-ancient DirectX 9 may help,” explained Geldreich.

Richard Geldreich has previously worked on Source 2

Based on what Geldreich has to say about how Source 2 could impact CS:GO, it surely does not come forward as the best possible solution for everything that the game is currently struggling with.

The final remark by Geldreich was that if Valve went ahead with a Source 2 update "I would be skeptical it still feels like true CS:GO."

However, Valve has done a wonderful job when it comes to creating Dota 2 on the Source 2 engine with the game going on to become a massive hit. It remains to be seen if the same can happen with CS:GO or not.


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Aditya is the in-house CS:GO writer at AFK Gaming. While his understanding of the esports space is not restricted by geographical borders, his current focus lies in the Asian region. Understands and follows almost all major esport titles.

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