Valve has unveiled its new game engine at GDC 2015, its first for 11 years. Source 2 is the successor to the original Source engine, released in 2004 with the launch of first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Source (above).
Jay Stelly, Software Developer at Valve, said in a press release that “with Source 2, our focus is increasing creator productivity. Given how important user-generated content is becoming, Source 2 is designed not for just the professional developer, but enabling gamers themselves to participate in the creation and development of their favorite games.”
Like the latest versions of Unreal Engine and Unity, Source 2 will be made available to “content developers” free-of-charge. Though, what constitutes a content developer, or whether “free” includes a royalty percentage deal, à la Unreal, is as yet unclear.
Though details of the new engine are scant, Valve promises that Source 2 will have a special version compatible with low-overhead API Vulkan. There was no mention of a release date, but the announcement itself suggests that Source 2 will get an official launch soon.
Source: TechSpot
