Valve’s recently released its Reborn beta for multiplayer online battle arena game Dota 2, which boasts Valve’s new Source 2 game engine, enhancing the game’s performance and graphics.
Source 2 processes player input more quickly, can use more memory, supports new graphics models such as Direct3D 11, Vulkan, and virtual reality, and enhances audio quality for features like voice chat. Gamers can now create maps in Dota 2 with custom visual landscapes while maintaining an experience consistent with that of their fellow players. The engine also provides greater rendering detail and enables music, visuals, and voice chat to continue during loading sequences.
Valve’s announcement came after announcing the Dota 2 Reborn beta. This beta includes dashboard improvements, party communication enhancements, and filter adjustments for the Hero Browser. Custom Games have also been added and, according to Valve, “can be anything from a grand brawl between ten Invokers, to a story-driven dungeon adventure, to something creative that no one has seen before.”
Valve software developer Jay Stelly stated, “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. We will be making Source 2 available for free to content developers.”
Source 2 is the successor to Source, the game engine which powers all of Valve Corporation’s titles since it’s introduction with Counter-Strike: Source. A Neogaf user leaked supposed images of Left 4 Dead 2 as powered by Source 2 in January 2014, raising speculation as to whether Vavle’s other games would eventually be given a Source 2 makeover.
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