New CSGO Source 2 with Dota 2's TI10 Battle Pass
The new CSGO code was found in the TI10 Battle Pass update from DotA 2 and in a recently released update from Half-Life: Alyx, which is related to graphical improvements to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and its long-awaited Source 2 port Has.
Fans have heard that before. In the past few months, some changes relevant to CSGO have been published in updates for Dota 2 and Half-Life: Alyx. This may sound strange to newbies, since Dota is not a first-person shooter and Alyx is only available in VR, which distinguishes the games from CSGO. However, both games served as Valve's test ground for Source 2 functions. Not surprisingly, new updates don't come from CSGO changes, but from changes to the underlying code of Valve's other two relevant titles.
Here are some of the new lines of code called strings that have found updates, followed by images of even more. Click on the image to go to SteamDB, the source of the extracted files.
csgo_show_indexed_light_indicescsgo_show_lod_origin
csgo_show_nonfogging_cached_lights
csgo_single_light_fast_path_sun_cascade_vignette
There is also this string, which may be the most concrete evidence of a CSGO update that does not affect graphical improvements:
SleepConditionVariableCS
The "sleep condition" is probably a command given to Counter Strike NPCs when no players are visible to the NPC. This string could also be related to NPCs in Half-Life: Alyx. At the moment there is not enough information to be sure.
The first connection between Half-Life: Alyx and CSGO were some humble boxes. Or rather modest if the player is new to Counter-Strike. These fields are in a folder called cs_militia, the fan-preferred counter strike card. However, they do not mean that the militia will come back. However, they show how many older assets can be repackaged into brand new games. A reference that has not yet been explained is a fully rendered P250 with a separate magazine.
The render is out of place in Alyx, especially given the fact that the gun doesn't appear as a usable item in Valve's own sequel to the half-life franchise. While the militia's boxes were used extensively in the game, the P250 is nowhere to be found. The P250 render could just be Valve employees playing with an idea, or even using the weapon as the basis for one of Alyx's own weapons. Its presence means little more than to prove its existence and cannot be understood as a sign of the things to come. That said, his listing in Alyx's folder is a neat treat.
How does this tie in with the CSGO Source 2 update?
The CSGO Source 2 update has been rumored at this point for years, but the game's recent beta update for "texture streaming" suggests a kind of graphics upgrade for the eight-year-old fisrt person shooter. The current beta of CSGO makes it easier for less powerful PCs to display larger and more complex textures.
The addition to CSGO is strange, especially given the fact that the game hasn't had a major graphical upgrade in its life. For this reason, it cannot be assumed that a broader graphical update will occur in the near future and that texture streaming is the basis for older PCs being able to continue to run the game at high frame rates afterwards with graphic update hits.
Fans will have to see what's next for CSGO, especially now that Valve has released the long-awaited Dota 2 TI 10 Battle Pass and can draw more attention to other areas. Since the resources for processing the passport are free, the major update from CSGO could be the next.
