Poll: Will Valve ever make/use another engine?

[Woodsey]

The Source Engine is still a competitive gaming engine (hence why it's still in use). Of course they'll update it when necessary, but it's aged well and, well doesn't really look like it NEEDS an update right now.

It's updated constantly, that's the point. It's designed to be a mod engine to incorporate tech as and when it comes (when everything started using HDR for example).

HL2 can still keep up with a lot of games today, Episode 2 was very good looking and since when have L4D + sequel looked outdated?! TF2 is very pretty as well.

I think people forget that HL2 came out 5 YEARS ago. They can adapt it to anything.

 

[atomictoast]

Why would they need to? Honestly the engine is already fantastic and designed to be slightly modified for new technologies. As long as they make upgrades between games it'll be fine.

 

[Rusty Bucket]

Reusing the same engine over and over again is much more time- and cost-effective than making a new one every time, and as long as the engine still works for the games and the games are still fun, it's not a huge problem IMO.

...but yeah, it's way past time for an upgrade.

The phrase 'time effective' should not be used to describe Valve. Ever.

OT: I really hope they do soon, it looks awful and yet takes an inexplicably long time to load.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Whenever Half-Life 3 rears it's head is when I imagine a new engine will be developed.

 

[Croaker42]

I think valve is doing perfectly fine throwing up and updated version of the same engine cuts dev cost. Thats the money that goes back into the things that make a game fun. You know functionality, charicter developement and content. So ya im cool with what they have.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

It still looks okay, so who cares? They'll replace it enetually.

 

[Superior Mind]

I honestly can't see much fault with the Source engine. Sure it's not the latest and greatest but those kind of engines always seem to have their various problems while Source is pretty reliable. Valve aren't just using the same engine over and over either, Source has evolved quite nicely over the last few years.

 

[Supreme Unleaded]

They'll probably just update the Source engine again, it still works and its easy to use, why drop it. And no, the games don't look ugly, they look like a game. what I mean is that not every game has to look ultra-realistic for it to be fun.

 

[TheDoctor455]

Really, I don't see why they need to make a new engine at this point. It's the most flexible engine I've ever seen. All you have to do to see evidence of this is browse through the HL2 mod list on Moddb. I've seen people simply make new levels with it. Add new gameplay elements (SMOD comes to mind). I've seen people make the game look even better than it already does (FakeFactory's Cinematic Mod). I've seen people make (or at least, attempt to make) RPGs out of it. I've even seen people make RTS's out of it. And of course, there's Left 4 Dead. Fully maxed out, that game can easily compete with some of the current-gen shooters that are out now (except for Crysis obviously). So really, all that they have to do is update every now and again to suit their needs (which I believe is what they did for Left 4 Dead). So maybe the reason that HL2-EP3 is taking so bloody long (what is it now, almost 3 years?) is because they are making massive improvements to the Source engine.

 

[Valiance]

you realize they've basically been polishing up free mods for their game and charging you 50 bucks for the past 5-9 years, right?

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Eventually they will, since technology keeps improving and CPU's keep getting faster they'll be able to make engines which take more advantage of that, they can put in features for which computers at the time were too slow. Though maybe they'll just improve the Source engine.

 

[Kstreitenfeld]

The source engine is fine, for the processing power needed the graphics it puts out are amazing. This is ideal since they want people without high end computers to be able to play their games.

Don't expect a new engine any time soon.

Also, its not like they made the engine years ago and just left it alone since then. They have improved it many times and I don't see why they would stop updating it.

 

[AlphaOmega]

You are Spoiled; graphics have reached the level where they should stop trying to make them much better, time for longer singleplayer games and innovation.

The game looks fine as it is; graphics as a whole look good enough.
That said did you play hl2ep2? I bet its "old" in your eyes but that game gave me more fun than most of the titles of the last 2 years, and its a glorified expansion.

Next up; L4d(2) really upped the look of the source games, if you imagine there are over 1800zombies in a l4d2 campaign and they take like 40minutes imagine how many of them are on screen at all times, and imagine every single one of them looks better than a vanilla HL2 humanoid enemy.
Then figure out they all have separate expressions and that are only the commons.

Thirdly, of course they will make a new engine someday, but Source is modular so the source used for l4d2 is not the same one as for hl2; they can make it last pretty long.

Oh and I do realize I sound like a fanboy, I am; of Blizzard.

 

[Kstreitenfeld]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKTAJBQSm10

I think this sums up why you shouldn't focus to much on graphics for the sake of graphics. Most of valve games sit just right before the valley currently its going to take time before they can take the leap (if they even want to).

 

[SantoUno]

Why should they? All their games seem to be perfectly alright, what's the point in them using anopther engire now when their current one seems fine?

I hate Halo 5.1% (8)

And why the fuck is this an option?

 

[Spaghetti]

No reason why they should. It's an engine that does it's job and doesn't alienate PC gamers by forcing them to upgrade their computer every time they release something new.

Plus the graphics are good enough looking as it is. When I think Half Life 2, I imagine the world that was created in the Source Engine. If they come up with something new, making HL look different halfway through the story, it would annoy me a little.

I suspect if they ever do change to something new, it will be after the HL2 finishes...assuming they don't do a Halo...

 

[Godhead]

Please make the poll options on topic we have enough halo bashing threads dont feed us more shit. OT. They're still fine yea there not as polished as some other games but to me this is how gaming should go.

gameplay>storytelling>innovation>graphics

And i think that's why Valve has stayed amazing to me they check them off before saying when they're gonna release it.

 

[Cabamacadaf]

It still looks good. Shut up.

 

[silverbullet1989]

i like the engine they use. l4d2 i thought the visuals looked fantastic, and it runs very smoothly unlike a certain game engine *cough cryengine cough*

 

[mishagale]

The source engine does actually get updated, source of HL2 is technically quite different to source in say, L4D. I think the point is to keep incrementally improving the engine rather than tearing it down and starting from scratch, and so far it seems to be working pretty well. Personally, I thought the visuals in L4D1/2 look fine. It also has a huge and dedicated modding community which valve probably doesn't want to leave behind. So when they finally do have to come up with a new engine, expect it to look a lot like the old one.