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Source

Source is the engine Valve introduced in 2004 with Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source. It grew out of GoldSrc, Valve’s modified Quake engine, and carried Valve’s games until Source 2 took over from 2015.

History

The split goes back to 1998. About a week before Half-Life shipped, Valve forked its code into two branches, Goldsrc and Src; the second became Source. Day of Defeat: Source (2005) introduced HDR rendering and colour correction after Valve rewrote the shaders. Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006) and The Orange Box (2007) each brought engine versions that older games could not run without upgrades. In 2013 Valve published the Source SDK 2013 code on GitHub.

Other studios built on Source too: Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic and Titanfall 2 all run on it.

Games made with Source

18 games, oldest first. Each game links to the article that names its engine.

GameYearDeveloperEngine version
Counter-Strike: Source2004Valve, Turtle Rock Studios, Hidden Path EntertainmentSource
Half-Life 22004ValveSource
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines2004Troika GamesSource
Day of Defeat: Source2005ValveSource
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic2006Arkane Studios, Ubisoft Annecy (Xbox 360)Source
Garry’s Mod2006Facepunch StudiosSource
Half-Life 2: Episode One2006ValveSource
Half-Life 2: Episode Two2007ValveSource
Portal2007ValveSource
Team Fortress 22007ValveSource
Left 4 Dead2008Valve SouthSource
Left 4 Dead 22009ValveSource
Portal 22011ValveSource
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive2012Valve, Hidden Path EntertainmentSource
Dear Esther2012The Chinese RoomSource, Unity (Landmark Edition)
The Stanley Parable2013Galactic CafeSource
Titanfall 22016Respawn EntertainmentSource
Black Mesa2020Crowbar CollectiveSource

At a glance

Developer
Valve
First games
Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source (2004)
Based on
GoldSrc
Last version
Source SDK 2013
Licence
Source available (Source 1 SDK licence)
Successor
Source 2

Sources

Checked .

  1. Source (game engine) — Wikipedia
  2. GitHub - ValveSoftware/source-sdk-2013: The 2013 edition of the Source SDK — GitHub
  3. Source 2 — Wikipedia
Image credits
  • Source logo — Valve. Public domain. Placed on a white square and converted to WebP