Around one week ago the eagerly awaited Counter-Strike: Source Beta was released by Valve, through Steam to Cyber Café subscribers. This was the first part of a staggered release with a wider beta open to ATI Voucher holders and Condition Zero owners soon to follow. We at Driverheaven were lucky to be invited into the beta program at an early stage and this preview lets you know what we thought of the new game, and the new engine.

So what is it?
Currently the beta consists of one map, DE_Dust which is present in the original Counter-Strike and Condition-Zero’s multiplayer. The original Counter-Strike game play is still in place where a team of Counter-Terrorists battle a team of Terrorists and either the Counter Terrorists kill all the Terrorists or the Terrorists plant and explode a bomb/kill the Counter Terrorists. Quite simple. The major difference between the two is the engine used. Counter-Stirke: Source uses the Source (Half-Life 2) engine and so some huge changes to graphics and physics can be expected. Lets take a look at the difference this makes on our one level beta…

Launching a Game…
Counter-Strike: Source is downloaded through Steam and when installed has a size of 366mb for the beta, quite small for a modern day game.

The game is also launched through steam, the title screen presents you with the options:

Find Servers
Create Server
Options
Report Bug
Quit

The options menus allows you to configure a huge amount of settings, from general keyboard commands and your crosshair type to detailed video and sound options. There is not much about the game that cant be changed in here.

Looking at two option screens in specific, Video and Sound we can see some of the excellent features the game has.

In Video we have the standard set of resolutions and the option to set widescreen/run in a window. Moving into the advanced section you are displayed a list of the more detailed options and the level of DirectX you are using. It appears that the game chooses the level of setting it finds best for your hardware as when we first opened the options the only thing we had to change was the Visual Detail, we changed that to Reflect World. Some pretty high level settings in there by default (6XAA and 8xAF by default?!)

On the sound front there are less options however no less important.

Speaker configuration is probably the most important option in there, Counter-Strike Source allows you to have 5-channel surround sound when playing. An invaluable asset in working out the direction you are being attacked from. Each setting can also be tested using the inbuilt sound testing tool, this tool loads a scene in the game engine and sound is directed to speakers around the room.

Playing a Game…
Once you’ve got your options fully configured you’ll want to head in for some great Counter-Strike action. There are 2 ways to do this either join or create a server. Creation of a server allows you to fully configure the properties of the game, such as number of players, map etc. Very simple to set up.

Joining a server is equally easy, just click join, choose a server with a decent ping/player count and then off you go…

The Engine/Differences…

When first entering the main game engine the layout and area was quite familiar to me, what was immediately noticeable though was the level of detail provided by the Source engine.

Here’s an example of how things have changed…

Condition Zero

Source

Immediately noticeable are the much higher quality textures, such as the rusted barrels and the much improved draw distance and objects possible such as palm trees. Looking more closely at the details we can see some of the possibilities the Source engine gives from a texture detail point of view…

Very nice, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Whilst playing the game there were some elements of the engine that really jumped out at us, here’s a selection:

Floor Tiles

The smooth yet dimpled tiles are spot on, very realistic looking.

 

Smoke

Smoke is something that many games have trouble with, generally smoke is a block texture which often has hard edges, the Source Engine provides a much more realistic Smoke effect. In the first screenshot the player is in a smoke cloud and visibility is impaired. The opacity of the smoke changes gradually as you walk through it. In the second screen shot the smoke is illuminated by the gunfire of the character within it.

Lighting

Some of the lighting effects in Counter-Strike: Source are phenomenal, the above screen shot is one such example. In this shot the Sunlight is streaming through the windows in a dome again another effect which is very true to how things behave in real life.

Physics:
Wow is one word that comes to mind when playing Counter-Strike: Source. Some of the interaction with the world is excellent. Initially I was impressed with the fact I could walk into barrels and knock them over - next I was able to shoot the knocked over barrel which picked up speed the more it was hit...rolling into another barrel which then knocked over and rolled as it would in real life. The next thing I noticed was grenades that exploded sent objects in close proximity flying in various directions. Lastly, but certainly not least was the weight of the objects and how they move. Around DE_Dust there are a few piles of discarded objects such as cans and bottles… its possible to shoot these and send them flying off in any direction. Depending on where you shoot them depends on the height, speed and direction they take. Probably the best of these is a plastic bottle which when shot zooms off as you would expect - however when it lands it lands and rolls like a half full bottle would! The first time it happened it was one of those “Did that just happen???” moments…

Performance…
As we mentioned in the video options section the default detail level was quite high 6xAA and 8xAF normally isn’t something most people would use. This combined with the physics engine should make the game quite demanding. Surprisingly though the performance we achieved was first class. On our test system bases round the A64 FX53, X800 Pro and 1gb of PC3200 memory the frame rates never dropped below playable at 1600x1200. The average frame rate was 48fps and the minimum experienced was 31fps.

Final thoughts
Counter-Strike: Source is shaping up to be a great advancement on the Counter-Strike franchise, the game play that Counter-Strike players have come to love is still present however the graphics and sound updates add that little extra to the original (Something that was well needed after so many years). The physics also add to the overall experience and it was quite amusing to see other players go through the same “Did that just happen?” moments that we did. It will be very interesting to see what the mod community can do with regards to the physics engine…and what Valve can do with the maps not yet included in the beta. Our first glimpse at the Source engine has also done a great deal to raise our interest and excitement as to what Half-Life 2 has in store… now we really can’t wait for either game!

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