CS:S, DoD:S, TF2 Updates Released

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source and Day of Defeat: Source have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Source Engine Changes (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2)

• Optimizations to multi-core rendering
• Removed -heapsize command line argument. Some detail: This command made sense in Half-Life 1’s memory manager. The current engine manages memory in a way that doesn’t need it specified. Under some circumstances, specifying a non-optimal heapsize causes crashes and/or reduced performance
• Fixed an exploit that allowed people to send fake VAC messages to clients

• http://store.steampowered.com/news/4371/

Optimization in Source: A Practical Demonstration

by MangyCarface @Nodraw.net

Optimization is one of the least understood parts of mapping in source; there is a lot of hearsay on the matter and generally the topic can appear overwhelming to new mappers. Today we’re going to discuss how optimization in source works, not from a theoretical approach, but from an example-by-example method that will hopefully bring us around to understanding the underlying theory. When implemented correctly, good optimization can be more beautiful than the aesthetics of a map itself. Read more ...

Day of Defeat: Source Update Released

Updates to Day of Defeat: Source have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Day of Defeat: Source

• Added new Detonation game mode
• Added two new Detonation maps: Jagd and Colmar
• Added film grain and color correction cinematic effects while in spectator
• Optimizations to the player animation blending system
• Improved bullet and melee attack hit detection
• Shortened the BAR reload time
• Reduced recoil and fire delay on the Garand
• Added CVAR cl_autorezoom - set to 0 to not rezoom sniper rifles and rocket weapons
• Added new image-based texture blending shader
• Added new light warping shader
• Added new phong Shading/Rim Lighting on player models
• Added support for bloom on DX8 video cards
• Added vertex lighting to props
• Fixed a case where players could get under terrain in Argentan
• Made it more difficult for players to repeatedly block the same cap in order to rack up defend points
• Fixed player being able to clear mg42 heat by undeploying and redeploying while reloading
• Added blocking walls to enemy spawn entrances
• Fixed stepping over window ledges in Avalanche

• http://store.steampowered.com/news/668/

Source Engine Update Available

Updates to the Source Engine have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Graphics

• Fixed occasional graphics artifact tearing run running on Nvidia 6800 hardware
• Fixed mismatch of bumpmapped/non-bumpmapped surfaces in HDR
• Fixed bug where mat_colorcorrection wasn't getting set properly on when running for the first time
• Updated default configuration settings for some newer video cards
• Fixed full-screen flicker bug when Alt-Tabbing out of fullscreen (particularly at high resolutions)

User Interface

• Added progress bar state to print a description when the server changes levels
• Show disconnect dialog when client connection times out
• Fixed anti-aliasing on fonts
• Fixed a memory leak in vgui
• Fix for startup video not showing correctly if running fullscreen with desktop resolution less than or equal to 1024x768
• Fixed bug where game would crash when taking a bug screenshot if the screen/window resolution was wider that 2048 pixels

Sound

• Fixed sound initializing twice at startup in some cases
• Optimized sound engine performance
• Fixed a bug where machines without proper sound hardware and/or drivers would crash

SourceTV

• Added SourceTV port and delay time to status output if SourceTV is active
• Added new command net_status that shows more detailed information about total and average packet loss, latency, packets/sec and bandwidth
• Added convar tv_autoretry 1 so relay proxies try to reconnect after connection crashed/timed out
• Added convar tv_timeout to specify connection timeout limit in seconds
• Improved spectator client dispatching, should be faster and balance better
• Fixed SourceTV relays being unable to connect to sv_lan 1 servers
• Fixed SourceTV servers reporting password restrictions
• Fixed SourceTV bots joining game even if disabled
• Fixed disappearing weapons in SourceTV
• Fixed spectator chat not displaying on relay proxies
• Fixed SourceTV crash during changelevel
• Fixed command tv_record crashing relay proxies
• Reduced SourceTV CPU requirements

• http://store.steampowered.com/news/630/

Day of Defeat: Source Update Available

Updates to Day of Defeat: Source have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

• Allied Garand is now more accurate
• Allied 30cal machine gun is now more accurate
• Made the garand sight ring larger when in iron sights.
• Moved Axis k98 rifle iron sight model away from the player slightly.
• View model no longer sways in iron sight mode
• Decreased the recoil on the Allied Garand when in iron sights.
• Fixed bug where Allied 30cal machine gun would remove stamina when firing an empty gun
• Improved weapon pickup to search in radius around crosshair
• Fixed prediction bug where players would get stuck together
• Added an end of round statistics panel to highlight the most valuable contributors to the winning team.
• Increased footstep volume
• Updated firing sounds for both Allied and Axis machine guns.
• Game now uploads a stats blob to steam on level change or shutdown. Contains info about scoring, weapon and class performance and server settings. We'll be creating a web page for the community to view these stats soon. (These are not statistics about individual players, just aggregate across the entire Day of Defeat Source community.)
• Added life id to damage record in console
• Fixed bug that would produce '0 damage in x hits' in damage record
• Added cvar "hud_takesshots" - Setting this to 1 will take a screen shot at the end of the game with the scoreboard included.
• Updated the death notice hud element
• Fixed logging error where player index was used instead of userid for cap and block messages
• Winning and losing teams can now chat during the bonus round * no longer show (dead) prefix during this period.
• Fixed bug where last character of a players name would be cut off.
• Added defense icon to death notice defense event instead of "Defended" text
• Fixed bug where you could jump while in the process of going prone
• Fixed animation bug when an assault player dropped his primary weapon and didn't have a pistol or grenades.
• Force exact file consistency on smoke grenade materials and weapon scripts
• Optimizations to lag compensation
• Added voice command variations
• Optimizations to debris physboxes

• http://store.steampowered.com/news/497/

Day of Defeat: Source and Source Engine Updates Available

Updates to Day of Defeat: Source and the Source Engine have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:


Source Engine

• cl_predict is now treated as a cheat
• Disallow the '%' character in names and the '#' character when at the start of a name
• Removed debug cvar snd_mixvol

Day of Defeat Source

• Added defense scoring bonus. Players now get a point for blocking an area cap that is over 50%, either by killing a player required for the capture, or by entering the capture area
• Fixed an issue with players not respawning on round restart
• Changed to new arm hitbox code - uses hitbox groups to swap between hitbox sets with and without arms. This will prevent shots to the chest area from hitting the target player's arms
• Increased Thompson and MP40 melee attack rate to match knife/spade
• Fixed situation where melee attacks weren't hitting target when they should have
• Fixed accuracy on semi-auto and full-auto for bar and MP44 being swapped
• Semi automatic is now more accurate than fully automatic
• Darkened background of scoreboard to make it easier to read
• K98 iron sights no longer re-zooms after a shot
• Fixed rag doll pose when player went prone with Panzerschreck
• Reduced maximum number of players on a server to 32
• Fixed issue with bullet penetration wasn't happening correctly with displacements
• Optimization related to grenade explosions
• Network optimizations for player, player resource
• Restrict which shaders are allowed to be applied to player models.
• Fixed sniper rifle playing zoom out animation out if the player was not on the ground when they tried to zoom in ( e.g., falling off of a small ledge )
• Friendly fire is now turned off for the bonus round. Be nice to your winning teammates
• Crosshair scale setting is now saved across sessions
• Added log event for tick points
• Added log event for changeclass
• Added log event for flag caps
• Added log event for game over condition
• Added damage, hitbox, weapon info to player_hurt event
• Fixed log events for clan restart events
• Added cvar mp_logdetail ( 0 = no damage logged, 1 = enemy damage, 2 = teammate damage, 3 = both )
• Made input to voice menus all client side

• http://store.steampowered.com/news/466/

Source SDK Update Released

A Source SDK update is available and will be applied automatically when Steam is restarted. The changes include:

Source SDK

• New hl2mp character model sample
• Fixed some cases of having to run the base game before being able to debug your mod
• Optimized bandwidth usage in mods based upon the hl2mp code base
• Implemented a fix in the lag compensation code that was occasionally preventing players from respawning correctly
• Fixed xwad running vtex incorrectly
• Fixed xwad building into the wrong target directory

• http://store.steampowered.com/news/408/

HL-2:DM, SDK, Source Engine Updates Available

Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Source SDK, and Source Engine updates are available and will be applied automatically when Steam is restarted. The changes include:

Half-Life 2: Deathmatch

• Added SLAM, Stunstick and Crowbar
• Added dm_steamlab
• Fixed game_score entity not awarding points
• Added team specific spawn points ( info_player_combine, info_player_rebel)
• Optimized weapon firing effects bandwidth usage

Source SDK

• Added source code for Half-Life 2 multiplayer (Run the 'Create a Mod' link)
• Added ability to create new shaders. See Authoring Shaders In Source for documentation
• Added new tool and source code of DemoTool.exe -- which shows the high-level structure of .dem files
• Added source code for Source Model Viewer included (src\utils\hlmviewer)
• Added source for Half-Life 2's Airboat model
• Fixed issues with Steam account names with ".."
• Fixed FacePoser flex sliders
• Hammer limits framerate in 3D views to 300fps -- eliminates overheating problems

Source Engine

• Fixed screenshots/save games being saved in the wrong place
• Fixed hang in rcon server
• Fixed server crash where banned players could retry/cancel quickly during connection
• Fixed crash when a user specifies a heapsize that is too large
• Fixed "play" command crashing on dedicated servers
• Fixed bspzip'd assets in maps not loading properly
• Added FCVAR_CHEAT to r_shadowids
• HLTV port/server can be completely disabled by command line parameter "-nohltv"

• http://www.valvesoftware.com/news/?id=392 --- http://store.steampowered.com/news/392/