07 July 2006

Day Of Defeat: Source Free Weekend On Now

The second Day of Defeat: Source Free Weekend has begun. This free trial period features all the new content recently added in the Summer Update to Day of Defeat: Source, including the new gameplay type (Detonation), new missions (Jagd, Colmar) and gameplay and technology enhancements. If you already have Steam, click here to give it a try with no obligation to buy. If you do not have a Steam account, click here to create a free account and join the ranks for the Free Weekend. All Steam users also receive free access to the recently added Media area, which features the DoD movie shorts and a growing collection of game trailers.

06 July 2006

Day of Defeat: Source Free Weekend Preload Commences

Preloading for the second Day of Defeat: Source Free Weekend has begun. This second free trial period features all the new content added to Day of Defeat: Source in the Summer Update, including the new gameplay type and missions. Click here to preload. Preloading will let you start playing the moment the countdown hits zero.

29 June 2006

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

28 June 2006

DoD: Source Colmar Trailer Available Now

The following video highlights the Detonation style gameplay featured in Colmar, the second of the two new maps offered in the free Day of Defeat: Source Summer Update coming this Wednesday.

view the DoD Colmar Trailer


27 June 2006

New DoD: Source Media

The following video highlights the Detonation style gameplay featured in the Jagd map, one of two new maps offered in the free Day of Defeat: Source Summer Update coming this is Wednesday.

view the DoD Jagd Trailer


23 June 2006

Day Of Defeat Source Summer Update Coming June 28

Valve's Popular WWII Online Action Game Approaches First Birthday

Bellevue, WA, June 22, 2006 - Valve® announced a Day of Defeat: Source Summer 2006 Update featuring a Free Map Pack is scheduled for release on June 28 via Steam to everyone who owns a copy of the game.

The Map Pack, which arrives just before DoD: Source's 1st birthday, introduces a new gameplay style, Detonation, in two brand new missions (Jagd, Colmar). In addition to the new missions and gameplay style, the Summer 2006 Update also introduces new technical features and gameplay enhancements to Day of Defeat: Source. Some of the new gameplay enhancements - such as spawn clip adjustments, improved hit location detection, and weapon balancing - were made after reviewing the player statistics gathered since the stats feature was added to DoD: Source earlier this year.

Since its original release in the fall of last year, Valve has introduced a number of new features, missions, and enhancements for the game - following in the company's long tradition of ongoing development for its online properties. Below is a summary of the new missions and features added to Day of Defeat: Source since the initial launch:

New Missions Added:

Colmar (June 2006) -- Set in Northern France, Colmar introduces Day of Defeat's Detonation style of gameplay. Marred with cold weather conditions, Colmar's Detonation objectives drive successful teams to attack target areas in unison.

Jagd (June 2006) - Jagd challenges teams to a more advanced urban Detonation mission, one that must be completed in a limited amount of time and is therefore unforgiving to unorganized offensive attacks.

Kalt (February 2006) - The narrow city streets, wheelhouse, and center bridge on which Kalt is fought challenge Axis and Allied forces to disperse and hold multiple points. As such, surging attacks and sudden changes in momentum may be common.

Argentan (January 2006) - The first new mission introduced after the initial launch of Day of Defeat: Source is set alongside the rolling hills of a French trainway. It's hillsides and country structures provide the setting for punishing sniper and machine gunner standoffs.

Technology Updates:
  • Color Correction
  • Film grain
  • New Shaders:
    • Image-based texture blending
    • Light warping
    • Phong Shading/Rim Lighting on player models
  • Improved Animations
  • Support for Bloom on DX8 level GPUs
  • Prop Vertex Lighting
  • Engine Optimizations

Gameplay Enhancements:
  • Spawn Clip adjustments
  • Improved Hit location detection
  • Weapon balancing
  • Detonation Gameplay Introduced
  • Player Statistics

Available via Steam and at retail outlets the world over, Day of Defeat: Source is one of today's most played online action games. Players join the ranks of Axis vs. Allies battles in Western Europe at the height of the war in 1944. Players enlist in specific combat roles, ranging from scouts to sharpshooters, and are tasked, as a unit, to complete objective-based missions.

For more information on Day of Defeat: Source, Valve or Valve's games, please visit www.steamgames.com.

About Valve
Valve is an entertainment software and technology company founded in 1996 and based in Bellevue, Washington. The company's portfolio of entertainment properties includes Half-Life®, Counter-StrikeTM, Day of Defeat®, and Team Fortress®. Valve's catalog of products accounts for over 20 million retail units sold worldwide, and over 80% of PC online action gameplay. In addition, Valve is a developer of leading-edge technologies, such as the Source game engine and Steam, a broadband platform for the delivery and management of digital content. For more information, please visit www.valvesoftware.com.

31 May 2006

Source Engine and Dedicated Server update

An update to the Source Engine and Dedicated server has been released. The update will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The changes are:

Source Engine
  • Fixed bug in receive proxies due to a mismatched structure change
  • Fixed crash in SourceTV if AUTO_DISPATCH_MODE was full, had no relays and a new client tried to connect

Media
  • Released Episode One launch teaser #3

27 May 2006

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:

Source Engine
  • Fixed command allowing clients to change sv_cheat convars
  • Fixed engine trying to load incorrect skill.cfg file and defaulting game variables

25 May 2006

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

10 February 2006

25 January 2006

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:

New Map
  • Added dod_kalt with High Dynamic Range (HDR) lighting

Day of Defeat: Source
Fixed players getting stuck on models

18 January 2006

Source Engine SDK Update Released

A major update to the Source SDK has been released on Steam. Included in this update are several features and fixes for the tools in the Source SDK.

New SDK Features
  • High Dynamic Range lighting now supported in the tools
  • Day of Defeat: Source support now included
  • New Hammer Editor features:
    • VGUI Model browser with real-time 3D view
    • Map autosave/backup
    • Model and displacement rendering in 2D views
    • Many other small improvements and bug fixes

For a full list of changes, see the Source SDK Changelist on the Valve Developer Community site

10 January 2006

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:

Source engine
  • Fixed problem users with ATI cards were experiencing with overly shiny cube maps