Poll: Will Valve ever make/use another engine?

[Elite Guard Lethleane]

Don't get me wrong, i like Half Life2 and L4D. But seriously, the games may have pace but they're really starting to look pretty ugly. As well as that, they barely produce much more than add ons, with the likes of L4D2 being some DLC in a better world, and HL2 episode 3 probably being a couple of hours like 1+2... Again don't go on an all out attack, but wouldn't it be nice to play a good looking(by current gen standards)Valve title?

 

[NuclearPenguin]

Is l4d using the source engine? I didnt know.

 

[MGlBlaze]

How games look is subjective; I think L4D looks pretty nice, and when I first played it the visual style have a very nice throw-back feel to Half-Life 2.

I'm sure they will go for a different engine, of course, but the Source engine is by no means bad. It's certainly better than a lot of bloom-vomiting engines I've seen.

 

[Ziltoid]

As long as people keep buying their games I doubt they will. I played the L4D2 demo and thought it looked horrible, but it was still fun. Although I think the game Cryostasis(?) used the source engine and that game actually pretty good. I know everyone here loves Valve but they sure seem like a lazy developer lately to me.

 

[Vault boy Eddie]

How games look is subjective; I think L4D looks pretty nice, and when I first played it the visual style have a very nice throw-back feel to Half-Life 2.

I'm sure they will go for a different engine, of course, but the Source engine is by no means bad. It's certainly better than a lot of bloom-vomiting engines I've seen.

You mean, you don't like all that bloom burning out your retinas?

 

[Woodsey]

You mean the Source engine that they created specifically for it's mod capabilities, meaning they won't have to change it for a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery long time?

Hmm?

Obviously they will eventually, but the games's still look very nice. Maybe when HL3 comes along (HL3 not Episode 3).

 

[sneakypenguin]

Hopefully they will cause source is really really showing its age. I want the best dang it!

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

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.

 

[Kollega]

When the time is right. For HL3, probably. Team Fortress 2 is probably the best-looking game on the market thanks to it's stylization, both parts of Left4Dead use improved engine and look rather nice, but Episode Two indeed looks pretty dated - when it's not blinding you by HDR effects, that is. So with Episode 3 it's gonna be a new version of Source, and completely new engine will be developed for HL3.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Valve have been using their own modified version of the Quake engine from the start and I don't expect them to stop even if they change it so much that it can hardly be called the same engine.

 

[MGlBlaze]

How games look is subjective; I think L4D looks pretty nice, and when I first played it the visual style have a very nice throw-back feel to Half-Life 2.

I'm sure they will go for a different engine, of course, but the Source engine is by no means bad. It's certainly better than a lot of bloom-vomiting engines I've seen.

You mean, you don't like all that bloom burning out your retinas?

Oh, no, I love having my retinas burned out! It's like everything has glorious excessive anti-aliasing and softening effects! Not to mention the retina-burning makes it like you have sunglasses on all the time.

 

[Vault boy Eddie]

Bloom, I remember playing Turok 2 if im not mistaken, that game had EVIL bloom!

 

[PurpleLeafRave]

Where's the "I love valve and halo" option?

They'd better have improved graphics and more awesomeness (not that it wasn't awesome already) in hl2:ep3 otherwise I'll come to valve with a 12 gauge.

 

[j0z]

I think it is time for an upgrade of the Source Engine, definitely. And I hope that is why ep3 is taking so long, because they are doing a major engine/model/texture upgrade.
The models and textures are, IMO, what makes the Source Engine look weaker than it actually is. In ep2 they reused models from HL2, a game that came out in 2004. ep2 came out in 2007, big difference.

Source has an amazing facial animation system, but when the models are now 5 years old, it can't old a candle to stuff like this:

Spoiler

That was Crysis, released the same year as The Orange Box.
This is Alyx from ep2:

Spoiler

Just update the models and it will look a lot better.

 

[DazZ.]

I like the Source engine, I love the visuals of Team Fortress 2.

It's fine for now, but I think Half Life 3 will be a new engine (not ep3). That way whenever a new Half Life has come along they have changed engine.

 

[Good morning blues]

How does L4D2 look any worse than any other modern game? What, exactly, is missing in this engine? As far as I can tell, the answer is "nothing" - people are just expecting them to upgrade because they know the engine is 5 years old and they don't understand the concept of modularity.