Engine talk:Source

I don't know the developer for those games, but if anyone wants to they can probably dig it up, the information for the table is extracted from the Wikipedia article. If there is a way to shorten this list, but still contain the information, please let me know. --Alphasite 23:51, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Maybe a special page for errors shared in the source engine should be added? I don't really know how game specific solutions are but it may clean up the game pages themselves. --Baracus 10:28, 24 February 2012 (EST)

As was brought up in Talk:List of Direct3D 8 games -> Source Engine Games, Source engines does not seem to actually use older Direct3D APIs than 9.

After extensive testing, even to the degree of using WinXP SP1 (which doesn't come with DirectX 9 preinstalled) and various copies of games I have been unable to actually see the games run without D3D9 installed, or use D3D9 when various "DirectX modes" command line arguments is used.

Everything points and reinforces that the "DirectX modes" command line arguments of the Source engine runs in D3D9 but uses compatibility modes/profiles to ensure older DirectX hardware level features are used instead of newer. This is also clarified in the Video -> Advanced window in many games, where "Hardware DirectX level" is changed when using e.g. -dxlevel 60 but "Software DirectX level" remains static at DirectX 9.

Basically each newer "DirectX mode" enables the D3D9 engine to make use of newer DirectX hardware capabilities, as documented on Valve's developer wiki.

A few newer games can also make use of D3D11, though this is an outlier and seems to be a new rendering codebase mostly implemented by their individual developers (e.g. Vindictus still shows "DirectX 9" as the "software level" even though it's using D3D11).

D3D9Ex (Direct3D 9Ex, or Direct3D 9.0L) still needs to be confirmed a bit too, as it is an API available in some games but not all, and there's probably some that are incorrectly listed as having that option.

Just about any that got on a >2013 branch should have D3D9Ex by now. Or if not any, it's there in the common branch vanilla hl2 has, also tf2, dota and csgo (even though they were all enabled years apart). Dear esther, portal 2, l4d2, nuclear dawn and insurgency don't have it instead (confirmed with SK with all but the later).

It should be noted the in-game toggle (at least for the Source 2013 games that still have it) has no effect anymore. The only way to disable it is with -nod3d9ex or -dxlevel n (where n is < 90, says the source code).

A note on D3D9Ex is that RTSS and SK reports differently. RTSS only concerns itself with swapchain data if I remember it right, so it only reports a game as using D3D9Ex if it uses FlipEx (the new swap effect introduced in D3D9Ex). However SK reports games making use of other D3D9Ex related calls (ones that RTSS doesn't hook/care about) as using D3D9Ex even if the swap effect might not be FlipEx.

This means that D3D9Ex testing is at the moment flawed unless aware of these details and how reality might be different from what's being reported.

Can it really? Tried modded Fallout New Vegas with FlipEx swapchain but RTSS still reports it as D3D9.

I am not aware of the specifics that RTSS uses to identify D3D9Ex other than it not being really extensive (since it frequently misreports games), but it does seem that it is even less extensive than I initially thought...

I have confirmed your findings using two native D3D9Ex FlipEx games:

Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes - Misreported as D3D9 by RTSS. Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number - Correctly reported as D3D9Ex by RTSS.

Well, this is annoying... :(

So, my cousin wanted to have a ass-breaking surround experience with his 5.1 setup in CS:Go.
Even if using a 6 years old ALC662 I mean.. FEAR with ALchemy sounded good.

So I went to use the ordinary dsound.dll and dsound.ini even for this source game and I enabled the usual snd_legacy_surround option. However rear sounds were still everything but rear... I set 5.1 in the in-game settings too.. but still no luck.
After reading this anyhow, I realized there was something missing: the 7.1 in-game setting.

So I launched every source game I had and I realized that Valve cut this last option out between Left 4 Dead 2 (original build 4777) and Alien Swarm (build 4993).
And so I thought: why they should remove the only sound mode which requires hardware audio support to work? Well, probably they removed hw audio support altogether....

The only thing I'm wondering about is why games such as Nuclear Dawn (2011) and Garry's mod 13 (2012) still have 7.1 (thus hw sound?) supported
This could probably be explained since both of them are 3d party developers, so they must license the engine in advance and then release their games after the years long development ends (contrarily to Valve games which can ship with the latest version available at release time)

So, I hope you may test if my findings are correct

So, satsun ruled all this out. Hw sound is require only and exclusively if you have more than 6 channels. And provided you have it, it works nice in newer games.
Besides I found some nice parameter to investigate:

windows_speaker_config is connected to the in-game audio setting. 1 means headphones. 4 means 2 speakers. 3 means 4 speakers. 6 means 5.1. 7 means 7.1. Higher values just produce stereo sound. (and no, stereo and quadraphonic sound is not inverted)

snd_surround_speakers (not avaiable in Nuclear Dawn and in games before Alien Swarm) is also interesting but its purpose is widely debated

Is 7.1 surround known to actually work in any Source game that uses Miles Sound System? I read it's still just 5.1 surround with the front channels repeated onto an extra pair located farther away from the center for a "wide" 7.1 channel configuration that isn't the standard 7.1 we use nowadays and it doesn't exist after Windows XP. https://i.imgur.com/VbjDcdN.gif

So now it still just sets 5.1, but without changing the Windows speaker configuration since that was also broken/restricted after Windows XP. https://i.imgur.com/rNQcBc0.png

Another thing I've noticed is that judging by API calls, Source "supports" DirectSound3D, but apparently only uses objects/buffers for speakers/channels. https://i.imgur.com/hyhJkJ3.png

On newer builds, there's the snd_legacy_surround command, which can be set to 1 if using ALchemy/DSOAL. But it reports 1 channel and there have been reports of missing channels/incorrect mapping. But to be honest, I think it's better to keep it set to 0 since DSOAL can virtualize DirectSound (no 3D) channels and simple surround speaker output won't be messed up: https://i.imgur.com/8DpU9BS.jpeg

so anyway, I don't know if there are any benefits from using DSOAL/ALchemy with snd_legacy_surround 1 compared to 0, so here's my general rule of thumb: - In-game/main menu, execute the following command: soundinfo - If it doesn't report 6 channels, run in order: snd_legacy_surround 0 snd_surround_speakers 5 soundinfo

Once upon a time, I remember the rule was "number of days since HL1 went gold". And then perhaps you could not really compare game versions from different branches, but still.. you had some sense of ordered progression.

But now what even is the criteria?

Well, for the most part, they do seem rather meaningless. Though if we followed the Valve developer wiki, we'd basically list the most appropriate codebase as the "build" instead. It would allow us to categorize the various games under these main engine branches:

• Source 2004
• Source 2006
• Source 2007
• Source 2009
• Source 2013
• Left 4 Dead engine branch
• Alien Swarm engine branch
• Portal 2 engine branch
• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive engine branch

Though currently doing so does not seem to be all that important.

The speedrun guys would certainly appreciate the information. Just like "conservationists" perhaps.

Yet, except perhaps 2004-2006, 2007-2009 and 2013... yeah, it's hard to find the right granularity level.

FMOD
OpenAL

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/LocalMPG/discussions/0/535150948612620492/

http://sourcegl.sourceforge.net/

This needs to be reintroduced in a sensible way, as well as rewritten:

== Alt-tab ==
On Windows, Source games are notorious for their poor alt-tab. All Valve Source games, except ''Half-Life 2: Lost Coast'' feature the -noborder launch option. To be able to seamlessly alt-tab, add:

 -window -noborder

to the game's launch options. In Steam, you can do this by right-clicking the game, clicking properties and adding them to the launch options textbox. This does not work for '''every''' Source game; only those released as part of or after The Orange Box. Both [[Portal]] and [[Half-Life 2]] have been updated to include this functionality. Some non-Valve games, such as [[Zeno Clash]] support it, too. This will, however, result in a decrease in performance.

== Console Commands ==
[http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Console_Command_List Source Engine console commands] will run on most Source games such as [[Portal 2]], [[Portal]], [[Garry's Mod]], and [[Half-Life 2]]. It should also be noted that every game will have its own commands in addition to these default commands and these can also be extend at run time, such as by mods.

== Multiplayer ==
If you instantly get a 'Cannot connct to server' error when trying to connect to a server on áll source based multiplayer games and setting ports, disabling firewalls etc. don't work a router '''reset to factory settings''' may solve this problem. This problem seems to affect all source based multiplayer games at the same time, showing less servers when loading the server page and giving the error instantly when trying to connect.

==Engine Specific Errors==
===Failed to create 3D3 device===
When you encounter this error, teh game will fail to start and display this error.

If you encounter this error, try the following steps to try and fix the problem:
*Install the latest stable drivers for your Graphics Card.
*Install or reinstall the .Net Framework included with your game.
*Make sure you have installed all required and recommended Windows Updates available for your computer.
*Attempt to start the game with to "-dxlevel 90" added to your launch options.

Games officially made by Valve/published on Steam (Dino D-Day, etc.) and mods should be separated into different charts.

For some reason most of my Source games crash after the "Preparing to Launch" screen. Half-Life 2 (and the HL episodes), L4D, L4D2, Portal, and Portal 2 all immediately "encounter an error and need to close". The only Source games that do work are Counter-Strike: Source, Garry's Mod, and Team Fortress 2 are the only ones that do work. I've contacted Steam Support to no avail and I'm mostly just finding dead threads with same problem. I've tried doing what the Steam forum says and using CPU-Z to find out if my computer has SSE support but that program has not worked. I'm becoming extremely frustrated and would appreciate any help at all.

Did you try reinstalling steam? Did you try validating the games that aren't working?: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Cleanly_reinstalling_Steam

Forgot to mention that I have reinstalled steam completely (including deleting every game installed) and whenever I validate one of the games, there are no different results.

Hunh. Weird. What are your specs?