Valve Source 2 Engine Soft-Launched, Rumors Run Wild

This week Valve has soft-launched Source 2, also known as Source Engine 2, or the next generation of their engine for video games. This software is the base for the next generation of Valve games, very possibly ready for titles like Left 4 Dead 3, Team Fortress 3, and – though it may seem like a long-lost dream, Half-Life 3.

Data arrives via a fellow by the name of RoyAwesome from the DOTA 2 board on Reddit. There we're seeing filenames like vphysics2, materialsystem2, vconsole2, and most importantly dota_ugc\game\bin\win64\engine2.dll.

Word from the developer community is that Source 2 is (at least partially) backwards compatible with Source 1, meaning there's a possibility that previous-generation Source-based games could be updated.

Of course all of these "3" titles would be better suited for Source 3, but who's counting? Best case scenario? We see exactly what this fellow by the name of "ModsCensorMe" has to say. We'll chalk this up to the truest and most magical wishful thinking.

Below you'll see a demonstration of Hammer 2014 being utilized to work with DOTA 2. This is the newest update and looks similar, but ever-so-slightly different from the tools delivered before this newest update. This includes the files for Source 2 in their earliest form. Notice the model editor / asset browser specifically.

UPDATE: The official DOTA 2 Twitter account @DOTA2 has suggested Gamescom will be home to a big announcement. Or they're just trolling the world by reminding us that they'll be there playing games.

DOTA 2 plushies will be at Gamescom, after all. They could just be bringing the heat with... toys.

Stick around SlashGear's gaming tag portal as we continue to investigate. And for a laugh, have a peek at how many people are downloading and/or using the DOTA 2 editor right now on Steam. It's not a small amount.