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As reported by Ars Technica, Valve has released their source code to their Team Fortress 2 game, so now if you’d like build upon the game and make changes, you’re free to do so.
Valve's updates to its classic games evoke Hemingway's two kinds of going bankrupt: gradually, then suddenly. Nothing is heard, little is seen, and then, one day, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Day of Defeat, and other Source-engine-based games get a bevy of modern upgrades. Now, the entirety of Team Fortress 2(TF2) client and server game code, a boon for modders and fixers, is also being released.
That source code allows for more ambitious projects than have been possible thus far, Valve wrote in a blog post. "Unlike the Steam Workshop or local content mods, this SDK gives mod makers the ability to change, extend, or rewrite TF2, making anything from small tweaks to complete conversions possible." The SDK license restricts any resulting projects to "a non-commercial basis," but they can be published on Steam's store as their own entities.
Since it had the tools out, Valve also poked around the games based on that more open source engine and spiffed them up as well. Most games got 64-bit binary support, scalable HUD graphics, borderless window options, and the like. Many of these upgrades come from the big 25-year anniversary update made to Half-Life 2, which included "overbright lighting," gamepad configurations, Steam networking support, and the like.
The Deathmatch versions of Half-Life: Source and Half-Life 2 seemed to get particular attention. Client-side predictions fix "jank/rollback" many years after their heyday.
It's a good time for Valve to push renewed interest in Team Fortress 2. A wave of discontentment over the main game's bot-ridden, cheat-heavy state reached its full height in 2022, but following a "security and stability" update last summer, that has mostly been rolled back (though the fans remain vigilant). Community offerings might be able to do even more to push back against griefing and cheating, freed from the concerns to serve a broader audience.
Valve asked those using the TF2 source code to respect that most of the inventory items in the game now come from the community, so people should "not make mods that have the purpose of trying to profit off Workshop contributors' efforts." Allowing players to access their hard-earned inventory, too, should be done, "if this makes sense for the mod."
Valve suggests that the updates for each game should be available the next time you launch that title.
Valve's updates to its classic games evoke Hemingway's two kinds of going bankrupt: gradually, then suddenly. Nothing is heard, little is seen, and then, one day, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Day of Defeat, and other Source-engine-based games get a bevy of modern upgrades. Now, the entirety of Team Fortress 2(TF2) client and server game code, a boon for modders and fixers, is also being released.
That source code allows for more ambitious projects than have been possible thus far, Valve wrote in a blog post. "Unlike the Steam Workshop or local content mods, this SDK gives mod makers the ability to change, extend, or rewrite TF2, making anything from small tweaks to complete conversions possible." The SDK license restricts any resulting projects to "a non-commercial basis," but they can be published on Steam's store as their own entities.
Since it had the tools out, Valve also poked around the games based on that more open source engine and spiffed them up as well. Most games got 64-bit binary support, scalable HUD graphics, borderless window options, and the like. Many of these upgrades come from the big 25-year anniversary update made to Half-Life 2, which included "overbright lighting," gamepad configurations, Steam networking support, and the like.
The Deathmatch versions of Half-Life: Source and Half-Life 2 seemed to get particular attention. Client-side predictions fix "jank/rollback" many years after their heyday.
It's a good time for Valve to push renewed interest in Team Fortress 2. A wave of discontentment over the main game's bot-ridden, cheat-heavy state reached its full height in 2022, but following a "security and stability" update last summer, that has mostly been rolled back (though the fans remain vigilant). Community offerings might be able to do even more to push back against griefing and cheating, freed from the concerns to serve a broader audience.
Valve asked those using the TF2 source code to respect that most of the inventory items in the game now come from the community, so people should "not make mods that have the purpose of trying to profit off Workshop contributors' efforts." Allowing players to access their hard-earned inventory, too, should be done, "if this makes sense for the mod."
Valve suggests that the updates for each game should be available the next time you launch that title.
