Week 12

2012.04.27 -

This week besides the update listed below, we have an update that is not so visible.

We released the first beta version of the CS:GO SDK.

With this release, the community will be able to start working on new CS:GO maps. We look forward to new maps, old classics updated, competitive versions of maps, and even more surf maps!
The beta is currently very limited as we work through the bugs. We will make more keys available as we get more feedback and fixes out there.

Release notes for 4/27 Beta 12

Gameplay:
• Fixed an issue in the weapon recoil system which caused tighter shot grouping than intended.
• Dead players no longer can see bomb or defuse icons on scoreboard for opposing team members.
• Recoil impulses are now more consistent for automatic weapons.
• The Movement acceleration and stopspeed values have been lowered per pro feedback.
• Slightly increased the variance of the recoil patterns.
– Updated the recoil pattern for the ak47.
• Adjusted the recoil suppression parameters to help tune burst fire.
• Fixed an issue which was causing thrown weapons to emit from the base of players, rather than their hands. Gifted weapons will now correctly throw the proper distance.

UI:
• Hooked up the win panel for arsenal mode to put emphasis on the winner and runners up.
• The next weapon text in AR now displays appropriate text for the mode and state.
• Fixed the alert for when you reach gold knife level showing up when anyone reached it.
• When you get a point for an assist, it shows in the death message.

Maps:
• New SE version of Aztec with no fog/particles/debris/ropes (except the bridge)

• Dust_SE
– Added correct skybox to the map properties.

• Shoots
– Turned down local-contrast settings.
– Fixed a strange clip on stairway.
– Fixed lighting on the dark hut in the Middle area.
– Fixed a few visual issues with the huts, and thinned out some of the thatch roof.

• Dust
– Adjusted size of buy zones for both CT and T’s.

• Shorttrain
– Adjusted local contrast settings on post process controller.
– Adjusted tonemap settings.

• Inferno
– Added smoothing normals to prop bombtanks used in Inferno level.
– Fix for incorrect bombsite designation text when standing on the blue truck.

• St Marc
– Turned down local-contrast settings.
– Adjusted bloomscale
– Fixed signage typo – changed from “route barée” to “route barrée”

• Safehouse
– Turned down local-contrast settings.
– Adjusted bloomscale
– Upped resolution on a prop, removed label that looks blurry.

• Italy
– Updated some very shiny planters.

• Aztec
– Fixed floating leaf in tree alpha texture.
– Reduced specular on tarp roof.
– Fix for objects disappearing from skyline based on camera position near double doors.
– Fix for the collision of the crates near bombsite B.
– Fixed the collision of the scaffolding at Water below bombsite B.
– Improved the texture on the metal bars at Water below T Ramp.
– Can no longer climb the scaffolding at bombsite B.
– Can no longer walk to the far side of T Ramp.
– Can no longer access platform next to Bridge.

• Dust 2
– Expanded and moved both the CT a T buy and spawn zones in radar image.

• Bank
– Turned down local-contrast settings.

• Baggage
– Turned down local-contrast settings.
– Adjusted bloomscale

• Lake
– Turned down local-contrast settings.
– Adjusted bloomscale

• Sugarcane
– Reduced local-contrast settings.
– Reduced bloom amount.
– Adjusted some tonemap settings.

Models:
• Fixed clipping issue on Terrorist skin with head wrap.
• Fix for Sawed-off where bolt was sticking through the back of the housing during fire and reload animations.

Audio:
• Trimmed up ambient content for Nuke, Bank, Train and Sugarcane and made adjustments to the script in Bank (balancing levels and adding some light breeze to match the trees) and a few updated references in Nuke, Train and Sugarcane.
• Dust ambient optimization.
• Shoots ambient optimizations
• Lake and Safehouse ambient optimizations.
• Italy ambient optimizations. Fixed a doorway where a player could move outdoors and still have the indoors ambience.
• Baggage ambient revision and optimization.

Effects:
• Snow effects have been greatly optimized. Snow in Office runs 7x faster than before.

Bug Fixes:
• Fixed crash when in the Buy menu, then voted yes to change maps.
• Fixed noticeable double round start in Arms Race when the first player entered the server/game.
• Fixed shadows being cast by vgui screens ( mainly the bomb plant numbers in game ).
• Fix for a bug where dropping the Famas in certain points in de_dust would cause the weapon to sink into the ground.

Miscellaneous:
• Relaxing the supported video card checks:
– Display an error and exit if the card doesn’t support shader model 3, bilinear PCF sampling, or cascaded shadow mapping. (No cards are actually marked as not supporting CSM in CS:GO.) So our minimal GPU is now the NVidia 6xxx series (2005), or ATI HD 2xxx (2006) or better.

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Copenhagen Games

2012.04.20 -

A few weeks ago the Counter-Strike community’s eyes were on the Copenhagen Games. Not only were there some great CS1.6 and CSS tournaments, there was a new game on the pro scene – Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

For CS1.6 fnatic won the tournament with their brand new lineup.

In CSS, mousesports pulled out a win in a tournament filled with great moments.

CS:GO’s final match was ESC vs SK Gaming with SK Gaming coming out on top.

It was great to see CS:GO played by some top CS players and to collect impressions from some legends such as HeatoN and GeT_RiGhT.

We also took this opportunity to analyze top players.

Thanks to the data we collect from CS:GO beta testers, we can compare gameplay data from the Copenhagen event to other players who were playing de_dust2 on the same day. Here’s a summary of the data:

It may seem surprising that tournament players had a slightly lower overall accuracy compared to players on public servers. But as we dig a little deeper, we see that the story is not so simple.

The Copenhagen players had a high headshot rate, and fired their bullets while standing much farther from their targets. So even though players in the tournament had similar accuracy to players in public servers, they were hitting smaller targets from a longer distance! They were also more efficient, gaining more kills per purchase from their weapons:

The CS:GO beta is driven by valuable feedback from many sources: forums, casual players, professionals, and the highly-skilled gameplay that we can observe in tournaments. Together, the community is helping make CS:GO great.

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Heat Maps

2012.04.17 -

Recently we have discussed how we incorporate feedback into our design decisions. In addition to valuable feedback on the forums, another important form of feedback we receive is gameplay data. Our data collection is extensive. We track nearly every player action, from individual bullets fired to weapon purchases, and the resulting data can be used to help us evaluate game design decisions.

A straightforward way to visualize the data we collect is through heat maps. Heat maps can reveal player preferences, choke-points in maps, sight-lines for snipers, and much more.

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Step 6,238 : Server Browser

2012.04.13 -

Today’s update includes a server browser. This feature is a good example of how different features are dependent on each other. A server browser alone is not much of a feature. It needs 3rd party servers to be useful. So before we could include it, we needed to test third party servers. Once we resolved some issues with the initial rollout, we needed to expand the server beta to more providers. That is what we have done this week.

When you open up your server browser, you will see some 3rd party servers, but not that many. This is just another step. We need to test this feature and the servers with a wider group before we deploy more and more will be coming. This is also good news for another reason, as the server pool grows the player base can grow as well. Today we are sending out even more keys to potential players.

Another interesting change in today’s update is the addition of screen shake. A couple of months ago Whisenhunt posted this video. We watched it and like the forums thought it was a good idea. It just took a little time to work it in while we had to concentrate on other features that had dependencies. So today we are testing that original idea. Let us know what you think.

You can find the complete release notes here.

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Arms Race+

2012.03.29 -

Release notes for 3/29

Maps:
• Added Arms Race maps – Shoots and Baggage
• Added Aztec to Classic maps

Gameplay:
• Arsenal Arms Race game mode is a single extended round with instant respawn. All players start with the same weapon and get a new one each time they kill an enemy. The progression of unlocked weapons ends with the knife. The first player to get a kill with every weapon wins the match.

• Added ‘Find A Game’ to the Play options menu screen. Find A Game allows you to join an online game of a specific type. This update offers Arsenal Arms Race and Classic Competitive game modes. The map cycle groups include:
Classic Maps
Arms Race Maps

• Added new weapons:
Scar 20 – CT only auto-sniper.
G3SG1 – Terrorist only auto-sniper.
Zeus x27 – Casual Mode only weapon available to both teams.

• Adjustments have been made to increase the base accuracy of all weapons.

• Jump and land penalties have been decreased, and the rate of stamina gain has been increased.

• Bot difficulty has been tuned.

• HE grenade damage has been adjusted per pro feedback.

Models
• Added two new player skins:
Phoenix Faction
GIGN

UI
• Death notice order reversed.
• Updated Italy mini map image.

Bug Fixes
• Fixed a bug in the keyboard + mouse options screen where changes were resetting.
• Fixed the consecutive loss bonus persisting through halftime. Solves the problem of teams receiving extra cash early in the second round of the match.
• Fixed end match scoreboard saying it was a tie in Arsenal Mode.
• Fixed a bug where penetrating shots were doing full damage after the penetration.
• Fixed a bug where the desired distance required to defuse the bomb wasn’t being used.
• Fix for the HUD alert panel coming up incorrectly.
• Fixed for bots not being able to defuse bomb.
• Fix for bug in Demolition mode where players would start the first round of the second half stuck in level geometry.
• Fix for radio message font appearing quite large at higher resolutions.

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