May 18th

2012.05.18 -

Today we will not be doing our regular weekly update. Instead, it will come out early next week.

We do have new keys going out today, so if you aren’t in the beta make sure to be on the lookout for them. If you are in the beta, keep playing.

If you missed it, Cadred has a nice Q&A up. If reading isn’t your thing, we suggest you watch Hostage-Strike. If reading is your thing, don’t worry there is actually some reading in Hostage-Strike so you’ll like it as well. If reading isn’t your thing and you just read that – what are you doing? Go watch the video.

Have a good weekend everyone.

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May 11th Update

2012.05.11 -

Today we are releasing the CS:GO dedicated server files for Windows and Linux to all Beta participants. You can find the complete instructions on installing the servers here. One quick note, this is a new method of delivering the files and keeping them up to date. You will not see the servers in the tools section of Steam.

The Dedicated Servers are in their own beta. So there are still some missing features, one of the most obvious is no Message of The Day. That is coming but for now we are looking to test for setup, stability, and management issues.

If you plan on running a server, you should join the CS:GO server mailing list. There you will find helpful discussion, peer support, and news on CS:GO dedicated servers.

What does this mean for most players? While we are expanding our official servers, this should help players have a better experience and lower ping.

As the servers become active and we see the coverage grow, this will also allow us to expand the beta at a faster pace.

Complete release notes for today’s update can be found here.

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May 4th Update

2012.05.04 -

Today’s update contains the SDK. This means if you have the Beta, you now have access to the SDK. It is available as a separate download from the tools tabs in steam. If you are going to map, we suggest joining the CSGO_SDK mailing list for news, information, and peer support.

We are releasing the SDK so people can get a head start on their mapping. Later we will include Steam Workshop integration so creators can easily share their maps and players can view, rate, and download content.

This update also includes Nuke and Inferno SE maps. These are stripped down competitive maps designed for league play. SE maps are not available directly through match-making but are available for dedicated servers and peer-servers.

If you are looking for something a little more casual, we have also added the ability to search for casual/social games. The rules there are a bit more relaxed and the rounds are quicker. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

Complete release notes are available here.

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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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