Bit-Tech had the good fortune to take the first look at the future of the Source engine and its support of multi-core processors. The future is looking mighty nice indeed.
Having gotten some ideas of the mechanics behind the Source engine's transition to multi-core, we were keen to find out what had really motivated this move. Yes, there's new hardware arriving in the form of Kentsfield, but other development houses are not moving as quickly as Valve is when it comes to embracing the technology.Included in the six page preview are two videos that show just a tiny hint of what the Source engine with multi-core support can truly do, a few screenshots taken from the videos, a benchmark graph, and plenty of juicy details about the future of Source and Half-Life 3 (maybe). The rain looks oh so pretty.
Gabe Newell has a fairly easy answer. "If we're right, other people are going to take a long time to get the multi-threaded versions of their engines out. If we're right with the approach we've taken - which is to iterate and build on top of Source - we can get there a couple of years ahead of where they could be." In other words, Source can be at the cutting edge of engine technology, which makes it very attractive both to consumers and licensees.
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