CS2's Windows

There's a new shader in Source 2 that revolutionizes the way windows are portrayed in Counter-Strike.

0:00 Intro
0:52 Parallax Shader
5:21 Potential Applications
6:14 Outro

#cs2 #counterstrike2

[hxgonic]

This effect was also used in some source 1 games too! Take the light strips in portal 2 for example, they are simply a flat image but they have this same effect applied to them to give them depth

[FBombFitzgerald]

When your video began explaining how you were running out of wall/stair/window related items to talk about in TF2, I was really hoping you'd say you were "running into a wall" with the topic.

[echosym]

as someone who has spent about 2, 000 hours on gm_construct 13 i can safely say that the flat window textures in source 1 also use concrete for it's texturing, so at least valve is consistent.

[Positroni]

This seems like an evolution of the Portal 2 lights that use parallax to simulate depth. Really cool shader trick.

[villaelisa]

when i saw that thumbnail i tought this was a 3kliksphilip video lol

[wcliftongameplaystutorials]

I believe they also used the Parallax Effect in the Unreal Engine 5 tech demo they released a couple years ago as a proof of concept which makes game worlds more realistic while reducing development time of it's implementation in the game world over building traditional rooms behind windows as seen in CS:GO or the Hitman series.

[HaHAjax]

The skyscraper windows in a few of the Spiderman games made by Sony also use parallax, albeit a different variant. They basically show what appears to be an entire 3D modeled room, but it's entirely flat. That might be an interesting thing you could look into in another video :)

[D_]

Shaders and computer graphics is absolutely magical. The fact that a thin plane can render depth is amazing to me. It's like that illusion of infinite depth from two one-way mirror and led strips type of stuff. So cool!

[turd]

i like to imagine this guy is just a multi-dimensional source game traveler that likes to look at walls.

[ryanbrunette]

the normal map has an Alpha layer added after the normal map was made. Not sure what it is used for but the alpha is not being rendered in the previews. Because the alpha is not pre multiplied it doesn't affect the colour.

[elliejohnson]

Skyrim is well known for having many graphical limitations, but it also actually uses parallax on ice! Even in 2011, this technique has been used in games that released quite dated, so it's quite an old and still very effective technique by today's standards.

[MirelRC]

I've came here expecting a video of how windows on exterior doesn't match the windows in the interior, but I've got informed on how the windows are made in CS2. Cool video.

[lonesomevinn]

i was expecting a buff engineer parallax behind a window as a joke

[ups_]

even if quite limited, it's awesome to see that's it's possible to do this kind of thing out of the box in the source 2 engine! when you said it was parallax mapping I was 100% ready for you to explain shader code haha

[rKaype.]

Certain the Concreate Texture has an Alpha mask baked in and used for the scuffs and scratches on the windows. The Curtain texture in which you were seeing a frame and trees are just artifacts from that part not being textured because they're using a mask to mask that artifacting out (The mask right below it). Would've possibly been cheaper and easier to have baked that mask into the Alpha channel of the Curtain Texture which is something I'm interested into why they didn't do that since POM is already pretty expensive to render.

[Galkoe]

The reason concrete texture for glass is to imitate the dirty window. It's easy to setup from concrete to glass: set color to alpha & select primary color of concrete.

[gamejoker]

I think the same or similar windows were used in Half-Life Alyx in a few instances. This has given me some inspiration to create some possible trippy textures with some cool depth in vr, wish me luck on my experiments!

[Cyberfishofant]

0:28 ooo lemmy guess it's the same shenanigan as p2 had

[jerichohasfun]

Filled glass bottles in half life Alyx and I believe the Molotov works in a similar way.

[craftablescience]

weird that no one's mentioned it yet, but Source 1 has a material editor too! it looks like the source 2 version of the tool is based on it
you have to launch in tools mode to open it, its called "Material Editor" just like source 2 and is in the same place the particle editor, commentary editor and ActBusy tools are located