CS: GO 1st August Patch - Content Analysis

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

Front-End Changes

UI

Added cl_crosshairgap_useweaponvalue convar (0 or 1) that defines whether the crosshair gap changes with the equipped weapon (defaults to off, works with style 4 and 5)

GAMEPLAY

Flagged smoke grenade particles to face player camera position instead of camera direction.
Non-local player positions are now networked with full precision. This prevents small discrepancies in player bounding volume motion between clients and servers under certain circumstances.

MISC

Fixed a rare case when a previously existing inventory item was displayed after unlocking a weapon case or fulfilling a trade up contract.

MAPS

Cache:

Fixed visibility exploit around pipe at mid.
More translation fixes.
Fixed multiple one-way wallbanging issues.
Made catwalks wallbangable.
Fixed issue where grenades would get stuck on thin wall panels.
Smoothed movement around generator for less abrupt movement restriction.
Improved readability around Quad.
Further improved readability at Heaven.

Mist:

Improved clipping, removed possibility to boost at various locations (where it was not intended)
Added clip in windows
Deleted bad DM-spawn (in Underpass)
Players should now properly die when jumping from the Sniper tower
Increased the width of B-site door coming from ShortStairs
Made skill-jump at Catwalk easier (still hard)
Removed pipes sticking up at Side (looked like a player head from a far)
Added possibility to jump from blue container at Stairs (avoid peeking CT from Outside when rushing Underpass)
Removed strong light at Stairs to make peeking to Outside less dangerous
Changed red-navigation decals to orange (easier to see)
Raised generator at CT-side Catwalk to allow easier movement when jumping down from middle
Removed railing/yellow poles at Front (allowing easier movement for T at the start of each round)
Slight optimization of items in the skybox
Updated hints around T-spawn/Front
Very careful removal of items in the player area
Removed unusable doors (that was placed around the level)
Removed barrel under Backway stairs (there is no way anyone could have placed it there)
Updated text on the Restricted sign (German and Finnish - Finnish soldiers are now greeted welcome)
Removed col from fence at Sniper tower
Lowered the sound intensity for rumbling rain at B-site

Cobblestone:

Changed terrorist faction to Phoenix

Cache Map Changes

Another wood plank has been added to the side of Quad; giving players easier readability of their enemies.

The translation fixes continue this week, and take affect on this decal throughout the map.

The paint on the wall in the doorway of heaven has been increased in size.

Physic collision has been added for the area surrounding the model of the generator. This will smooth the movement around the generator for the player and give them less drastic movement restrictions.

A exploit was discovered after the previous Cache update; it involves the pipes located in the middle. The CTs were able to jump on the pipes and aim through a gap between the buildings. But it would glitch the wall textures and the player was able to see/shoot the enemies passing by.

With the previously noted decal translation fix in mind; in some places the decal had it's shade changed. The image also features minor changes to some of the lighting on certain objects.

Addition grass textures were placed on the ground within the middle of the map.

Minor adjustments were made to the ladder and wall placement.

It appears that the catwalks through out the map have been made more bangable. Located below showcases examples of three different locations.

Location 2

Location 3

Mist Map Changes

The spray painted bomb directions through out the map have been changed from red to orange.

Littered rocks around the map have been removed for less debris.

Texture discoloring has been removed from around the sign.

The rocks/grass continuous to be removed around the map.

The red lighting located above the player's allowed spot has been removed. Also this image showcases the removal of many background trees.

The texture collision has been removed from the cage/fence area surrounding the player.

At the bottom of the ladder you can see that the surrounding walls had their grimy textures removed.

With the removal of the multiple location of grimy wall textures, this image features a extra door removed from the lookout room.

The same changes but from a different corner.

The hard lighting within this staircase has been removed.

The important detail of blood splatter has been added in this following pathway.

A barrel and various boxes have been removed from under this staircase.

The unattached door has been removed with some of the grimy wall textures.

Addition grimy wall textures being removed with the deletion of some cardboard boxes.

The doorway within the B staircase has increased in size, which makes the involved building larger.

The attached side generator has been raised.

The fans within the generator blend a lot more in to the surrounding machine.

Another angle of the side generator.

One more point of view of the difference.

The side catwalk has been extended; which changes the sizing of the ID text located on the wall.

A pipe has been added to the control room's wall.

This image showcases the extension of the B doorway from the inside. It also shows the removal of the unattached door.

Picture of the actual doorway. In the background there has been multiple roof objects removed like the satellite disk.

Removal of a few of the bushes on top of the tunnel. Also shows more rocks being removed from the ground.

This image showcases the removal of the yellow poles, scattered boxes, and grimy wall textures.

The yellow poles and side railing have been removed to give easier/faster movement to the Terrorists.

The Finnish and German translations have been fixed for this sign.

The two images below shows the changes made to map from a sky point of view.

Back-End Changes

Version Released

ClientVersion = 125
ServerVersion = 125
PatchVersion = 1.34.3.1

Added Sound Effects

Warning:The following sound player level's default at the maximum volume. This is a reminder to turn down the volume with the slider before playing

Sound effects have been added for the vehicles on Cs_Insertion. You can hear a preview of each effect located below:

Boat.wav

Helicopter.wav

Swat.wav

Van1_terrorist.wav

Van2_terrorist.wav

Van_police.wav

With these new sound effects being added, each one has it's own property values within these strings.

Location of these additions are represented in the game_sounds_world.txt

"insertion.boat"
{
"volume" "0.8"
"pitch" "100"
"soundlevel" "SNDLVL_100db"
"wave" "vehicles/insertion/boat.wav"
}
"insertion.helicopter"
{
"volume" "0.8"
"pitch" "100"
"soundlevel" "SNDLVL_100db"
"wave" "vehicles/insertion/helicopter.wav"
}
"insertion.swat"
{
"volume" "0.8"
"pitch" "100"
"soundlevel" "SNDLVL_100db"
"wave" "vehicles/insertion/swat.wav"
}
"insertion.van_police"
{
"volume" "0.8"
"pitch" "100"
"soundlevel" "SNDLVL_100db"
"wave" "vehicles/insertion/van_police.wav"
}
"insertion.van1_terrorist"
{
"volume" "0.8"
"pitch" "100"
"soundlevel" "SNDLVL_100db"
"wave" "vehicles/insertion/van1_terrorist.wav"
}
"insertion.van2_terrorist"
{
"volume" "0.8"
"pitch" "100"
"soundlevel" "SNDLVL_100db"
"wave" "vehicles/insertion/van2_terrorist.wav"
}

String Additions/Modifications

The terrorist player models on De_Cbble have been changed from the "Professional" to the "Phoenix" models.

Location of these additions are represented in the gamemodes.txt

"de_cbble"
{
"nameID" "#SFUI_Map_de_cbble"
"name" "de_cbble"
"imagename" "map-cbble-overall"
"default_game_type" "0" // classic
"default_game_mode" "0" // casual
- "t_arms" "models/weapons/t_arms_professional.mdl"
"t_arms" "models/weapons/t_arms_phoenix.mdl"
"t_models"
{
- "tm_professional" ""
- "tm_professional_var1" ""
- "tm_professional_var2" ""
- "tm_professional_var3" ""
- "tm_professional_var4" ""
"tm_phoenix" ""
"tm_phoenix_variantA" ""
"tm_phoenix_variantB" ""
"tm_phoenix_variantC" ""
"tm_phoenix_variantD" ""

The string that represents the display name of the "Sticker" item has been changed to lowercase in it's parent properties thus changing it in all the related strings.

Location of this change is represented in items_game.txt

Items
"1209"
{
- "name" "Sticker"
"name" "sticker"

Strings were added for a new "key" item to the Community Case 4 that separates the general key during the whole timeline of a case drop to just a key that works during a separate month, July.

Location of these additions are represented in the items_game.txt

"1309"
"name" "Community Case Key 4 July 2014"
"item_name" "#CSGO_community_crate_key_4"
"item_description" "#CSGO_community_crate_key_4_desc"
"first_sale_date" "2014/06/23"
"prefab" "weapon_case_key"
"image_inventory" "econ/tools/crate_key_community_4"
"tool"
{
"restriction" "community_case_4"
}
}
"1310"
{
"name" "Community Case Key 4"

A string modification was made changing the Community Case 4 associated "key" ID to the previously used "key" instead of the new "key" that was added for the month of July (See Above).

Location of these additions are represented in the items_game.txt

"4018"
{
"item_name" "#CSGO_crate_community_4"
"name" "crate_community_4"
"image_inventory" "econ/weapon_cases/crate_community_4"
"prefab" "weapon_case"
"associated_items"
{
- "1309" "1"
"1310" "1"

An addition modification was made for assigning the M4A1 Howling skin as the correct rarity - "Immortal". There has been errors around showcasing the correct rarity of the Howling skin within different aspects of the client. These continued to be fixed for displaying the Howling skin as a Immortal/Contraband item.

Location of this change is represented in items_game.txt

"paint_kits_rarity"
- "cu_m4a1_howling" "ancient"
"cu_m4a1_howling" "immortal"

The bot and player location displays have been fixed for the two locations that were bugged on Insertion.

Location of these additions are represented in the csgo_english.txt

"DeadTrees" "Dead Trees"
"BarnRoof" "Barn Roof"

Addition entries were placed in the NavPlace file; this file represents all the location spots and their names through out CS:GO. If a map has a custom location spot then it is added after the default locations. The additions made were giving the locations for Insertion.

Location of these additions are represented in the navplace.db

//Insertion
Rafts
MotorBoats
SeaRock
BoatHouse
SeaCliff
Beach
YellowHouse
RedHouse
Villa1stFloor
Villa2ndFloor
DirtRoad
Road
BackRoad
SmallForest
BigForest
EastForest
WestForest
Glade
DeadTrees
BarnRoof
PowerLines
Helicopter
Helicopters
SidePath
Field
InsertionA
InsertionB
InsertionC
InsertionD

Detailed Information about Smoke Changes

Firstly I'll give a little bit of a front end explanation of the changes that were made to the smoke. It seems this is a quick/hot fix as it only fixes one of the many issues involved with the smokes. Most likely addition changes will be made or the systems will be reworked.

The change that was implemented affected the way that the smoke was rendered. Now it doesn't matter what angle you are positioned while looking at the smoke anymore. The smoke renders the same visually through out all the angles that the user demonstrates.

One of the most common location that showcased this issue is the catwalk on Dust 2. As you can see in the images below this one smoke bug has been fixed:

Now to show the reader a little bit more in-depth look of behind the scenes of what was actually changed; I will go in detail to explain the raw data values that changed. Firstly this is what the tool appears like after I open the particle file.

The Bounding Box Minimal's value has been changed to "-100 -100 -100" instead of "-100 -100 -32".

Bounding_Box_Min property changed

Orientation_Type of the render animated sprites property has been changed to "1".

This image showcases the VMT file that was changed within the update. Further down the page you can see the actual text string addition.

Next I captured an example of the new and old particle in motion

Display of the old particle

Display of the new particle

Finally I'm posting the actual text string that was added to the VMT file in connecting the smoke being animated to the player's camera angle is located below.

Location of this change is represented in the vistasmokev1_smokegrenade.vmt

VMT
SpriteCard"
{
$basetexture "particle/vistaSmokeV1/vistasmokev1_emods"
$DUALSEQUENCE 1
$SEQUENCE_BLEND_MODE 1 //2
$MAXLUMFRAMEBLEND1 0
$MAXLUMFRAMEBLEND2 1
$ZOOMANIMATESEQ2 4
//$EXTRACTGREENALPHA 1
$depthblend 1
//"!srgb?$overbrightfactor" "1.2"
$STARTFADESIZE 1.5
$ENDFADESIZE 2.0
$aimatcamera 1

ESL One Cologne 2014 Team Stickers (Work in Progress)

Various organizations and content creators have been submitting the team stickers for the event later this month. It appears that the creators are submitting the stickers at their own pace and the cutoff date by Valve has not been reached. Below are the stickers that have been submitted up to the point of posting this article.