Counter-Strike: Global Offensive engine branch

The was introduced in 2012 with the release of , branching off from (with some and additions and features). It is the latest Source 1 engine branch available and succeeds the .
This branch has been continued to be updated for CS:GO (via branch) after the release (which replaced CS:GO). But as of Jan 1, 2024, CS:GO is no longer being updated by Valve. The engine branch, however are still remain maintained for third-party games that use the CS:GO branch, including , and most likely still available for licensing. 
Like other Source engine branches since Left 4 Dead (except Alien Swarm), the source code was not publicly available. However in 2020, the source code for this branch (dated 2017-2018), alongside the full source code of 's , has been leaked.
== Features ==
New since the is:
; FXAA anti-aliasing
: Simple post processing effect aimed to remove jaggies on geometry and other object at the cost of image quality, but are much faster than other anti-aliasing method, such as MSAA.
: FXAA can be also used with MSAA (such as 2X) at the same time. This will benefits most lower-end PC that struggles to run MSAA 4X or higher, it will also benefit models, transparent textures (without alpha to coverage) and other objects that MSAA was unable to remove jaggies or staircase effect on them.
; Real-time dynamic shadows
: provides dynamic, high-resolution cascade shadow mapping for the outdoor light of .
; Lightmapped Ambient Occlusion
: VRAD can now bake ambient occlusion into the lightmaps for a map, leading to enhanced realism.
; Bump mapped decals
: decals now support bump maps.
; Scaleform (officially called Scaleform GFx)
: A vector graphics rendering engine used to display -based UI and HUD for games. CS:GO uses Scaleform for the in-game HUDs and the main menu (until 2018).
; VPK version 2
: New version of VPK file format. Later backported to all games.
====Newer Features====
Features introduced with later updates to the branch.
; Phong reflections on Lightmapped materials
: LightmappedGeneric and now support diffuse Phong reflections.
; Texture streaming
: Reduce system RAM and graphics card VRAM by streaming textures.
; Vertex lighting for bumpmapped static props
: Static props with bump maps can now receive vertex lighting, better blending them into the environment. All static props also now receive better lighting.
; Anisotropic reflection emulation
: Brush shaders can now emulate anisotropic specular reflections using new parameters.
; Bump map blending for 
: Two bump maps can now be blended together for high-frequency and low-frequency bumpmap variation on the LightmappedGeneric shader.
; 
: A displacement shader that can blend four different materials together by luminance.
; Prop combination
: VBSP now supports combining selected static props during map compilation, increasing performance and lowering draw calls.
; Increased engine and compilier limits
: The engine now supports more entities, more models and more displacements.
: 
; New first-person weapon lighting.
: First-person weapon view now support more detailed lighting.
; Static prop scaling
; Panorama UI
: Introduced in 2018, replacing Scaleform, Valve's new Custom GUI interface that resembles modern web design and authoring (HTML5/CSS/JS). Using .XML and JavaScript files, developers can create dynamic and clean HUDs and menus and even high-quality in-game intractable panels.
; Direct3D 9Ex / Windows Aero DirectX Extensions 
: Introduced in April 2019 update, D3D9Ex improves performance depending on GPU hardware and drivers.
; Vulkan renderer 
: A low-overhead, cross-platform graphics API, successor to OpenGL.
: On Linux, where Direct3D is not supported, the Source Engine defaults to using Valve's in-house library ToGL to translate Direct3D calls to OpenGL. Using DXVK on Linux is usually recommended if the game supports it, as ToGL is known for having somewhat poor performance and causing some graphical issues.
; Other improvements
: 
====Features removed/changed====
; Scaleform (officially called Scaleform GFx)
: Removed in later updates of CS:GO, in favor of Panorama.
; Dropped support for Shader Model 2 GPUs
: CS:GO branch drops support for all DX9 GPUs without Shader Model 3.0.
== Availability ==
* (delisted, still available through beta branch)
** Can still be obtained by selecting the beta branch in in your Steam Library. No longer maintained as of Jan 1, 2024, which means that CS:GO will now stop receiving bug fixes and other updates, but will remain available and playable, however any features that rely on the game coordinator such as the Inventory will eventually become broken or non-functional. As mentioned above, the branch itself is still continued to be maintained for third-party games.
** On (OS X), aswell as all systems running on 32-bit OS or with DX9 only GPU, which does not support , will automatically have the CS:GO automatically downloaded instead.
* (earlier version)
* - Previously running on the .
* (earlier version)
* 
* 
* (unreleased) 
* (unreleased)
* (unreleased)
:: 
A third-party, heavily modified version of this engine, called , is also available, and it is used in the following games:
:* 
:* 
:* 
Source code for these branches is not available. However, authoring tools exist for custom content.
* 
Category:Official Engine Branches