Fans of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive should find the recent graphical effects update Valve provided to the long-running shooter to be equal parts winsome and useful, as the publisher and developer is at least attempting to make the game look better. Rather than being a total re-haul of the visuals for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, though, Valve has introduced subtle changes to the look of the game by way of new lighting improvements, shader features, Hammer Editor enhancements, and by building fresh modular systems, all of which can be utilized by mapmakers and content creators right now.

In order for Valve to give Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fans a comprehensive overview of all of the graphical updates in action, developers implemented them in the new version of the bomb-defusal map, Nuke.

The company also put a new area in the latest CS:GO Software Development Kit containing all of the modular systems and assets created for Nuke, as a way for players to see examples of how to implement the changes in fan-made spots.

As seen in the gallery below, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's environments have definitely been given understated, yet markedly cleaner improvements, with the shader feature's phong specular reflections on the lightmapped tile floor being a great example of Valve's attempt to provide cleaner-looking tweaks. Not to mention, the new reflection effect that developers have added is quite nice, giving CS:GO added realism.

It's been a while since Valve has provided map updates to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, so the recent spate of changes that the studio has implemented should certainly be welcome by most, if not all fans. If anything, the community behind CS:GO will likely eat up the new tools provided to them, as they'll now be able to enhance the appearance of creations like the Mad Max-themed Truck Wars map.

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While this update of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is decidedly well-done, some fans of the game would much rather have the shooter get a complete revamping à la Dota 2 Reborn. Bearing that in mind, it would be an odd move on the company's part to provide CS:GO with the above improvements if a Source 2 package is in development. In fact, should Valve go ahead and port the shooter to Source Engine 2, it would effectively nullify these recently completed graphical enhancements. Nevertheless, there's no telling whether or not such an update will come to fruition just yet.

What do you think about the new graphics update Valve gave Counter-Strike: Global Offensive? Do you believe that these changes point to CS:GO possibly getting ported to Source Engine 2? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is out now and is available for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

Source: Valve (via Kotaku)