14 DAY TRIAL // Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment have released a brand new patch for their recently launched Counter-Strike: Global Offensive shooter, this time making some modifications to the spectating mechanic, while improving plenty of performance issues for players who had AMD-powered systems or Bitdefender antivirus software.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive promised to blend the classic 1.6 experience with the newer Source one and, judging by the increase in popularity for the online shooter, it’s succeeded in attracting the millions of fans still loyal to the series.
Since its launch in August, developer Hidden Path Entertainment, together with Valve, have been continuously updating the game.
The latest patch has now appeared on the PC platform, via Steam, and brings a wide array of enhancements to systems like the Spectating one, as well as improvements in terms of performance or stability, not to mention different updates for the Server Administration side of the game.
Check out the full details about the latest patch for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive below, via Steam:
[ SPECTATING ] - Resurrected SourceTV as 'GOTV.' - Added a map overview that displays players, events, grenade detonations, etc. Can be drawn on in a select-able colored pen when spectating or if the "sv_competitive_official_5v5" convar is set to 1 on the server or if the client convar "mapoverview_allow_client_draw" is set on the client (drawings are not currently networked to other players). - Added free camera to spectator modes cycle. clamped hud_scaling to 0.95. - Added convar 'cl_spec_show_bindings' that toggles the visibility of the spectator key bindings. - Added spectator ability to toggle competitive scoreboard player data using the 'drop' command. - Extended team clan name support to the Team Select Screen. To use team clan name, all humans should match their Team name in Games->Settings, or the server admin can use the 'mp_teamname_1' and 'mp_teamname_2 convars.' - After halftime, teams no longer switch sides visually on the spectator screen, they now stay where they are and the team colors switch instead. - Created a server convar that lets you swap the default player side position manually (CTs on right and T's on left) called mp_spec_swapplayersides. - Made the hotkey that's assigned to jump to a player not change after half-time. - You can now display a country flag next to your custom team name on the spectator scoreboard by setting "mp_teamflag_1/2" to ISO Alpha-2 country code of the country you want to display.
[ CLASSIC COMPETITIVE ] - Introduced "Skill Groups", the new Skill Group emblems are now visible in the main menu and at the end of a competitive match. A players' Skill Group will be displayed after they achieve at least 10 competitive match wins. - Reworked conditions of valid match leaving: A vote to concede becomes available to the team that lost a player. Otherwise the match continues. - Number of players searching for a competitive match will display number of players compatible with the game type selected by player, for example players searching for "Dust II" will see a number of players searching for "Dust II" + "Defuse Mission", players searching for "Defuse Mission" will see sum of all players searching for "Defuse Mission" or any specific defuse map, and so on. - Estimated wait time for a competitive match now more accurately displays wait time based on the game type selected by player.
[ PERFORMANCE ] - Performance improvements for users running on AMD systems. - Fixed a major performance problem for users running Bitdefender antivirus software.
[ BUG FIXES ] - Fixed two crashes that could happen if you were on a team and went to spectator team. - Fixed the timer display on the hud still showing even when the bomb was planted. - Fixed avatar scaling issues on the spectator hud as well as the issues that would place the player slot avatars offset some distance from where they should be. - Made some adjustments to the specttor UI and regular hud to account for hud_scaling set really high. Fixed a really bad bug where going from the lobby to a game could prevent players from having input. This would result in not being able to select a team or move around. - Changed flashbang visual effect in Spectator mode so that it is updated when the target changes.
[ SERVER ADMINISTRATION ] - Added Save/Restore of match state. - Added convar 'mp_backup_round_file [fileprefix]' -- If set then server will save all played rounds information to files with this prefix. Backup file contains players information like KDA, MVPs, cash, kevlar, helmet, defuse kit, weapons and grenades and match score for first and second halves. In a case of a tournament server crash backup file can be loaded using ' mp_backup_restore_load_file'. The default is 'backup' - Added convar 'mp_backup_round_file_last' -- Every time a backup file is written the value of this convar gets updated to hold the name of the backup file. -Added concommand 'mp_backup_restore_list_files [number]' -- Lists recent backup round files matching the prefix, most recent files first, accepts a numeric parameter to limit the number of files displayed (default 5). - Added concommand 'mp_backup_restore_load_file [filename]' -- Loads the specified backup file and applies players information like KDA, MVPs, cash, kevlar, helmet, defuse kit, weapons and grenades; sets the match score for first and second half and starts next round. - Added convar 'mp_backup_round_file_pattern,' that defines the pattern for naming backup files using tokens. Example: %prefix%_�te%_%time%_%team1%_%team2%_%map%_round%round%_score_%score1%_%score2%.txt. The default pattern results in 'backup_roundNN.txt' - Whitelisted 'mp_logdetail' convar. - Added convar 'sv_damage_print_enable', that determines whether damage given and received is visible in the console after a player is killed. - Added 'cl_bobcycle' to 'sv_competitive_minspec'. It's now restricted to the defauklt 0.98 on servers that have 'sv_competitive_minspec' enabled. - Made all server cash_ convars notify players when they are changed. - Servers running with sv_pausable 1 will now correctly display 'server paused' UI element on clients when server is paused using 'pause' command. - Added mp_spectators_max convar to control how many spectators are allowed in a match. - Added convar mp_halftime_pausetimer that will indefinitely pause the halftime timer. - Added convar mp_warmup_pausetimer that will pause the warmup period indefinitely. *Warmup periods shorter than 6 seconds cannot be paused.
The new update for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is now available on the PC through the Steam digital distribution service.