This Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map challenges what's possible in Source

The developers of CS:GO maps have reached the point of absurdity, because it seems that the upcoming map in the game will put even the high standards of the community to shame.

Created by 3D artist Will Granda, de_prime is unlike any Counter-Strike map before it. That's an absurd amount of detail that the Sourse game engine doesn't have to support, the lighting density is way above the norm, and the dynamic environment is way above the static norms of CS:GO arenas. It's not very modern by today's standards and looks more like a Titanfall 2 map than anything from CS:GO.

As CS YouTuber 3KliksPhilip explains in a video, this was achieved by basically doing as much work as possible outside of the editor. The dynamic shadows in the game were greatly reduced, instead lighting was used on stands in external applications. Where CS:GO maps often use blocky brushes and simple offsets to build the environment, almost every piece of de_prime level geometry is formed in Blender before being transferred to Source.

Even so, Granda notes that the Source engine still has tight limits on things like transparency, and while de_prime isn't a huge departure from CS:GO's aesthetic, they feel the engine just isn't suitable for maps with so much "grunge ". Indeed, many recent CS:GO maps tend to have cleaner architecture and brighter scenery to compensate for the lack of voracious detail.

Source: PC Gamer