Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Panorama UI update Valve confirmed last January. So far, Valve has been Valve, meaning there hasn’t been any word on when this overhaul might be coming. But now players have spotted a few clues that indicate Panorama is just about ready, and could show up in the next few weeks.
Briefly, the Panorama UI is the user interface of Valve’s Source 2 engine, adapted for use in CS:GO’s Source engine. Players hope that this will not only give the game a welcome visual refresh, but also that it’ll be a chance for Valve to re-market the game and draw in new players to replace the numbers that have been dwindling lately.
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So why get excited now? Valve News Network has the details on a CS:GO-related upload to the Steam Translation Server, Valve’s crowd-sourcing platform for global localisation. In total, STS translators received 288 new strings of CS:GO material to translate, many of them containing direct references to Panorama.
Valve News Network gets into the nitty gritty in the video below, which also provides some context for the CS:GO community’s hunger for a major update, as well as an explanation of what how the Steam Translation Server works and how this information was leaked.
But the upshot is that 288 lines of translation uploaded June 7 means two things: one, an update to Counter-Strike is imminent; and two, it’s likely to be fairly substantial. The fact that the word ‘Panorama’ pops up several times in the strings points makes it very likely that this is the refresh the community has been waiting for.
We’ll let you know if we find out more.