Valve rolled out Dota 2’s anticipated Reborn update yesterday. “What does that mean?” I hear you ask. Well, you might want to sit down for this one. Oh, you’re a Dota player – of course you’re sitting down. You’re probably playing Dota right now, aren’t you? Stop tabbing away… come back!
I’m only joking. I love each and every one of you. Especially you.
Here come some details: The first major change is that you’re now running Dota 2 on the Source 2 engine, which brings with it rendering improvements, performance optimisations and higher fidelity visuals.
One of the engine update’s biggest changes is in how it reduces latency, with the server processing your angry mouse clicks even faster. The visual benefits are many, but my favourite is advanced cloth simulation. Look at that billowing cape. Phwoar.
The UI has also been rebuilt, changing the dashboard and integrating the friends list into the home screen. And you can play Custom Games. That’s not it, though – there are myriad other improvements and bug fixes to the base game. The full, very extensive changelog is below:
- Added a new friends list on the main dashboard
- Fixed a case where input could be lost
- Fixed a crash while spectating
- Various terrain texture adjustments
- Adjusted Radiant river ramp to the east of the Ancient camp
- Many ward spots fixes
- Adjusted ramps on the Radiant top lane
- Added Equip Set action to the context menu in the Armory
- Fixed a bug causing the lobby list filtering to not work correctly
- Fixed a visual bug causing small regions near the in-game HUD ability panel to not be black
- Fixed a crash when disconnecting from a game right after spawn
- Improved searching in the Armory to select and scroll to items selected
- Fixed a problem Tab-selecting units after reconnecting
- Fixed a visual bug with various particle systems, including ambient effects for Anti-Mage’s Golden Skull Bashers
- Activated search box for all global player item types (loading screens, music packs, etc)
- Waiting for Players loading screen will now show any Broadcasters the game is waiting for
- Added Spectators and League setting to the settings block at the bottom of the lobby UI
- The View Dota Profile button accessible from the in-game scoreboard now works correctly
- Added options to the friend menu to hide lobbies and broadcasting parties
- Some minor usability improvements to the Treasury
- Fixed particles near the Radiant Secret Shop
- Fixed missing fight recap markers on the replay timeline
- Improved the behavior of Add All to Shuffle to not slow the client and play excessive equip sounds
- Fixed overridden ability icons not appearing in the loadout, customize, and details pages
- Fixed the play panel not allowing ranked access for a segment of players
- Fixed preview of some global items (HUDs for example) to show the requested style
- Fixed a bug where item sets that were in bundles inside of treasures wouldn’t appear in the loadout screen
- Improved loadout screen layout in 4×3 aspect ratios
- Fixed icons for the default courier and ward
- Fixed net graph interaction on all aspect ratios
- Fixed Shadow Fiend not rendering correctly on Low Violence installations
- Coaches are no longer able to see/hear certain effects through the fog of war
- Coaches are no longer able to see the Roshan timer
- Fixed loadout and customize screens being confused about what you actually have equipped after you enter demo mode
- Fixed currency in China not being displayed correctly
- Fixed a rare case where Disarm from Invoker’s Blast wasn’t dispelled by BKB
- Fixed some missing particles in in-game portraits, for example Lina’s head flame for the Fiery Soul of the Slayer
- Prevented bogus particle drawing in the kill cam, for example extra fire in the background for the Fiery Soul of the Slayer
- Fixed some cases of overlapping text in the Dashboard when running under Russian or German
- Fixed bot names not being set correctly in private lobbies
- Fixed Fate’s Edict not properly disarming Spirit Bear
- Fixed particle effects for Flowering Treant and Meepo’s Colossal Crystal Chorus
- Fixed a case where returning to the treasure page would reset the selection
- Fixed a crash when disconnecting from a game right after spawn
- Demo Mode: Made it so that returning from demo mode (either by clicking select new items, or by hitting the dashboard button in the upper left) will return you to the item you were demoing
- Demo Mode: Made demo mode work when demoing the default item set for a hero
- Demo Mode: Fixed a crash when re-entering demo mode too many times
Have you tried Dota 2 out since the update? What do you think of them cloth physics?