Differences between Half-Life 2 Engines

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This picture explains most of the differences between Old Engine (Source Engine 2006) and New Engine (Source Engine 2009). S. has made a YouTube video that shows even more differences.

As you might have seen or heard it, there are two different iterations of the Source engine to choose when you're speedrunning Half-Life 2. Both of these engines are very different from each other, so it's good to know what the advantages are of a certain Engine.

Half-Life 2, together with Episode One originally ran on Source Engine (Old Engine). In 2007, the release of Episode Two saw an updated version of that engine, which was called OrangeBox Engine, a.k.a. New Engine. In 2010, Valve updated both HL2 and EP1 to run on the New Engine as well, and that brought all the new glitches.

Builds 2187-4044 - Old Engine (Source Engine)
Builds 4295-5135 - New Engine (OrangeBox Engine)
Builds 5298-latest - Steampipe*

• Steampipe version is the current one on Steam. It's still the New Engine, so all glitches still work on it, however, it's not used in the speedrunning scene due to demo incompatibility and other technical issues that Steampipe brought.

Differences

	Old Engine	New Engine
General differences
Movement method	Bunnyhopping Consistent speed	Accelerated Back Hopping Faster speed, but also more difficult
Collisions with gibs/small props	Yes, can be used for Flying	No
Tricks and glitches
Flying	Very easy, possible with just about any prop and gib, capable of advanced techniques.	Hard, only possible with Supply Crates and Barrels, as well as other few props. No advanced skills
Teleporting	Very easy	Difficult
Schrodinger's Crouch	Possible; similiar to CEOOB	Possible
Crouch-Clipping	Moderately easy	Very hard
Crouch Save Glitch (JClip)	Possible	Impossible
Pressing buttons through walls	Possible	Impossible, but can be done by utilizing Schrodinger's Crouch
Stucklaunching	Possible	Possible
Clipping through displacements	Possible, game pushes you through	Semi-possible. You get stuck, but can get out by saving and reloading the save. Not doable in Single-Segment speedruns.
Save/Load Clipping	Upwards; can't be changed with Damage Boosting	Downwards and sideways when coupled with Damage Boosting
Grabbing items through walls	Possible	Impossible
Super Physics Deform	Impossible, however, trying to SPD an object will make you able to Stuckjump from it.	Possible
Pistol Charging	Possible	Impossible
Save Deletion	Impossible in 2707 (game will crash to menu), possible in 4044	Possible
Triggerdelay	Possible	Impossible

See Also

Game versions