WarOwl: *shows 3 flash bangs one after another* Also WarOwl: "excessive exposure to flash bangs can cause migraines in some users"

The biggest improvement to smokes is the fact that every single player sees them in the exact same way.

instead of the hinge smoke you can now smoke the doors directly which covers the whole spot

It's very likely that the fluid simulation shader on the molotov bottles are pulled straight from Half Life Alyx. It's an absolute masterpiece of a shader - there are no fluids in the end result, it's only a 2D effect being rendered on the surface, so it's super optimal, yet looks so real!

I tried a video a day, but it took me 3 days to make this video. worth it!

One thing with the flashes that I've seen in other videos is that if you're near a flash in CS2 but not looking at it, you can still be deafened even though you can still see.

I FUCKING LOVE THAT WAROWL SEEMS MOTIVAVED DOING THESE NEW CS 2 VIDEOS! much love to you warowl c:

I think it's cool to have a counter to the smoke. Smoke counters the molotov and now the grenade counters the smoke. Shifting the meta around is quite interesting and will bring new ways to play the game.

I like new smokes. They look way nicer and don't go through walls

I think it was a good idea to make the HE disperse smokes. That way it becomes much more useful, especially on T side. That way we have smoke beats molly and HE beats smoke. Also long time no see Warowl.

My favorite improvement to the molotovs is how there is now a more obvious burning sound and that they no longer spread randomly. I hated how in CSGO, you'd think you are safe from the fire only for it to spread and start silently damaging you for like 50 hp.

LOVE the idea of the flash making the screen go dark instead of pure white. I am one of those people that get really bothered by it.

Since smokes in CS2 are different colours for CTs and Ts, I think it would be a cool change to have different colour flame tinges for molotovs and incendiary grenades as well.

All hail the return of S P R E A D

Current cod has the black flashes and it works great. Less tiring on eyes and safer for photosensitive conditions. It wouldn't break anything in the competitive cs meta so just add it. If the majors want the audience to wear sunglasses, they can always disable it on the big screen.

Black flashbangs are just better as a QOL feature. We use dark mode for the same reason, too much brightness suddenly just isn't easy on the eyes. Valorant has dark flashes and flashes there aren't trash tier (at least when I played it), other games like Tarkov has realistic flashes that have a bright white spot and everything else is extremely dark (like if you stare at a lamp for too long), I think everyone else has shown that dark flashes aren't a problem.

That's a funny picture! And that practice server mode for smokes is amazing.

As opposed to a completely dark or completely white screen, I love the more "realistic" method of handling flashbangs: a dark screen with a bright white spot on the screen where the grenade actually detonated. Not only is this a good compromise for visibility, but it can also add some small amount of extra information on where exactly the flash came from; not super useful for high level players who will already have all the map knowledge and game sense, but fantastic for new players who can more easily understand where a flashbang was when it detonated.

Amazing work WarOwl, I love your videos, you always keep them coming and especially with CS2 right around the corner I’m happy you got to share this info, you’re awesome, much love

your content is getting GREATER by the hour, keep it up war owl !

0:15 maybe u can use the new smoke to fill that spot!

Cant wait to see ropz pull some insane pixel perfect HE lineup out his ass to clear the nuke cross smokes or ruin an a site mirage execute

cs2 has me so hype for your channel WarOwl!! Keep up the awesome videos

This was a great comparison. You really spread out some great info.

Hello WarOwl

i have a great idea for flash grenades. what about instead of changing your whole screen to a color, your screen freezes and becomes black and white and then fades in like usual

I missed these videos so much you have no idea

No need for a video a day, im glad you’re enjoying making the content and that’s enough for me to keep watching whenever

i think there should definitely be an accessibility feature related to the flashbangs, as long as it doesn’t grant and competitive advantage of course (other than protecting ur eyes long term XD)

I’m really excited for the Awportunities with the smoke clearing. You can smoke off chokes and set up an awper for a sneaky shot

ty for always getting straight to the point

Thanks for all the great content warowl, subscribed when I was in 8th grade and now I’m almost done my first year of college, how time flies! Cheers buddy

They absolutely should add the dark flash mode. Its also better for your eyes I would assume

Imagine a ct is clearing a long cross smoke with a HE and another player pop flashes at the same time and the 3rd guy peeks from ct and kills everyone. Imagine the teamwork and the SPREAD.

Man, I love you for including that picture! Wait no, I love you because you're a great UKpostsr and guy!

The video we needed ! Thank you warowl, even if you still have no closer

I'm actually really starting to look forward to this. hopefully there will be few to no bugs on full release because that would show the rest of the industry how good a fully functioning game at release is.

The smokes are great It's tricky to use bullets to see trough without giving away postition Also, getting a nade perfectly in the middle to clear it is also tricky because the smoke is wider Also also, the effects when players run trough it are amazing

Awesome content warowl been a big fan for a long time.

glad you got the game :) thx for content over the years

Warowl, your case hardenend in CS2 can we talk about it for a video?

Great to see your videos!

Good to see you are still alive and you got pushed to my youtube front page! Havnt been here in ages

The inverse flash feature is in the new CoD. It should be a thing you can choose, white on displays is actually a very bright blue which if anyone doesn't know is really bad for eyestrain. So everyone switching over isn't a bad thing I'd do it to reduce the eyestrain, but I also suffer from migraines.

I'd really love to see the smokes from the perspective of another player when someone is standing in it, when you're planting and get a nade thrown in there, etc.

great video as always x

Im so hyped for cs2. Keep the content sink flowing.

I typically play late nights in a dark room, the flashes going dark wouldn’t be a competitive advantage or disadvantage. I believe it ultimately boils down to if your objective throwing a flash is to physically pain your opponent that likely has a screen with cranked brightness, or is it to remove some of your digital senses momentarily?

2:34 this actually happened to me. I was playing so much CS:GO in 2019 that I got tinnitus. And I never abused the volume. Sad.

good comparison video!

0:15 this is the content I've been wating for!

Could you elaborate on your issues with the movement in another video? I remember when csgo came out a lot of source and 1.6 veterans complained about the movement being too "slippery" with your character not coming to a stop the instant you let go of the movement key. Is this still the case in cs2?

I was worry about those ugly big holes in the smoke, but in-game they look realistic! good job valve

really interesting and useful content as always, thanks!

Quick and straight to the point! Love it

I think a cool add to molotovs would be adding the liquid mechanics to the fire spread. Like, the fire from a running throw molo going further 'forward' than the one from a standing throw molo.

For flashbangs, I think Tarkov or Valorant like visuals would work the best, though it would have gameplay implications as it would show where the flash was popped. Cause just pure #FFFFFF white is kind of ridiculous, really.

Let's go more CONTENT baby!!!

I could see it beneficial in some certain situations to partially uncover the smoke while using it as visual cover on another side, but as you said, I do think it will be more useful for CTs than Ts. If halted by smoke as a T while pushing B, you could partially uncover the left side instead of going completely blind, still very situational and could end up making it worse on yourself. Could probably also be used as a strat to trick the opponent that you are committing a push.

I'm so excited to get into the beta. Everything I've seen so far just has me excited. I do wish we could switch between CSGO and CS2. Knowing that CSGO is actually going to die makes me feel sad somehow. But I can see the reasoning.

It looks like valve took inspiration from the game "rock, paper, scissors", where each item can defeat one and be defeated by another. "molotov, smoke, nade", yeah, this could be a fun game at lanparties.

Dark flashbang option, awsome idea!

Thank you Warowl for explaining the new SPRREEAADDD of the smokes in the new version.

I think the dark flashes would be matter of personal preference, and should be added. As someone that has struggled in the past with bright flashbangs, and therefore has to play the game on reduced brightness, I don't see why my ability to play the game should be hampered by an easy to implement accessibility feature not being added.

Nice video! I don't think dark flashes will be meta, it's literally just a color change, the player will keep on not seeing anything relevant for a limited amount of time. Totally worth it

Payday 2 actually does the "blackflash" as an accessibility option. They also have an option to disable the tinnitus sound effect from flashes and blowing yourself up.

Can't wait to watch 45 more of these videos in the next couple of weeks :D

Can we use the decoy "explosion" to shake smokes?

WAIT THERES CS 2?!?!?!? WHEN??? WHERE?? HAVE I MISSED SOMETHING?

That dark mode flashbang is the greatest idea I have ever seen

The smoke/nade preview visually appears (idk how it feels/functions) like the overwatch Ana nade lineup workshop. I like it as a CS noob who hasn’t played enough or studied enough to learn key lineups

I love that grenade preview. I think it should be in ranked as well. Maybe the preview window could not render players so you can't use it to get information but still can use it just to setup a throw. Its one of the pain points for most casual players and this would really encourage more smoke use overall by all skill levels. They really put some thought and effort into advancing CS without compromising the core of what makes it great. I also think the 'crosshair follows recoil' option is going to be a game changer and think you should give it a chance for a full game. I felt like it was a nice bit of feedback added to the experience and made it easier to see the recoil spread and control it.

I’m loving the frequent uploads. We need more Warowl.

I love that black screen flashbang idea to be in the game as a option.

7:20 Thank you WarOwl, this was my favorite bit. XD

Watching warowl brings back a lot of memories! We're back baby!

War Owl's 'spread' never gets old

"Thanks so much for watching im the war owl and i will catch you in the next one" that sounds like a good outro

Loving the content!

Yes, he’s back in his element! This was a nice preview for the next 5 years of content

Loving the content! I am really happy to see this video get to above 550K views in a day. Let's go Warowl!

inverted flashbangs are suuuper nice. one of the basically "must-have" mods in payday 2 is black flashbangs (until it became vanilla)

That "spread" made me laugh more than anything today. Thanks for that WarOwl Dad

2 videos a week is a solid upload schedule

The liquid effect was originally used in HL:Alyx and it's so good!

the dark sounds like a good idea

Great video, Mr. Owl!

Wow black mode on flashbang would be so great for people with migraine (me). I use black or "night mode" on everything i use.

I really love that you included going dark instead of seeing all white

"Fixing the shaking" on the smoke trajectories is easier said then done. I recently tried to implement trajectories in a game i am working on, and in order to get a fully accurate arc, you need to simulate the full smoke throw, or you need a formula that accurately descibes the flight path. Depending on the implementation of the throw, the second one is most likely not available, since the smoke could be influenced by drag and other physics. "Predicting" it is really hard, because you'd need to solve differential equasions during runtime, or use an analytical approach, like Runge-Kutta 4th order (sounds like some Star Wars thing, but its actually just lots of trajectory estimation, frame for frame). Thus i get why its shakey right now, although that could be the sympthom of a problem unrelated to accurate trajectory estimation.

the fire knows where it is at all times, it knows this because it knows where it isn't. by subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't from where it is (whichever is greater,) It obtains a difference or deviation

A slight change I noticed to the flashbang is that the CS2 sound is easier to track with the 3D audio, meaning you'll be able to tell where it landed when it goes off.

bro turned "and i still have no closer" into a closer and thought we wouldnt notice

I love your content, I agree with pretty much everything you said, specially the part about how the practice nade mode should work. I'm not with you on the bullet holes in the smoke angle being centered, the visual dynamics of a gun being held in the hand should have some linked reference to the angle or trajectory of bullets leaving the gun from your perspective (though this can get complicated for left handed people). in general though, its not as easy as making the holes in the smoke be straight from your vision, its linked to the fact that bullets in the game have always fired from the right side of your vision.

7:35 Valve introduced those liquid physics 3 years ago with HL:A 1.4.

Modern Warfare 2 (2022) actually just added that black-flash option, and even as someone with no migraine condition, it’s so much nicer to have the screen go black rather than bright white.

Flash turning image to black instead of white is actually an advantage because it affects less the eye I started to use it in some games and I can recover and get kills much faster

HE grenade removing smoke grenade was an idea I came up when they introduced napalm/molo into csgo and that smoke grenade had mechanic to put out napalm/molo. It took them over 10 damn years to implement It...

About flash blackening, I get anxiety attacks from constant high pitched noises, I simply can't play games with that, so any games that don't mute flashbangs are unplayable for me, and that's why I love Insurgency Sandstorm, not only it does mute the high pitched ringings, but it does reduce the amount of sound you can hear when there would be the ringing, so if you got flashed, you wouldn't get the ringing, but would still not be able to hear anything.

I'm excited for these improvements. I would love the flash dark mode as I suffer from migraines and the flashes do really mess with me when I end up not looking away in time.