Developer Update February 2026
Hello again, It’s me, Vvis, the Lead Developer for Fortress Connected! It’s about time we share some more about what we have.
With that said let’s continue.
WHAT WE WILL BE GOING OVER IN THIS BLOG.
- EZ2/HLS/L4D1/CSS Support.
- LUX shaders and Left 4 Dead 2
- Weapon Related changes
- Quality-of-Life features like the ping tool, radial menu, Controller support, and new UI changes.
- Fun things like custom vehicles, Gmod-like spawn menu and physgun!
LUX SHADERS
LUX is an open source shader project that was introduced as part of Team Fortress 2: Classified, but is now available for other projects to use. This enables us to be compatible with shaders from newer games, such as Left 4 Dead 2 and CS:GO. Fortress Connected played a part with the development of LUX, such as adding support for the Infected from Left 4 Dead 2, something that was never previously done.
As a result of these shaders being added, players are no longer required to have Left 4 Dead 1 installed, as was originally the case. This means that FC will only require Left 4 Dead 2 to be installed on launch instead of Left 4 Dead 1. It also means additional support for Left 4 Dead 2 can come a lot sooner than later.
Counter-Strike: Source support
Last time we covered Counter-Strike: Source, it was pretty bare-bones with a simplistic implementation of the Bomb Defusal and Hostage gamemodes. Since then, we have nearly completed the Bomb Defusal mode. We have added timers and placeholder animations for planting & defusing. We have also added better sounds, including those for win/loss and cues for when the bomb is planted.
Quality-of-Life changes
In our last dev log, we mentioned the Radial Voice Menu based on Left 4 Dead and Portal 2's. A setting has been added to toggle between the voice menu from Team Fortress 2 and the new radial based menu.
You can even create custom radial menus bound to any key you want. There is also the new customizable Ping Tool System which allows marking supplies, enemies, locations, or just anything in the game world that you want to share with your team! Clients can set the color of their marker to whatever they like in the settings too!
We've also updated the lag compensation system to work a good bit better against NPCs. Now your friends from across the world should be able to better enjoy FC, even at high pings.
Do you remember the health and ammo counter HUD by your crosshair in Half-Life 2? We've implemented that feature into FC, plus improved it to support all the TF2 weapons and classes.
Something that was mentioned in the last dev log, but not really shown off, was our new UI changes related to our scoreboard and campaign progress BLU co-op is now also supported, meaning mods like Entropy Zero 2 will work properly playing as the BLU team alongside the Combine. On top of that, our change level timer has also been updated to include the next map name.
Improved controller and Steam deck support.
Want to play FC with a controller? No problem! We have been working on supporting many different controllers, ranging from XBOX controllers to the Steam Controller. We’re even supporting the NSO gamecube controller, for some reason!
Most controllers should work just fine with FC right off the start without much manual configuration needed. Further support is planned for other controllers in the future. Steam Deck support should also work fine out of the box with a default controller configuration, but this will need further testing.
Weapon related changes
We've added the option to be able to use HL2 weapons, or even modded weapons, from campaigns like Entropy Zero: 2. With this, you can also drop your HL2 weapons freely the same way you would drop the intelligence. There are also new items like the Molotov, based on the one from Left 4 Dead, as well as the cut physics gun.
Spawn menu
We now have our own Spawn Menu that allows for creation of props, NPCs, vehicles, and more. The spawn menu will be useful for the EDT editor we are working on.
Custom Vehicles
Seeing new drivable vehicles in our testing of Entropy Zero 2, it inspired a couple of the FC devs to work on a couple of vehicles of our own. Ever thought that you wanted to drive a car or a forklift around Counter-Strike's Dust2 as the Soldier from TF2? Well, now you can! Almost all vehicles in FC have proper multi-seat support. For instance, you can have up to 8 people in one truck! Drive the whole crew off the cliff!
Half-Life: Source
We have been experimenting with porting over the GoldSrc code for Half-Life 1 into FC. So far, the first couple chapters of Half-Life: Source are fully playable within FC. However, Half-Life: Source will likely not be ready at launch. We are planning on having full Half-Life: Source support in a future post-launch update.
Entropy Zero: 2 support
Entropy Zero 2 is one of the most popular Half-Life 2-related mods on Steam, featuring custom content and a completely unique campaign. One of the best parts, other than it being completely free, is that Breadman decided to make the code open source, meaning FC will have full support for the game! Because of this, we have been able to implement a variety of 3650's features, such as a dedicated kick, his Combine nightvision, and the ability to use some of his weapons as all of the Mercs! So far, we've got about half of the game working as intended, so although there's still quite a lot of work to go, we're very excited about what is to come with our implementation of Entropy Zero 2 Co-op.
Left 4 Dead changes
In addition to what we discussed earlier, because of us adding LUX support, we are now able to add Left 4 Dead 2 specific special infected, such as the Spitter and Charger. We've also been working on rescue closets similar to Left 4 Dead 1.
In Half-Life 2 your flashlight is always pointing straight forward, and only moves with the player’s view. In Left 4 Dead, most of the time, the flashlight is attached to your weapon and moves with it when you reload or shove. We have introduced this as a new client side option for those who prefer that instead.
Left 4 Dead 1 campaigns
Originally for FC's launch, we only planned to support No Mercy. Plans have changed. We will be supporting at minimum No Mercy, Crash Course, and Death Toll. We may work on more if we feel those 3 campaigns are ready to go for FC's public release.
Conclusion
Before we close this off. I must say this again. We are in need of help! Development may be going steady so far, but it can improve if we had some more people on the team!
If you can program, animate, model, or even just want to help us playtest the game, send us an application! Link will be below