This was mostly reported on Reddit and Neogaf first with a lot more information too. Can't post links (Long time lurker, rarely post) but you'll find it on Reddit's DoTA 2 subreddit and Neogaf's gaming section. Interesting to note they say the engine doesn't feature graphical improvements. The reason for this is because it's an exact port of the current DoTA 2 into the Source 2 engine. It is not using any extra effects, but it of course benefits from being on S2 with vastly improved loading times, a much more fleshed out and useful console window and the tools themselves are miles better than the previous version of hammer. We would need a game that was designed to use everything Source 2 can muster to see the full benefits. (L4D3, Portal 3, HL3, TF3 etc) The new Hammer also doesn't seem to have any map or entity limit, people have been experimenting. One guy even imported an entire 3d model of Paris into Hammer and it took it willingly, needed a bit of tweaking to get the textures working, but it didn't crash or reject it. Compile times are also much much faster than the previous iteration too, taking mere seconds for the normal DoTA 2 sized map to a minute or 2 for much larger maps. Roll on Gamescom I say 🙂

I thought I would die before HL3 would come out.. I might just be seeing it..

This is all great news, note that the official headline states that the source 2 engine is only teased.

Well, I can't wait ! Hope for some Tech demos at Gamescon 🙂

I thought I would die before HL3 would come out.. I might just be seeing it..

You might live to see the announcement of the announcement at this pace!!!