Breaking: Valve release Animgraph 2 third-person animation beta in latest update

Valve have released a significant update today, pushing long-awaited Animgraph 2 third-person animations into the Counter-Strike 2 beta. In layman's terms, Valve are currently in the process of testing and receiving feedback on a whole new set of animations that will change how most actions appear on models.

Valve previously pushed an update to first-place animations back in July 2025, with this change seemingly have a longer testing period by Valve via this beta release.

Thour and Ozzny have posted large threads of the animation changes that is definitely worth checking out if you want to see some of the new animation changes:

Players interested in testing the new beta animations can sign up via the "animgraph_2_beta" version launch option before starting Counter-Strike 2. For feedback, Valve has asked players to send email [email protected] with the subject line "AG2 Beta".

Highlights from the patch notes include:

Animgraph 2

• The CS2 animation system has been updated to Animgraph 2, which reduces CPU and networking costs associated with animation.

• All third-person animations have been re-authored, and in several cases adjusted in response to player feedback.

• Smoothed in-air crouching transitions in first and third-person.

• In support of Animgraph 2, the logic adjusting player height on sloped surfaces has been refactored.

• Player height on ramps is now consistent and no longer depends on approach direction.

• As a result of this change, grenade lineups on sloped surfaces may have changed.

Gameplay

• Player occlusion now uses a GPU query to prevent players clipping through thin walls when none of their bounding volume is visible.

Sound

• Mix adjustments to help accentuate jump landing sounds during combat.

• New c4 equip sound.

• Minor adjustments to ambient sound levels.

• Fixed missing ambient sounds on team selection and end of match screens.

• Fixed missing sounds in the main menu UI

• Mix tweaks while taking damage

• Fixed bug where DeathCam music cue was causing volume ducking for too long.

• Vertical occlusion is now more gradual at the edges of transition points in Nuke and Vertigo.

• Various map audio adjustments in Baggage, Shoots, Ancient, Nuke, and Vertigo.

The full patch notes may be read here.