A hilarious CS2 missing texture glitch is trolling players

William Davis Published 23/06/2023

CS2 upgraded nearly all aspects of Counter-Strike, but one classic missing texture is back to mess with players’ heads.

Valve is continuing to drum up hype for the official release of Counter-Strike 2, and the recent map switch to Mirage and changes to the buy menu have piqued players’ interest. However, one tiny bit of polish seems to have flown under the company’s radar. By using a mechanic unique to Deathmatch, players are getting their screens replaced with a mysterious yet strangely familiar image. Here are details on the glitch and a video of what it looks like in action. 

The missing texture glitch has been reported by numerous CS2 players, and Reddit user phaze-jeff has even provided video proof of the strange phenomenon. Here’s what it looks like.

The glitch appears to be triggered by the health shot, a unique consumable only available in Deathmatch. Under normal circumstances, the item plays a ringed animation showing that the player has been healed. However, on CS2 Mirage, it displays a massive purple and black checkered square that completely obscures the player’s vision. This is clearly a glitch that Valve will fix as soon as possible, and it doesn’t seem to happen every time a health shot is used. However, that hasn’t stopped some players from wondering what this texture even is.

What is the missing texture that appears in CS2 deathmatch?

The purple and black missing texture that appears in CS2 deathmatch is Valve’s signature placeholder texture, which appears to have been brought over to the Source 2 version of the game.

The purple and black checkerboard is practically synonymous with Valve. It’s the Source 2 engine’s default texture. If an error prevents the intended texture from showing up, the iconic colors take its place. Its striking color palette is designed to catch developers’ attention during testing. The result is players’ eyes burning when it accidentally shows up in-game.

It’s rare to see it in normal Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gameplay, but it’s not too hard to spot if players head to the community server browser and check out some less-developed custom maps. It’s also used as a meme in the old-school Valve community, along with the giant red ERROR. Showing it to seasoned Source sommeliers may result in them telling you to download Counter-Strike: Source to fix the issue, as a reference to the phenomenon occurring in GMod.

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