Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has a big interface update on the way, and that new Panorama UI is now available as a beta release. Valve says the impending update “is the most substantial change to the look and feel of CS:GO since the game was released in 2012,” and the new beta shows us exactly what that means.
Menus across the board have gotten overhauled. The new buy menu offers more detailed weapon stats and shows your teammates’ money and loadouts. A button labelled “more stats” on the scoreboard shows statistics ranging from headshot percentages to utility damage. Bots are now also called out more specifically on the scoreboard, so you no longer have to guess whether those bot names are real or not.
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You can check out a full gallery of screens here, and Redditors have uncovered one other potentially terrific change: frame rate. Some users are reporting fps boosts of up to 8%, which would certainly be appreciated among those rocking monitors with uncapped frame rates. Of course, these are anecdotal reports of individual benchmarks, but it’s worth watching out for when Panorama launches. (Also, don’t miss this delightful new menu animation.)
If you want to the beta for yourself, you need to opt-in via the game properties. This beta release only supports bot matches, but you can play with a friend by joining a party and getting into a practice session. Once you’re done taking your look, you need to head back to your game properties and drop your beta opt-in to get back to standard matchmaking.
Valve is “still working on” the UI update so it remains some distance from release, but the changes showcased in this beta represent the “biggest pieces” of Panorama. If you want to stay current on all the latest CS:GO updates, stick with us as those patches continue to roll out.