When comparing Source vs Wave, the Slant community recommends Wave for most people. In the question“What are the best 3D game engines?” Wave is ranked 20th while Source is ranked 29th. The most important reason people chose Wave is:
In addition to online [API documentation](http://waveengine.net/Engine/Documentation), the Wave Engine team provides [tutorials](http://www.indiedb.com/engines/wave-engine/tutorials) via IndieDB, plus [sample projects](https://github.com/WaveEngine/Samples) and "[QuickStarters](https://github.com/WaveEngine/QuickStarters)" via GitHub.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Great documentation
Valve's official documentation website is great for newbies. It demonstrates the pros and cons of the engine (and since the website isn't maintained by Valve, but instead the community, the pros and cons are largely unbiased). There are also a number of pages dedicated to entities used within official Valve games and also community-made mods that were turned into full-fledged games by Valve. These pages explain the ins and outs of how most source programming works. There are also guides for Valve's tools which are both included in Source SDK and in any Valve-developed game.
Pro Runs on every potato pc
Since it has precalculated lighting, this engine is great for low end PCs too.
Pro Many basic entities
You don't need to code your own door or ladder etc. You can pretty much use every entity used in Half-Life 2 yourself easily.
Pro Visual logic, no programming
Of course you can program stuff into source but for level design only, source has a really easy input/output system for your level logic (e.g. doors, trigger when player walks into room...).
Pro Has a built-in video capture and editing application
Source includes Source Filmmaker, a video capture and editing application.
Pro Easy way to export or load source models to unity and maps
Pro Extensive learning material
In addition to online API documentation, the Wave Engine team provides tutorials via IndieDB, plus sample projects and "QuickStarters" via GitHub.
Pro Supports coding in C#, F# and Visual Basic
Wave Engine explicitly supports all three core .Net Platform languages.
Pro Oculus Rift support
The Wave Engine team provides an official, open-source Oculus Rift extension via GitHub.
Pro Many components are open source
Several core components and official extensions of the Wave Engine are publicly hosted on GitHub.
Cons
Con Only for mods
Normally, you can only use the Source Engine to develop "source-mods" (as Steam calls them), however the developer wiki is correct in saying Valve have a proven track-record for finding source-mods and turning them into fully-fledged games, Black Mesa Source is a good example of this, as it began life as a source-mod available for free, however Valve turned it into a fully-fledged and paid game.
Con SDK is outdated and difficult to use
Source SDK has not been updated in ages, and has instead been "re-released" under different names, e.g "Source SDK 2013 Singleplayer".
It's honestly easier to use the version of SDK included with any Source game, namely Portal 2 or DOTA 2, since both have a variant of Source SDK that is more updated than anything you can find in the tools section of Steam.
Con Mandatory splash screen
Games and applications made with Wave Engine must display a splash screen advertising it. No splash-free license option is available.
Con Not many tutorials available
Con Outdated UI
The UI looks like it is from Windows XP days. A refresh is much needed.