The Missing Source Textures meme, recognizable by its jarring magenta and black checkerboard pattern, stems from Valve's Source Engine games like Garry's Mod and Counter-Strike: Source. This visual occurs when the engine fails to load a specific texture asset, resulting in a placeholder that has become legendary in the gaming community. It is most commonly associated with players forgetting to install 'CS:S' assets for Garry's Mod, leading to entire maps appearing 'broken.' Beyond gaming, the pattern is used metaphorically to represent something that is missing, incomplete, or fundamentally malfunctioning in a humorous way.