No, you just need to invest your time into the new patches. A better video card will do nothing (unless the difference between a GeForce 6800 and whatever you're going to buy is really huge).
AZ: Yeah, I had that until I followed Gauss' advice and defragged my hard drive (took under 2 hours, 40gb drive with 15gb free space). After that, the whole game was MUCH smoother, only rare occasions (such as big outdoor area loading bits) where the audio would stutter. Beforehand it was like if I turned round 180 degrees, the whole thing would stutter...
Yea, thought maybe I should defrag. I'll try that.
I also tried the suggestions on the Steam site but none of them seemed to make a difference. In fact adding the line "+snd_async_prefetch_priority 1" to the launch options actually seemed to make it worse.
[Edit]
Defrag worked GREAT. The skipping is nearly gone. Waaaaay better than before. THANKS!
well , i got hl2 for xmas , and i think it pretty much like the 1st game , (pretty good) exept for steam , which i would gladlyget rid of for a standard install method ... hl2dm : i cant get it working over lan , but i think it may be my router, has anyone any info on getting games to see listen servers through routers with modems nd firewalls?
i suppose the only good thing about steam was being able to download all the updates auto , although i would gladly go back to the type of install hL1 had , i cant see anything wrong with it .. and i never had any problems finding and downloading updates ...
I considered wether I wanted to buy a Steam version or a Retail box.
In my consideration was the following:
-there was NO information on the Steam website that told me if I bought online if I could burn a CD of my purchase so that I could install from disk instead of waiting for a 47 hour download sometime in the future if I ever had to re-do my system
-the Collectors Edition retail box has a T-shirt that I would actually use.
-the Gold/Silver editions had useless items like Posters that I didnt even get to see what they look like and have no interest in.
-I wanted the choice to play my game NOT using steam; I knew I would likely go ahead and do it anyways. But I wanted the choice not to if I wanted - what if the Steam servers were down or busy? How would I play?
So in a cloud of uncertainty I chose to buy the retail box.
Amazingly enough the retail collectors edition was in ready avialabilitiy on release day when I got off work at my local Fry's. (I had checked GameStop's and EQ and they were all out) but Frys' had about 200 copies of the normal version and 20 or so collectors editions.
So I take it home -install it - and the trouble starts.
So I'm on highspeed - but steam wants to .. build a steam cache. This takes 4x longer than the DVD install took. It took approxmately ..? 2 hours? I'm not sure. Whats ironic is becuase I was unsure all along about which purcase to use I had pre-cached it also. I dont know what the heck it had to do but it took forever.
Then when that was done - it had to update it also - this took another hour.
Finally it was done - but it was a work night and about midnight - so I launched the game - saw the intro - and went to bed.
The next day - I boot up - run steam. Please insert your disk? Huh? Why insert my disk when steam KNOWS I've registered this product. I HAD to use steam to register it?
Then I put in my disk - and it says it cant authenticate with steam - do I want to play in offline mode after timing out 5 minutes lateR? Sure - fine. I then proceed to actually play HL2.
My beefs are this
- I bought a hard copy and had to wait for 5 hours to install , unencrypt and update this game
- I was forced to authenticate with steam - wtf do I need my disk in now that I am authenticated
Steam needs work its not perfect. I do not need a crappy game install experience becuase I choose to buy a retail copy. Anyone who states that I am "behind the times" because I want a box, a physical disk, and a shirt is being elitist.
I am a consumer and made choices off of my needs. The experience sucked -and its a valid thing to express that suckage!
i got HL2 the day after Christmas. i go to install it and it wont install due to InstallShield being broken. (due to Doom3 ginving me an error when i tried to install it back in August(?), i searched online and some supposed 'fixes' for the error i was getting didnt work and Microsoft thinks that since Windows Installer 2 comes with XP it cant break therefore they dont offer a download or update for it.)
so i just copy Snemmy's HL2 folder down over our LAN which takes an hour or hour and a half. i register my cd key and HL2/hl2Dm/CS:S/SDK all run great and i didn't even need to update since snemmy had. (i have a 1.6ghz processor, 1gb ram, and a GF4 ti4200 and the game runs really smooth)
so to fix my installshield crap i download Service Pack 2. takes a couple days to download. so i use the CD to uninstall HL2 and steam (which actually works even though i just copied the files from snemmy) and reinstall HL2. takes about 20minutes to install (about the same amount of time as KotOR 1). unlocking the files takes about 20-30minutes. updating HL2 doesnt take long either. HL2DM and CS:S took a couple days to update though and i still have about 40% of the SDK to redownload.
i even ran HL2 in offline mode with no problem. it came up saying it couldnt connect and did i want to start in offline mode. i click Yes and restart steam and run HL2. took about 5 seconds.
so the only problems i have had with steam or hl2 come from a broken Windows Installer and Microsoft.
load times are shorter than Doom3 (only a minute or so verses 5-10minutes for D3) and the game runs much smoother than D3. i even get fancy effects like physics, light blooms, good water effects and crisp textures while Doom3's biggest trick was killing my frame rate. i run Hl2 at 1024x768, 2x AA, medium model detail, low water and the rest on high and the only stuttering i get is for a couple seconds right after a level loads. Doom3 ground to a halt if more than 2 enemies were on screen at once.
now i just need to get back to where i was at in the game before installing it
I finally got around to installing my half life 2 today as I am waiting to play it until I have upgraded my video card, surprisingly the 6 cd install didn't take long at all, less than an hour with all the steam updates after that, the install didn't seem to take any longer than the soldier of fortune II install, as well I just installed chronicles of riddick which is also a 6 cd install packaged the same as half life 2.
another thing ive thought of , if steam really is the wave of the future , and all software companies started to distribute this way , wouldnt we all have 20 or so different "steam" like icons in our sys trays taking up ram , in my experience the more things windows has loaded the less stable it is ...
i really feel with the changes MS want to make to the way PCs are sold and there operating system works , coupled with things like steam , the games industry is in for a dark time ... at least the pc side ...
That's a common argument. However, seeing how EA is buying up the entire industry company by company by the time online distribution will be common we'll need only the EA Games System...
I have Steam set to manual load, i.e. it won't start before I tell it to. As long as you can set up all the DRM systems to behave like this it might be bearable. Or perhaps Longhorn will bring the solution.
AstrZombie: What kind of PC are you using? I have HL2 installed on my Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop and also my table comp. Most games run smoother on the laptop except for HL2 and the only thing I know is radically different between them(besides the graphics card) is the cache - the Inspiron got 2mb while my table comp got a lot less.
Personally I like Steam as it is a step in the right direction for the game industry, on the other hand I hate it because it automatically or requires me to download concent when I am being charged for all downloaded data outside of my country(Iceland).
for example:
I bought Counterstrike: Condition Zero and installed it. After installing Steam went on and decrypted the data and downloaded nearly 2 gigs of data. Besides the 50 bucks I had to shell out for the game I had to shell out another 50 for the downloaded data - that's 100$ for an old game...
Half-Life 2 developer Valve has disabled a further 30,000 accounts on its Steam digital distribution system for attempted piracy, bringing the total number of disabled accounts since the game launched to over 50,000.
its not tho .... if i wanted i could download hl2 with a steam crack play the game through and never pay a penny. never having gone near steam or valve , on the other hand , say you little brother borrows your copy of hl2 and uses a steam crack to log onto there network , he gets my account screwed ,
this is all hypothetical , but i dont think steam is helping anyone in any way, but valve to get more monney from distributing the game themselves, anyone remember the big law suite they went through with vivandi a year ago , thats wot this was about. valve are lashing out on the big bad publishing companies , the pirates are a side issue.
and with that,the whole compusary registration thing is criminalising the ppl who buy the game , feels like they are saying guilty until proven inocent.
is that a good thing? sorry for my ignorance . i take it slashdot is a web news site ?
my brother works in a computer shop and he tels me a million bad stoies about steam , and all sorts of things about horrible things publishers do to games in production , he must spend alot of time reading magazines
One of the worst things ive heard was when that PSx emulator for the PC came out, bleem i think it was called, and sony went mentle and tryed to sue them , but coz they had writen the thing from scratch sony lost ... so sony said they wouldnt lets any of the stores have PSx hardware to sell then , unless the store took bleem off the shelves ... its a pretty big store too ... you know the 1 im talking about ... anyway thats just wot i heard ... so we talk about this stuff all the time ... i went to see my bro back in august and we had quite a heated discussion about how he thinks the video game industry is dying on its feet , due to publishers not looking after dev teams , and releasing mass market junk in stead of good games for gamers ... i see it happen all the time ..
i while back i wanted to buy a new game to help me relax from modeling n stuff ... i wasnt too bothered wot type ... RPG, FPS... maybe even somthing original .... lol, att the time Game were offering a 10 day monny back thing , where if you didnt like the game you took it back for a refund or another game ... i went back to the store with every game i bought , couldnt find somthing worth playing... think they thought i was copying them , but really , i didnt even find somthing worth the cost of a cdr , let alone £29.99... game have stoped that 10 day returns thing now ... Sorry for the off topic guys .
Usually some interesting articles to be found there.
As for steam, it's understandable for a company to protect it's interests but the system needs to be transparent for the legitimate users or it will likely have the opposite effect. That includes not being a pain to reinstall in case of computer failure. Minimising jumping through hoops to get it working in the first place. A very solid way of making sure that no one will be mistakenly accused of piracy and shut down. And personally I have a problem with the idea that if the company decides to close it's doors and unplug their servers, your game no longer works.
I'd be much happier with a physical usb game key than something like this.
[ QUOTE ]
had quite a heated discussion about how he thinks the video game industry is dying on its feet , due to publishers not looking after dev teams , and releasing mass market junk in stead of good games for gamers
[/ QUOTE ]
It's very true. But go to the video store and look at the new releases, 80% are straight to video crapp. It's the same in games. But if the publishers keep throwing out junk, worst case scenario is a replay of the great game crash of 83' and we'll end up with another landfill full of "E.T." or some other buggy licenced peice of shiyt.
LeJomphe - yeah , that wot is they close there doors arguement has been one of the best of all ... i read the eula , and i dont remember there being anything about play this game as long as we allow you .. mind you im no lawyer.
Ghost - its sortof inevitable ... the games industry will be run like the film industry ... occasionally somone will use household equipment to make somthing thats good ... (like blair witch maybe ) but mainly it will be mainstream big budget trash with nothing new ...
Replies
I also tried the suggestions on the Steam site but none of them seemed to make a difference. In fact adding the line "+snd_async_prefetch_priority 1" to the launch options actually seemed to make it worse.
[Edit]
Defrag worked GREAT. The skipping is nearly gone. Waaaaay better than before. THANKS!
i suppose the only good thing about steam was being able to download all the updates auto , although i would gladly go back to the type of install hL1 had , i cant see anything wrong with it .. and i never had any problems finding and downloading updates ...
I have broadband DSL 384/384.
I considered wether I wanted to buy a Steam version or a Retail box.
In my consideration was the following:
-there was NO information on the Steam website that told me if I bought online if I could burn a CD of my purchase so that I could install from disk instead of waiting for a 47 hour download sometime in the future if I ever had to re-do my system
-the Collectors Edition retail box has a T-shirt that I would actually use.
-the Gold/Silver editions had useless items like Posters that I didnt even get to see what they look like and have no interest in.
-I wanted the choice to play my game NOT using steam; I knew I would likely go ahead and do it anyways. But I wanted the choice not to if I wanted - what if the Steam servers were down or busy? How would I play?
So in a cloud of uncertainty I chose to buy the retail box.
Amazingly enough the retail collectors edition was in ready avialabilitiy on release day when I got off work at my local Fry's. (I had checked GameStop's and EQ and they were all out) but Frys' had about 200 copies of the normal version and 20 or so collectors editions.
So I take it home -install it - and the trouble starts.
So I'm on highspeed - but steam wants to .. build a steam cache. This takes 4x longer than the DVD install took. It took approxmately ..? 2 hours? I'm not sure. Whats ironic is becuase I was unsure all along about which purcase to use I had pre-cached it also. I dont know what the heck it had to do but it took forever.
Then when that was done - it had to update it also - this took another hour.
Finally it was done - but it was a work night and about midnight - so I launched the game - saw the intro - and went to bed.
The next day - I boot up - run steam. Please insert your disk? Huh? Why insert my disk when steam KNOWS I've registered this product. I HAD to use steam to register it?
Then I put in my disk - and it says it cant authenticate with steam - do I want to play in offline mode after timing out 5 minutes lateR? Sure - fine. I then proceed to actually play HL2.
My beefs are this
- I bought a hard copy and had to wait for 5 hours to install , unencrypt and update this game
- I was forced to authenticate with steam - wtf do I need my disk in now that I am authenticated
Steam needs work its not perfect. I do not need a crappy game install experience becuase I choose to buy a retail copy. Anyone who states that I am "behind the times" because I want a box, a physical disk, and a shirt is being elitist.
I am a consumer and made choices off of my needs. The experience sucked -and its a valid thing to express that suckage!
so i just copy Snemmy's HL2 folder down over our LAN which takes an hour or hour and a half. i register my cd key and HL2/hl2Dm/CS:S/SDK all run great and i didn't even need to update since snemmy had.
so to fix my installshield crap i download Service Pack 2. takes a couple days to download. so i use the CD to uninstall HL2 and steam (which actually works even though i just copied the files from snemmy) and reinstall HL2. takes about 20minutes to install (about the same amount of time as KotOR 1). unlocking the files takes about 20-30minutes. updating HL2 doesnt take long either. HL2DM and CS:S took a couple days to update though and i still have about 40% of the SDK to redownload.
i even ran HL2 in offline mode with no problem. it came up saying it couldnt connect and did i want to start in offline mode. i click Yes and restart steam and run HL2. took about 5 seconds.
so the only problems i have had with steam or hl2 come from a broken Windows Installer and Microsoft.
load times are shorter than Doom3 (only a minute or so verses 5-10minutes for D3) and the game runs much smoother than D3. i even get fancy effects like physics, light blooms, good water effects and crisp textures while Doom3's biggest trick was killing my frame rate. i run Hl2 at 1024x768, 2x AA, medium model detail, low water and the rest on high and the only stuttering i get is for a couple seconds right after a level loads. Doom3 ground to a halt if more than 2 enemies were on screen at once.
now i just need to get back to where i was at in the game before installing it
i really feel with the changes MS want to make to the way PCs are sold and there operating system works , coupled with things like steam , the games industry is in for a dark time ... at least the pc side ...
I have Steam set to manual load, i.e. it won't start before I tell it to. As long as you can set up all the DRM systems to behave like this it might be bearable. Or perhaps Longhorn will bring the solution.
Personally I like Steam as it is a step in the right direction for the game industry, on the other hand I hate it because it automatically or requires me to download concent when I am being charged for all downloaded data outside of my country(Iceland).
for example:
I bought Counterstrike: Condition Zero and installed it. After installing Steam went on and decrypted the data and downloaded nearly 2 gigs of data. Besides the 50 bucks I had to shell out for the game I had to shell out another 50 for the downloaded data - that's 100$ for an old game...
I think STEAM is amazing, and I'm glad to see that Valve is lashing out very hard on bastardized pirates.
this is all hypothetical , but i dont think steam is helping anyone in any way, but valve to get more monney from distributing the game themselves, anyone remember the big law suite they went through with vivandi a year ago , thats wot this was about. valve are lashing out on the big bad publishing companies , the pirates are a side issue.
and with that,the whole compusary registration thing is criminalising the ppl who buy the game , feels like they are saying guilty until proven inocent.
sorry about the rant ...
my brother works in a computer shop and he tels me a million bad stoies about steam , and all sorts of things about horrible things publishers do to games in production , he must spend alot of time reading magazines
One of the worst things ive heard was when that PSx emulator for the PC came out, bleem i think it was called, and sony went mentle and tryed to sue them , but coz they had writen the thing from scratch sony lost ... so sony said they wouldnt lets any of the stores have PSx hardware to sell then , unless the store took bleem off the shelves ... its a pretty big store too ... you know the 1 im talking about
i while back i wanted to buy a new game to help me relax from modeling n stuff ... i wasnt too bothered wot type ... RPG, FPS... maybe even somthing original .... lol, att the time Game were offering a 10 day monny back thing , where if you didnt like the game you took it back for a refund or another game ... i went back to the store with every game i bought , couldnt find somthing worth playing... think they thought i was copying them , but really , i didnt even find somthing worth the cost of a cdr , let alone £29.99... game have stoped that 10 day returns thing now ... Sorry for the off topic guys .
Usually some interesting articles to be found there.
As for steam, it's understandable for a company to protect it's interests but the system needs to be transparent for the legitimate users or it will likely have the opposite effect. That includes not being a pain to reinstall in case of computer failure. Minimising jumping through hoops to get it working in the first place. A very solid way of making sure that no one will be mistakenly accused of piracy and shut down. And personally I have a problem with the idea that if the company decides to close it's doors and unplug their servers, your game no longer works.
I'd be much happier with a physical usb game key than something like this.
had quite a heated discussion about how he thinks the video game industry is dying on its feet , due to publishers not looking after dev teams , and releasing mass market junk in stead of good games for gamers
[/ QUOTE ]
It's very true. But go to the video store and look at the new releases, 80% are straight to video crapp. It's the same in games. But if the publishers keep throwing out junk, worst case scenario is a replay of the great game crash of 83' and we'll end up with another landfill full of "E.T." or some other buggy licenced peice of shiyt.
Ghost - its sortof inevitable ... the games industry will be run like the film industry ... occasionally somone will use household equipment to make somthing thats good ... (like blair witch maybe ) but mainly it will be mainstream big budget trash with nothing new ...