About Steam & preloading

[Stylus]

Hey dudes, i'm a bit of a newbie so can you answer these:
1. What's Steam?
2. What's pre-loading do? What's it for?
3. How much harddrive space will I need for HalfLife 2?
4. My PC specs are: NVidia GeForce 2 MX200, Pentium 4 2.6GHz, 256Mb RAM. Will HL2 run okay?

Many thanks, cya.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

1. www.steampowered.com -> It's like an auto-updating program for your games + game server browser + instant message program all in one.

2. Pre-loading is downloading the files for the game before it is released. So when it is released you can just buy and play.

3. The files so far are about 3 gig i think. You'll need about 5 gig to be safe.

4. Your PC will run Half-Life 2 perfectly , at extremely low graphical settings! You probably need a better video card and more ram

 

[Koffern]

hey!

ill answer as much as i can..

1) Steam is a prog. valve has made. It sets together alle the valve games in one program so you easy can play the game you want. Its free to download (www.steampowered)

From their site: WHAT IS STEAM?

Steam is Valve's new way of getting games into your hands ASAP. Games like Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero are all being made available through Steam.

Steam games are automatically kept up-to-date with the latest content and revisions. Steam also includes an instant-message client which even works while you're in-game.

2) when you preload to download hl2 so when its released you can play it asap. its free until you buy the key

3 & 4) You might be able to play it at min settings, but if i where you i'd buy a new graph card and maybe some more ram.Everything else it good

Hope this helps!

 

[Gunner]

1. www.steampowered.com -> It's like an auto-updating program for your games + game server browser + instant message program all in one.

2. Pre-loading is downloading the files for the game before it is released. So when it is released you can just buy and play.

3. The files so far are about 3 gig i think. You'll need about 5 gig to be safe.

4. Your PC will run Half-Life 2 perfectly , at extremely low graphical settings! You probably need a better video card and more ram

Excellent reply! Post of the day! Super combo breeeeeeeeaaaaaker!

 

[scully]

i have an ati 9600 .. its 256 meg, and the tests come up ok so far. its quite a good card for the price, about £90-£100 mark.

i also have a 2.4 with 512ddr, and thats ok

:cheers:

 

[jimbones]

geforce 6600 GT agp once it's out would be nice also =)

 

[Dead-Inside]

i have an ati 9600 .. its 256 meg, and the tests come up ok so far. its quite a good card for the price, about £90-£100 mark.

i also have a 2.4 with 512ddr, and thats ok

:cheers:

9800 Pro is better, and newer at that.

The extra 128 MB doesn't add much to the card, btw. It doesn't make it all that much better even though it sounds like it.

 

[Stylus]

Keep in mind dudes that I have a 18GB harddrive (pretty damn pathetic huh?) and i've got only 1.8GBs left (Time to get rid of the now-obsolete Max Payne 2 then) so I actually might get a new harddrive (200GBs only $120 AUD now) I've got a lot of Audio programs and files and stuff. I haven't got enough audio files or anything to actually take up THAT much space! You guys got any ideas what could be taking up all that space?

 

[Aceallways]

You are running windows xp...right?

With windows xp, system restore could be taking up 12% of your HD, if you go to system restor -> setting, you can slide it down to 1%, or even 0% if you don't use it.

In addition, you'll always be surprised at how much space seems to be taken up by nothing if you re-format. I recommend reformating now as you will get your WHOLE HD back, as wel as a considerable boost in PC performance.

P.S- Microsoft recommends that a PC with Windowx XP gets reformated every 6 months. For a PC with an older version of windows (i.e. 95, 98, etc.), every 3 months.

I hope this helps.

 

[Stylus]

On the last comp I had, the system restore took up all the space (even though it wasn't on!) The folder was not visible in Windows even with hidden folders turned on. I had to go into DOS and I found the system restore folder and deleted it. Perhaps i'll do it again.

 

[Ecthe|ioN]

I used Windows XP for 2 years without reformatting. Didn't freeze on me once. Incredible.. I had to reformat when I upgraded my computer though. I must say that Microsoft has become a lot better than they were in making Windows 95

I know that was totally off-topic.

On topic:
Most have already been answered, but I advice you to buy a 100Gig+ harddrive, a new video card: ATI 9600 or a better one like the 9800 (yes, nvidia will do too), and make sure you have 512-1024MB RAM. You'll be set for HL2 in no time.

 

[john41]

Just a question I had, Where are the HL2 preload files?! Steam says I have them but I can’t find them.
sorry for being so dumb.

 

[Dynasty]

theres a special way of finding them. you have to search for a certain file i believe, but i dont know. i cant find them either...suppose its a security thing lol.

 

[soundstruck]

Just a question I had, Where are the HL2 preload files?! Steam says I have them but I can’t find them.
sorry for being so dumb.

C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\

All the base source shared ********.gcf files are what you're looking for. there's also the counter strike source shared content.gcf if you want to back that up as well.

 

[VodkA-HLC-]

the hl2 files are in your steam folder, they are huge and they are gcf format.

C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps

that is where they should be

 

[Crash Happy]

I'd reclaim space and speed by giving my HD a bit of love and attention, that way I could put the new HD on the bottom of the shopping list.