Best settings

[badbot]

What are the best settings for HL2? so that when you run the game with these settings the game will be at its best. (Assuming ur comp can handle it) Also can you explain to me what some of the settings do? For example, I don’t know what antialaizing does. I know that Aliasing is when u make the graphics smooth or something, I am not quite sure, but any info would be greatly appreciated

 

[koopa]

The best settings is everything turned on full, water on reflect all and so on. antialiasing = the smoothing applied to jagged edges to make them look less jagged.

 

[Bobcat]

http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=601

Depthful explanation of antialiasing and anisotropic filtering.

Worth a read.

 

[badbot]

Ok let me be more specific. What settings should i put antialiasing "none", 2X, 4X, or 6X ? and Whats "wait for vertical sync" Should i leave it disabled or enabled? Lastly what is "filtering mode" Should i put that on trillinear or anisotropic 2X, 4X, 8X, or 16X?

 

[Ahnteis]

Short version:
Antialiasing removes jaggies. Turn it up as high as your graphics card can handle. (Turning it higher will lower your framerate.)

Vertical sync makes the monitor refresh sync with the redraw of the scene. Turning it off may give higher framerate but you may notice half-drawn frames.

 

[Dead-Inside]

Short version:
Antialiasing removes jaggies. Turn it up as high as your graphics card can handle. (Turning it higher will lower your framerate.)

Vertical sync makes the monitor refresh sync with the redraw of the scene. Turning it off may give higher framerate but you may notice half-drawn frames.

Turning off V-sync DOES give you a 50% increase (Or somewhere along those lines) in framerates. It's not a maybe, it's a fact. It simply cuts the frames so that it can update the whole thing at the same time.

 

[-h2o-]

antianalising (AA) - have you ever opened microsoft paint and drawn a straight line?

at a normal glance it looks straight and normal, zoom in, say, 200% and the straight line now looks like a staircase all jagged.

What anti anlising tends to do is fill in these gaps so the staicase appears straight even when zoomed in.

anit anilising in games comes under:
2x
4x
6x

8x***

the latest graphics cards tend to run at 6x i dont think the x800Xt goes up to 8x, but any way thats what it pretty much what it does, makes lines straighter.

Anstrophic Filtering (AF) - pretty much makes you see clearer for further distances. useful, i also think it sharpens up terrain too.
works on similar princible

 

[badbot]

what about filtering mode what should I put this setting on to get the best for hl2?

 

[-h2o-]

humm, mate if you want to post your computer spec that would be useful, if you dont know them, the chances are you won't of brought a good graphics card. please list at least:

RAM
PROCESSOR
GRAPHICS CARD

 

[Ahnteis]

Turning off V-sync DOES give you a 50% increase (Or somewhere along those lines) in framerates. It's not a maybe, it's a fact. It simply cuts the frames so that it can update the whole thing at the same time.

No. If you have a 120 MHz refresh and your computer is managing only 15 frames per second, vsync is not limiting you at all. So, turning off vsync MAY improve your FPS.

Filtering is a method of making the textures scale appropriately with distance. Again, higher is better, but it'll cost you framerate. (However, the performance hit is lower then antialiasing.)

 

[johnnypoopoopant]

i heard 16x af is not all that neccessay

 

[-h2o-]

hummm, well i run hl2 at 16x AF and notice little diff, but the x800 PRO is cpu bound to might as well boost up the settings. cant be worse

 

[rumblefish]

i feel my setting are good for my spec [look in sig]

rf

 

[badbot]

humm, mate if you want to post your computer spec that would be useful, if you dont know them, the chances are you won't of brought a good graphics card. please list at least:

RAM
PROCESSOR
GRAPHICS CARD

In my first post I stated that the computer in question was one that could handle the best of the best. My system spec is ati 9800 pro 128, cpu is 2.66 ram is 2 gigs dual channel ram pc3200 @ 400

 

[MiccyNarc]

AA: 2x
AF: 8x
In my opinion. The 9800 Pro isn't the best there is :-\
Everything else as high as possible.

 

[Lt. Drebin]

hey badbot,

IMO:
AA: 2x or off
AF:4x
Res:1024x786
I think thats a good starting point for you, experiment with everything else.

A little hint, although I haven't tried this with HL2, but in Doom 3 you could squeeze a few fps out and have similar quality by turning off AA and upping the rez. Doom 3 was rather dark which is why I think the quality remained the same, ie. you couldn't tell the difference. May not work in HL2.

 

[LegoJones]

My rig:
AMD 2400xp
ATI 9800pro 128mb
1 GB RAM

My settings:
1280 x 1024
AA = off
AF = 8x
VSync = off
All detials = High

I average around 50fps with the above, more indoors, less outdoors.

Just turn on the fps counter in the console with the following command:
cl_showfps 1

Then experiment.

 

[badbot]

I can run doom 3 on ultra high graphics withought any chopines. HL2 does have some chopiness, but thats a bug that will be fixed soon with the nex patch.
BTW does anyone know what the fastest processor is out there in the market?

 

[Soulray]

Alienware is sellin a rig with 4.0-GODLY

 

[zer0kewl]

16x af 20x af in futere or higher
6x aa 8x aa or higher in the future maybe
vsync on atleast 1024x768 @ 100hz if posible 120 or higher
if posible run 1600x1200 100hz 120 if posible even higher

really if you got atleast 3,2 ghz cpu
and 9800xt it should be playable 1024x768 100hz
6x aa 16x af

 

[badbot]

Cool thanx for the info zer0kewl. BTW can u give me a link to that rig, it sound very expensive

 

[Top Secret]

Alienware is sellin a rig with 4.0-GODLY

4 Ghz Athlon 64? Yes. Godly.

4 Ghz Pentium 4? No. Not godly.

I'm at 3.8 right now, and a A64 3800 would smoke my PC.

 

[badbot]

4 Ghz Athlon 64? Yes. Godly.

4 Ghz Pentium 4? No. Not godly.

I'm at 3.8 right now, and a A64 3800 would smoke my PC.

Whats the difference between Athlon 64 and Pentium 4?

 

[Mr.Headcrab]

Athlon 64 is a 64 Bit processor and the Pentium 4 is 32. I have no clue why Intel hasnt made a 64 Bit processor yet, perhaps they are stupid.

 

[badbot]

Athlon 64 is a 64 Bit processor and the Pentium 4 is 32. I have no clue why Intel hasnt made a 64 Bit processor yet, perhaps they are stupid.

lol maby, i thought i read an article where they said that the 64 bit was going to be release in 2005... Does Athlon use the same numeric system like Megahetz?

 

[egon]

athlon is not megahertz, it started out at a rating to say that a x+ athlon was as good as a p4 x mhz. now sheer mhz speed doesnt matter, so the rating is basically an indicator of performance.
eg.
2600+ 'thoroughbred' athlon xp runs at 2.06 ghz
2600+ 'barton' athlon xp runs at 1.9 ghz
they have the same rating since barton has 512 kb of l2 cache compared to 256 for thoroughbred, so actually the barton is better.

 

[egon]

athlon 64 are 64 bit, but not too many programs support 64 bit instructions right now

 

[badbot]

athlon is not megahertz, it started out at a rating to say that a x+ athlon was as good as a p4 x mhz. now sheer mhz speed doesnt matter, so the rating is basically an indicator of performance.
eg.
2600+ 'thoroughbred' athlon xp runs at 2.06 ghz
2600+ 'barton' athlon xp runs at 1.9 ghz
they have the same rating since barton has 512 kb of l2 cache compared to 256 for thoroughbred, so actually the barton is better.

Oh man this is confusing... What are the major things I should know about atholons and how do I compare them to a pentium pc.

 

[egon]

basically look at benchmarks on hardware sites. the nomenclature is now crazily convoluted. but anything from amd beats anything from intel in gaming at similar prices.

 

[badbot]

can I get a good link?

 

[badbot]

nobody has a link to a benchmank site?

 

[Gregory]

Ati

ok i have an ati radeon 9100... :hmph: bad i know but still i have it and i am trying to figure out how to turn off vsync on it... i have tha catalyst control center... if anyone is familiar if you could help i cant find where to turn it off... thanks :sniper:

I have a:
AMD Athlon +3400
Radeon 9100
ask if you want to know more

 

[joule]

ok i have an ati radeon 9100... :hmph: bad i know but still i have it and i am trying to figure out how to turn off vsync on it... i have tha catalyst control center... if anyone is familiar if you could help i cant find where to turn it off... thanks :sniper:

You wouldn't turn vsync off from the Catalyst Control Center. You'd have to change it in the application you are running, that being Half-Life 2.

Thus so...

Fire up Half-Life 2.

Go to:

-> Options
-> Video
-> Advanced...
-> The last option on the right, 'Wait for vertical sync'. There you can disable it.

 

[Gregory]

You wouldn't turn vsync off from the Catalyst Control Center. You'd have to change it in the application you are running, that being Half-Life 2.

Thus so...

Fire up Half-Life 2.

Go to:

-> Options
-> Video
-> Advanced...
-> The last option on the right, 'Wait for vertical sync'. There you can disable it.

what about if im running counterstrike would u know where to change there???

 

[joule]

what about if im running counterstrike would u know where to change there???

It's the same. And I believe it's defaulted to be disabled anyway.