Flashlight won't work in HL2

[TolAddict]

After two useless emails from tech support, I've decided to turn to the gaming community, and why I didn't do that first I'll never know. Anyhow, I shouldn't say that my flashlight doesn't work, just that it doesn't do what flashlights are supposed to do. It'll turn on fine, shine normally, but the rest of the screen begins to glitch. See through walls, blank textures, objects appearing where they shouldn't be, much lowered framerate, everything becoming blurry, etc... Sometimes the whole screen turns white save for certain wall textures, namely signs. Now, this is all under DirectX 7.0. If I use the console to force 8.1 or 9.0, I don't get any light from the flashlight period, however, the screen no longer glitches. I realize there's a cheat, mat_fullbright 1, that turns up the brightness on all the textures, and I could just play through the game with that on; however, unfortantly :-P , I'm a pretty avid gamer; I've been into games for as long as I can remember. Playing a game life Half-Life 2 without the use of a flashlight just sorta seems to really sap from the game's atmosphere, and, picky as I am, thus make it unplayable. Now that I've given you my life story, any help would be appreciated. Thanks,

Tolkien Addict
Not all who wander are lost.

 

[TolAddict]

Oops

Just realized I should probably give you guys some hardware information. My graphics card is a GeForce 2 MX/MX 400, 64 mb. Processor is a AMD Athlon XP 1800+, 1.5 GHz, 256 mb of RAM. Nothing special, but it gets me by.

 

[Xanakali]

Such an Avid gamer should buy a better PC
Anyways it sounds like you gotta have it top 'o the line, but i dont think thats possible w/o better Equipment. Maby... im no tech guy...

 

[TolAddict]

Avid though I may be, I also have a crummy job, a new car, and an engagement ring to worry about, and the last thing I need is to buy a new pc just becuase my flashlight won't work in HL2. I'm considering complaining, I mean, I do meet the minimum system requirements, and it's not like the flashlight is some perk you should get only if you have a good system. If I meet the min. system requirements, I shouldn't have to cheat to actually be able to play the game the way it was meant to be played, without all the cool perks, of course.

 

[meganox]

i know the minimum spec says a dx7 card should work, but i seriously doubt your gf2 is up to the job. sorry. i play ok on a dx8 gf4 ti4600 which you can pick up quite cheap i think. do you really need to get engaged?

 

[TolAddict]

Actually, I'm already engaged, I just couldn't afford to get a ring at the time. Plus, the whole thing was sorta spontaneous. :-P God, I sound like a loser, proposing without a ring. Anyways, I've noticed that there are several commands in HL2's console that deal with the flashlight. Anyone know what these do, 'cuz I can't figure it out. Also, I'm getting a 'shader error' when I start up HL2. Says something about unknown shader Occlusion. I've been wondering if maybe this is the problem. As you can no doubt see, I'm not willing to give up and buy a new gfx card that easily.

 

[wolvesrdogs]

If your flash light isnt working you need to have graphics on high
i had it on med and then got better graphics card, and i got good flashlight now.

 

[Jintor]

I still think the best awnser is to get a better graphics card.

But go ahead and get engaged if you want.

Seriously though, my graphics are on medium, and my flashilight works fine. As far as i remember the only problem i had with it was playing gary's mod 6c and then getting to freeze IN the Actual HL2 Game.

Oh, and... "Stuff happens. What the hell."

 

[TolAddict]

When you say graphics on high, do you mean messing around with my actual video card options, or with the in-game options? I hadn't thought of turning the settings up higher, just lower.

 

[Sieg]

Do you really want to get merried,then have children......Thats going to cost a hell amount of time and money.Growing up sucks......

 

[TolAddict]

Lol yes, I do wanna get married, but no kids. :-D And yeah, growing up does suck, but everyone's gotta do it sometime. However, I'm a pretty big fan of escapism, so when I play games, read books, watch movies, listen to music, I get really into it; it's nice to absorb yourself in neverland every once in a while, really makes life a lot easier. Hence why I'm dissapointed in HL2's inability to work properly. At any rate, you guys are at least all proving more useful than tech support, and if that doesn't say something, I don't know what does. :-P I mean, I've always had problems with games, but at least after one email the problem was fixed. Interplay, for example, had a wonderful tech support, they didn't screw around, and they knew their way around their games. Valve/Steam/Sierra/whoever, on the other hand...

 

[meganox]

where's the romance in this thread? i'm all for marriage, if you love 'er go for it! just make sure and put a top of the line gfx card on the wedding present list! of course you'll have to bring the date forward, but i'm sure the lady won't mind that.

in the meantime, i think you're just gonna have to keep searching the forums, maybe forget about searching for flashlight problems and search on your card and drivers, i know there's lots of posts about people trying different nvidia driver versions. also try the futuremark.com forums, the people there know their stuff and are most helpful, i hear. didn't occur to me to mention that in my first post, sorry. good luck with the wedding, but more importantly good luck with hl2!

 

[TolAddict]

Well, all my drivers are completly updated, but I just noticed something really wierd. The flashlight does shine, however, it only shines on such things as npcs and garbage laying on the ground. So it like, half-works, it just won't shine where I need it the most, on walls, floors, ceilings, the like. Dunno what would cause a wierd problem like that.

 

[meganox]

what i meant was you might wanna try some OLDER drivers

 

[TolAddict]

Well, turns out that my newer driver was giving games like GTA: Vice City and Diablo II problems, so I had to roll back to my previous driver anyways. Still no luck, even after another 2 emails from tech support. I'll keep trying older drivers though.

 

[Ultra Spidey]

In reply to what some people said, about GF2 MX 400 not strong enough to handle hl2, I want to state something.
I have GF2 MX 100. HL2 DOES work. Beautifully. And fast.
Alas, I pray every day that when I play games like hl2 or other heavy gaem, that the fan won't stop working. It did stop once and got almost burnt.

 

[TolAddict]

I fixed the problem. It turns out rolling back my video card driver was just what I needed. Well, that, and using the game's console to force Direct X 7.0. Wow though, the games running fast, looking decent, and I am one happy individual. This is what Half-Life 2 is supposed to be like. Anyways, thanks to anyone who offered me any good advice. And now, I can put off buying a new video card for another couple of years. Now, about that new car of mine, should I buy a used one outright for about $7,000, like a nice old Monte Carlo Z-34, or should I go all the way and get a new, say... tC or Tiburon or something? :-D Cheap, and fast enough to do something retarded in. Those are my only two requirements when it comes to cars.