How to force the extracted GCF files to work with steam?

[grecco_diego]

*topic*

 

[WhiteZero]

Right now... you can't without the AI errors.

 

[The Dark Elf]

moved to steam section

 

[grecco_diego]

AI errors? I wanna do this to get rid of stuttering, my half life 2 is original.

 

[WhiteZero]

AI errors? I wanna do this to get rid of stuttering, my half life 2 is original.

Yes, AI Errors. If you run the game off extracted gcf files, the game will give you AI Errors just like the pirated versions.

You have to play with non-extracted GCF files.

I agree, it would be great if we could extract them, because it cuts down load times and stuttering quite significantly.

Sucks to be us...
:rolling:

 

[grecco_diego]

I don't care. I want it forced.

 

[WhiteZero]

I don't care. I want it forced.

...hahahaha!
"I don't care"
Well, you better start caring, because it's not going to work.

Tell ya what... if you want it so bad, your going to have to figure it out yourself there, chief. Good luck with getting around the AI Errors.

lol, "I don't care"... that was hillarious.

 

[grecco_diego]

........

 

[Eon Blue]

Get GCFscape and extract everything to the HL2 directory. That's a start, at least.

 

[WhiteZero]

Get GCFscape and extract everything to the HL2 directory. That's a start, at least.

It seems that he already knows how to extract them and just needs to know how to get them to work with Steam (which isn't very possible ATM).

 

[4est]

Sound file extraction is covered in my "tweaks" collection below. Only extract the sound files.

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Pre patch most people had luck with:

sv_forcepreload "1" // Preloads game assets at start of level
cl_forcepreload "1" // Preloads game assets at start of level


Post patch some had to go to:
sv_forcepreload "0"
cl_forcepreload "0"

Be sure to read this about the HL2 patch: http://www.blep.net/hl2stutter/#PatchAnalysis It basically gave people this setting:
mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware "1"
and a a tradeoff.

"The end result, at least of my system, is that there is now a tradeoff. I can have a smooth overall frame rate, but with stuttering, or I can eliminate the stuttering but have intermittent frame rate decreases."

I prefer the combination of the settings and sound file extraction method listed below:

sv_forcepreload "1"
cl_forcepreload "1"
mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware "0"

Sound file extraction has been a good fix for many people.

1. Get GFCScape and install it. http://countermap.counter-strike.net/Nemesis/index.php?p=25

2. Double click on C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\source sounds.gcf

3. Navigate in the left pane of CFGscape until "sound" shows in the right pane.



4. Right click and extract the "sound" folder to the C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\[email protected]\half-life 2\hl2\ folder.



This has helped many many people to get rid of stuttering.

** NOTE: BE SURE TO READ THE EULA TO SEE IF YOU ARE ALLOWED TO DO THIS. I take no responsibility for your actions. **



Also, keep this in mind. Pre-patch most people had luck with:

sv_forcepreload "1" // Preloads game assets at start of level
cl_forcepreload "1" // Preloads game assets at start of level


Post patch some had to go to:
sv_forcepreload "0"
cl_forcepreload "0"

Be sure to read this about the HL2 patch: http://www.blep.net/hl2stutter/#PatchAnalysis It basically gave people this setting:
mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware "1"
and a a tradeoff.

"The end result, at least of my system, is that there is now a tradeoff. I can have a smooth overall frame rate, but with stuttering, or I can eliminate the stuttering but have intermittent frame rate decreases."

I prefer the combination of the settings and sound file extraction method listed below:

sv_forcepreload "1"
cl_forcepreload "1"
mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware "0"



Plus, be sure to get contig http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/contig.shtml and read this thread:

http://www.hlfallout.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=21617

Go there ^ read....

Then download contig. The readme explains how to use the program contig to to defrag your specific HL2 files.

You must go to

Start>Run> then type in "cmd" to get a command console.

When the cmd console opens, it shows:

C:\Documents and Settings\yourname>

In the command console, go to the direcotory where contig.exe is stored. For me it was:

G:\Downloads\Utilities\Contig

For DOS newbs this required me to enter at the command prompt "g:"

C:\Documents and Settings\yourname>g:

which begat

G:\>

Then I entered:

G:\>cd Downloads\Utilities\Contig

This putme into the contig folder:

G:\Downloads\Utilities\Contig

I used a two switches to defrag all files in all subfolders and print out the results. The command I used looked like this:

G:\Downloads\Utilities\Contig>contig -s -v "C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\*.*"

The quotes have to be used because of the space in Program Files.

Many people did not use *.* at the end and only defragged the .gcf files.

For that the cmd line would have been:

G:\Downloads\Utilities\Contig>contig -v "C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\*.gcf"

This put me from 4.06 fragments per file on average to 1.27 fragments/file.

Finally, http://www.tweakguides.com/ has the best collection (10 pages) of HL2 information on the planet.

Other tweeks that have helped some are:

disable valve.avi at the start of the game - for faster load
disable the fancy schmancy menu background you get when starting the game - for much faster load
disable autosave - for ingame stuttering

Those 3 items are also listed in the 10 page tweak guide.