~Speed_Demon~
Newbie
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2004
- Messages
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My experience with HL2 reminds me of the good old DOS days, when I would spend hours tweaking my system to get games like Ultima 7 to run. I’ve tried every conceivable tweak (and combination of tweaks) with HL2 and here are my conclusions:
After installing HL2, and after automatic Steam updates that you may not be aware of with a broadband connection, your hard disk MUST be defragged. This may be why many complain about worse performance after the patch.
The stuttering patch helps significantly on my system, but there is still stuttering when new sounds load. Stuttering cause by autosaving is reduced, but not eliminated, so I recommend setting your autosave files to read-only to eliminate this problem. This patch is really targeted for ATI users, and the nVidia patch is still being worked on… So when you complain about the patch in these forums, please state which camp you belong to.
NEW BUG – I have discovered that the patch creates a new bug that results in frame rate drops of up to 30 fps. I have found only 2 solutions to this… Disable the new tweak (mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware 0) or drop the texture detail down to medium.
To see this bug for yourself, follow these steps:
Turn on the frame rate counter (cl_showfps 2) and start a new game. Follow your fellow passengers into the train station until they stop and begin talking about Dr. Breen. Stand behind them, looking down the chain-link fence, record your frame rate (I get 59fps), and save the game. Load a different level from a previous save. Now reload the last save point, and notice the reduced fps (I get 33fps). Reload the last save point again, and your frame rate has returned to normal.
SOUND CACHE – Type snd_memasync in the console to see the currently cached sounds. Check it before and after a hiccup occurs and you’ll see that new sounds have loaded. This seems to confirm what others have said about the stuttering, at least in part, being caused by the sound system. You’ll notice that only 16MB is allocated for the sound cache, which is ridiculously low… and I haven’t found any way to increase it. I would wager that increasing it to 64MB, along with the current patch, would eliminate 99% of the stuttering… at least for me. Valve, if you’re reading this, please provide a cvar to set the sound data cache.
Misc tweaks I’ve tried:
-heapsize – Doubling the default heap of 64MB is a good idea, but I’ve tried settings up to 700MB without any improvements… in fact, settings above 512MB can actually degrade performance by forcing your computer to use the virtual memory swap file. I would recommend ¼ of your system memory (-heapsize 262144 with 1GB ram).
cl_forcepreload and sv_forcepreload set to 1 with no noticeable improvement. Nevertheless, preloading is never a bad idea, especially with the increased heapsize.
cl_smooth – useless. Set to default.
snd_mixahead - useless. Set to default (0.1).
mat_trilinear set to 1 – No improvement.
Vsync – It should be enabled (mat_vsync 1) - For those of you who say that you don’t need no stink’n vsync… go into the train station at the beginning of the game… Look straight up at the ceiling windows, remove your hand from the mouse, and use your strafe keys to slide from side to side. The visual tearing is very pronounced, at least on a CRT monitor.
fps_max – It defaults to 300, which seemed overkill. Setting it below your monitor’s vertical refresh rate will noticeably degrade performance. To my surprise, leaving it at 300 does not significantly increase CPU load, and the gameplay seems smoother… so leave it alone.
AGP Aperture – I’ve tried 64/128/256MB with no noticeable difference. 128MB seems like a good choice.
WinXP Virtual Memory – I’ve tried None/256/512/1500MB with no improvement. Some recommend a permanent swap file of 1.5x your physical memory… this is absurd, especially for systems with 1GB or more of ram. Remember, the more data being swapped to your hard disk, the worse your performance… and there are some poorly designed games that allocate as much memory as Windows will give them, and you can imagine the result. I have my swapfile set to 512MB and have never run into any problems.
Below are my system specs and game settings:
P4 3.3GHz, Asus P4C800-D, 1GB Corsair 3500C2, ATI x800XT-PE w/256MB, Audigy 2 Platinum, dual Western Digital 120GB/8MB drives in RAID 0 config, WinXP Pro w/SP2.
1280x1024 @ 100Hz, 4xAA, 8xAF, Maximum Model, Texture, Shader & Shadow Detail. Reflect World, Vsync Enabled.
Take Care.
After installing HL2, and after automatic Steam updates that you may not be aware of with a broadband connection, your hard disk MUST be defragged. This may be why many complain about worse performance after the patch.
The stuttering patch helps significantly on my system, but there is still stuttering when new sounds load. Stuttering cause by autosaving is reduced, but not eliminated, so I recommend setting your autosave files to read-only to eliminate this problem. This patch is really targeted for ATI users, and the nVidia patch is still being worked on… So when you complain about the patch in these forums, please state which camp you belong to.
NEW BUG – I have discovered that the patch creates a new bug that results in frame rate drops of up to 30 fps. I have found only 2 solutions to this… Disable the new tweak (mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware 0) or drop the texture detail down to medium.
To see this bug for yourself, follow these steps:
Turn on the frame rate counter (cl_showfps 2) and start a new game. Follow your fellow passengers into the train station until they stop and begin talking about Dr. Breen. Stand behind them, looking down the chain-link fence, record your frame rate (I get 59fps), and save the game. Load a different level from a previous save. Now reload the last save point, and notice the reduced fps (I get 33fps). Reload the last save point again, and your frame rate has returned to normal.
SOUND CACHE – Type snd_memasync in the console to see the currently cached sounds. Check it before and after a hiccup occurs and you’ll see that new sounds have loaded. This seems to confirm what others have said about the stuttering, at least in part, being caused by the sound system. You’ll notice that only 16MB is allocated for the sound cache, which is ridiculously low… and I haven’t found any way to increase it. I would wager that increasing it to 64MB, along with the current patch, would eliminate 99% of the stuttering… at least for me. Valve, if you’re reading this, please provide a cvar to set the sound data cache.
Misc tweaks I’ve tried:
-heapsize – Doubling the default heap of 64MB is a good idea, but I’ve tried settings up to 700MB without any improvements… in fact, settings above 512MB can actually degrade performance by forcing your computer to use the virtual memory swap file. I would recommend ¼ of your system memory (-heapsize 262144 with 1GB ram).
cl_forcepreload and sv_forcepreload set to 1 with no noticeable improvement. Nevertheless, preloading is never a bad idea, especially with the increased heapsize.
cl_smooth – useless. Set to default.
snd_mixahead - useless. Set to default (0.1).
mat_trilinear set to 1 – No improvement.
Vsync – It should be enabled (mat_vsync 1) - For those of you who say that you don’t need no stink’n vsync… go into the train station at the beginning of the game… Look straight up at the ceiling windows, remove your hand from the mouse, and use your strafe keys to slide from side to side. The visual tearing is very pronounced, at least on a CRT monitor.
fps_max – It defaults to 300, which seemed overkill. Setting it below your monitor’s vertical refresh rate will noticeably degrade performance. To my surprise, leaving it at 300 does not significantly increase CPU load, and the gameplay seems smoother… so leave it alone.
AGP Aperture – I’ve tried 64/128/256MB with no noticeable difference. 128MB seems like a good choice.
WinXP Virtual Memory – I’ve tried None/256/512/1500MB with no improvement. Some recommend a permanent swap file of 1.5x your physical memory… this is absurd, especially for systems with 1GB or more of ram. Remember, the more data being swapped to your hard disk, the worse your performance… and there are some poorly designed games that allocate as much memory as Windows will give them, and you can imagine the result. I have my swapfile set to 512MB and have never run into any problems.
Below are my system specs and game settings:
P4 3.3GHz, Asus P4C800-D, 1GB Corsair 3500C2, ATI x800XT-PE w/256MB, Audigy 2 Platinum, dual Western Digital 120GB/8MB drives in RAID 0 config, WinXP Pro w/SP2.
1280x1024 @ 100Hz, 4xAA, 8xAF, Maximum Model, Texture, Shader & Shadow Detail. Reflect World, Vsync Enabled.
Take Care.
