No rain in Hard Rain?

[Captain M4d]

I played through the entire Hard Rain campaign earlier with my fiance, and we both noticed that there was no rain throughout the entire game. There was the sound of rain, and it got darker and foggier, but no rain, which kind of pissed us off because it's so instrumental in setting the mood in that campaign.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

 

[Captain M4d]

For the sake of keeping things to one thread, L4D2 just crashed for me while I was playing Scavenge mode in Dead Center. This is the message I got:

 

[beam]

Have to set your video options to High Shader Quality or you will not see the rain and cool storm effects.

The IVP thing is all over the steam forums but I have not had that issue so I don't know.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

medium or low shader = no rain, high = some rain and effects, very high = helluva lot cooler and immersive. Rape on the framerate though.

 

[MorganFreeman911]

Yep. That's why we have gaming PCs..

 

[Captain M4d]

Yep. That's why we have gaming PCs..

As a poor college student, I am damned to the terrible decision of a "gaming laptop" that I got two years ago.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

You poor, dumb, stupid, maniacal basterd.

 

[Captain M4d]

You poor, dumb, stupid, maniacal basterd.

WHATTTTTTT

Uncalled for! It ran games quite well at the time, Half-Life 2 and others included! The only dumb part about my plan was, "ohhhh man, I should make it a laptop because I can game everywhere! plus I need portability for college! dumb-dee-dum-dum!"

Well, for both of those things...I WAS ****IN WRONG. Worst decision in my life...

 

[Hectic Glenn]

A poor decision indeed

Some screenies I took of hard rain during the heavy storm sections - http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showpost.php?p=3059865&postcount=12

 

[DEATHMASTER]

The sad thing is I have friends who still think their gaming laptop was a good choice.

 

[Frits]

And what will enable one to get the shader to 'very high', while not sacrificing fps? New video card? Or is it a matter of upgrading even more stuff?

(my pc is 2,5 yrs old right now - don't have the specs here...)

 

[Frits]

Appears my GeForce 7300GT was running at medium shader quality all the time. Well, L4D certainly didn't look bad... but running at super high makes it look much, much better. A bit low on the fps, though. L4D2 demo even crashes when I up the settings... Guess it's about time for a new graphics card.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Remember to consider your PSUs capability before going for something big and powerful.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

I fumbled around with some combos and this is the best looks/performance ratio I got:
1440x900
Shader: very high
textures: medium
Effects: high
Pool memory: high

7950GT OC, 3800+ X2, 2 gig ddr, 550W psu.

Really the only thing I changed from my previous optimal was the shader. Compared to medium shader, the performance went down by about 20% but it's worth it at least for hard rain (I have yet to see the visual effects significantly elsewhere). Turning the flashlight on drops it about 5-10 frames which is a real bitch.

 

[Acepilotf14]

On your 7950? Beautiful. I just hate turning down my resolution, since my damned monitor is made for 1920x1200.

Gonna upgrade this winter. Nice new PSU and hopefully a 4970...

 

[Warped]

I turn the film grain down to 0 and get like 20 more fps. everything else is on high at least

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Oh damn that stuff actually affects frames?

On your 7950? Beautiful. I just hate turning down my resolution, since my damned monitor is made for 1920x1200.

Gonna upgrade this winter. Nice new PSU and hopefully a 4970...

I'm content with keeping this 22" with 1680x1050 until it busts, but next in line is probably something with that resolution and I'll be sure to get some rapist g-card with rapist levels of video mem.

 

[Captain M4d]

That's interesting I'll have to try turning down the film grain and turning up the pixel shaders.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Ok; the framerate is the same in lit areas but in the darker spots I got a 5fps boost.

 

[Acepilotf14]

Going to be playing later today, gonna tinker around with it.

 

[selizabeth]

ah frack. guess I know what I'm saving up for now.

effing laptops. blasdkhglksjdf

 

[leib10]

As a poor college student, I am damned to the terrible decision of a "gaming laptop" that I got two years ago.

Ditto. Forget high framerate, I'm lucky to get anything above 40 FPS with L4D2.

 

[Levaetus]

On your 7950? Beautiful. I just hate turning down my resolution, since my damned monitor is made for 1920x1200.

Gonna upgrade this winter. Nice new PSU and hopefully a 4970...

No such thing as a 4970 bro.

Got a 4670 here and L4D2 runs pretty damn well with everything maxed out. Honestly you don't need a great graphics card to run it. I am using a mainstream card from 2008 and am getting at the very least 30-60 frames even on hardrain with all the shit turned up.

Feels good man

 

[DEATHMASTER]

You've been here 1 year and only have 3 posts?

 

[MorganFreeman911]

No such thing as a 4970 bro.

Got a 4670 here and L4D2 runs pretty damn well with everything maxed out. Honestly you don't need a great graphics card to run it. I am using a mainstream card from 2008 and am getting at the very least 30-60 frames even on hardrain with all the shit turned up.

Feels good man

This, except I have an 8800, and I still get 50 - 60 FPS in Hard Rain.

 

[grungeisntdead]

i have a not so great graphics card (codename for holy pile of shit), and i had rain even on low shader quality. idk whats up with that