Pretty citadel on horizon causes major lag

[Mr Poopypants]

Although the pretty blue explosion in the background of Halflife2 Ep2 is aesthetically pleasing, it causes no end of grief to my laptop. Every time I look in the direction on the blue explosion where the Citadel once stood my game lags an awful amount. It even lags when I'm underground (poor coding me thinks) which is ridiculous because I can't even SEE the freaking Citadel. Has anyone else had this problem? If so, is there a way to fix it? I know you can do some code stuff in the ~console~ but I assume those codes are limited to effect only the character you play as and not anything more... Of course, I'm relatively new, so I probably shouldn't make assumptions.
Thanks! :naughty:

 

[Disrupted_Hunter]

You're on a LAPTOP, and unless it's one that can run games like a gaming laptop, there's nothing you can do. And coding doesn't lag a game, it's your RAM and Video Card that does the lagging

 

[Vegeta897]

I like your name.

Up!

 

[Mr Poopypants]

Hmm, you see, I'd buy that answer - but I've played all the previous HL with little to no lagging. It's definitely only lagging when I face the exploding citadel. Poor coding would slow the game if the citadel isn't being deactivated when its being blocked by other objects in respect to the view, which is what it seems happens based on my lagging computer only in one direction. Er, has anyone had this problem? Lagging when you're facing the citadel?

 

[PimpinPenguin]

When your in the underground levels the citadel is not there. Make sure you set your shadows to low, Episode 2 introduced dynamic shadowing and it's very resource heavy. It would explain why you are lagging underground.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Hmm, you see, I'd buy that answer - but I've played all the previous HL with little to no lagging.

Episode 2 is an Orange Box game, which is on an updated version of the Source engine. It has significant improvements and has higher system requirements than Half-life, Half-life 2, Half-life 2 Episode 1.

You may notice the game is actually more aesthetically pleasing, and therefore requires more from your CPU / RAM & GPU. Laptops really aren't built for high end gaming (unless you have bought a specific gaming laptop), and so you are likely to experience low framerate issues. Turning your settings down further is the solution.

 

[Barnz]

ent_remove citadel (or whatever it's called)

 

[Mr Poopypants]

When your in the underground levels the citadel is not there. Make sure you set your shadows to low, Episode 2 introduced dynamic shadowing and it's very resource heavy. It would explain why you are lagging underground.

I forgot to mention that all my settings have been set to the very lowest with video and audio. The game does run quite smoothly, but it's only when I turn to face the direction of the citadel that it lags. You're right, but they must have left the citadel in on some of the earlier underground levels because I didn't experience the annoying lagging in only one direction when I was playing deep underground in the Sandlion layer but in the first few I still experienced lag in one direction.
I really don't have a serious high end gaming laptop, but apart from system specs there has to be a way to fix this... It's really only when I face one direction.

ent_remove citadel (or whatever it's called)

Hmm... I will work on this. Where can I find it's developer name?

EDIT: I've found the name... env_citadel_energy_core
But when I tried ent_remove it didn't work. I tried using a variety of differing syntax but to no avail.
Any ideas?

 

[PimpinPenguin]

I don't believe you can remove the Citadel as it's a skybox not an entity, it's the same technology used to give the illusions of vast distance areas. The "env_citadel_energy_core" command refers to the core in Episode 1, and has no relevance in Episode 2.

 

[Barnz]

it's an entity located in skybox room, so yes: it's an entity

 

[Godron]

Surely if you're getting lag when facing in one direction even in underground maps, then it can't be caused by the citadel, because the citadel isn't in those maps. It sounds more likely that just looking in a certain direction triggers the lag, and the citadel happening to be in that direction is just coincidence.

 

[kupocake]

Surely if you're getting lag when facing in one direction even in underground maps, then it can't be caused by the citadel, because the citadel isn't in those maps. It sounds more likely that just looking in a certain direction triggers the lag, and the citadel happening to be in that direction is just coincidence.

Some of the early maps involve underground sections, so the citadel is probably out there doing its thing for those, if not in the antlion sections.

Most likely, it's the particle effects involved in the Citadel wreckage skybox, since they were one of the major revamps in the source engine upgrade... can you roll back the renderer like you used to be able to with Half-Life 2, to force lower Direct X modes and the like? It's a bitch that it's that skybox scene that causes so much trouble, since that skybox is such a major element of the episode.... but that's all the more reason to not play the game on a chugging laptop I suppose...

 

[Mr Poopypants]

I was reading up on the dxlevel command, but I haven't tried it yet. I read up that lowering the version of DirX could cause glitches, but at this point I'm willing to try anything.

 

[Maronan]

I've had the exact problem— game lags to unplayable crawl when facing the direction of the citadel even if you can't see it (but it's fine on exclusively underground maps that have no citadel at all) and is fine everywhere else.

Try updating the driver for your video card. That's what worked for me; it still lags a little bit, but it doesn't cause any major problems unless you use the suit zoom so the portal effects fill the whole screen.

And yes, I play Episode 2 on a laptop— I have a MacBook with the built-in video card and no upgrades other than some additional RAM. I'm not sure what computer or graphics card you have, so you may have a different problem despite the same symptoms, but that's what worked for me. Hope that helps! :E

PS— you might want to turn HDR lighting off, though. My non-gaming ordinary laptop is fine with high-quality textures but chokes on HDR.

PPS— Actually, HDR seems more like a bug than a feature to me; even if I had a computer capable of handling anything without lag, I'd keep it off.

PPPS— My thread on the same problem.

 

[Mr Poopypants]

Ah man, I just finished the game a few minutes ago! I enjoyed reading your thread a ton though. Totally understand how frustrating it is to fight hunters with your back to that stupid citadel! Though it did add an extra challenge.
Hmm, I see. I will try updating my drivers... I did that just this summer, but I seemed to have problems finding the right ones. Ahh well, I'm sure I'll find em. Thanks!

Ahhh HDR. Is that an in game setting I can change? I did set everything possible to it's lowest setting in game I think.

 

[Lizardizzle]

specs of your laptop may help us help you help us all.