Quicker loading time solution?

[J_Tweedy]

Just wondering if you can enter some sort of task command so that hl2 doesn't have to load the moving background screen. (sorry if this has been asked before, because im sure it has) It takes an annoying amount of time to load, and before i had to format, i had it just loading the menu, and keeping the fuzzy image in the background. Don't know how i did it tho!
Any help'd be good, cheers

 

[Stef]

Hi !

You can activate the console somewhere in the menu.
(Dont remember where and I'm not on my home computer right now)
There will be no more animated menu.

Hope it help.

Stef

 

[Ames]

In your Lanuch Options menu..

either:

"-novid"

or

"-console"

 

[diluted]

Open up the file called valve.rc (it's in the Steam/SteamApps/username/half-life 2/hl2/cfg folder) in notepad, and add two //'s to the beginning of the last line in the file, and save it. So the last line would look like this
//startupmenu
instead of
startupmenu

 

[Frraksurred]

Diluted's trick will work, otherwise you can right click on your HL2 icon and add this in the target box, at the end of your exe.

" -novid +map_background none" (without quotes).

So it might look like this: "C:\Valve\Steam\Steam.exe -applaunch 220 -novid +map_background none" (if installed in default location).

This will illiminate the Valve video and the animated background, resulting in a much faster boot.

Oh and for a little extra performance boost you can add: " -heapsize 256000". Replace "256" with half the amount of your RAM (so in you have 1 gig of RAM it would be " -heapsize 512000" again without the quotes). You'll get less studder and loading times will shrink some.

Have fun!

 

[J_Tweedy]

sweet, thanks for all your help, i used frraksurred's one, cos i also want to change that heapsize thingy. Do i just copy and paste -heapsize512000 into the target box?
(I have got a gig of ram)

 

[_-_-SELAS-_-_]

Actually I have found that the highest heapsize you can get with 1 gig of ram is -heapsize 545856 not 545857 but 545856, gives u 33 extra ram useage than from what everyone else uses, and yes i know it doesnt matter at all(probably at least). But neighter does so much other stuff ppl do :-þ

 

[GonzoBabbleshit]

Yeah, you need to use '-heapsize 512000'. I'd recommend writing all these in your Half-Life 2 launch options though. Right-click HL2 on the Play Games menu and select properties and then click the Launch options button.

If you write "-novideo +map_background none -heapsize 512000" without the "'s then that should work perfectly.

If it's written in the Launch options it'll use these setting no matter where you run HL2 from, I don't think it does that if you add those to the desktop shortcut

 

[Computer5k]

Diluted's trick will work, otherwise you can right click on your HL2 icon and add this in the target box, at the end of your exe.

" -novid +map_background none" (without quotes).

So it might look like this: "C:\Valve\Steam\Steam.exe -applaunch 220 -novid +map_background none" (if installed in default location).

This will illiminate the Valve video and the animated background, resulting in a much faster boot.

Oh and for a little extra performance boost you can add: " -heapsize 256000". Replace "256" with half the amount of your RAM (so in you have 1 gig of RAM it would be " -heapsize 512000" again without the quotes). You'll get less studder and loading times will shrink some.

Have fun!

Actuall heapsize should be (ram(megabytes)/2*1024)
Because theres 1024 kilobytes in a megabyte

 

[_-_-SELAS-_-_]

Actuall heapsize should be (ram(megabytes)/2*1024)
Because theres 1024 kilobytes in a megabyte

Im not sure what you just said, but it sounds right, anyway he said it correctly. But mine uses even more RAM (my post a few posts up)

 

[J_Tweedy]

yeah sweet as i chucked it into the launch options too- problem solved.
On the same topic, don't you guys reckon that was a bit of a mistake making the loading time for the menu the same as the game- smallish gripe but pretty off putting.

 

[jimbo118]

yeah i used to have heap at 256 as it crashed at a 512 for some reason(i have a gig),anyway i recently got it working with 512mb and didnt notice any real difference except for the menu screen load,i checked the console and it said heapsize:500.00mb,but when i checked ram usage while playing it only said 256000,guess it desnt need the extra ram while playing

 

[Frraksurred]

Yeah, you need to use '-heapsize 512000'. I'd recommend writing all these in your Half-Life 2 launch options though. Right-click HL2 on the Play Games menu and select properties and then click the Launch options button.

If you write "-novideo +map_background none -heapsize 512000" without the "'s then that should work perfectly.

If it's written in the Launch options it'll use these setting no matter where you run HL2 from, I don't think it does that if you add those to the desktop shortcut

Excellent advice. Good call.