Visual issue - Direct X or my graphics card?

[MarsdeNation]

objects in the HL2 world, like barrells, boxes etc, mostly obstacles, will only appear when I get close to them.

I can zoom in and see them, but I can look and think the way is clear, only to run into a box/barrell etc when I get close to it.

any ideas what might be causing this problem?

I have a GeForce 4 MX 440 with 8x AGP, latest NVIDIA drivers etc etc etc.

 

[StainlessJ-FPGA]

It's because your video card is as old as it gets. I read about this in a hardware article doing reviews on video cards and hl2. It's not a bug, it is very intentional. Your card sucks. You can't find an ATI card with older hardware btw

 

[MarsdeNation]

HA HA HA!!!

OK OK!!! I get it!!

any chance I could get a link to those articles? I am in the market for a new card......and I wanna get a good one, but I don't really know what a good one is....

Thanks.

 

[StainlessJ-FPGA]

http://www.anandtech.com <--- best site I've ever found.

But if you are looking for a mild upgrade, and not high-end, 9800 Pro isn't a bad upgrade. Sadly the geforce 5 line runs dx9 mode poorly, so if you want it to look good and run smooth for a cheap price, you have to get ATI. I am running it on a 9700 Pro right now and I get 50-60 fps, which is more than enough. Plus it all looks good. Putting AA on is too much for it though, can't wait till I get it on my second rig and see it as pretty as it gets.

 

[MarsdeNation]

Awesome! Thanks very much