Where's the Real Studdering patch?

S

shoman24v

Newbie
Joined
Aug 27, 2004
Messages
119
Reaction score
0
If Valve thinks they fixed it, the answer is no. I haven't heard anything about them still working on it. All I have seen is put "+snd_async_prefetch_priority 1" in the shortcut, lower the video settings, and type some stuff in the console (all which did not work). I am not going to lower the setting graphically, thats bullshit. Anyone know when the real patch will be coming out?
 
I am not going to lower the setting graphically, thats bullshit.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, it's probably true. The sound stuttering may not be a problem with your sound system, it may just be a problem of overstressing your machine. If you ever notice your framerate slowing (or stopping!) about the same time your sound stutters, this is more than likely your problem. Use the recommended settings for your card and the problem will go away, though it may be a bit uglier than you're used to.
 
shoman24v said:
If Valve thinks they fixed it, the answer is no. I haven't heard anything about them still working on it. All I have seen is put "+snd_async_prefetch_priority 1" in the shortcut, lower the video settings, and type some stuff in the console (all which did not work). I am not going to lower the setting graphically, thats bullshit. Anyone know when the real patch will be coming out?
Click to expand...

I too still suffer from the stuttering and the only thing that has helped is extracting the GCF files which is long and tedious and takes another 3GB+ of disk space.. and it doesn't fix it entirely just less of an issue.

I really hope it is still a priority.
 
semi-psychotic said:
Unfortunately, it's probably true. The sound stuttering may not be a problem with your sound system, it may just be a problem of overstressing your machine. If you ever notice your framerate slowing (or stopping!) about the same time your sound stutters, this is more than likely your problem. Use the recommended settings for your card and the problem will go away, though it may be a bit uglier than you're used to.
Click to expand...

Half Life 2 is not over stressing my machine, the recommended settings graphically default to the highest possible. I have a P4 3.2 HT GHz , 1 gig of ram, 200 gig hd, and the x800Pro Flashed to the X800 XT PE. I have the cracked version at my work because we dont have internet. The PC specs on my computer at work are 2.8 GHz non HT, 1 gig of ram, 40 gig hd, and a Jaton nVidia 5700. Absoultly no problems on that side other than the video card sucks. There is no sound studdering issues on that computer. What I am thinking is maybe its the higer end video cards that are having this problem?

BTW I bought the Collectors Edition.... I just DLed the cracked version so I could play at work.
 
Half Life 2 is not over stressing my machine, the recommended settings graphically default to the highest possible. I have a P4 3.2 HT GHz , 1 gig of ram, 200 gig hd, and the x800Pro Flashed to the X800 XT PE. I have the cracked version at my work because we dont have internet. The PC specs on my computer at work are 2.8 GHz non HT, 1 gig of ram, 40 gig hd, and a Jaton nVidia 5700. Absoultly no problems on that side other than the video card sucks. There is no sound studdering issues on that computer. What I am thinking is maybe its the higer end video cards that are having this problem?

BTW I bought the Collectors Edition.... I just DLed the cracked version so I could play at work.
Click to expand...
You know, telling the world that you downloaded illegal software (even if you saw it as a good reason) is not a good way to maintain your legal security. ;)

Anyway, my only other suggestion is to try turning video settings down, just in case, though it seems that it's not the solution now. Otherwise, you'll probably have to live with it for a while, as I don't see an update for this in the near future.
 
my preformance has been getting progressively worse as they release patches :( it totally sucks, it ran fine when it came out, then each "fix" they released just made it suck, then suck more, then more, and im sure the next will be even worse :(
 
Well they better better fix this problem, because I cannot understand what the characters are saying sometimes.
 
Have you tried turning HT off on your machine?
 
my friend had to turn ht off to stop it from crashing, try it.
 
semi-psychotic said:
<<snip>> I don't see an update for this in the near future.
Click to expand...

So you work for Valve?
How would you know this?

The stuttering is still very much an issue and I personally can't see how Valve could NOT put out a patch fairly quickly as soon as they figure it out what the heck the problem actually stems from.
 
So you work for Valve?
How would you know this?
Click to expand...
I only made a prediction that the problem might take a while to solve. It's a fairly major issue, but it seems to be rooted in some weird way with compatibility issues, and probably DirectX.
 
semi-psychotic said:
I only made a prediction that the problem might take a while to solve. It's a fairly major issue, but it seems to be rooted in some weird way with compatibility issues, and probably DirectX.
Click to expand...
Could this be why ATi hasnt released the 4.12 (non beta) yet?
 
Could this be why ATi hasnt released the 4.12 (non beta) yet?
Click to expand...
Not sure, but this does remind me of something. Has anybody ever had this stuttering issue on an NVidia card? I've heard a lot of complaints from people with higher-end ATi cards, but not NVidia.
 
In fact the problem seems to be a sound problem, but not because of drivers or sound card types.

In the Steam forums we have talked a lot about this with hundreeds of people who suffer from the same problem.

Each time the problem is a bit different, there is sometimes just a little stuttering, but it can also become totally umplayable for some people especially at the end of the game.

We have noticed that the problem occurs each time the engine has to load new sounds in the memory cache. Strangely the engine doesn't put in the cache all the sounds needed for the level, but only the ones needed for the map section your currently playing. This has been done to spare memory, the same is done for textures and other ressource that the game uses.

For example with settings at max, HL2 uses 350 meg of RAM for himself. Far Cry on the same PC uses up to 550 !!

So when there is a lot of sounds, scripts, NPCs and effects, there is a lot of things to load in the cache from the hard drive, and this happens very often when the map is divided in many zones.

So the problem can depend from a lot of factors, as drive speed, memory flow, video memory, sound card type, drivers, mainboad structure...

So it's impossible to give a unique simple solution for everybody. The only solution would be to put all resource in the cache at level start, but so you would need a least 1 gig of RAM. I think that Valve did not take that option because the average PC does not have so much RAM.
It would be nice to be able to choose if you have enough RAM to load everything.

I hope that Valve will find a solution to speed up the memory transfer from hard drive to RAM. Maybe there is a bug in the engine that cause this problem. The new Steam structure may also be a problem. I noticed that if i extract all the sounds from the GCF file in a sound folder in the hl2 folder the stuttering almost disapear.
 
What program do I used to unpack the GCF, Powerzip and WinRar isnt working...?
 
I have a high end nvidia card (GeForce 6800 Ultra) and i get the same problem too. it did decrease a bit after the first patch but its still there
 
9800 Pro and some stuttering on medium textures, major stuttering on high textures, yeah.
 
I got a so-so Nvidia card - Nvidia GeForce 4200Go 64mb and a gig of system RAM and also encounter the issue. The game plays fine with textures and models on high, but if I turn up shader and some of the other settings, it has a tendency to studder and even do the dreaded studder crash memory could not be read thing....

the crash is probably unrelated to the normal studder problem, whchi I think is cause the sounds dont load off the HD in time. If you spawn an npc, for example, that isnt normally encountered in an area, then you get some major studdering and a slight hang for a second or so, or at least I do.


On a side note, anyone have the problem where if you set shadows high then all text, boxes, ammo readings, etc disappear? Of course, my comp gets the memory error not long after I set shadows high. The game is unplayable with shadows high cause I cant even see how much ammo I have.... anyone else get this? I guess its just too much for my comp, not neccessarily a bug issue....
 
Sound file extraction has been a good fix for many people.

1. Get GFCScape and install it. http://countermap.counter-strike.net/Nemesis/index.php?p=25

2. Double click on C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\source sounds.gcf

3. Navigate in the left pane of CFGscape until "sound" shows in the right pane.

http://img99.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img99&image=GCFscape1.jpg

4. Right click and extract the "sound" folder to the C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\[email protected]\half-life 2\hl2\ folder.

http://img99.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img99&image=GCFscape2.jpg

This has helped many many people to get rid of stuttering.

** NOTE: BE SURE TO READ THE EULA TO SEE IF YOU ARE ALLOWED TO DO THIS. I take no responsibility for your actions. **



Also, keep this in mind. Pre-patch most people had luck with:

sv_forcepreload "1" // Preloads game assets at start of level
cl_forcepreload "1" // Preloads game assets at start of level


Post patch some had to go to:
sv_forcepreload "0"
cl_forcepreload "0"

Be sure to read this about the HL2 patch: http://www.blep.net/hl2stutter/#PatchAnalysis It basically gave people this setting:
mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware "1"
and a a tradeoff.

"The end result, at least of my system, is that there is now a tradeoff. I can have a smooth overall frame rate, but with stuttering, or I can eliminate the stuttering but have intermittent frame rate decreases."

I prefer the combination of the settings and sound file extraction method listed below:

sv_forcepreload "1"
cl_forcepreload "1"
mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware "0"



Plus, be sure to get contig http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/contig.shtml and read this thread:
Me said:
http://www.hlfallout.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=21617

Go there ^ read....

Then download contig. The readme explains how to use the program contig to to defrag your specific HL2 files.

You must go to

Start>Run> then type in "cmd" to get a command console.

When the cmd console opens, it shows:

C:\Documents and Settings\yourname>

In the command console, go to the direcotory where contig.exe is stored. For me it was:

G:\Downloads\Utilities\Contig

For DOS newbs this required me to enter at the command prompt "g:"

C:\Documents and Settings\yourname>g:

which begat

G:\>

Then I entered:

G:\>cd Downloads\Utilities\Contig

This putme into the contig folder:

G:\Downloads\Utilities\Contig

I used a two switches to defrag all files in all subfolders and print out the results. The command I used looked like this:

G:\Downloads\Utilities\Contig>contig -s -v "C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\*.*"

The quotes have to be used because of the space in Program Files.

Many people did not use *.* at the end and only defragged the .gcf files.

For that the cmd line would have been:

G:\Downloads\Utilities\Contig>contig -v "C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\*.gcf"

This put me from 4.06 fragments per file on average to 1.27 fragments/file.
Click to expand...



Finally, http://www.tweakguides.com/ has the best collection (10 pages) of HL2 information on the planet.

Other tweeks that have helped some are:

disable valve.avi at the start of the game - for faster load
disable the fancy schmancy menu background you get when starting the game - for much faster load
disable autosave - for ingame stuttering

Those 3 items are also listed in the 10 page tweak guide.

-4est

AMD XP 2500+ OC'ed to 3200+
9800 Pro OC'ed to 438MHz Engine Clock / 371MHz Memory clock
1 GB OCZ PC3200 RAM
 
shoman24v said:
Does anyone with the 9800 pro/xt have this problem?
Click to expand...

I have a 9800XT and I still have the problem after Valve's patches and all the user fixes. It is not as bad as it was stock but it is still unbearable. I play about an hour a day :(
 
How come when I try and open the GCF I get this message:

Error:
Failed to load GCF file to memory

Make sure the file is not already open and that Steam is not running.

Yes steam is not running.....
 
shoman24v said:
How come when I try and open the GCF I get this message:

Error:
Failed to load GCF file to memory

Make sure the file is not already open and that Steam is not running.

Yes steam is not running.....
Click to expand...

Pull up task manager and be sure. The file you are trying to open is being accessed. IE Steam is running. Try opening a HLS or CS Source GCF to see if it is specific to HL2.
 
I know this may sound odd, but my system was fine until the HL2 update was installed. I had no sound problems and now I get the stuttering all the time. I have not changed any detail setting s since I first played and all was fine!
 
Additionally since the update has been installed has anyone else noticed a major increase in Loading time?

Prior to the update my system would take 1 min and 40 seconds to start HL2 from double clicking the desktop icon (Offline mode), now since the update it takes about 2 mins and 20. This seems a bit excessive.

And when loading a save game it take alot longer, I dont have time but I know it takes longer now than it used to!:(
 
Everything was fine until the patches. I had practicaly no stuttering. Now it stutters as hell!!! Is there a way to undo the patches? I have a X800XT-PE, 1024MB RAM, Athlon 64 3200+.
 
Try mat_forcedmanagetecturesintohardware 0

That should put the game back to pre patch.

You can either put it into a autoexec.cfg file or under launch properties.
 
semi-psychotic said:
You know, telling the world that you downloaded illegal software (even if you saw it as a good reason) is not a good way to maintain your legal security. ;)
Click to expand...

hey you, yeh, downloading a crack isnt illegal
using pirate game - illegal
modifying game (making crack) - illegal
downloading crack - NOT illegal

and the stuttering went away for me ages ago when i downloaded new nforce drivers..... its a very weird problem that so many different configurations get it, there probably isnt one solution
 
Now here is the question that everibody thinks and I am saying "WHAT THE HELL DID THE PATCHES IMPROOVE?" For me the answer is ABSOLUTLY NOTHING, i have a radeon 9600 128 mb, a 2.4 g processor and 512 mb of ram and everything was just fine untill all theese patches came along, it took very close if not less than a minute to load and even less to load the levels, now it's hell for any of those, and I used to be able to play at 1024xsomething (forgotten wich is it) at high texture, reflect all (water) and high model and it was flawless and smooth as silk, now in ANY configuration possible it gets ALL KINDS of studdering all the time, may valve BURN IN HELL for not taking patches seriously and for making this damn steam to FORCE us to download theese cursed patches, maybe they are doing it on purpouse just to piss us off....
 
Honestly I love Half-Life 2. But... I have not played it in about a week and then it was only for an hour or so. The load times kill the fun for me. I beat the game a few weeks ago which is a first for me. I usually get bored with SP but when CS was the only MP option I was forced to play SP. It was a blast but I had stuttering the entire game. I personally thought it was my own personal issue but when I found out alot of people were having this issue I became annoyed and started playing the game less.

Once the stuttering is fix I hope to play alot more HL2. As to the question of what did it fix. Nothing for me. But it has change some things for the worse. I understand the dilemna Valve faces though. This stuttering issue is affecting so many types of hardware/software configurations it is hard to tie down what the issue is. However I think they should be more forthcoming about what they are doing. Also the patches should be optional. Some people had no issues before the patches and now they are stuck in the stuttering with us.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

MFL
Fascinating look at the ongoing psychological evolution of flat hieirarchies.
Replies
2
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
B
The other cancelled ports of Half-Life
Replies
3
Views
7K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
B
The leaked maps of the Half-Life 2 episodes - Part 2
Replies
0
Views
9K
Barnz
B
B
Community Interviews: Tony Newton, co-creator of Redemption
Replies
0
Views
5K
Barnz
B
Omnomnick
Examining The Files Of "SteamVR Performance Test" & "Aperture Robot Repair"
Replies
27
Views
91K
MFL
MFL
Back
Top