Getting Half Life 2 to run reasonably theories....

D

dt1028

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Poster of the video claims he is getting roughly 25 fps or so using the moded GMA drivers with HL2 set to the "high" setting. His computers spec is below

Half life 2 on my lappy:
1.8ghz dual core
vista sp1
2 giga ram
80 gb hdd
gma 950 224 shared vram
Click to expand...

Now as a owner of FRAPS I know that it is a resource hog. So the video he has recorded is taking away from a lot of his machines ability to play the game. So if he is getting 25 fps or so using FRAPs then its probably because of the larger processor capacity and extra gb of ram.

Since I wont be using FRAPS while I play HL2 I assume it may be possible to get a decent experience out of HL2. I have a hardcore gamming rig but just want to see if I can get HL2 to run decently for bragging purposes when my "little Netbook that could" is running some thing most labtops cant.

With a stock Aspire 150X I want to see if we can get a decent experience by doing the following:

Using the Modded GMA 950 drivers.

Using modded sound card drives. - This seems to be completely ignored so far, but some of the slowdowns may be reduced by addressing some of the sound issues.

Adding the command line parameters mentioned in previous threads.

Also, this may seem VERY strange but if you set the game compatibility to Windows NT some times you can get less stuttering because of the way Windows NT compatibility mode handles some of the issues with memory and processes. I used to work as a beta tester for a MMOG that was texture pre-fetch intensive and by accident we discovered by setting the compatibility mode to Windows NT on the lower end machines it made a HUGE difference on the stutters we were experiencing in game. It sounds like rubbish, but it worked so well the devs added to the FAQ, and we backed the data with FPS reports. If its possible to do this may be a key to those who cant run HL2 very well with XP but can using OSX.

My aspire hasn't arrived yet but i plan to try this to see what I can get out of the machine.
 
dt1028 said:

Poster of the video claims he is getting roughly 25 fps or so using the moded GMA drivers with HL2 set to the "high" setting. His computers spec is below



With a stock Aspire 150X I want to see if we can get a decent experience by doing the following:

Using the Modded GMA 950 drivers.

Using modded sound card drives. - This seems to be completely ignored so far, but some of the slowdowns may be reduced by addressing some of the sound issues.

Adding the command line parameters mentioned in previous threads.

Also, this may seem VERY strange but if you set the game compatibility to Windows NT some times you can get less stuttering because of the way Windows NT compatibility mode handles some of the issues with memory and processes. I used to work as a beta tester for a MMOG that was texture pre-fetch intensive and by accident we discovered by setting the compatibility mode to Windows NT on the lower end machines it made a HUGE difference on the stutters we were experiencing in game. It sounds like rubbish, but it worked so well the devs added to the FAQ, and we backed the data with FPS reports. If its possible to do this may be a key to those who cant run HL2 very well with XP but can using OSX.

My aspire hasn't arrived yet but i plan to try this to see what I can get out of the machine.
Click to expand...

These modded drivers, where could they be found?
 
quantum leap said:
dt1028 said:

Poster of the video claims he is getting roughly 25 fps or so using the moded GMA drivers with HL2 set to the "high" setting. His computers spec is below



With a stock Aspire 150X I want to see if we can get a decent experience by doing the following:

Using the Modded GMA 950 drivers.

Using modded sound card drives. - This seems to be completely ignored so far, but some of the slowdowns may be reduced by addressing some of the sound issues.

Adding the command line parameters mentioned in previous threads.

Also, this may seem VERY strange but if you set the game compatibility to Windows NT some times you can get less stuttering because of the way Windows NT compatibility mode handles some of the issues with memory and processes. I used to work as a beta tester for a MMOG that was texture pre-fetch intensive and by accident we discovered by setting the compatibility mode to Windows NT on the lower end machines it made a HUGE difference on the stutters we were experiencing in game. It sounds like rubbish, but it worked so well the devs added to the FAQ, and we backed the data with FPS reports. If its possible to do this may be a key to those who cant run HL2 very well with XP but can using OSX.

My aspire hasn't arrived yet but i plan to try this to see what I can get out of the machine.
Click to expand...

These modded drivers, where could they be found?
Click to expand...

im intrested too
 
For modded GMA 950 drivers, take a look here:

http://groups.google.com/group/intel9x-gaming

As for getting HL2 to run, I also found this page:

http://groups.google.com/group/intel9x- ... c723497ed#

I just have to download CS:S and give it a try to see. I'm running the 1591 driver right now I believe.

What's strange though, is that even CS 1.6 doesn't run very well on the AAO. I can't really say it's a driver problem since I've updated my drivers with better ones... very strange though, but I get around 20 FPS in an online game with even just one or two people on screen.
 
I've done my best on getting HL2 and CS:S working on AAO so I'll post what i did and results.

HL2:
I closed down all programs including explorer and ran a program to free 800mb's of ram from my system, then did the following
I increased booting ram using start up command -heapsize 521000
Ran the game in 640x480 using start up command -width 640 -height 480
Ran dirext x 7 instead of 9 to gain even more fps using start up command -dxlevel 7.0

Also used various commands ingame like setting view distance of boxes and non essentials down to just a mere few feet in front of me. with all this, i'd say the game was very playable for a few minutes. At the point when you reach past the train yard, and enter the area with the running trains, the game experiances wider open areas and just runs horrible. I'd say about 2-5 fps. unless your going to look at the ground all game, those areas are totally unplayable. Really no way to play the game when you reach the speedboat then.

I'd known about all thee settings from back when i first got my Compaq Persario without adding in a video card. these settings run half life 2 with 64 mb (integrated and shared video memory) video card very well. but just didn't cut it for the one, unfortunately.

CS:S:
ran all of the above startup commands for this as well, and i included Casey's config (use this on my desktop to this day). since the config removes anything not needed, right down to character's eyes, this is the best hope you can get.

I knew there was still no hope of running maps like D2, and i was right. the result was unplayable. So then i moved onto maps like texture (aim) and fy_iceworld maps. these worked well and actually very playable. i averaged around 15-20 fps with 15 ingame people running around.


In the end, i decided it wasn't worth having to install all these gigs of data to play a few maps on counter strike source, as you need hl2 as well. but i thought'd i'd share my results ^_^
 
guys, the video, the user had a dual core, half life 2 engine(source engine) requires a lot of CPU power, intel atom 1.6ghz is only about a Pentium 3 900Mhz, not even close to a celeron these days.

don't let 1.6Ghz fool you, it is actually not that powerful
 
The only hardware thats limiting us from playing this game is the Video card.

i believe i read somewhere, with the hyper threading, the atom is rated at 2.3gHz
 
Hey, I just need a way to run the valve hammer editor and HL2:DM (To test the simple maps I make by my self) and I can't seem to find a good tutorial.

When I try to maximize the hammer editor the whole Source SDK crashes...
 
morrislee said:
guys, the video, the user had a dual core, half life 2 engine(source engine) requires a lot of CPU power, intel atom 1.6ghz is only about a Pentium 3 900Mhz, not even close to a celeron these days.

don't let 1.6Ghz fool you, it is actually not that powerful
Click to expand...
Really that is not true, I had a 800mhz pIII laptop some time ago, and it was much, much slower.
I can run vista very smooth on this atom, really I couldn't on the pIII
 
well, take into consideration of the FSB that is on a P3, 133, vs 533mhzon atom, and the ram speed. I just found out the intel 950 on AA1 is downclocked to 166mhz rather then 400 Mhz
 
morrislee said:
well, take into consideration of the FSB that is on a P3, 133, vs 533mhzon atom, and the ram speed. I just found out the intel 950 on AA1 is downclocked to 166mhz rather then 400 Mhz
Click to expand...


i've tried everything to try and overclock, but its locked down tight :/
 
it is not downclocked tight, it is just that nobody cares about making apps to overclock them. hopefully someone can come up with like a BIOS overclocking solution
 
morrislee said:
well, take into consideration of the FSB that is on a P3, 133, vs 533mhzon atom, and the ram speed. I just found out the intel 950 on AA1 is downclocked to 166mhz rather then 400 Mhz
Click to expand...

Sorry to just bust into this thread, but how can you (or I) tell if the GMA is running at 166 MHz? I'm looking at mine on GPUID right now and its daying 400 MHz... but memory is apparently running at 0 MHz :P
I know on CPUID it shows the CPU frequency in near enough realtime, does GPUID just show the chips' reccommended setting?
 
it shows 400MHz from a data base info, actual clock is 166, to run counter strike source smoothly, just install intel 965 driver by modding the device ID's, just got it working, will post a solution this weekend
 
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