Half-Life 2 Update Released

[LocutusX]

Folks, here is why the new patch - which is forced upon us by Steam - sucks so bad:

After the Nov.24 patch is installed, load up the game via Steam menu - no special start up options - and start a new game from the main menu. When you leave the train station and enter the plaza for the first time... WATCH YOUR FPS! For me, it was averaging 21! I strafed in a circular motion around the plaza, keeping the center of the plaza in my main view... still, it averaged 20's. I walked back to the door of the train station, turned around to face the plaza, tried to get as much of it in my FOV as possible... again, averaged 20 fps!

Now, add the following command to your HL2 startup options: +mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware 0 (this basically disables the "new feature" of the patch)

Repeat the exercise. For me, what was my plaza framerate? 47 to 55 fps!

This is utterly ridiculous... Valve attempted to fix the stuttering issue with a Microsoft-style rushed hotfix (*cough* Q811493) which ended up breaking the game for a rather popular configuration. Because that's what my system is:

Athlon64 with a gig of ram. NForce 3 mobo. ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb. WinXP SP2. Catalyst 4.12 beta.

Bah... :roll:

 

[LocutusX]

FYI:

To watch your fps while playing the game, use console command cl_showfps 1


Oh, and the rez I was using (above) would also be considered a "typical" group of settings. In fact, it's the exact same settings Anand used in Part 1 of his HL2 roundup (1280x1024, etc).

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: LocutusX
Folks, here is why the new patch - which is forced upon us by Steam - sucks so bad:

After the Nov.24 patch is installed, load up the game via Steam menu - no special start up options - and start a new game from the main menu. When you leave the train station and enter the plaza for the first time... WATCH YOUR FPS! For me, it was averaging 21! I strafed in a circular motion around the plaza, keeping the center of the plaza in my main view... still, it averaged 20's. I walked back to the door of the train station, turned around to face the plaza, tried to get as much of it in my FOV as possible... again, averaged 20 fps!

Now, add the following command to your HL2 startup options: +mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware 0 (this basically disables the "new feature" of the patch)

Repeat the exercise. For me, what was my plaza framerate? 47 to 55 fps!

This is utterly ridiculous... Valve attempted to fix the stuttering issue with a Microsoft-style rushed hotfix (*cough* Q811493) which ended up breaking the game for a rather popular configuration. Because that's what my system is:

Athlon64 with a gig of ram. NForce 3 mobo. ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb. WinXP SP2. Catalyst 4.12 beta.

Bah... :roll:

Curious.... i get some improvement . . . . i haven't tried running any benchs, but i can tell when a game is slowing down
47 to 21 is rather *noticeable*
:roll:

Is there any chance your beta Pro drivers might not be the right choice? (i am running the latest certified ones)

i know my 9800xt should suffer less from 'thrashing' as there is twice the vram as your pro . . . but your results doesn't seem right.

Anyone else?

 

[LocutusX]

Well apoppin, when I first upgraded from "4.11 beta" to "4.12 beta", I got a 5% increase in the video stress test of Counterstrike Source. So naturally I figured it was the best for HL2.

Indeed, it seems as if ATI themselves, and even Valve, recommend it be used. (Catalyst Maker's posts on DriverHeaven and a sticky thread @ Steamforums both indicate that they want us to use 4.12 beta).

If no more patches come down the wire before the weekend, I'll try rolling back to 4.11 beta or final.

Are you using 128 or 256 for your AGP Aperture?

 

[apoppin]

256, i think . . . . been awhile since i looked

anyway, i'd sure like to hear from others who tried it . . . . from what i see in the related threads it hasn't done much

 

[Sylvanas]

this patch is crap, kills my performance, and i still have some stuttering, thanks LocutusX for letting us know how to turn off valves new 'feature'
lets hope they get their act together with the next 'patch'

 

[clicknext]

The problem has been solved in no way.

 

[Schadenfroh]

i did not have it before the update, now i do

 

[VIAN]

Gonna try removing the devil patch.

Running 4.12 beta here.

9700 Pro 395/370

AXP 2.3

1GB DDR 195MHz

AGP Aperture is 128.

 

[PlasticJesus]

Originally posted by: LocutusX
...

Now, add the following command to your HL2 startup options: +mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware 0 (this basically disables the "new feature" of the patch)

...

Lifesaving advice, that's for sure. Was working perfectly in offline play before the "patch".

Lost 7 fps on at_coast_12 post-"patch". That launch option put me right back to pre-"patch" performance.

Thanks, mister!

I suppose that is a common configuration you have. We have the gig of RAM and the 9800 Pro in common. I had to roll from SP2 back to SP1 because in SP2 I couldn't get Sticky Keys to stop working. That was crazy stuff.

 

[LocutusX]

your welcome, folks... let's hope Valve is at least paying 10% attention to their Steampowered forums... there are at least a hundred reports of heavy framerate loss after the patch was pushed. and we all seem to be having 128MB ATI R3x0-based cards. (a couple with GF6800GTs too.)

so much for HL2 being "optimized" for ATI cards, hahahahaha...

 

[Luthien]

I still have the problem but still have no idea if I got the patch. 6800GT... Stutters during gameplay ruining the experience and during save points.