UKTerrorist

Valve code the best bug to date

Posted by 00 at 23:29, 1/5/2005

I cant play hl2 or any source game online and compete as my system isnt even 2nd rate by todays standard.

I knew this before I paid £40 for the basic HL2 pack but the temptation of the SourceSDK was too much.

Most of my time logged into Steam is for the SDK and not so much the games as im waiting to upgrade to play them at an acceptable framerate.

My first project was an allrounder map for hl2dm with CTF possibilities when the mod arrived. So it arrives and im ready to apply the CTF touches to the map codewise and i update all my steam to the max.

I shoulda worn a helmet i swear....

I forgot I needed the dvd in so i take my drive out of my server (where its mapped from on my games machine) so I can load the game.

Then I get the error in this link.

http://steampowered.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/steampowered.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=278&p_created=1100821608&p_sid=WftDgmEh&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD0yNjcmcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3BhZ2U9MQ

Notice how they ask you to fix this.

Top of the list is....

1. Update your Operating System and motherboard drivers and BIOS to the latest available versions

f*** off as if im gonna update to XP from 2K because a Valve patch broke my game. operating system lol...

A few driver updates and we have ....

4. Page file: try turning off your system paging file (you have to reboot) and setting your page file for 1x to 2x your physical system memory. Find this in your control panel > system > advanced > performance > advanced > "virtual Memory".

First they ask you to use 1gb to run the game optimally then they ask you f*** about with your page file (which in my case is being used). Bit f***ed that it needs to be done to make a game work. Anyhow my pagefile is running optimally for my system.

So more options tell me not to overclock (which I dont), to look for overheating (which even though hl2 rapes my system it doesnt overheat), I must be english cuz non-english charsets use characters that crash the game then we find...

8. If you are using ANY refresh-rate forcing program, please disable or uninstall it.

Ok I dont use any third-party ones but by the nature of graphic cards drivers I HAVE to use one (I have an ATI card so its their built in driver version). All gfx drivers have refresh rate setting code involved so we cant fix this one.

9. If you have any 3rd party Codecs installed, please temporarily uninstall them.

Un-install any 3rd party codecs? Sound codecs? Video codecs? So basically they are telling me to break my other games that require certain codecs that are installed with the games that would need re-installing. f*** you honcho...

This one just made me laugh...

10. If you have an ATI Graphics card, please uninstall ATI-ACE, ATI-SMART, Trueform and Catalyst AI, also disable VPU Recover if that causes you problems (but remember it's being triggered by some sort of problem!)

Please uninstall your ATI drivers to play this game....ROFL

11. Disable all IM programs and do not alt-tab to your desktop, swapping the game out may trigger this problem.

I happened to do this on a clean reboot which most of us would try first before getting to this point. This proposal is countermount to the old IT support saying of "The user is a dumb terminal".

We then get told to verfiy game caches, run a memory test and try a launch option to assist.

Then finally we get ....

15. If you are using two memory or more memory modules, try running with only one module and see if you still have this problem. Reducing the number of modules will effectively speed up your memory timing. If the game runs ok with one module but not two, then you have a motherboard timing problem and you will need to make some changes, READ YOUR MOTHERBOARD MANUAL.

a. Relax the memory timing some motherboards have "conservative" timing or you can manually increase CAS and increase prefetch. If CAS is set to 2.0 increase it to 2.5. If Prefetch is set to 6, increase it to 7 or higher (up to 11).

b. Slightly increase the memory core voltage if your motherboard supports this option, consult your motherboard manual. Raising the voltage will effectively speed up the memory, but will also increase the heat.



erm....but im a dumb terminal (well im not im just pretending) and your telling me to take one of my ram sticks out and f*** about with the timings so I might frag my ram, maybe some other motherboard components, make my computer beep and hopefully make a small nuclear detonation in my house to take out all potential steam users in the area.


With this in mind im left unable to use the games I paid for nor can I use the SDK to develop for the games I paid for specifically to develop with.

If I was a developer spending money on making source based games I would be s***ting myself right now...luckily I only spent £40.

f***in' Valve.