Half-Life 2 load times - How can I reduce them?

[nik0tine]

The load times in HL2 and any of mods for the source engine are ridiculous. How can I go about reducing them without spending thousands of dollars on a new computer?

I don't know what my computer specs are, exactly, but I know my video card is an Nvidea GeForce 4, and I believe I have 512 MB of RAM.

It seriously can take 5-10 minutes to load up each level or map I try to play. This is true in both single player and multiplayer. So what can I do to reduce these terrible loading times?

[Samuraid]

Without upgrading, you could try any or all of the following:
- Defragment your Harddrive
- Close any open programs or other services that consume extra RAM
- Lower the game graphics/sound quality levels

Those may or may not help a bit. I would expect HL2 to take a while to load due to the quality and complexity of game data. (I've never run it on my computer though, so I'm not exactly sure)

[nik0tine]

How do I defragment my harddrive? How long does that take?

[Yamaneko]

Try disabling preloading with: "cl_forcepreload 0" and "sv_forcepreload 0" in your autoexec.cfg file. If you don't have an autoexec.cfg file, make one in your \Steam\SteamApps\*user name*\half-life 2\hl2\cfg\ folder. Make a regular old .txt file and rename it .cfg, then put those two values in the file.

It'll reduce load times by not caching textures and sound before the level loads, instead on-the-fly. Be aware, though, that this can cause stuttering in-game, especially with low amounts of RAM.

[nik0tine]

Thanks, Yams. Mind telling me if I did this correctly? *attaches*

[Yamaneko]

Get rid of the .txt at the end. Also, just in case (not sure if it's case sensitive) make autoexec lowercase.

If I have time later I'll whip up a .cfg file for lower-end machines that should suit your purposes, giving you a good balance between performance and eye candy.

[nik0tine]

So, uh, hows that .cfg comin'? :p

[edczxcvbnm]

I would still defrag your harddrive. It can take a while depending. Since you don't know how to do it, I assume it has never been done. Start it when you go to bed and it should be done by morning :D

Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmentor

I am not sure but you may need to shut down any programs that might be running in the background. Only defrag SHOULD be the only program you have open...like on the task bars and stuff. Don't go crazy shutting down stuff. Just shut down everything you know about. That should be good enough :)

[Yamaneko]

So, uh, hows that .cfg comin'? :p
Sorry, here. Get rid of the .txt at the end.

[Necronopticous]

What speed of a processor do you have? You could definately use some more RAM, and GeForce 4 is pretty bad nowadays. I know you don't want to hear it but you're not going to drop those load times much without upgrading.

http://www.newegg.com

You could probably do a very nice upgrade to your RAM and video card for under $200.00 if you shop wisely. It gets expensive if you have to upgrade your processor because odds are you'll need a new motherboard as well.

[Yamaneko]

There'd be no point if he has an outdated proc, which would also mean a new motherboard.

[Lost Number]

I tried doin sonething, increase my VRAM. It comes out of the Hard disc, but it seemed to jack up the times. Im on a 128 graphics card. 3.2 processor though.Really speed up the game loading times.

[Yamaneko]

Typically you want your virtual memory file to be 1.5-2x the size of your system RAM. You also want to set a static size. DO NOT let Windows manage the size for you or else it'll constantly be resizing the file and using system resources to do it.

[nik0tine]

How do I change my virtual memory file?

[Samuraid]

Right-click on "My Computer" and select "Properties" from the pullout menu.
Choose the "Advanced" tab, and click "Settings" under the Performance section.
On the next window that comes up, select the "Advanced" tab, and press the "Change" button.