HL2 & CS:S - Nvidia FX Cards (30% FPS Increase)

[DjmUK]

Quote from Steam Forum (Link):

hi all FX users,

I have an FX5700oc, and was annoyed that I couldn't get HL2 to work will DX9 out of the box, and any fudges to make it work looked crap.

WELL HERE IS AN ANSWER!

follow this thread

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread...threadid=115614

to make HL2 think you have an ATI card.

all credit to the guy who worked it out, but it really works.

I had good water reflections, no breaking up, and only a slight drop in fps.

I then left the fix in place (HL2 still thinking I was an ATI card) and dropped back to DX8.1, and I got a great increase in fps (but no reflections), far greater than when HL2 thought I have an FX card.

This really highlights a potential time bomb for valve. If what I have seen is true, it means that valve are intentionally throttling fps for nvidia cards, and incorrectly saying how they are no good at DX9 stuff.

It's all a huge con to make ATI look better! Well I suppose they have invested in the project, but this just feels like cheating going on.

Instructions from Guru3D (Link):

*** read the whole thread to learn how to get 30% increase in performance ***

Ok, I made few experiments in the past days in order to force my 5900u to play HL2 with dx9.

I found an interesting way to do it and the result, I think, is the best one.

The old way is to put -dxlevel 90 in the launch options and add an Autoexec.cfg file in the cfg folder of HL2 with the lines mat_dxlevel 90 and mat_clipz 0. I finished the game in that way with high setting and water reflection to all. It works, but not really, in some level the water was showing some weird reflections, huge disturbing polygons flying in the water, creepy; if you did that an played the WATER HAZARD level, you know what I'm talking about.

Reading around the forums and trying some experiments I found another way to force DX9 on my 5950; I tricked HL2 to see my 5950 as an ATI 9800 PRO. It works and the water reflection doesn't seem to have any problems. I guess Valve has decided to run HL2 with different codes path for the FXs... interesting.

How to do it:

(disclaimer: don't do it if you don't understand what I'm talking about or you are not sure of it, don't do it! In the following I'll explain the way I've done it for my 5950 related to an ATI 9800 PRO, if you have a different card I guess you should relate it to a similar generation of ATIs, 5700/9600... I can't be sure of it, so you decide, and make sure to make copy of every modified files so you can be able to go back any time)

- Find the file dxsupport.cfg (half-life 2\bin\), make a copy of it and put it in a safe place (this is important!!!)

- Open it with notepad and locate the line about the ATI Radeon 9800 PRO settings, it should look like this:

"84"

{

"name" "ATI Radeon 9800 PRO"

"VendorID" "0x1002"

"MinDeviceID" "0x4E48"

"MaxDeviceID" "0x4E48"

"m_nDriverVersion_Build" "6240"

"DefaultRes" "1024"

"CentroidHack" "1"

}

- Select and copy everything from "VendorID"... to the "}" (6 lines)

-Than locate your card name, in my case NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra, and change everything from "VendorID" to the "}" with the ATI settings. After the change it should look like this:

"355"

{

"name" "NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra"

"VendorID" "0x1002"

"MinDeviceID" "0x4E48"

"MaxDeviceID" "0x4E48"

"m_nDriverVersion_Build" "6702"

"DefaultRes" "1024"

"CentroidHack" "1"

}

Hey! my card with ATI 9800's IDs! Yes! ;-)

-Save it and close it.

-Find the hl2\cfg\ directory and locate the config.cfg file and move it in a safe place, out the cfg folder (so you force HL2 to rebuild the settings for the game, which means HL2 has to read the new dxsupport.cfg file we have just modified.

-On the STEAM menu right click on HL2, propriety, launch options, you write: -heapsize and a number that is the equal of half of your total ram (this just speeds up a little bit HL2, I've removed the little pauses during the autosaves with this) and -dxlevel 90 (thanx rewt!!!)

-Launch HL2, enjoy direcx 9.

on my rig I have an acceptable fps range @ 1024x768 2xaa 2xanisotropic and water reflection to all (from min 35 to max >100fps). Water reflection is a big deal for FX cards, so if you don't get enough fps start to reduce things from there. I bet every FX can play at least over 35/40 fps at 800x600 (at that resolution you can increase aa and anisotropic and have still an awesome graphic, I think)

To test the directx 9 I usually load the WATER HAZARD level, full of huge water reflections, and the last one, rich of explosion and moving elements. If you are fine with them, your FX should rock over the all game.

P.S.

I'm going to try it all out now.

[Alpha2004]

wtf i cant believe this.

this is just stupid of them to do so.

[ootput]

P.S.

I'm going to try it all out now.

585010918[/snapback]

Cool. Let us know how it goes.

[klop]

Wow I cant believe this. :blink:

[SimplyPotatoes]

I completly accept the research of a kid who made a small hack for Hl2, to me this is undeniable proof of everything or nothing he stated. Any future claims he should make with little or no connection to HL2, I will accept as truth, as well.

[Tungsten T]

looks good

[kairon]

Obviously it has been disabled for a reason. Use this kid's hack at your own risk!! Trust Valve, or some kid?

[ANova]

I completly accept the research of a kid who made a small hack for Hl2, to me this is undeniable proof of everything or nothing he stated. Any future claims he should make with little or no connection to HL2, I will accept as truth, as well.

585011762[/snapback]

lol

[Chode]

Instead of been in-porous little bitches, how about someone tries it and feeds us some benchmarks? :rolleyes:

[Hani]

thanks man a lot :yes:

[Dashel]

Still no benches or screenies?

[Dr.Jones]

yeah sure, valve wants to p*ss off thousands of customers with a nVidia card..

[uniacid]

hmmm.. no need for this but interesting none the less!

[Brandon Live Veteran]

yeah sure, valve wants to p*ss off thousands of customers with a nVidia card..

585016329[/snapback]

No, they want their check from ATI.

[ootput]

Where's djmUK?

Did his 'puter pop?

[daveoc64]

Why doesn't Half-Life 2 support Direct X 9 on NVIDIA cards? Have they given some lame reason and signed a deal with ATI?

[2xSilverKnight]

Why doesn't Half-Life 2 support Direct X 9 on NVIDIA cards? Have they given some lame reason and signed a deal with ATI?

585016370[/snapback]

go in option and you can switch it easily to 9.0.

it is 8.1 by default because the dx 9.0 path suck on fx

my friend has one and he gets bad fps in dx9 so

[Dr.Jones]

No, they want their check from ATI.

585016348[/snapback]

the check from thousands of people that pays 60 bucks is bigger than what ATI might be willing to pay for this scam

[2xSilverKnight]

that's crap .. 6800 works very well too on source engine only the FX's that have problem in dx9. I tried on a fx5900 and it runs badly for me but my friend don't care. I dunno how he is able to play with bad fps bu anyway it's his computer :D

[Dr.Jones]

that's crap .. 6800 works very well too on source engine only the FX's that have problem in dx9. I tried on a fx5900 and it runs badly for me but my friend don't care. I dunno how he is able to play with bad fps but anyway it's his computer  :D

585016432[/snapback]

why are you saying that to me ??

[2xSilverKnight]

hehe because i clicked reply on your post instead of add reply just below

[Dr.Jones]

k, cool :D

[2xSilverKnight]

k, cool :D

585016451[/snapback]

pas de probl?me ! :DD

[Brandon Live Veteran]

go in option and you can switch it easily to 9.0.

it is 8.1 by default because the dx 9.0 path suck on fx

my friend has one and he gets bad fps in dx9 so

585016390[/snapback]

The point here is that if you trick HL2 into thinking your FX card is really a 9600 Pro or some such, you get better image quality.

[vincent]

thanks man a lot :yes:

585013594[/snapback]

:rolleyes: i hope your not serious