HL-2, DX9 and GeForce FX

[Argote]

So a friend of mine has a Gainward Geforce FX 5900 Golden Sample (currently at 475core/970memory) and HL-2, so he wanted to turn on DX9 instead of DX8.1 so i found this info which DID work he now has full DX9, with no dissaperaing water and gets smooth framerates on that card and a Celeron 1.8Ghz with 512MB RAM at 1024x768 (highest monitor supports), all reflections and everything on high, AA off and trilinear filtering, maybe these could be turned on but haven't experimented so the game was playable with full DX9 on kinda high settings. The trick is making HL-2 think you have a Radeon so a functional DX9 path is used.

here's how to do it:

(this is by Presi at the Guru3D forums)

Ok, I made few experiments in the past days in order to force my 5950u 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.

Let me know if this help!

Oh BTW: I had to remove the -heapsize command since it made the game crash, still DX9, it's just for something about memory

originally posted by Presi at:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?th...10&pagenumber=1

Edited December 7, 2004 by ArtOf_War

[jerry]

Somebody beat you by 7 days:

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=250699

[Argote]

oh i see, well the other thread is kinda misleading in the title and i don't come to this forum often

[[SST]SLAYER]

:sleep:

[stncttr908 Veteran]

:sleep:

585056462[/snapback]

Because that post was necessary. :whistle:

[Argote]

^huh?

[Mx]

Cool, :) thanks for that.

[Rob2687]

Still doesn't change the fact that the FX line is crap performance with DX9 stuff.

[dukelion]

yeah I have an FX card and i cant be bothered with all this mumbo jumbo, i recognised it sucked about 11 months ago

[Argote]

yeah I have an FX card and i cant be bothered with all this mumbo jumbo, i recognised it sucked about 11 months ago

585060749[/snapback]

well it works perfectly fien at max settings so.. :whistle: .

[[SST]SLAYER]

" 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) "

This post would be more infomative if they gave a line by line comparison you know. Like these settings for an fx5200 etc at these Radeon 9200 blah blah other wise it's a hit and miss there are like 8 or 9 different FX models? so what ATI card goes with what FX card I would like to try it on my Girlfriends fx5200 so what is the corresponding ATI card settings? :unsure:

[Argote]

SLAYER,Dec 8 2004, 15:12]"  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) "

This post would be more infomative if they gave a line by line comparison you know. Like these settings for an fx5200 etc at these Radeon 9200 blah blah other wise it's a hit and miss there are like 8 or 9 different FX models? so what ATI card goes with what FX card I would like to try it on my Girlfriends fx5200 so what is the corresponding ATI card settings?  :unsure:

585067703[/snapback]

I'd say the lowest 9550SE

anyways those are just fo the auto settings (low, high, mid) you can change them in the game

[blackice912 Veteran]

Already posted: https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=250699

Thread closed