HL2: Episode One Runtime Error

I just got this game and was pretty excited to play it, but I noticed that things like flames emitted artifacts, checkerboard squares of black and purple that expanded until the next square replaced it. It wasn't affecting gameplay, so I didn't bother. Then I came to a part in the citadel where you see Combine soldiers running towards you via a bridge. You have only the gravity gun, so you're defenseless against them, and can only watch as they close the distance. Suddenly an explosion from the right kills most of them, and I get an error:

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library
Program: hl2.exe
This app has requested Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.

I've looked at Steam's website, but there doesn't seem to be a fix for this problem. Is anyone aware of the solution? My hardware specs are in my sig. The video drivers are up-to-date. I have .net 2.0

 

I suppose the game is running in DirectX 7 mode? The GPU in your sig isn't likely to be able to run anything else properly.

 

I've played all of HL2 and CSS on this graphics card with DX9c. What makes you think the direct X version has to do with such an error?

 

The fact that the graphics card in your signature is, well, crappy? Coupled with the fact that Ep 1 adds quite a bit of eyecandy compared to the original game...
And of course the bit about getting corrupted graphics is a hint too... Or that it crashes during an explosion (explosion = graphics, shaders, eyecandy)

(Btw, I'm not talking about the installed DirectX version (Which should certainly be 9.0c no matter what), but about what HL2 is set to run in its options)

 

As I've said before, the Radeon 9100 IGP has handled the entire HL2 game as well as CSS with at least 25fps in both. It's crappy, but it's not that crappy. How do I change the DX "mode" to play episode 1?

I just tried running it on the lowest resolution available and it still crashed. It doesn't have anything to do with the fact that the hardware is not the latest or the greatest.

 

This isn't what he is trying to say. It might be that the explosion is just asking to much for your computer. You could try changing DX lvls, and see if that would help. Unfortunately, I don't know how to change the LVL'S.

 

-dxlevel 70
or enable cheats and skip level

 

Or launch the game, go into options, under the graphics tab, and down at the bottom right (I think) is a dropdown menu allowing you to choose between DX 7, 8 and 9.

And how do you know that? Unless you know what causes the error, you shouldn't make such assumptions.

The point is that 1) Your GPU sucks, to be blunt. It might be able to run Halflife 2, but so was my old Geforce 2 card. The game is scalable as hell, no doubt about that.

But 2) Episode 1 requires more than Half-life 2 did. They made a bunch of improvements to the graphics, they take advantage of a bunch of new graphics features, and overall, it just uses a newer, upgraded version of the engine, which is still scalable, but it's all moved one notch up. It can take advantage of newer GPU's, but it may not run on the really old ones.