Help! Running HL2 on a Mobilty 7500

Ok guys, here's the problem. I have an old laptop (2.4 gHz P4, 512Mb RAM, and ATi Mobility 7500) and I want to play some source games, including Half Life 2.

I've seen results of people saying they can do this and get good FPS, but I eep getting weird artifacts and dark textures, so I looked at the advanced settings. It says "hardware level: DirectX 7.0" and "software level: DirectX 9".

Why wouldn't it set my DXlevel to 7.0 auomatically? I want to run it in DX7, but I've tried the command line code "-dxlevel 70" and nothing happens; it just runs like normally. Thanks.

 

What kind of artifacts? Missing/random textures, flashing or white polygons, dots? If that is the case then your card is probably going out. HL2 runs the software in DX9 because i guess Source renders the effects that your card can't with the CPU. The hardware and software DX levels are correct for your setup.

-J.B.

 

random textures; for instance, in the opening scene, the trees look like this weird dull orangish color instead of being what they should be. The laptop has heat issues; it's notorious for them, but I cleaned it out yesterday and it's running a little bit cooler. the only real problem is that even though I want to force a lower DXLevel, which I should be able to, I can't, even through launch options.

Edit: when I play the game iteslf, nothing shows up; black screen, but audio runs. During the screen with options and stuff though, the scene loads in the background. Once the game starts, most of the textures are jst black.

 

Maybe you have some drivers problems, have you tried updating them?

 

Yeah I would suggest a driver update. Source games should run fine on a MR 7500; I had a GeForce 4 440Go in my old HP laptop and it was roughly the same speed as the 7500. Ran Source games in DX7 mode no problem.

How much video memory does your video card have?

 

I tried to find them on ATI/AMD's website but they're not listed...older desktop parts are there but the Mobility 7 series isn't...

 

im pretty sure the command is -dxlevel 7, not -dxlevel 70

 

Hm...I'll try that out. I googled and several (at least 5 or so) of the first hits said the same thing: -dxlevel 70.

Thanks, I'll let you know how it works out.

 

You should be able to get the latest drivers from the manufacturer. I had no problem getting the drivers for the 7500 in my Compaq Evo or the 7500C in my Dell Latitude (not sure what the C denotes).

 

Oh ok, thanks; I don't know why I didn't try sony's website. I found them, will install them, and I'll try the other -dxlevel command as well.

Edit: i tried out the new drivers, not sure about them yet, but when I used -dxlevel 7, it moved me to DirectX level 0.7, haha!

Here's a screenshot of the problem/artifacts:

 

Bump! Anyone?

 

Well the proper launch command is -dxlevel 70, but if you're already in game, open the console and type "mat dxlevel 70" or 71 I think works too. I used to run HL2DM in DX7 to get playable framerates online with my old laptop's Radeon X300.

 

Well, I've tried the proper command and the other one too; either way I still end up with it saying Hardware Level 7.0 and Software 9.0.

 

What's the problem with that screenshot? Looks fine to me...

 

I cant see any artifacting either, are you talking about the blocky polygons? Thats gonna be due to hardware limitations, all DX7 3d games looked like that. Artifacts are rendering errors, usually groups of stray pixels popping around, stray vertex lines etc, your shot was kind of small so I might have missed something, but it looks fine as far as I can tell. In DX7 ists going to look more like the original half life than the pictures on the box than what its intended to look like with the reccomended hardware.

 

No, it's not the blocky polygons or anything, it's just stuff like the suitcases, for instance, all have textures normally but here they'll be black for the most part and at certain angles they'll show up. I guess they're not artifacts per se but still, shouldn't I be able to force it to a lower DXlevel?


Thanks for the help so far guys.

 

Yeah everything but the suitcases looks good. It's possible that due to the lighting effects being far more limited in DX7 it' not detecting a light source on those suitcases. If you could take a few more screenshots and post them in full size (Thumbnails though), that'd be good.

 

Honestly I can`t tell any problems from that screenshot.
You need to upload a screenshot of the suitcases if you think that`s the issue.
One thing you might also consider, a newer driver. Forcing DX7 will not be enough to get playable framerates.

 

Hm...Alright, I'll try and get some new screenshots in pretty soon; I'll be out of town for most of tomorrow and Saturday but after that I should be able to do it.

I've tried (am running) a newer driver, but to no avail.

 

Maybe I'm blind but that does look strange to me, all the black shapes in lieu of actual textures? Unless people look at it and don't realise, on a quick glance it just looks like heavy shadow, but I know what you mean. I've run Hl2 on dx7 before without any immediate problems aside the poor visuals, but all textures and lighting were correct...

Your first port of call would be to disable lighting/reflection etc, see if that can reduce it; you will find a problem with such features turned on in older cards from time to time.