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Game Forum / Action Games / Half Life / March 2007Computer technology has not advanced enough
No matter how fast CPU's and video cards get, the hard disk of a computer always seems to be a bottleneck. Half-Life 2 for example... it gets very boring because it loads so much. Or when I click on a CS:S game... WHY MUST I WAIT FOR SO LONG? Every aspect of computers keeps advancing but no-one seems to care that games these days take 10 minutes to load. Am I the only one concerned about this? > No matter how fast CPU's and video cards get, the hard disk of a > computer always seems to be a bottleneck. Sometimes, yes. > Half-Life 2 for example... it gets very boring because it loads so much. Boring? It doesn't load *that* often... > Or when I click on a CS:S game... WHY MUST I WAIT FOR SO LONG? Never tried CS:S so I don't know. > Every aspect of computers keeps advancing but no-one seems to care that > games these days take 10 minutes to load. 10 minutes? Better get a faster CPU, more RAM, and maybe a SCSI HD. > Am I the only one concerned about this? Yes.  Signature"Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me". > No matter how fast CPU's and video cards get, the hard disk of a computer > always seems to be a bottleneck. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Am I the only one concerned about this? Ummm, impatient? What are your PC specs? I have an Athlon64 X2 4800+, WD Raptor 10,000 RPM HDD, 2GB DDR400 Corsair XMS, 7950GT all on a PC with minimal progs loaded in background, and load times are a snap. It's not that computer technology hasn't advanced, its that you haven't invested in the right technology. I also have an older PC that I just put together with spare parts: AthlonXP 2600+, 1GB PC2700 RAM, 160GB 7200RPM HDD, 6800XT video. I installed Steam on it, ran HL2 and CS:S for a bit. I then defragged, have very little running in background (you'd be surprised how much crap most people are running in the backgroudn and don't even know it), and I was quite impressed with the load times. Not necessarily as quick as my other machine, but still respectable. Just close all the systray apps that you can, defrag your hard drive, and then play. If not better, then perhaps invest in some new hardware (2GB RAM helps in most cases) > Ummm, impatient? What are your PC specs? I have an Athlon64 X2 4800+, WD > Raptor 10,000 RPM HDD, 2GB DDR400 Corsair XMS, 7950GT all on a PC with > minimal progs loaded in background, and load times are a snap. It's not that > computer technology hasn't advanced, its that you haven't invested in the > right technology. Don't try to blame my computer. I have seen it on many computers, new and old. When I play counter-strike, the speed of the actual game is fine. It is the loading which takes too much time. >> Ummm, impatient? What are your PC specs? I have an Athlon64 X2 4800+, >> WD Raptor 10,000 RPM HDD, 2GB DDR400 Corsair XMS, 7950GT all on a PC [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > When I play counter-strike, the speed of the actual game is fine. It > is the loading which takes too much time. And as both OP's explained, there are reasons for that. And they do come down to your system and how it's set up. The same goes for those many computers, new and old, you've seen the problem with. McG. >>>Ummm, impatient? What are your PC specs? I have an Athlon64 X2 4800+, >>>WD Raptor 10,000 RPM HDD, 2GB DDR400 Corsair XMS, 7950GT all on a PC [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > many computers, new and old, you've seen the problem with. > McG. Or he's just impatient. SignatureBen Cottrell AKA Bench > Or he's just impatient. Get one of the ladies from the wendy house to whip it - it'll go faster then for sure :p Civilian_Target >>>>Ummm, impatient? What are your PC specs? I have an Athlon64 X2 >>>>4800+, WD Raptor 10,000 RPM HDD, 2GB DDR400 Corsair XMS, 7950GT all [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > Or he's just impatient. True. And just to check it out meself again, I've restarted HL2 again. This time in 1600x1200 with all the goodies on and full. Even on just one 7800GTX I still get fps averaging around 100. No need for SLI :) The worst loading time in the entire game is still jumping the airboat through the dams sluicegate. Just as it hits the water..."LOADING" for 7 seconds. 15 gigs of Steam/Valve stuff. The hd light is steady on for 5 of those 7 seconds. Then *SPLASH* LOL :) That would be one hell of a great jump if it weren't for that damn pause right there. Valve, ya buggers, ya blew it!!!! :o) McG. >>>>>Ummm, impatient? What are your PC specs? I have an Athlon64 X2 4800+, >>>>>WD Raptor 10,000 RPM HDD, 2GB DDR400 Corsair XMS, 7950GT all on a PC [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > McG. >\ Hey! Funny that. I just started doing the same thing. Lovely game HL2. A little easier second time around (so far) as I know what to expect. Still took me a bit to remember how to get away from all those damn water channels to the washing machine puzzle. I'm in Ravenholm right now. I hate / love this part. Scared the bejeezus out of me first time through. Probably will this time too when I run into the fast zombies. Just when you got used to the slow guys, and it wasn't much problem, they throw in another hitch with those fast bastards. >>>>>>Ummm, impatient? What are your PC specs? I have an Athlon64 X2 >>>>>>4800+, WD Raptor 10,000 RPM HDD, 2GB DDR400 Corsair XMS, 7950GT [quoted text clipped - 36 lines] > Just when you got used to the slow guys, and it wasn't much problem, > they throw in another hitch with those fast bastards. The first poison headcrab the 'carrier' threw on me like to made me crap, on the first time through. Then up on the rooftop, with the 'werezombie' comin up the drainpipe...WTH???!!! [looks over the edge at shakey pipe] DANG! [pulls out .357] BANG! Made a nice pile of em till one got me from behind :) Then I just looked at the reloading screen...Wow. LOL! I was, and still am, fascinated with the antlions. Seems like a lot of work went into those :) The physical model is done well, yes, but I'm talking about the whole behavior/anims thing. Amazing stuff there. And it looks even better today than when it first came out :) McG. > I was, and still am, fascinated with the antlions. Seems like a lot > of work went into those :) Which tells me that they are really annoyed by bugs at Valve Headquarters Well not "bugs" but insects and real stuff ... Payback time! LOL - Peter SignatureHi! I'm a .signature *virus*! Copy me into your ~/.signature to help me spread! >> I was, and still am, fascinated with the antlions. Seems like a >> lot [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > - Peter Well I don't know what sort of bugs are common pests up there. But like you said, going by what stuff is in the game, then a pesky sort of ant (red fire ant likely) and brown bandit roaches would be really likely candidates :-) The folks must be urbanites or suburbanites to not have tons of mosquitos and such. I note in sandtraps, there is a sound from unseen antlions reminding me of cicadas. I'm playing through HL2 again, and yesterday got completely through sand traps and NovaProspekt and had the pivotal convo with Alyx and my future father in law :-D (Eli). I found the antlions just as fascinating this time as the first. Getting to see both the aggressive and friendly side was a fun study. It also looks like much more loving care was bestowed on the antlions, all the zombies, various sorts of headcrabs, birds and even all the combine and rebel types than on the human characters we are closest to. Alyx has the worst behaving mesh of all the models, and the poorest animations. Even Mossmans mesh and anims are better than Alyx's. Sheesh. And it isn't like they haven't got the tools to do better work with them either. Valve should send Alyx's animator to Core Design or even Crystal Dynamics for lessons. Using their Lara Croft for said lessons. Sigh. Also, the nVidia 93.71 64 bit drivers are flakeeeee as can be for 3D stuff like HL2. After getting a few hours of weirded out misplaced textures, flashing screen, regular whited out screen and finally, one BSOD (this is exactly the third BSOD I've gotten from XP Pro x64 in over a year of running it. These are not common at all in x64!). So I uninstalled that set and reinstalled 91.47 64 bit set again. Ahhh, what a relief :o)) HL2 behaves nicely again. This is not in SLI, just Single Display mode acceleration. I've saved a couple of places that I set up just for the antlions. The whole antlion presence is pretty cool. Remember the 2 pikes you can pick up close to the water in sandtrap? One of those will kill an antlion warrior with one throw. And when I did use that, the vortigant didn't come out to get me the bugbait must have killed it too soon :-\ McG. >No matter how fast CPU's and video cards get, the hard disk of a >computer always seems to be a bottleneck. I doubt it's the HD that's causing it. If you setup a 4-HD RAID 0, most likely you won't load content any faster. >Every aspect of computers keeps advancing but no-one seems to care that >games these days take 10 minutes to load. > >Am I the only one concerned about this? Actually, there are people that do note this, especially when it comes to the online games. However, Sanity: Aiken's Artifact is another story. > No matter how fast CPU's and video cards get, the hard disk of a > computer always seems to be a bottleneck. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > Every aspect of computers keeps advancing but no-one seems to care that > games these days take 10 minutes to load. What an improvement! computer games on the old cassette driven commodore/amstrad/amiga/atari/etc could take 20-30 minutes to load ;) SignatureBen Cottrell AKA Bench > > No matter how fast CPU's and video cards get, the hard disk of a > > computer always seems to be a bottleneck. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > What an improvement! computer games on the old cassette driven > commodore/amstrad/amiga/atari/etc could take 20-30 minutes to load ;) Yep, then crash at the final hurdle.....me and my bro used to be superstitious and leave the room while the speccy was loading....so as not to pressure it...:/ Would also only use a certain keyboard config as the standard zx ,l; seemed to crash it, instead we used zx kml oO >> No matter how fast CPU's and video cards get, the hard disk of a computer >> always seems to be a bottleneck. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > What an improvement! computer games on the old cassette driven > commodore/amstrad/amiga/atari/etc could take 20-30 minutes to load ;) Breeeeee-boop-breeeeeeeeee-boop (times about 10,000,000) READ ERROR! Start again. Trying to load a game was more thrilling than playing it. Actually, we found we could duplicate the tapes and add a little top end and the copy would work better than the original. PIRACY AT IT'S FINEST!!!! >>> No matter how fast CPU's and video cards get, the hard disk of a >>> computer always seems to be a bottleneck. [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > found we could duplicate the tapes and add a little top end and the copy > would work better than the original. PIRACY AT IT'S FINEST!!!! LOL! I do remember that too. The anticipation was great as you hoped the game would load. Then plop it in my cassette stereo deck and duplicate it, and it was more like 90% load success than 70% of the original tape! LOL. >> No matter how fast CPU's and video cards get, the hard disk of a >> computer always seems to be a bottleneck. [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > What an improvement! computer games on the old cassette driven > commodore/amstrad/amiga/atari/etc could take 20-30 minutes to load ;) and then, if the darn tape stretched.... no load...ever. :( McG. >>> No matter how fast CPU's and video cards get, the hard disk of a >>> computer always seems to be a bottleneck. [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > and then, if the darn tape stretched.... no load...ever. :( > McG. Ack! The nightmares! Stop it! Stop it!.... Tape drives.... must... destroy ... them.... FOREVER! >>>> No matter how fast CPU's and video cards get, the hard disk of a >>>> computer always seems to be a bottleneck. [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > Ack! The nightmares! Stop it! Stop it!.... Tape drives.... must... > destroy ... them.... FOREVER! You thought you'd happily repressed and forgotten all about that bit, din't ya? HA! Well, going through all my ancient stuff I ran across a cassette audio (ha!) tape in the bottom of a shoebox of old cancelled checks from a long closed bank account. Matter of fact, it was the very FIRST storebought program I'd ever bought. In 1983 it was. FROGGER!!!! For a Timex/Sinclair 1000!!! I tossed it in the waste basket. It was broken, the tape. That's what had reminded me, as it were ;o) McG. |
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