Halo 1 & 2 for PC
This topic has moved here: Subject: Just bought Halo PC and I need some help
  • Subject: Just bought Halo PC and I need some help
Subject: Just bought Halo PC and I need some help

So NOW what?
What would happen if a BR and an SMG had kids? Halo Reach Spawn Weapon of choice, of course!

Ok so I just bought a new laptop and tried playing and got a bunch of lag with the frame rate and wanted to see what I was doing wrong or if anyone could offer some tips to improve gameplay and consistency. Now I know its not a gaming laptop but it should be able to handle halo. Heres my specs:

-17" Screen with 1680x1040 res potential
-Runs either Internet Explorer or Netscape
-Adelphia Cable Modem to Wireless Router (even after I directly hooked up the LAN to the PC it still experienced lag, mind you)(Should I change my settings to "DSL/Cable Low-1 to 4 players setting here?"
- Graphics- 128 Dedicated memory with 128 shared (possible 256) on ATI X200 Express with Hypermemory (i know its not a lot but its better than a lot back in 2003 when halo pc was released right?)
- Soundblaster Audigy 2z-Soundcard (it says that it will improve frame rates but I dont know exactly how it applies or how to apply it here as well, need help with this one too :(


So there were times when it felt smooth and then the frames would jump a bit. Ex- On Blood Gulch- I was running towards the front door of the Red base and then, Poof, I was up against the wall. I've played plenty of Halo 2 (28 in Team Slayer) and so I'm very aware of lag and what not, im just new to the PC end of this and want to enjoy Halo PC and CE eventually. Are my specs just not up to the task (hoping not) or is there configurations that need to be changed? Please as many folks as possible, HELP! I want to play badly, but i feel like ive been hit in the shins here.


  • 07.17.2006 10:35 AM PDT

*I sense a disturbance in the forum*
Jaws on Zanzibar?
Sniper 's Ed 101
my myspace
teh explosion
purchase a leaf blower at any Sears store
After kim saying pc gamers are more mature:
Posted by:ImSpartacus
we r?

tell us your ping, if it's 300<, then it's your connection.

  • 07.17.2006 10:37 AM PDT
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Reality is just a crutch for people who can't cope with drugs.
X-Fire: new420

Try putting your video settings on Low.

  • 07.17.2006 10:39 AM PDT

So NOW what?
What would happen if a BR and an SMG had kids? Halo Reach Spawn Weapon of choice, of course!

Please explain the PING effect in terms of the numbers, that for sure has got me.

  • 07.17.2006 10:41 AM PDT
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Ping is the time it takes to contact the server. If your ping is extremly high, then there's something wrong with your connection or the servers you're playing on. If it is indeed hardwear lag, then it's a good idea to change your video settings.

  • 07.17.2006 10:55 AM PDT

So NOW what?
What would happen if a BR and an SMG had kids? Halo Reach Spawn Weapon of choice, of course!

Ok thanks. But after I messed around with the Video settings (aspect ratio, Shaders, Spectral, etc.) its didnt really have appear to have an amazing difference of change. Any other trouble shooting ideas?

  • 07.17.2006 11:00 AM PDT
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You know, it's possible your CPU can't handle it. I have a laptop with great graphics and halo looks beautiful, but the CPU can't handle it well. So If I keep my graphics settings too high, (some times this happens when settings are low) I'll get a lot of machine lag. Especialy when being shot at or when I'm near another person.

  • 07.17.2006 11:10 AM PDT
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Right. You forgot to mention the more important aspects of the computer: the RAM and CPU.

Firstoff, you should mention how Halo looks. This will determine how good your Graphics chipset is. A good way to tell is if the plasma pistol has a glowing, round dial that lights up or just a small red dot. If you see the dial, you've got a card that can handle Halo. If all you see on the pistol is a red dot that doesn't do anything, your card...isn't as good.

The CPU is the brain of the computer, the thing that runs all the processes and calculations. Now, if Halo looks beautiful but your framerate is despicable (taht is, if the game appears choppy and/or hangs), then it's either your CPU or RAM. A CPU that runs at a clockspeed of 1.6 or higher would be needed to have a smooth game of Halo.

RAM is Random Access Memory, the computer puts stuff there for ready access. 512MB is good for Halo, 1GB is preferred nowadays. Also keep in mind that if your graphics chipset is higher end, it'll share RAM with the rest of the computer, knocking your actual avalible RAM down a couple hundred megabytes.

You can find all this out by going into Start>Run and typing "dxdiag" and hitting enter. That'll bring up everything you need to know, including physical RAM, avalible RAM, processor name/brand/clockspeed and graphics name/brand/clockspeed.

Example: I've got a Compaq Presario v2000 with an AMD Turion64 Mobile clocking at 1.8GHz, a Mobility ATI Radeon Xpress 200M and 512 avalible RAM. However, my Radeon knocks my RAM down to only ~380MB avalible for use. Hence, Halo looks beautiful as hell, but get any more than seven people on screen and it starts to chop and hang.

[Edited on 7/17/2006]

  • 07.17.2006 11:24 AM PDT

So NOW what?
What would happen if a BR and an SMG had kids? Halo Reach Spawn Weapon of choice, of course!

Hey me15ter!
Here's my specs (i left them in my initial post)
-17" Screen with 1680x1040 res potential
-Runs either Internet Explorer or Netscape
-Adelphia Cable Modem to Wireless Router (even after I directly hooked up the LAN to the PC it still experienced lag, mind you)(Should I change my settings to "DSL/Cable Low-1 to 4 players setting here?"
- Graphics- 128 Dedicated memory with 128 shared (possible 256) on ATI X200 Express with Hypermemory (i know its not a lot but its better than a lot back in 2003 when halo pc was released right?)
- Soundblaster Audigy 2z-Soundcard (it says that it will improve frame rates but I dont know exactly how it applies or how to apply it here as well, need help with this one too :(

I have a HP dv8000z - My CPU is an AMD Athlon 64 originally 2.0 ghz (when I click on CPU info it now says 1.6, does the ghz go down after you purchase it from HP. ATI x200 Express 128mb dedicated and 128 shared (possible 256mb).

When I played earlier I could see the Green Plasma Pistol charge up. So it works pretty well. You have almost the same setup as I do. Any other suggestions? Do you know anything about the Audigy2 zs soundcard and the "advertised" improvement on framerate that they state it provides on the package?

  • 07.17.2006 11:37 AM PDT
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Have fun with halo PC!

  • 07.17.2006 12:26 PM PDT

So NOW what?
What would happen if a BR and an SMG had kids? Halo Reach Spawn Weapon of choice, of course!

Hey, that wasnt an attempt to help?!! :(

  • 07.17.2006 1:43 PM PDT

lol

I use the resolution of 800x600 even though my screen is 1280x1024. It's just too much for my PC to run with high graphics/particles/shadows on. I can turn them off, but it just looks ugly ;D

  • 07.17.2006 2:12 PM PDT
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Strange. Your specs seem more than capable of handling HPC at full. The card seems fine, the CPU is perfect...but...

Hm. Your CPU probably has a feature that allows it to underclock when on battery power or when not running CPU intensive applications. In other words, it may show up as 1.6 simply because it's not doing anything intensive. If you want true proof, go run dxdiag as I mentioned above. That should give you the true clockspeed.

Radeon x200? Do you mean the ATI Radeon Xpress 200? If so, it shouldn't have a problem running Halo at full.

I have never heard of a sound card having any effect whatsoever on the framerate of a game. I would definitely say it's false advertising. The sound card is completely different from either the GPU or CPU. Unless they're saying that the soundcard doesn't use too much processing power/RAM, then it might have an effect, albeit a minimal one, since soundcards don't use up too many resources to begin with.

You forgot to mention how much RAM you have, by the by. Like I said, 512 is okay, but it's probably been knocked down to 380 by your GPU. You might want to specify exactly how much the compy came with, and how much you actually have via dxdiag.

  • 07.17.2006 3:39 PM PDT

So NOW what?
What would happen if a BR and an SMG had kids? Halo Reach Spawn Weapon of choice, of course!

Yeah I just checked on my specs- 1gb DDR SDRRAM (2x512mb) isnt that enough, its double?

Yes I have the ATI Radeon Express X200. 128mb dedicated memory and 128 shared memory. Dxdiag showed me:

Processor: AMD Turion(tm) 64 Mobile Technology ML-37, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.0GHz
Memory: 1022MB RAM
But right clicking on "My computer" and displaying properties tells me that i am only running on 1.59ghz. How can I speed up the clock to reach 2.0ghz or closer to 2.0ghz?


Thanks for your help so far!

[Edited on 7/17/2006]

  • 07.17.2006 3:53 PM PDT