BM as the only Source game with bad performance

Black Mesa Archive Help!
#1

I have a really annoying issue. Black Mesa runs with really low FPS and crashes to desktop quite often, so it’s practically unplayable. Other Source games work like a charm, and I own and play all of them. Similar thing happens with Steam updated versions of HL2 and episodes, while torrented ones work flawlessly (that’s weird…). I’m able to play more demanding games than Black Mesa like AC3 and BO2 with no problems (but AC4 with quite low FPS, but I still managed to complete it), and even BF3 multiplayer with playable framerate, so I fail to understand why Black Mesa performs so bad. My PC was recently formatted.
I have newest drivers for GeForce 9600 GT, can this be the issue? If so, which older version should I redownload?

I have a laptop that is slightly weaker than my PC, and there I didn’t have a single lag all the way from AnMat to Power Up, no crashes either…

#2

I can see what you’re getting at. However, there’s a big difference between some things. Games like Battlefield and Assassin’s Creed are made by big game developers with complete and total control over their game engines, while Black Mesa is a mod made by part-time developers who are working with some else’s engine (albeit a very accessible one). I won’t try to disagree that those AAA games are more demanding because I don’t have them, but in all likelyhood they are much more stable games than the current iteration of Black Mesa.

That being said, it’s come to my attention recently that sometimes it’s an inadequate graphics card. I have similar problems in that I have zero problems running Black Mesa but cannot run any of the goldsrc Half-Life games (which are by far less demanding). Check your hardware if you are especially in doubt.

#3

I can play GoldSrc games with no problems, fortunately. So it’s a hardware issue, and there’s nothing there can be done without buying a new one? That sux. Hopefully Steam version will be more stable

#4

I don’t recommend installing old drivers on a Geforce 9600, maybe nvidia made a patch to those 8xx0/9xx0 series geforces so they wouldn’t die out of nowhere like the classic RRoD on x360(which was exactly the same problem, btw).

#5

I also get lower fps in HL1 on Software mode with flashlight on in some areas than BM on max settings ._.

@OP, Anyway, what you describe about pirated HL2 running fine while a bought one not, the only explanations I can think of:

  • someone played with their config files and disabled some effects
  • source engine update messed up performance, explaining why a less updated build runs better
  • running them in offline mode solves the problem (try the Steam versions like that) meaning the problem is with your networking
#6

I forgot to say that I played HL2 and episodes with no problems on the same PC two years ago, and it wasn’t modified since then, so it should be software fault. I tried running unupdated Steam version of these games in offline mode and it didn’t help at all, I crashed to desktop anyway. I tried deleting config and resetting video settings to the lowest, again to no avail. I’ve also noticed that quicksave thumbnail just before it crashed looks like static (game didn’t look like this when it crashed, it just freezed for a while):

That’s weird.

#7

What’s weird to me is that it’s obviously rendering the background map no problem, so it might be a video decoder issue (episode one uses a .bik file for the intro sequence)

#8

So is there something I can do about it?

#9

nice discussion for a newbie

#10

Try to update your codecs and let me know if the intro plays afterwards. I believe it changed format with the steampipe update.

#11

The intro plays fine, but the issue still exists. I had Firefox up while I was playing, and it crashed together with EP1. Now after trying to play it again and again, it crashes much faster, but Firefox doesn’t anymore… Unfortunately I don’t have Firefox’s crash report but I’ll try to get it to crash again.
But the issue with HL2 and episodes is different then with Black Mesa - I don’t get any lag, but when it crashes, it crashes to desktop (or whatever window is topmost except the game itself) and I can still play and hear game sounds, only I don’t see the game anymore.

@EDIT
Here’s the report:

#12

Now I really don’t understand this shit - I’ve set all video settings to the lowest and there was no lag in Black Mesa, but map loadings were still really long (~30 sec). Today when I try to play it, it’s essentially a slide show to the point that the whole MP5 reloading sound is over when he’s done removing the old mag…

#13

I like how you removed the url address, perhaps the reason why your PC works in extraordinary manners is because of the content you look up on it.

#14

A freshy formatted PC also didn’t run BM properly.

#15

Is it a clean BM install or with mods installed?

#16

Make sure BM is able to use the full CPU speed because on Windows 7 and 8 you can limit CPU usage to, say 50% in the power options. It doesn’t make much difference on multithread-optimized applications, but on a single threaded game like Black Mesa, it would slow down the game to a crawl.

Check the task manager to see if you have any applications that are using CPU power, sometimes flash player leaks memory and takes up most of the CPU usage just being in the background doing nothing.

#17

It’s a clean BM install, and the only apps using CPU are steam and taskmgr.exe and dwm.exe

Now that I launched BM after the PC’s been up for several hours non-stop, it doesn’t lag at all. Could it be that Win7 remembers what apps you want to use in a session and somehow makes them run faster?

#18

Windows 7 is set up to defragment every wednesday at 4AM I think, maybe it was defragging itself?

Check the Task Scheduler if you wanna change the time of day for it to run disk defrag.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.