A new video card and a new obsession
I’ve recently been playing Valve’s Team Fortress 2, technically still in beta. So far in my experience, this is a beta on par with a google beta - i.e. a fully functional app that’s 99% working and completely awesome.
I’ve not experienced any of the more ‘beta’ like qualities yet - to me its been pure joy. As an afficianado of the original Team Fortress mod for Quake 1, I’ve literally been waiting 10 years for this game to come out. Its probably not surprising to hear that I’ve moved on since then, but the game being set in the Source engine, and rejiggered to have a cartoony feel only accentuates the positives from the original game. It brings me back to another time in my life, in a way. It has the feel of an old pair of gloves, but at the same time, its new and different. Valve did a top-notch job with TF2. I dare say it was worth the wait.
On a cue from Team Fortress 2, in the form of a sometimes abysmal framerate and generally getting my ass whooped, I upgraded my video card from an ATI X1300 series card to a 2900PRO series card. My framerate in the Half Life Lost Coast video stress test more than doubled (from 30 to 71). When I maxed out the graphics options on the HLLC test, it only slowed to 65 frames per second. Not bad! Back in game, I took the newly recommended video settings (nearly maxed) and was delighted to a see a significant difference. Not only was my framerate improved, but everything was so much more shiny, like freshly unpacked vinyl figurines.
I still am a hair nervous that my power supply is woefully underpowered for the graphics card I chose, but after 2 straight hours or scoreboard-topping play yesterday, my confidence is way up. Now I just wonder what the rest of the Orange Box has in store for me next week…