Source Engine Issues

Hey guys,

Over the weekend I've been wrestling with my com and Orange Box installation. I decided to do a short summary on how to resolve some of these issues - namely those that involve graphic/video card crashes.

From what I've dug up from the net, there are 2 main errors thus far:
1. failed to lock vertex buffer CMeshDX8::LockVertexBuffer
and
2. Page Pool Too Low

1. "Failure to lock vertex buffer" is apparently an issue concerning the video card and the its drivers, along with DirectX. Anyway, the info resources on forums online are found here and here. The simplest resolve I found though was to install the latest DirectX version (currently 9.0c I think). However, the conflict might have to do with your video card driver, in which case, an appropriate driver update might do the trick. In my case, I opted to use a thirdparty driver because it also solved another issue, more info on that below.

2. "Page Pool Memory Too Low" simply put, is caused by insufficient memory. A deficiency in RAM is currently known to be the most widespread cause. However, an inferior graphics card memory is also known to trigger this error. Anyways, the advice I garnered from tech help forums is to tweak registry settings - stuff available here. Most advice on forums will advise you to manually tweak your registry settings to increase the paging memory allocated to Steam. I did notice that I managed to stay in-game longer after the tweak, although it's prolly psychological.

However, what did improve the performance of the game DRAMATICALLY was lowering the resolution of the source game itself (Portal, TF2 and HL:Ep.2). More importantly, I also installed a thirdparty graphics driver from Omegadrivers. Please note that you have to uninstall your existing nvidia/ATI drivers. Abit more on thirdparty drivers here.

And that's all I have for you guys! I ran a full server map rotation on TF2 last night with no issue. Medic is the sex imho.

Also, I'd like to welcome back an oldskool TFCer "Suicidalwolf", now known as "stupendous.", or as the Barker guys know him as, Zhiyong!