This site is a collection of information on a problem with Half-Life 2 that has plagued many players of this otherwise excellent game. This problem is characterized by a sudden massive drop in frame rate when turning corners or moving into new areas of the game. These drops are usually accompanied by looping or stuttering sound during the frame rate drop which is how most people become aware of the problem. Aside from these isolated drops in frame rate, the game is otherwise perfectly smooth. These sudden drops kill the immersion and lead to a very frustrating experience. Below you will find additional details on this problem, some theories, and all responses from Valve on this problem.
Valve's DougV has posted
a final update in the "
Stuttering problems in HL2 update" thread and then locked it. I take issue with several of the points made in this post and it is clear that this issue is being continually mishandled. Take the following snippet for example:
We did not see this problem during testing.
I have trouble believing this considering that the stuttering problem was evident on
Gary McTaggart's own computer, a Valve engineer on the Source engine. The following is a snippet from my IM conversations with him after he put in the first fix that corrects the stuttering but created
the slowdown problem:
[09:02 PM] GaryMcT: I didn't realize how bad it was until I now see it fixed. :)
I am a professional software engineer, and have cut Valve a lot of slack for this problem as I know the complexities of software development quite well. However, I am beginning to lose interest in completing Half-Life 2 primarily because of Valve's poor community management as of late.
