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.
Some significant news on the stuttering front... A reader sent in a link to a Valve post on the Steam Users Forums that contains
details of an upcoming stuttering fix being worked on by Valve. Here's an excerpt:
A fix for the stuttering problem is currently in development on Steam Beta.
If you have experienced this problem in the past and would like to test the updates on Steam Beta, please follow the instructions below to start Steam Beta and run through a scenario that would previously stutter for you in and see if that problem still occurs.
Early reports are not universally positive but some are reporting significant improvement. Valve is requesting feedback on this patch which can be submitted at the
Developers Wiki.
