Getting TF2 to work on my laptop

[phuzzz]

So, here I am, at work, bored out of my mind. I'm a Lab Monitor for my school, and on Fridays there is hardly anyone that comes in. So I bring my laptop to keep me entertained. You know, roaming around the internet and whatnot. And I thought it would be great if I could get some TF2 time while I'm sitting around. However, I realized that my laptop is 6 years old and probably can't handle TF2 (I bought it through my old school). But anyway, my point...

Is there anyway I can find a mod that could tone down the graphics in a significant way? I remember there was a mod for Oblivion that I use for my computer (called Oldblivion), and performance skyrockets when I use it. I was hoping there is something similar for TF2/HL2/Orange Box. If not, ah well. I'll keep playing SNES games on my computer.

 

[MorbidEwok]

It would really depend on your GPU and Processor for source games.. They're really picky.

 

[phuzzz]

Well, I did a check, and the only thing that fails is my video card, although it fails horrendously.

 

[RadioactiveCheese]

Yeah, I needed Oldblivion to run it too, but I am able to play TF2 pretty well on my computer when I have it set to the lowest quality, I can get more frames if I put it at 800 by 600. but I don't. but have you tried installing and playing it you might be able to?

 

[Lafinass]

You could try adding -dxlevel 70 to the command line, it will significantly reduce the graphical requirements.

 

[phuzzz]

No, I haven't installed TF2, but I have installed HL2 before, and it ran very slowly. I wanted to know if there some way to make it run better before I installed it.

And I'll give that a try, Lafinass.

 

[Lafinass]

I've seen nothing like that, but what you'd be looking for would be some kind of low-detail texture pack replacement. Basically a total re-skin of the whole game.

Your laptop does have some kind of 3d card in it though, right?

Forcing the game to run in DX7 will dump all the advanced shading options and most of the particle effects, it might be enough.

 

[phuzzz]

So, Lafinass, I tried the DX7 thing. Turns out it crashes the game, right before the menu comes up. So that's a no go. Thanks anyway.