Posts Tagged ‘team’
Tweak Team Fortress 2 For Max Performance
Team Fortress 2 runs on the Source Engine, the well-known game engine created by Valve, which also runs other games like Half Life 2 and Counter Strike: Source. The Source Engine is very customizable, which is one of the reasons it’s so popular. I have come up with some great tips to make the Source Engine run great on your computer and look great at the same time.
Preparing Your Computer
First off, if you don’t have the latest drivers from either ATI or nVidia (depending on your video card), downloading the latest drivers almost always helps with game performance. Just with the latest nVidia driver update, I’ve noticed about a 5-10 FPS gain from an original 40-45 FPS in TF2.
Once you are sure that you are running on the latest drivers and you are still experiencing any stuttering in-game, TweakGuides has a few recommendations on how to fix it. If you are missing any in-game textures, you can scan your TF2’s contents and have Steam replace any missing files just by right-clicking the game in Steam, clicking “Properties”, going to the “Local Files” tab, and clicking on “Verify integrity of game cache.”
Now that your computer is ready to run the game, let’s get into messing with the game settings.
Game Audio Settings
If you have absolutely terrible performance in-game, reduce the speaker quality to low and mono (single speaker) output. For the most part though, messing with the audio settings won’t really hurt your performance.
Video Settings
As a quick rule of thumb, the higher the resolution gets, TF2 will begin looking significantly better, but will take a noticeable performance drop, so it’s up to you to figure out what resolution works best on your computer. Again, TweakGuides has a ton of detailed information on the “Advanced” settings. One recommendation from me though is to keep the textures on as high as setting as you can, because they don’t have much impact on performance and really help make the game look good on lower settings.
Also, Hackosis highlights how to make Team Fortress 2 run on “Ultra High” settings, which really runs Team Fortress 2 on the highest settings that you can go. Here are a couple comparison screenshots:
If you have any other tips to run Team Fortress 2 to the max, feel free to leave a comment below.
Inside the Team Fortress 2 Heavy Update
The Heavy update for TF2 has been out for about a week and a half now, giving players time to earn and use their new weapons and sandviches on normal maps. Here’s a rundown on the content introduced in the Heavy update:
- A fan-made map, CP_Steel, is added to the offical map list
- Arena mode released, giving TF2 a deathmatch gamemode
- A new Valve map, Badwater Basin, released for both Payload and Arena gamemodes.
- 38 new achievements for the Heavy to unlock
- 3 unlocks for the Heavy: the Sandvich, Natascha, and the Killing Gloves of Boxing.
I played on an achievement server to unlock the 3 new unlocks, then I went onto my favorite Gib$Ru$ server, Dustbowl 24/7, and tried them out. I ended up using the Sandvich more than I thought I would on defense, but on offense, it does absolutely no good because you never have 4 seconds of spare time. Natascha, which slows down enemies but doesn’t do as much damage, doesn’t seem to have much of an impact on gameplay, so I would recommend staying with Sasha. Finally, the K.G.B.’s are a great new unlock, and even with the “slower” punch times, you’ll never want to go back to normal fists.
An Interview With the Gib$Ru$ Admin
I’ve been a big fan of the Gib$Ru$ servers on TF2 for a very long time. The Gib members are always helpful and talk on the microphones, keeping the gameplay fun, and small server mods like instant teleport recharge keep the game moving quickly and competitively. I “sat down” for an interview with the guy that started it all, tony2k.
The Pxl Lab: When was Gib$Ru$ started, and what challenges did you have creating a brand new community?
Tony: I started Gib$Ru$ way back in TFC (Team Fortress Classic) about 10 years ago, and the main reason why I started Gib$Ru$ was because I was in a couple of clans with my best friend and they didn’t work out because of me. I was a hothead and I had no patience for low-skilled players. So I made Gib$Ru$ and only I was allowed, I did not recruit anyone. Me and my best friend, which is Mr.Hyde, the co-leader of Gib$Ru$, we got into Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory game and we allowed people to join us as Gib$Ru$. We had our own rocking server, with custom campaigns that people really really adored. Because of technical and network issues, we had to stop.
We were waiting for TF2 for about 5 or more years to come out. When it finally came out, me and Mr.Hyde were heavily into MMORPG games, but Mr.Hyde tried TF2 first at around December, then after a week, he got me into it. I liked TF2 at the start and I was already using the Gib$Ru$ tag from when I started playing TF2. Then I thought to myself, why not host a game server since I have a really good job, I can afford to host a professional game server. My real intention for hosting a Game Server is to have it populated 24/7. We had HLstatsX Points System running to make it more popular and at first, I was recruiting people just by seeing that the player was better than average. So I would bluntly ask the person if they want to join, without even really knowing them. So we recruited a lot of people, we had a good base of players and some bad players, but we all had fun.
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Good Grief, it’s Team Roomba
A scout runs and jumps while inside the spawn, jamming himself in the door, and preventing it from opening. The rest of his team looks at him strangely, waiting for him to move. Then a pyro asks, “Is he glitched, or just being a douchebag?”. A medic answers, “I think it’s a little of column A, a little of column B.”
They call themselves Team Roomba. A group of gamers who take it upon themselves to make the game a little more difficult for everyone who happens to be on the same team as them, with frankly hilarious results. Team Roomba is a clan in Team Fortress 2 who devoted themselves to griefing (i.e. making everyone’s lives miserable), and filming it. I wouldn’t recommend clicking the link to their site. It’s just another display of their offbeat sense of humor, but at the same time hilarious.
Team Roomba stands out from the griefing crowd by replacing simple voice spamming with much more creative approaches to the noble art. Engineers building turrets under the map and killing the enemies from complete safety? Brilliant. Jamming the doors on teammates and making them answer trivia questions to open it? Hilarious. Team Roomba has also done griefing Insurgency, though its not the same high quality work as they did on Team Fortress 2. All in all, I’d highly recommend you watch any of their griefing videos. It’s quality fun for everyone not involved.
Welcome to Team Fortress 2 Week!
Hey readers! Here at The Pxl Lab, we all share a love for Team Fortress 2, which in case you don’t know, is a totally awesome online multiplayer FPS created by Valve, the greatest developer of all time. Now that we have our facts straight, it’s time to get in-depth with the game. All week long we’ll feature awesome game sprays for you to use, videos that will blow your mind, an interview with the Gib$Ru$ admin, a detailed guide on how to tweak TF2 for better performance, skinning the characters, and more! Keep checking the site all week long for the latest and greatest, and we hope to see you on the battlefield soon, soldier!
Team Fortress 2 Is Giving The Heavy The Next Update
Earlier this year, the Medic received an update, granting him 3 new weapon unlocks and 33 achievements. In mid-June, the Pyro got his share of unlocks and achievements. Now, the time is coming for the third major class update, this time for the Heavy. Valve states that the goal of this update is to “make the Heavy more viable when he has no Medic to pair with.”
Currently the weapons and achievements are being developed, so no pictures are available yet. You can keep updated on the Heavy update and more at the offical Team Fortress 2 blog, if you so desire.
New Team Fortress 2 Spy Skin by Pxl_Buzzard
Hello again everyone. I write with the news that I recently did a small touch-up on
the spy skin in Team Fortress 2 (an excellent online cartoon FPS made by Valve). The skin isn’t anything much, just a new camo tie that I thought was desperately needed (I mean, who wants a plain old striped tie anyways?). I tried to give a fancy beard too, but the game won’t show it for whatever reason even though it shows up in the redone skin. So, without further ado, I present to you the download for the skin (I hope you’ve looked at it on the right side by now to see if you’ll love it or just freak out in it’s pure awesomeness).
