Cutts

Poor Alex. Did you quench him, or just let him burn?

Apparently this can be caused by some Firefox plugins. Have a look in the Tools->Addons screen in Firefox, and try disabling / uninstalling some of the listed plugins. Which plugin it could be, I don't know... it seems like a few of them do it! Here are a couple of pages where someone is asking the same question, http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/746301 http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/768116 You'll probably find you have a few plugins that have managed to sneak in without your permission, as they have a tendency to do that to Firefox!

Not my work, but I thought you guys might appreciate it.

No problem dude. Incidentally, this is a complex area, and there are a number of schools of thought on this... Theres some science, but there is also an art to it. What I have described is from the point of view of a game developer trying to engineer a game as fairly as possible. However, because of the unpredictability of internet traffic, and the differences in peoples machines, etc, valve allows the user to alter the settings, potentially allowing people to gain some small advantage, so there may be other settings out there that works better for you, but the above step-by-step plan should always give you a pretty good result.

tldr: If you're not interested in the technical shit, but just want to know how to set your rates, jump to the bottom of this post. Here is some very in-depth knowledge explaining exactly what rates and lerp actually mean. (Please remember to read all of this in a British accent.) This response will be in two parts 1) What lerp is. 2) Stuff to do with updates from server to client. 3) Stuff to do with commands from client to server. 4) How to set rates properly. (1) WHAT LERP IS OK... so: Lerp means "linear interpolation", which is a mathematical technique of smoothing out the game. Lets say you had an update from the server 10ms ago, and you're about to render the current frame. The client doesn't know where all the other players actually are, so it extrapolates from what they were doing 10ms ago, and makes its best guess on what they're doing now. Now you receive the next update from the server, which tells you where the players actually are, and you want to render the next frame. You *could* render exactly what you got from the server, but then that would probably be a bit different from the predictions your client previously made, which would make other players suddenly jump across the world a bit. Instead, the game linearly interpolates over time... which means gradually transitioning the rendered position between the predicted position to the updated position. The clients sees something pretty close to what is happening on the server, but it is really a fudged approximation, to make bad connections appear smooth. (2) SERVER UPDATES SENT TO CLIENT, and how they're handled (basically): The rate value is the maximum number of bytes the server can send the client per second. Ideally you want this fairly high, because if it is too low the server may well have updates to send which it cannot, so you will end up getting delayed updates (called "choke"), and it might be a bit choppy. The cl_updaterate value is how many updates your client wants the server to send it per second. Default is 20 per second. That works out as an average of 50ms between updates. Higher is generally better, so long as your connection (and, I guess, the server) can handle it. The cl_interp value is a length of time... eg how long it will take to lerp from 100% predicted position to 100% updated position. Ideally, that time should be the same as the average length of time between updates from the server. So, a lerp of 0.05 (seconds) would be good. HOWEVER, if a single update packet gets dropped, suddenly the lerping goes a bit wrong, so to allow for 1 going missing we double the lerp time to smooth over that. This gives us a default cl_interp value of 0.1. The cl_interp_ratio is 1 plus the number of consecutive dropped packets you're prepared to handle. Because we've doubled the lerp time, without halving the update rate, we need the engine to handle that properly so we set the cl_interp_ratio value to 2, so it understands. If you have more packet loss to deal with you can increase this ratio, but you will also have to adjust your cl_interp. If you never lose packets, you could reduce your ratio to 1, Therefore, these three values should be related like so: cl_interp = cl_interp_ratio / cl_updaterate (3) CLIENT COMMANDS SENT TO SERVER OK. So there are other console variables which control the client commands, or "usrcmds". cl_cmdrate is the number of command packets the client will try to send to the server. Ideally, this should be as high as it can be, but shouldn't be higher than the tick-rate of the server, or you'll be sending empty command packets. Too low and you'll have a load of commands all sent at once. This isn't all that important however, so you can either leave it as it is, or set it to around-or-slightly-under the servers tick rate. The fact is, that with the servers lag compensation, it doesn't really matter if you have a low cl_cmdrate, because the server will account for when you actually fired and "fairly" kill your opponents retrospectively. Setting it high is generally polite, however, as it decreases the amount of kill-delay other people experience. E.g., to other people you'll appear to be shooting round corners less. (4) HOW TO SET YOUR RATES PROPERLY 1) Pick your cl_updaterate setting. 20 is the standard, but theoretically you could go as high as the servers tick rate, usually either 66 or 100, if you have a fast connection. Start off as high as you can (eg 66/100). 2) You should then pick a cl_interp_ratio, set to be "1 + how many packets you think might be likely dropped in a row". 2 is the standard. Use "net_graph 3" to bring up a network graph. Play for a bit, and look at the "loss" value. If that starts to go above 1 too much, you might want a higher cl_interp_ratio. 3) ) Calculate your cl_interp using the following formula (0.1 is the standard): cl_interp = cl_interp_ratio / cl_updaterate 3) You might want to add a little bit to your cl_interp, to allow for the occasionally slightly delayed packets. So maybe use this formula instead, if you're getting very occasional judders in player movement. cl_interp = 1.1 * (cl_interp_ratio / cl_updaterate) 4) Finally, whack your rate value up to about 50000. As far as I can tell, there is no real reason to ever reduce this, so you might aswell have it high. Using net_graph 3, check if you're getting any "choke" (you ideally want choke to be 0). If you are, you might need to increase your rate value. ... 5) Play the game. If it is not to your satisfaction, and you're getting packet loss, or it's too laggy, repeat 1-4 starting with a lower cl_updaterate. ... 6) Set cl_cmdrate to about your servers tickrate.

Cool... thanks for the update!

I know its kinda the middle of the night, but the pub server is down at the moment (I usually check it on my lunch break). Just FYI, something has gone a bit wrong!

Name: "-=BOT=- Bane" Steam I.D: STEAM_0:1:15127078 Reasons for the Ban: Started off as revenge TKing against f@mili@ @ad@ns, but turned into TKing repeatedly, even when asked to stop. Recommended duration of ban: Permanent. Demo Provided?: No, because I can't upload it, but if really needed I can send it to my PC at home and upload it from there.

Name: "KIKOO" Steam I.D: STEAM_0:1:12298069 Reasons for the Ban: Started off as revenge TKing against f@mili@ @ad@ns, but turned into TKing repeatedly, even when asked to stop. Recommended duration of ban: Permanent. Demo Provided?: No, because I can't upload it, but if really needed I can send it to my PC at home and upload it from there.

Name: "f@mili@ @d@ns" Steam I.D: STEAM_0:1:26404772 Reasons for the Ban: TKing repeatedly, even when asked to stop. Recommended duration of ban: Permanent... he turned up, TKed for 20 minutes, then left. Demo Provided?: No, because I can't upload it, but if really needed I can send it to my PC at home and upload it from there.

Quick question... you say this generally happens after a map change, right? Is it on a change to any map, or some specific maps? Might be the map, possibly.

Oh.... sorry that didn't help. That was my best shot. I'll have a google about and see if theres any other suggestions out there.

OK.... own up.... who didn't actually give any thanks, and just ate their turkey with ingratitude?

You appear to be using Windows 7? I'm not certain of this, but sometimes when hl2.exe crashes out with exception code C0000005 that can be fixed by running it in Windows XP (Service Pack 3) compatibility mode. Give that a go and it might fix it. Someone with a similar problem: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/show...d.php?t=2589743 I hope that helps!

Dude... respect. Sometimes you've just gotta quit your job; If you're feeling that you don't want to do what you're doing, and you're thinking of doing something else you prefer, I say you should go for it. It's better to regret something you HAVE done than something you haven't. Just over a year ago, I was doing software development for a business-to-business motor insurance service company. The job was alright: the people were great, the money was great, I had a 20 minute commute. When I quit everyone thought I was a bit mad (especially with the current economic climate). But I just wanted to make games. Now I'm doing exactly that, and it's the best choice I've ever made. I'm earning less money, and I have an hours commute, but it's better because I'm doing something I much prefer doing, and I feel like I'm working with people who appreciate my input much more. Basically, if you're not feeling happy about your job, and you can afford to not earn money for a while, you should always leave and find something where you feel more comfortable. If you hate your job, it is madness to keep doing it, hoping that it will get better in a few weeks... in my experience, it just gradually gets worse. We only have one life to enjoy, so if at all possible, we shouldn't be working on something we don't enjoy. It sounds like you didn't feel valued, despite being a conscientious employee. That can be an incredibly demoralizing experience: you put in the hours to do a good job, yet feel undermined by a management structure which somehow makes your input irrelevant. ... So anyway, congratulations on your new position... it seems like your choice has paid off, big time! That's a fast turn-around! I really hope it works out for you. I love that you have made a bold decision to make a change, and it has worked out well. You have made your own luck, by identifying a problem, taking action, and ending up with a solution. Lovely!

TFC was an amazing game. But even it wasn't immune to Valve fucking it up... after it had been out for a few years, they totally changed the physics, making it MUCH harder to do decent concussion jumping, etc. Totally annoying.

Yeeerrrrr!!!!

OK.... so guess who just got a job on the dev team for this!?

Dubstep is fairly preposterous in general, but then people like Jon Hopkins come along and make it so it's hauntingly beautiful. Jon Hopkins - Vessel: Jon Hopkins - Insides: Also, not dubstep but great:

The term for that kind of picture is "gnops": The reason for this, is it is the opposite of "spong" which looks like this: It's very popular on b3ta.com. B3ta also features these sorts of thing, which I can highly recommend:

Shit, that stuffs hardcore! Another quite interesting "ethanobotanical" is a plant called Datura: Datura inoxia (Devil's Weed) Datura strammonium (Jimson Weed or Thornapple) Basically, this is an outrageously strong hallucinogenic, known by Native Americans, which can apparently last for days. From everything I've read about it, a small percentage of people have quite a good time, and everyone else enters into the hellish depths of their own psyche. The kind of hallucinations people see are full blown and realistic. EG,the user doesn't just see a lot of weird colours and spatial warping, they see completely convincing, real looking stuff, which simply isn't there. One guy I read about decided to go to the shops, because he felt totally normal and asumed the drug hadn't kicked in. Only he couldn't get into the mall because a bunch of manikins restrained him, and threw him out. On his way home, he walked down his street, and all the houses were there except his own. So he walked up and down repeatedly for half an hour, looking for it, more and more desperately, and each time he passed a neighbours house, a stone statue started to grin, then s*bleep*, then finally belly laugh at him, because he'd lost his own house. Some other guy spent about a full day just lying in swamp land, completely paralysed, then when he could finally move and drag himself home went to bed, and got woken up by his family, who came into his room and spoke to him for hours about some deep topics. He went back to sleep again, and woke up to remember that his family lived on the other side of the world. Now, both these guys were apparently quite experienced recreational abusers, so they had some idea about what to expect etc. so they were able to understand that what happened to them was something like a dream, and thus frame that experience in some kind of context, coming out the other side undamaged by it... but give this stuff to someone without their knowledge and you could essentially drive them insane. Nasty. (Link to Erowid.org, a highly informative resource about pretty much any drug anyones ever taken for fun)

I like it a lot. My only complaint is that I'd have liked to see a lot more people TKing Kaba. Who's with me?

Name: HeaDHunteR.BeGASKiM Steam I.D: STEAM_0:0:10889588 Reasons for the Ban: Multiple TKs after warning, then left server. Recommended duration of ban: As long as possible Demo Provided?: Yes. He kills Holland and I right at the end of the demo, then leaves. Sorry its a bit big. http://ultrashare.net/hosting/fl/b74b0f488e/headhunter_2

That is either a bottom dwelling fish, or the next Dr. Who monster.

Well, I must say its a relief to hear that. I guess its just because the extreme right are so vocal, that the moderate view doesn't get heard. Funniest thing I ever saw on Fox news... their studio was being picketted by some LGBT organistion, complaining about homophobic comments made on the network. One of Fox's reporters was covering the story, so he went outside and stood in front of them while reading his report. Amusingly, they were so loud, that they kept interupting him, so he got angry, and started shouting homophobic abuse at them! So basically, it was just an excuse to go out on the street and try to provoke a riot, since if he actually wanted to read his report, he could have just gone inside the studio and done it there. Classic fox douchery!