TF2 now uses multicore power

By Robert Purchese Published 20 March, 2009

Cor. Cor. Cor. Cor.

Valve has added multicore support to Team Fortress 2, as well as various other nips and tucks that will improve performance in the multiplayer shooter.

To unleash the multicore within, head to the Advanced dialog part of the video options screen and tick the Multicore Rendering box. These changes, plus a new batch of tweaks, will be added automatically when the Steam client is restarted.

Valve recently tackled and revamped the Scout class in Team Fortress 2. The Scout, along with the Heavy, Pyro and Medic, gains three unique unlockable weapons. Each not only has clever benefits but also significant drawbacks to keep the classes balanced.

These revamps, Gabe Newell told a DICE summit audience in February, not only keep the game fresh, but also cause significant sales spikes.

Only five more classes to go.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • mcmonkeyplc #1 3 years ago

    It already looks good. I wonder what this will do...

  • DFawkes #2 3 years ago

    That's nice, but like mcmonkeyplc said it looks great already, even on my meagre machine. I didn't even realise it was using just the one core.

  • StooMonster #3 3 years ago

    Works really well, good enhancement to long-ago released game by Valve.

  • DFawkes #4 3 years ago

    What kind of enhancement will it bring though? I'll admit I have no real idea what use this'll be. Will it increase fps, or the settings I can run it at?

    Not that I care, I know if worst comes to worst it's fine just now, but it's nice to have a "TURBO!!!" (which is what I'll call it) switch.

  • thesombrerokid #5 3 years ago

    multi core rendering or multi threaded rendering wont improve your graphics performance, the only improvement you will likely see is the ability to load and draw at the same time, thus probably the only effect will be that the steam overlay and the cancel button will be more responsive when loading.

  • DFawkes #6 3 years ago

    Strangely, that's the only thing that bothers me is the Cancel button taking ages to react. That's nice :) Cheers.

  • thesombrerokid #7 3 years ago

    @DFawkes
    ditto and the complete absence of it in l4d is a real pain

  • IneptPercy #8 3 years ago

    Dual/Quad cores would still be used it just wasn't optimised to use them well, could help push a few extra frames, will make more of a difference on the slower dual cores.

  • chessboxer #9 3 years ago

    Need Intel to release the Core i7 975 so that I can buy it.

  • skillian #10 3 years ago

    So does my old Athlon X2 4400+ still count as multicore? Should I tick the box?

  • christourlord #11 3 years ago

    It dropped my framerate by about 10fps when I tried it out last night on my iMac.

  • PearOfAnguish #12 3 years ago

    iMac

    There's your problem.

  • thesombrerokid #13 3 years ago

    you shouldn't need a multi core Cpu to enable it, where it says multi core read multi threaded, it probably will run slower on a single core machine though.

  • sneetch #14 3 years ago

    @thesombrerokid
    @DFawkes
    ditto and the complete absence of it in l4d is a real pain

    Oh gods, I hate the L4D shell.

    Dammit Valve, the system you had before worked fine in every game you ever made so why change it? Add a generic "lobby" to the standard Steam shell that'll allow us to party-up (dude!) with our friends and join servers. And allow us to pick our own servers (so we can avoid those on Mars or wherever it is they keep sending me).

    @christourlord

    What the hell is an "iMac"? You're making up crazy words! ;)

    They did say it's experimental so it's disabled by default for now. I'd say it'll improve in time.

    Probably.

  • christourlord #15 3 years ago

    <em>iMac

    There's your problem.</em>

    It usually runs it beautifully thanks - it just drops a few frames when this option is enabled.
    Edited by christourlord at 20/03/09 @ 14:28

  • hiddenranbir #16 3 years ago

    Ditto on the L4D. What I also don't understand is why TF2 and L4D continually have the logo videos playing. This really interrupts the starting/joining a server from the steam client. CS is still the quickest for instant gaming.

  • TheMoonRat #17 3 years ago

    Right click the game in the steam list, properties, set launch options. In here put
    -novid
    And press ok. This works for both l4d and tf2 and will stop the opening vid from playing :)

  • christourlord #18 3 years ago

    Thanks moonrat! I had no idea!

  • DFawkes #19 3 years ago

    Cheers for that tip MoonRat, I have to make sure I skip them otherwise my machine crashes. No idea why.

  • byron_hinson #20 3 years ago

    Noticed the game has a slightly higher and more stable framerate when I enable it.

  • TheMoonRat #21 3 years ago

    Another tip is to also add if your gaming resolution is the same as your desktop resolution....
    -noborder -windowed

    This doesn't change the look of the game at all, but effectively makes the game a window, making tabbing in and out of the game a lot quicker and smoother :)