Graphics problem

[Porakdak]

when I play hl2 theres somethig weird about it like theres no shadows at all an lighting seems weird in every other way

[Ymatre]

Hi,
your DirectX is 9 or + ?
Because, you must have DX 9 or +.

[HellSpite]

Are you using an Nvidia card? I had a similar problem recently, I installed a new Geforece 570 and the graphics and smooth were actually made worse. Apparently it is an issue with some Nvidia cards and the Half Life Source Engine.

I changed all of my graphic setting to low, then one by one switched them all back to high. This solved the problem for me (although I did have to go through this procedure everytime I started the game).

If you dont have an Nvidia card, try looking at these tweaks:
http://www.tweakguides.com/HL2_3.html

All the best!

[terminatorownz]

Same here...

[Zuluknob]

think it may be a windows 8 x64 problem, i cant get the game to run in hardware mode. nor portal 1. the option to select directx version is greyed out.

[Zuluknob]

ahh. found the problem and the fix. set your launch options to "+mat_dxlevel 95" run the game and set your options then quit and remove the launch option, or it will reset your gfx every time you load it up