Background images on menus now stay out of focus

[jphimself]

Has anyone else noticed that the images that form the background for the menu each time the game is started (and whenever one hits esc to go to the menu) now stay out of focus.

Earlier, probably before the last couple of updates, the image from the game would be out of focus only until a given load point was reached, then it would come into focus and become animated, and the menu options and title would appear. Birds flew by, water rippled, choppers flew over, trains crossed a bridge, etc.

I thought it was a very neat feature of the game.

Two questions:

1. Have other people noted this change or is it just a glich on my system?
2. If it is a change, why was it done? To save memory in order to try to deal with the stuttering problem?

 

[.Jezus.]

Has anyone else noticed that the images that form the background for the menu each time the game is started (and whenever one hits esc to go to the menu) now stay out of focus.

Earlier, probably before the last couple of updates, the image from the game would be out of focus only until a given load point was reached, then it would come into focus and become animated, and the menu options and title would appear. Birds flew by, water rippled, choppers flew over, trains crossed a bridge, etc.

I thought it was a very neat feature of the game.

Two questions:

1. Have other people noted this change or is it just a glich on my system?
2. If it is a change, why was it done? To save memory in order to try to deal with the stuttering problem?

The menu changes according to the chapter you reached

 

[WhiteZero]

I disabled the dynamic background a long time ago. It took way too long to load just for a menu.
.Jezus. - Try actually reading his post.
:thumbs:

 

[.Jezus.]

I disabled the dynamic background a long time ago. It took way too long to load just for a menu.
.Jezus. - Try actually reading his post.
:thumbs:

LOL maybe I should try that next time

 

[jphimself]

I disabled the dynamic background a long time ago. It took way too long to load just for a menu.
.Jezus. - Try actually reading his post.
:thumbs:

How can the dynamic background be enabled/disabled? Your reply makes me think that Valve recently chose to set disabled as the default.

 

[WhiteZero]

How can the dynamic background be enabled/disabled? Your reply makes me think that Valve recently chose to set disabled as the default.

Well, I know that I disabled it by editing some lines in the valve.rc file which is located in:
Steam\SteamApps\username\half-life 2\hl2\cfg

I believe you can re-enable it by changing the lines:
// display the startup level
// startupmenu

to
// display the startup level
startupmenu

 

[Absinthe]

+map_background none

Put that in the Launch Options for HL2 if you want to disable the animated background. I did it because it was taking far too long to load every time.

 

[jphimself]

Well, I know that I disabled it by editing some lines in the valve.rc file which is located in:
Steam\SteamApps\username\half-life 2\hl2\cfg

I believe you can re-enable it by changing the lines:
// display the startup level
// startupmenu

to
// display the startup level
startupmenu

Thanks WhiteZero, I'll give it a try.

 

[bam23]

I also disabled it. It took around 30 seconds to load when I am finished with my business in the main menu in around 5 seconds.

 

[Seppo]

I've noticed that too, so it's probably not a glitch on your system Maybe Valve really set disabled as the default

 

[The Monkey]

i put the -console in launch options, no backround. Although it seem strange that they would take the backround away, why would they do such a thing?

 

[WhiteZero]

i put the -console in launch options, no backround. Although it seem strange that they would take the backround away, why would they do such a thing?

I find that one annoying, because then you have to exit the console. Try using the suggested ways we've put, it'll save you a little time on start-up.

 

[Ultimape]

Why do you ahve to exit the console?

 

[CREMATOR666]

Background is find for me, they're cool! The blurry image tha preloads during the loading process is just a .vtf texture file, when the 3D menu finishes loading, the images slowly reduce its opacity and fade out, making a bloom-ish/focus effect

 

[JCampbell]

Has anyone else noticed that the images that form the background for the menu each time the game is started (and whenever one hits esc to go to the menu) now stay out of focus.

Earlier, probably before the last couple of updates, the image from the game would be out of focus only until a given load point was reached, then it would come into focus and become animated, and the menu options and title would appear. Birds flew by, water rippled, choppers flew over, trains crossed a bridge, etc.

I thought it was a very neat feature of the game.

Two questions:

1. Have other people noted this change or is it just a glich on my system?
2. If it is a change, why was it done? To save memory in order to try to deal with the stuttering problem?

Do you have Garry's mod? I had this problem during and even after I uninstalled Garry's mod WITHOUT the command to disable it in my launch options. It took a complete re-install of HL2 to get it working again.

Related Garry's mod issues after uninstalling:
-Could not get rid of the forced dx-9 harware in the advanced video card options (my card was a dx7)
-Alyx stopped working (heh) when she was supposed to get into the elevator just before "a red letter day" (actually, this one could be related to HL:Substance. I have no proof either way as I got rid of them both at the same time)

 

[Sid Burn]

well, its a blur to mine... always. I think its normal.

 

[jphimself]

Starting HL2 with -console causes background image to stay out of focus

Just to update this issue, I tried several things posted here and at Steam's Forum and discovered that the background images on the menus began staying out of focus when I enabled Console in my startup parameters. By deleting the -console option in the HL2 properties, the menu backgrounds animate and come into focus when fully loaded.

As many people pointed out, this increases the load time, but I find the time tolerable and prefer the animated versions of the background.

Thanks to all for your input.