Left4Dead system specs released

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 26th September 2008
Comments (30) Stumble
Left4Dead will have roughly the same system requirements as previous Source games.

Left4Dead will have roughly the same system requirements as previous Source games.

If you're curious to know if your PC can handle Valve's new zombie shooter then you need wonder no more thanks to these system specifications which were today announced by Valve's Doug Lombardi over at Half-Life2.net.

Left4Dead is one of Valve's most eagerly awaited projects as the game is set to be geared totally towards co-operative gaming. The title casts up to four players as humans who must fight hordes of AI controlled zombies across a series of campaigns. The game has received particular praise for the new AI Director system too, which adapts the placement and ferocity of enemies according to players style and abilities.

Check out the system specs below.

OS: Windows Vista, XP or 2000
CPU: 3.0 GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 or AMD64X2 (or higher)
RAM: 1 GB for XP / 2GB for Vista
DISC DRIVE: DVD-ROM Drive
HARD DRIVE: At least 7.5 GB of free space
VIDEO: Direct X 9 compatible video card (Video card must be 256 MB or more and should be a DirectX 9-compatible with support for pixel shader 2.0)
SOUND: Direct X9.0c compatible sound card

So, what does that mean? Well, it means that the requirements are pretty much the same as any other Source game of late, but seeing as Left4Dead runs on the same engine as Half-Life 2 and its subsequent episodes that isn't really very surprising.

If you want to know more about Left4Dead then you can check out our hands-on Left4Dead preview, or read our chat with game writer Chet Faliszek.

How does your rig compare to those requirements? Let us know in the forums.
Quote steveo_mcg 26th September 2008, 11:33
Yeah the 939 lives on, it must be on borrowed time by now though. So does this actually utilise both cores heavily?
Quote Arkanrais 26th September 2008, 11:35
hopefully this will have more graphic jizz than other source games, but not having any source games, I have no idea how customizable the engine is, graphics wise.
still, looking froward to this game with rabid anticipation.
Quote Paradigm Shifter 26th September 2008, 11:51
Specs look reasonable.

Getting more and more excited by this game as time goes by. :D
Quote ozstrike 26th September 2008, 11:56
Man, gonna have to upgrade soon. :(
Quote Yemerich 26th September 2008, 12:13
All i know is that i'll be playing the sniper a lot!
Quote Jack_Pepsi 26th September 2008, 12:13
You guys should really check Gabe's presentation over at Left4Dead411. Alan Wake eat y'freakin' heart out!

Alan Wake better have zombies if it wants my attention again. ;)
Quote wuyanxu 26th September 2008, 12:15
exactly what spec i'd expect from a Source game. very easy on the late-upgraders.

i wonder when is Valve taking on Dx10 and geometry shaders...........
Quote Goty 26th September 2008, 12:15
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arkanrais
hopefully this will have more graphic jizz than other source games, but not having any source games, I have no idea how customizable the engine is, graphics wise.
still, looking froward to this game with rabid anticipation.

Source games still manage to look "good" even though the engine is getting a little long in the tooth, now. The update to the source engine seen in the Orange Box games was a big help, there.
Quote Dominatorbuster 26th September 2008, 12:42
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arkanrais
hopefully this will have more graphic jizz than other source games, but not having any source games, I have no idea how customizable the engine is, graphics wise.
still, looking froward to this game with rabid anticipation.

Unbelievable, someone saying "hopefully it will have more graphic jizz than other source game" and then goes onto say "but not have any source games"

So how are you basing your opinion on source games? Screenshots? Please, static screenshots can never give a true representation of how the graphics in game are like when playing. Same thing with youtube vids. Or are you basing your opinion on seeing source games on a friends spectrum?

Source games look good.
Quote p3n 26th September 2008, 12:46
Awesome.
Quote Arkanrais 26th September 2008, 13:05
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dominatorbuster
Unbelievable, someone saying "hopefully it will have more graphic jizz than other source game" and then goes onto say "but not have any source games"

So how are you basing your opinion on source games? Screenshots? Please, static screenshots can never give a true representation of how the graphics in game are like when playing. Same thing with youtube vids. Or are you basing your opinion on seeing source games on a friends spectrum?

Source games look good.
you know there are other video sites other than youtube. I have ~ a dozen 720p videos of left4dead from gamevideos.com (and have watched many HD videos of other games on the source engine), but the left4dead ones seemed to be of the X360 version (the PC version, hopefully having better graphics, hence my comment on the matter). aside from that I don't have (note: present tense) any source games, that's not to say I haven't had source games.
Quote Omnituens 26th September 2008, 13:54
Quote:
Well, it means that the requirements are pretty much the same as any other Source game of late, but seeing as Left4Dead runs on the same engine as Half-Life 2 and its subsequent episodes that isn't really very surprising.
The Orange Box engine is different to the Pre-Episode 2 engine. Also, I think the gfx memory requirement is higher than the standard engine.
Quote liratheal 26th September 2008, 13:56
So long as the gameplay isn't a pile of snot, then I'm not even remotely concerned as to the system specs. Gimme Gimme Gimme!
Quote Bungle 26th September 2008, 14:04
Hope this is the beginning of a trend for co-op focused gaming. Those zombies look so much fun to play, no doubt there will be plenty of comedy moments intermixed between the carnage. Looking forward to Joe's review.:D
Quote Furymouse 26th September 2008, 16:48
When will we get to play as the flesh eating zombies? Or the civilians that are wandering around wondering what the crap is going on
Quote steveo_mcg 26th September 2008, 16:50
You get to play as the "boss" zombies in this.. is it bad that i'm more looking forward to playing zombie than survivor? Pity you can't play as one or more of the horde.
Quote Cupboard 26th September 2008, 17:24
Quote:
Originally Posted by Omnituens
The Orange Box engine is different to the Pre-Episode 2 engine. Also, I think the gfx memory requirement is higher than the standard engine.

ah! I was just about to ask! I have seen CS:S running on a 2.6GHz P4M with intel graphics (Extreme 2 I think) and 256MB ram
Quote BlackMage23 26th September 2008, 18:07
bring out the damn game!
Quote Bungle 26th September 2008, 18:42
Quote:
Originally Posted by steveo_mcg
You get to play as the "boss" zombies in this.. is it bad that i'm more looking forward to playing zombie than survivor? Pity you can't play as one or more of the horde.
Hope they release patch that enables you to play more of the Zombie classes. I wanna vomit on someone damnit.:|
Quote badders 26th September 2008, 18:44
Joe, has there been any mention from Valve as to whether this will carry a new version of the source engine?

All source games that I've tried (except CS:S, oddly...) have maxed a single core without touching the rest. There are various console command that can be used to shift processes around, but they invariably end in instability.

I'd really like L4D to maybe split AI, physics and particles into seperate threads.
Quote frontline 26th September 2008, 19:00
The OB engine is basically just a tweaked version of the original source engine (afaik), however it does allow some improved particle effects and higher quality textures, i believe. Multi-threading was supported on the XBOX 360 using the mat_queue mode command (amongst others) , which is present in TF2 and other OB games, however enabling it can cause some instability problems. The good thing is, they are constantly looking to improve the engine, and any games using it generally benefit from any updates to the engine itself (which is why it is inevitable that CSS will end up on it, as it doesn't make sense to maintain and update 2 different versions of the same engine).
Quote Vergil_117 26th September 2008, 19:26
VALVe wont be using DX10 any time soon just due to the very few people that even have it compared to XP/DX9 users.

http://www.steampowered.com/status/survey.html
Quote CowBlazed 26th September 2008, 19:39
Orange Box games have some dual core tweaks, but the Source engine has always been primarily single threaded.
Quote steveo_mcg 27th September 2008, 01:07
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bungle
Hope they release patch that enables you to play more of the Zombie classes. I wanna vomit on someone damnit.:|

the way i understand it is you can spawn as the vomiting zombie or one of its two friends but you can't play the minions.
Quote [USRF]Obiwan 27th September 2008, 08:41
Quote:
Originally Posted by steveo_mcg
Yeah the 939 lives on, it must be on borrowed time by now though. So does this actually utilise both cores heavily?

Afcourse the 939 lives on, don't believe the hype of Quad core modern processors. I have a 939 4800+ processor and until now it handles every 'new' game, with high settings and high resolution, i can throw at it. must say it also has one 8800GT video card but that is not top of the line either. So all the overhyped quadcores and SLI configs and extreme motherboards are a bunch op bs to me.

Take for example the new Gigabyte motherboards with 2oz ground coper layers. Lots of marketing with 0% advantage.
Quote TOO S0BER 27th September 2008, 09:04
Well, I dunno about the graphics (my computer sucks) and I didn't look at requirements. But that's because I plan on buying L4D for the Xbox 360, that way I don't have to worry about CPU requirements ^.^
Quote Dominatorbuster 27th September 2008, 18:42
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arkanrais
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dominatorbuster
Unbelievable, someone saying "hopefully it will have more graphic jizz than other source game" and then goes onto say "but not have any source games"

So how are you basing your opinion on source games? Screenshots? Please, static screenshots can never give a true representation of how the graphics in game are like when playing. Same thing with youtube vids. Or are you basing your opinion on seeing source games on a friends spectrum?

Source games look good.
you know there are other video sites other than youtube. I have ~ a dozen 720p videos of left4dead from gamevideos.com (and have watched many HD videos of other games on the source engine), but the left4dead ones seemed to be of the X360 version (the PC version, hopefully having better graphics, hence my comment on the matter). aside from that I don't have (note: present tense) any source games, that's not to say I haven't had source games.


So you've seen HD videos of sourc games, it's still a video. Please, if you're going to comment on games such as source games then have the decency to have played them first hand. It's like saying Marmite tastes horrible after you've seen a video of it, taste the product, try the product, then your opinion will have substance.
Quote LeMaltor 27th September 2008, 19:26
They will probably bop out ep 3, then do a new engine for HL3, might be dx12 or 13 by the time Valve get round to it though >_<
Quote sub routine 28th September 2008, 10:26
Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackMage23
bring out the damn game!

exactly, poke the specs. and lets play it :D
Quote Arkanrais 28th September 2008, 12:26
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dominatorbuster
It's like saying Marmite tastes horrible after you've seen a video of it, taste the product, try the product, then your opinion will have substance.
well, that game I was playing last weekend tasted like a meatball sub, but the one I was playing the other day tasted like bacon.
yeah, using high definition videos to analize how good a video games graphics graphics is a complete waste of time and the wrong way to do it. you need to lick the game disc and take a syringe and inject it into your wrist to get a feel for what the game graphics will actually be like.
/facepalm
besides, I have HAVE played source games first hand. do you have a 10 second attention span or did you completely miss the part where I said I had played them? what I was getting at was I didn't know how customizable the engine is, graphics wise. you know, the engine. that thing that compiles the graphics. yes that. I'm not a graphics engineer so I don't know how customizable the engine is, in regards to graphic updates and whatnot.
FFS
Log in

You are not logged in, please login with your forum account below. If you don't already have an account please register to start contributing.





Stats: 0.045 seconds