Left 4 Dead 2 Forum

This works for me, add the line

cl_forcepreload "1"

into autoexec.cfg, in your Steam/steamapps/common/left 4 dead 2/left4dead2/cfg folder.

That forces the entire map to preload, and crashes are history for me 😊

Loading times are increased a bit, but not too much.

Hope that helps.

Wow, I'll try this out - thanks for the suggestion. I'll edit this post with my findings.

EDIT#1: I only see autoexec.360.cfg, do I need to create this file? Nevermind - I created the file which worked. Duplicating the autoexec.360.cfg, renaming it to autoexec.cfg and adding the line seems to have done the trick (see below). Honestly, you could probably create the file from scratch also.

EDIT#2: It works!!! It does appear to be with Witches (at least part of it), I was finally able to load up the "Sugar Mill" level. I could hear Witches crying for the first time since the crashes began - I figured then it wouldn't crash and it didn't disappoint.

Kenneth Stevens wrote:

Wow, I'll try this out - thanks for the suggestion. I'll edit this
post with my findings.

EDIT#1: I only see autoexec.360.cfg, do I need to create this file?

Yes, if it doesn't exist yet (I also hadn't it). And no use editing that 360.cfg file...

See Edits above, I'm going to play through Hard Rain now since I can finally keep it loaded. If anything changes, I'll post back.

knocks on wood it appears to be working!

EDIT#1: Worked great, got through the entire campaign. Loading times almost seemed shorter, and there was little to no stutter during live cutscenes (when the survivors interact, like at the beginning of a level.

Ah It didn't help for me :(

Brett Daugherty wrote:

Ah It didn't help for me :(

Did you create the autoexec.cfg file in that directory? It wasn't there when I looked so I duplicated the autoexec.360.cfg and took everything out of it (nothing but comments anyway) and renamed it to autoexec.cfg. You could probably just create it from scratch.

I'm not sure what platform Tigger is using, but I am on Mac. Maybe it doesn't work for Linux users?

Kenneth Stevens wrote:

Brett Daugherty wrote:

Ah It didn't help for me :(

I'm not sure what platform Tigger is using, but I am on Mac. Maybe
it doesn't work for Linux users?

I'm Linux user. I just played two complete campaigns (Dark Carnival, Swap Fever) with this fix. Works well, and I don't use that -lv switch either (anymore).

Yes the first time i created one from scratch and when that one failed I tried copying the autoexe.360.cfg was. Neither worked :|

It might be that it dosnt work on the linux version, but its normally the other way around (wine is a linux app, codeweavers just ported it). This could be different though.

The only other thing I could think of is that I somehow made the .cfg incorrectly, but I doubt that.

cl_forcepreload "1" didn't work for me, with or without -lv in the launch options. Steam did just update L4D2 again so who know what'll happen now. lol I'm verifying right now.

(if your autoexec.cfg doesn't work you can type cl_forcepreload "1" into console before you load a level)

Im just happy that after the update today we didn't get an incomplete install issue again.

It works for me. Even after the update. Cool.
Thanks man.

Chris Sooley wrote:

cl_forcepreload "1" didn't work for me, with or without -lv in the
launch options. Steam did just update L4D2 again so who know
what'll happen now. lol I'm verifying right now.

(if your autoexec.cfg doesn't work you can type cl_forcepreload "1"
into console before you load a level)

You aren't putting quotes around the one, are you?

It should be cl_forcepreload 1

Yeah I've tried both, thanks though. You never know lol

worked for me all over thanksgiving break. sweet!!

Kenneth Stevens wrote:

You aren't putting quotes around the one, are you?

It should be cl_forcepreload 1

Both forms are correct (peek into your config.cfg...). Usually the quotes are there though (to protect more complex things, than a single number...).

Anyways, back to square one: the crashing issue is back for me. Yesterday it was working perfectly, now it is not 😥. No idea why, since I didn't touch anything. Tried to add sv_forcepreload "1" as well (cl = client, sv = server), but that didn't help. And number of other things, to no avail. Guess I have to wait valve bothers to do something for this. Scavenge and survival still work, only campaign and versus do not.

Nice that the trick worked for some others too, I hope it won't break for you as well...

EDIT1: I don't know what's going on, but it works perfectly again. No crashes, just played Hard Rain from start to finish...

Tigger wrote:

Anyways, back to square one: the crashing issue is back for me.
Yesterday it was working perfectly, now it is not 😥. No idea why,
since I didn't touch anything.

EDIT1: I don't know what's going on, but it works perfectly again.
No crashes, just played Hard Rain from start to finish...

And... now it is broken again. Again, yesterday I was playing campaign and versus without any problems. Now CTDs. Seems to be the witches. After hearing the first cry I can expect a crash in 1 sec. In some places there seems to be usually always either a witch or a tank, and if I'm not crashing, it means that I'll get tank, very soon...

It seems to work only every other day, so maybe tomorrow I can play again.

I was reading steam forums a moment ago, and one guy (with winxp) was complaining that the game was working well until today, and now he is getting random CTDs too.

Question: was it so that in this game there is some dreaded drm technology that constantly talks to some server, even during a game? If so, could that explain why I can play in some days only (different server next day?)?

Some of the drm protection continues to check during gameplay. Usually CrossOver passes this check, but sometimes it does not. We can reproduce some of the crashes and issues at hand. The best thing you can do is file a support ticket.

Tigger wrote:

It seems to work only every other day, so maybe tomorrow I can play
again.

What did I say... Works perfectly again. I'm gonna play like no tomorrow, since tomorrow it will be broken again...