Topic: SFC OP Laggy frame rates in Single Player and Multi...?

[Dizzy]

Fixed my router issue (got rid of it), got another problem... My frame rate in OP wether on SP or Multi mode will be anywhere around 30-45 with 6+ ships, but as soon as something loads, like a shuttle, explosion, photons firing, mine blast, etc, my frame rate drops to like 6-12 or so. It's like the game is pausing to load the effect.

This happened the 1st time back on GW2 on the last several battles I played. I thought it was lag... but it was my system. So far, I have done everything I know, and Im hoping that someone has had the same problem as me so I will know what to do...

It's not DirectX 9.0c. I upgraded between GW2 and 3 and I still have the same problem.

I upgraded my display drivers between servers. Same problem.

I tried completely (first thing I did) uninstalling everything SFC and then reinstalled clean, updated all files and same sh*t.

I have changed color bit modes, resolution rates, refresh rates, hardware acceleration, etc, to no avail.

I even restored my Bios to default settings and then test after test tweaking the settings didnt do any good either.

I ran DXdiag and tested my hardware and it says it checks out.

I underclocked my processor from an Athlon 2.0 to a 1.8 (1.5GHz). Still didnt fix the problem...

I ran msconfig to find out what was loading at startup and took out everything that wasnt necessary. Still no go.

I banged on my computer case and put a dent in the side and SFCOP still hiccups, burps, lags and acts drunk.




So... did I miss trying something? Has this ever happened to anyone else? Last thing I can think of is to reformat and start fresh. Last thing I want to do, tho, cuz it will take days to back everything up and then get everything reloaded...

[Strafer]

I often get a hiccup when fighters are launched for a second or so, but then play resumes to it's normal rate...

[KBFLordKrueg]

Sounds too me all your memory space is taken up by the porn... 
I donno, Diz..I was just trying to make ya laugh...

[Lepton]

The possibilties to me would be that it is:

1.  Processor
2.  Video Card
3.  Memory
4.  Hard Drive

I think you have at least eliminated the processor and possibly the video card, but you may want to try and check your processor resources and graphics resources with another game and see if there are simliar hangups.  As for memory and hard drive, I know that OP used to hang up for me ages ago due to insufficient memory.  I didn't really have enough for the game and the game had to keep using space on the hard drive for memory.  Is the game addressing the HD alot?  Has the HD been defraged recently?  Perhaps you had a memory stick blow out for some reasson. 

It would seem to me that if you can reproduce such problems with another application then it is something systemic.  If not, then it must be OP specific.  Are you running high res models in the game?  Perhaps there are competing demands within the game engine if you are running high res models in the game. 

That's all I can think of.  Good luck.

[Dizzy]

 As for memory and hard drive, I know that OP used to hang up for me ages ago due to insufficient memory.  I didn't really have enough for the game and the game had to keep using space on the hard drive for memory.  Is the game addressing the HD alot?  Has the HD been defraged recently?  Perhaps you had a memory stick blow out for some reasson. 

As far as memory, I have 1GB. It's possible I have something else using it, but task managers performance tab doesnt show i am using any. MB its a memory stick blow out? How would you determine a momory stick blow out?

My hard drive... well, I defragged it about 2x months ago. Its in pretty good shape I think, but how do I tell if the program is writing and reading too much to the HD? This sounds like something I'd want to take a closer look at cuz its reasonable to think that the lag or burps whenever anything loads would be the delay you'd get in writing to the HD, only a guess tho.

Its not the hi res models. The last couple games of GW2 is when I started having problems. I havent switched the models. I doubt it is OP specific. Would an EAW test suffice for a comparative test or something else?

Only thing I can think of now, is that I had a crap load of pop-ups that I dumped... Repeatedly b4 I finally found the hiden files and got rid of them too. Perhaps along the way I got rid of a needed windows file? I do have an ActiveX damaged file I found, but are those necessary to run SFCOP?

Probably need to reload windows. Is there a windows reload that doesnt erase all my files?

Thanks Lepton. And Krueg, I got rid of that porn. I know you wanted copies of it all, I even erased those naked pics of DH's sister trying to fix this OP problem... Sorry

[Strat]

What version Windows do you have?

What kind of Video card do you have?

-Strat

[Holocat]

If a memory stick is physically damaged, I get the idea that the computer would complain.  You'd smell something too.  I remember failing to install memory right and my computer simply didn't register the stick, but that was back in DOS days and cables that did not give an indication as to what orientation it was to be plugged in, so I dunno if that applies here.

Just to throw another fish into the bucket, your background processes might be hogging cycles and memory, particularly if they run at a higher priority.  Active virus scanners and quite a few odd programs will hog for strange reasons.  For myself, wordpad will hog every extra cycle it can find.

The obvious solution is to shut off these active scanners and programs when not using them.  

[Strat]

Some good points there.

What are the hardware specs for your computer?

What processes are runnig in the backround?

What process is usuing the most CPU resrouces and what process is using the second most?

[Pestalence_XC]

Did you :

1. scan your system for spyware.. use Ad-Aware SE and Spybot Search & Destroy to check for these...

2. Use a registry cleaner like Reg Supreme and run a deep registry scan and remove all invalid entries?

3. Run ScanDisk on your system to check for system file errors

4. Defrag you harddrive

5. use System File Checker to check you system for any errored OS files.. run command prompt and type in SFC /SCANNOW and let it scan your system.. if it asks for your windows disk.. you have a corrupted OS file which needs reinstalling.. if it goes through without any glitches.. your OS is fine..

6. have you upgraded to XP Service Pack 2 ?? If so, did you get the 100 MB Windows Update version or the 266 MB Network install.. if the Windows Update Version.. DL and install the Network ersion as the Windows Update version is not the complete SP 2 for XP and can cause OS errors.. Network Install is stable without errors..

Just some ideas for you...
 

[Dizzy]

Ok, here are my specs:



I underclocked the cpu for testing, its actually a 2.0 Athlon, 1.667GHz.



As you can see, my processes are very few. If you run msconfig, you can reduce the processes to under 7 or so by eliminating all startups and services. I did this and still the problem persisted. I doubt it is a process resource problem...

I'll try doing what Pesty said and run those scans...

[Cleaven]

I have had that sort of problem. It was caused by my upgraded firewall software's monitoring of MS messenger channels. I fixed it by turning off the Messenger monitoring (and turning off MS messenger too). It was the firewall's messenger monitoring that was the lag cause, not messenger itself.

[Dizzy]

Thats great Cleaven. I was hoping someone had a similar situation.

Ummm, my windows firewall is off. I cant seem to find any other one thats running... How do I know where to look?

Oh, and Pesty, I ran that SFC /SCANNOW and a dos window opened and closed b4 I could even read anything in it. Was that supposed to happen?

Still cking the drives, but a while back in between GW2 and 3 I eliminated all registry/virus/pop-ups and trojans. My system is pretty clean.

[Cleaven]

What screen size or resolution are you running OP at?

This may be a colour depth or odd resolution problem. See if making changes does anything for you.

[FPF-SCM_TraceyG_XC]

Is it just SFC OP that runs slow, or is everything running slow?

Also try using SpySweeper as well, its more comprehensive than either Adaware or Spybot (but run both of those as well).

Try removing any new models you may have added recently, some models can place a greater strain on your system than others.

Your setup should not be having any problems with SFC OP at all.

[Julin Eurthyr]

Here's one for you all...
System:  Gateway 1 ghz, 60 gig HD, 128 MB RAM, EVga Geforce 200 MX chipset PCI video-card, 64 MB video memory

On LB5, I had no issues.

After LB5, I reinstalled OP and redid my model folders, switching from Fleetdock 13 to Desty Nova's Fed models (along with Rommie, and a couple of ISC for now...)

Played 3 on 3s over IP games to Die Hard, hosted a couple IP games, and played a couple of GS games, no frame rate issues, I stayed around my usual 30 FPS...

Started GW3.  First mission was a Karnak Enemy Sweep patrol.  Oddly, whenever my Karnak-granted fleeted ally shown up on screen, my FPS would drop to 1.5-3 FPS, otherwise I hovered around 30 FPS.  Aborted mission and rebooted as the lag from my ally caused me to miss way too many shots...

Second mission I drafted Hooch into an ED patrol.  Got the Computer controlling my ship bug.  Finished the mission (Hooch did most of the work), tried another, more issues, rebooted again.

Kept having a hard time till I drafted DH into my second Karnak Enemy Sweep.  When I checked out DH's ship, my framerate dropped again, but my AI ally wouldn't cause the FPS issues.  Got a "Windows Virtual Memory" message while checking this out, where my computer told me that it was increasing the page file size.  Managed to get back into mission, we finished it, and I didn't get any more problems for the rest of the night...

Decided to defragment my hard drive last night anyway.  I'll see if that helps out the Virtual Memory errors...  I keep debating on whether or not I should set aside a gig or so of my HD as a permanent swap file...

One other thing that concerns me.  I've always used the "skip movie" executable.  Before, I would see an off-white screen with just a tiny bit of the "loading" word, then when the title screen loaded up, I'd see that and all would be normal.  Since my reinstall and upgrade to DX 9.0c, I get my desktop (resized from 1280 to 1024), and the same little bit of the "loading" word.  Then, no response from system for the same length of time my system needs to clear the splash screen.  At that point, I can click on the desktop, it resizes back to normal (1280 resolution), and I can click on the Starfleet Command taskbox, getting me directly to the main menu.  Even though most of it is off-screen in the upper-left hand side of the screen, I still can click on multiplayer, and when the Multiplayer option screen shows up, it's in it's normal place...

[Cleaven]

Can you get it to behave differently if you change your desktop resolution, or change the game resolution in SFC.ini?

[SPQRPardek]

maybe you should try a fresh install of OP in a diffrent place on your harddrive, just to see if its the game and not your system. also i had a problem with the latest video card drivers,(nvidia) i had to go back to a older driver so OP would work. i did hear that Direct X 9c wasnt so great on some games.. but i havent tried it yet.

AMD 1700 @ 1.5 mhz
768 mb memory
Gforce 4 ti 128 mb memory
SB live
win XP pro

[Cleaven]

For what it's worth I've been using 9.0c since it came out and have had no problems with SFC. (Well there have been some count downs to zero, but who knows what caused them)

[Hexx]

Hmmm I'm still running Directx9b

Are we all supposed to have "c" or does it matter?

(... maybe THAT's why I keep losing in PvP..)

[Strat]

Ok, here are my specs:



I underclocked the cpu for testing, its actually a 2.0 Athlon, 1.667GHz.



As you can see, my processes are very few. If you run msconfig, you can reduce the processes to under 7 or so by eliminating all startups and services. I did this and still the problem persisted. I doubt it is a process resource problem...

I'll try doing what Pesty said and run those scans...

In the Windows Task Manager click the box "Show processes from all users" and lets see what that shows.  I'm looking for any sepcific programs what may be troublesome.