Topic: help! Game running Slooowwww.  (Read 3562 times)

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Offline vorchatwo

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help! Game running Slooowwww.
« on: December 27, 2004, 10:42:46 pm »
Im playing the single player sfc:OP with the 2.5.5.2 patch. After about an hour of play (Ive accumulated about 2200 prestige) the game really slows down. To the point that just changing hexes takes about 1-2 min. (yes, a full 1-2 min.) I've updated my drivers for my Nvidia geforce 2 MMX/MMX 400 card as well as my sound blaster drivers. I have DirectX8 (from the disk) running. The game is really ticking me off, its like trying to play online with a 56K modem (like back in the day with Quake 1 ).
If there is any way to tweak or fix this to run faster I'd sure appreciate the input. I'll check back in a little while (days) to see if there is any answere on this. Oh yea, I have read all the FAQ's and Notes I could find (online and off) but all they say is either to install the patch or the help is for online use. Well, thanx. C-ya's.

Mmm, yea i forgot im running a p3 800 mhz with 448 Ram and lots a room on my HDD. I also had DirectX 9 installed before and it still ran slow, thought that going to the recomended v8 would help. not. k, lemme know, thanx.

V2, out.

Offline Commander Maxillius

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Re: help! Game running Slooowwww.
« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2004, 11:31:12 pm »
Single player campaigns rack up more and more extra AI that keep living after you've killed them.  That's the source of the extreme slowdown.  I'm surprised your 800MHz machine is lagged so early though.  My old 400MHz would get all the way to Rear Admiral in the campaign before it risked freezing the machine. 


Solution, learn how to edit the DB :P  Seriously, cleaning the superfluous AI from the game's DB will speed it back up to how you remember.  :thumbsup:
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Offline viking9

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Re: help! Game running Slooowwww.
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2005, 05:10:37 pm »
okay!, and uh how does one do that?????

Offline Bonk

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Re: help! Game running Slooowwww.
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2005, 05:18:29 pm »
It should not be the problem.

I'd suggest Directx 9c and a new campaign. But since you have already overwritten a newer directx install with an older one I'd suggest a complete format and windows reinstall.

There are db editors for the dynaverse flatfile - EDDBEDIT and SFC2 OP Database Cleaner (I never tried them on the single player flatfile though and I do not think they are intended for it.)

The other way is to study the flatfile structure and use a hex editor.

Again, this should not be necessary for the single player game.

Are you using the OP Enhancement pack? (there are some fixes to the single player gfs that my help...)

Have you modified the gfs yourself at all?

What shiplist are you using?

Offline Age

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Re: help! Game running Slooowwww.
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2005, 05:55:57 pm »
Single player campaigns rack up more and more extra AI that keep living after you've killed them.  That's the source of the extreme slowdown.  I'm surprised your 800MHz machine is lagged so early though.  My old 400MHz would get all the way to Rear Admiral in the campaign before it risked freezing the machine. 


Solution, learn how to edit the DB :P  Seriously, cleaning the superfluous AI from the game's DB will speed it back up to how you remember.  :thumbsup:
How do you clean the DB on SP campaigns?Thanks

Offline Don Karnage

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Re: help! Game running Slooowwww.
« Reply #5 on: March 06, 2005, 08:01:56 pm »
i remeber it when i was having that problem, sure formating your hd is good but its someting m tired of doing when i have a problem with windows or a game, sometime the problem might be that you need a 64meg video card and more space on your hd or a faster computer, i have a amd athlon xp 1533 MHZ, (the computer is 2 years old now) and i have no problem with op or eaw, well the best solution is a faster computer so the game can work at normal speed, that remind me of baldur's gate 1 was having problem like freezing for 3 to 5 seg on a pentium one 200MHZ, sure some will tell you the format your hd, reinstall windows, get the lates driver for your bios, cpu, mother board, sound card, video card, cd driver monitor, keyboard, speaker, mouse, ect but it never fix the problem nore the ctrl+alt+del and close everyting that work in the back ground, dont forget that game designer recomend you to have  350 MHZ for the game, but its a minimal to make it work, the best is having at lest 2x what the says to make it work, but if you still having problem after doing all the format and update your driver then maybe your hd is too small or you have install windows on your com :). its hard to know why a 400MHZ will have less problem that a 800MHZ runing the game it might be a celeron insted of a pentium or amd insted of whatever reason to make the game slow, well try and try there not much we can do to help, it might be your computer that don't like the game.

Offline Pestalence_XC

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Re: help! Game running Slooowwww.
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2005, 11:00:03 pm »
It should not be the problem.

I'd suggest Directx 9c and a new campaign. But since you have already overwritten a newer directx install with an older one I'd suggest a complete format and windows reinstall.

There are db editors for the dynaverse flatfile - EDDBEDIT and SFC2 OP Database Cleaner (I never tried them on the single player flatfile though and I do not think they are intended for it.)

The other way is to study the flatfile structure and use a hex editor.

Again, this should not be necessary for the single player game.

Are you using the OP Enhancement pack? (there are some fixes to the single player gfs that my help...)

Have you modified the gfs yourself at all?

What shiplist are you using?

Actually, you can just reinstall DirectX 9.0c from microsoft and it will fix your DirectX on your system.
"You still don't get it, do you?......That's what he does. That's all he does! You can't stop him! It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!"

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Offline viking9

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Re: help! Game running Slooowwww.
« Reply #7 on: March 07, 2005, 01:38:05 am »
uh yea, so' anyway does anyone actually know how to clean the db file. i can not belive that a hd reformat is the answer. please thats all we need to know. thanks. :help:

Offline Bonk

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Re: help! Game running Slooowwww.
« Reply #8 on: March 07, 2005, 03:36:53 am »
It should not be the problem.

I'd suggest Directx 9c and a new campaign. But since you have already overwritten a newer directx install with an older one I'd suggest a complete format and windows reinstall.

There are db editors for the dynaverse flatfile - EDDBEDIT and SFC2 OP Database Cleaner (I never tried them on the single player flatfile though and I do not think they are intended for it.)

The other way is to study the flatfile structure and use a hex editor.

Again, this should not be necessary for the single player game.

Are you using the OP Enhancement pack? (there are some fixes to the single player gfs that my help...)

Have you modified the gfs yourself at all?

What shiplist are you using?

Actually, you can just reinstall DirectX 9.0c from microsoft and it will fix your DirectX on your system.

Cool, thanks for the info Pestalence. I was not aware. (Old directx experiences...)

Offline Bonk

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Re: help! Game running Slooowwww.
« Reply #9 on: March 07, 2005, 03:45:50 am »
uh yea, so' anyway does anyone actually know how to clean the db file. i can not belive that a hd reformat is the answer. please thats all we need to know. thanks. :help:


Here are two db editors used on the flatfile dynaverse server database (have no idea if they will work on the single player db):
http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/topic,163345318.msg1122427054.html#msg1122427054
http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/topic,163353450.msg1122535333.html#msg1122535333

If those do not work (and I expect they wont) then I reccomend studying dave's source in detail, search for flatfile maps on these forums and download a hex editor like http://www.sweetscape.com/010editor/ (the one I prefer).

Again, you should not need to do this, I recall running OP singleplayer on a Pentium 233MHz 128MB RAM with a 12MB voodoo2, it got slow but usually only late in the campaign. I never touched the db or gfs.

Again, perhaps an OP reinstall with the OP Enhancement pack 3 may be the best solution for you, it fixes many things with a full install and you might just find your problem gone with a new campaign on it.

Have you tried turning off your virus scanner if it is running? (on demand scanners can often cripple a system)

p.s. Maxillus, have you ever cleaned the db on a singleplayer game?
« Last Edit: March 07, 2005, 03:57:30 am by Bonk »

Offline Bonk

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Re: help! Game running Slooowwww.
« Reply #10 on: March 07, 2005, 04:09:18 am »
OK, its coming back to me now... how many savegames do you have? As I recall it got slower and slower with each copy made... its fastest with only the autosave db or maybe one or two other saved campaigns (this was on my old 233MHz with a 4GB HDD).

I'm going to test a db clean on a singleplayer savegame...

EDIT: well I'll be dipped!!!  :o ;D .... DarkElf's db cleaner works on the singleplayer game... (EDDBEDIT did not though) instructions:

put a copy of the exe in the zip linked above in the autosave folder that you want to clean
found in your game folder under: \MetaAssets\db\saves\savename
e.g. my test db was: C:\Program Files\Taldren Software Inc\Starfleet Command Orion Pirates\MetaAssets\db\saves\UAW Dominion 01
(I only ran it one turn and did not run any missions though - it was snappy over a number of movements and generated missions quickly)

double click the db cleaner exe... let it run. read the output.
delete the original sds, rename the extension of the output file to sds,
delete the cleaner exe,
copy the whole contents of that autosave folder (4 files) to the root of the db folder (\MetaAssets\db)
e.g for my test: C:\Program Files\Taldren Software Inc\Starfleet Command Orion Pirates\MetaAssets\db

restart OP load that savegame! Presto - db cleaned!

P.S. DarkElf you rock man! This exe has saved our butts so many times its not funny.  ;)

P.P.S. viking9, if this does not do it then there must be some other problem with your OP install or system, my singleplayer test ran fast before and after the db clean - not much difference really... (with only the autosave and one named save in the savegame list), so this may or may not solve your problem... also note that cleaning the single player db has not been done till now as far as I know, is untested and may produce unpredictable results... but at first glance it seems to work.


also note that before starting a new camaign the following may help:

In C:\Program Files\Taldren Software Inc\Starfleet Command Orion Pirates\MetaAssets\ServerProfiles\SinglePlayer\MetaMap.gf  and Metamap.war try the following settings:
Code: [Select]
[Census]

TargetPopulationToEconomicRatio =0.002 // (0.02) This is the ratio of AI ships to current economy of an empire

OrionPopulationRatio =0.1 // (0.15) This is the population ratio for orion pirates.

MonsterPopulationRatio =0.005 // (0.025) This is the poplation ratio of Monsters.

StandardAIBPV =100 //Default AI BPV

MaxAIEcoBonusBPV =1.5 // Higher number will make bigger AI ships for losing empires

MinFuzzAIBPV =0.57 //Minimum random AI bpv level 0.3 = 30% less

MaxFuzzAIBPV =3.0 //Maximum random AI bpv level 2.0 = twice base

ChanceForTwoShips =0.1 //This is the chance for 2 ships for an AI

ChanceForThreeShips =0.04 //This is the chance for 3 ships for an AI

AttemptsToCreateAIInHomeHex =1 // Maximum AI to create in 1 turn

MaxAIsToCreatePerTurn =1 //How many AIs to try to create before giving up

MaxAIsToKillPerTurn =10 // (10) Maximum AIs to be killed in 1 turn before ending phase

AITurnOverRate =1 // (1)

MaxBattlesPerTurn =1//Maximum number AI battles in a turn before ending phase

CreateAIFrequency =1 // How many AIs to create a second, untill goal level reached

KillAIFrequency =1 // How many AIs to kill a second, untill goal level reached

InitalAILevel =100 // How many AI's to create before game starts

MaxAIsPerEmpire =1 // ( -1 ) Create a fixed number of AIs per empire. -1 means not to use a fixed number.

and under [Battle] add:
AllowAIToTakeHexes=0

These settings are for D2 servers and essentially minimise AI activity, you can try them but I'm not sure they will work on the single player game. Again, any of these changes will only work on a new campaign.

I highly reccomend you try a fresh OP install and install the Enhancement pack 3, it rocks... has all the stuff you need. In particular, the single player gfs are tweaked for better performance. Pestalence has that covered and can probably tell you more if you just want to try editng the singleplayer gfs.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2005, 04:45:57 am by Bonk »

Offline RazalYllib

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Re: help! Game running Slooowwww.
« Reply #11 on: March 07, 2005, 06:56:10 am »
Again Bonk...you have served the community in a manner that reflect highly on your personal charactor, even if you are not a Romulan.
Comes a time when the blind man takes your hand
Says "don't you see?"
Gotta make it somehow
On the dreams you still believe
Don't give it up
You got an empty cup
Only love can fill
Only love can fill

Offline Bonk

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Re: help! Game running Slooowwww.
« Reply #12 on: March 07, 2005, 10:32:11 am »
Romulan... Phhhtppbt!  :P ;)   I just can't stand an unresolved technical issue... (thanks for the praise though).

Offline viking9

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Re: help! Game running Slooowwww.
« Reply #13 on: March 07, 2005, 12:34:53 pm »
thanks, that did the trick. my compliments. ;)

Offline Pestalence_XC

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Re: help! Game running Slooowwww.
« Reply #14 on: March 07, 2005, 04:24:39 pm »
OK, its coming back to me now... how many savegames do you have? As I recall it got slower and slower with each copy made... its fastest with only the autosave db or maybe one or two other saved campaigns (this was on my old 233MHz with a 4GB HDD).

I'm going to test a db clean on a singleplayer savegame...

EDIT: well I'll be dipped!!! :o ;D .... DarkElf's db cleaner works on the singleplayer game... (EDDBEDIT did not though) instructions:

put a copy of the exe in the zip linked above in the autosave folder that you want to clean
found in your game folder under: \MetaAssets\db\saves\savename
e.g. my test db was: C:\Program Files\Taldren Software Inc\Starfleet Command Orion Pirates\MetaAssets\db\saves\UAW Dominion 01
(I only ran it one turn and did not run any missions though - it was snappy over a number of movements and generated missions quickly)

double click the db cleaner exe... let it run. read the output.
delete the original sds, rename the extension of the output file to sds,
delete the cleaner exe,
copy the whole contents of that autosave folder (4 files) to the root of the db folder (\MetaAssets\db)
e.g for my test: C:\Program Files\Taldren Software Inc\Starfleet Command Orion Pirates\MetaAssets\db

restart OP load that savegame! Presto - db cleaned!

P.S. DarkElf you rock man! This exe has saved our butts so many times its not funny. ;)

P.P.S. viking9, if this does not do it then there must be some other problem with your OP install or system, my singleplayer test ran fast before and after the db clean - not much difference really... (with only the autosave and one named save in the savegame list), so this may or may not solve your problem... also note that cleaning the single player db has not been done till now as far as I know, is untested and may produce unpredictable results... but at first glance it seems to work.


also note that before starting a new camaign the following may help:

In C:\Program Files\Taldren Software Inc\Starfleet Command Orion Pirates\MetaAssets\ServerProfiles\SinglePlayer\MetaMap.gf and Metamap.war try the following settings:
Code: [Select]
[Census]

TargetPopulationToEconomicRatio =0.002 // (0.02) This is the ratio of AI ships to current economy of an empire

OrionPopulationRatio =0.1 // (0.15) This is the population ratio for orion pirates.

MonsterPopulationRatio =0.005 // (0.025) This is the poplation ratio of Monsters.

StandardAIBPV =100 //Default AI BPV

MaxAIEcoBonusBPV =1.5 // Higher number will make bigger AI ships for losing empires

MinFuzzAIBPV =0.57 //Minimum random AI bpv level 0.3 = 30% less

MaxFuzzAIBPV =3.0 //Maximum random AI bpv level 2.0 = twice base

ChanceForTwoShips =0.1 //This is the chance for 2 ships for an AI

ChanceForThreeShips =0.04 //This is the chance for 3 ships for an AI

AttemptsToCreateAIInHomeHex =1 // Maximum AI to create in 1 turn

MaxAIsToCreatePerTurn =1 //How many AIs to try to create before giving up

MaxAIsToKillPerTurn =10 // (10) Maximum AIs to be killed in 1 turn before ending phase

AITurnOverRate =1 // (1)

MaxBattlesPerTurn =1//Maximum number AI battles in a turn before ending phase

CreateAIFrequency =1 // How many AIs to create a second, untill goal level reached

KillAIFrequency =1 // How many AIs to kill a second, untill goal level reached

InitalAILevel =100 // How many AI's to create before game starts

MaxAIsPerEmpire =1 // ( -1 ) Create a fixed number of AIs per empire. -1 means not to use a fixed number.

and under [Battle] add:
AllowAIToTakeHexes=0

These settings are for D2 servers and essentially minimise AI activity, you can try them but I'm not sure they will work on the single player game. Again, any of these changes will only work on a new campaign.

I highly reccomend you try a fresh OP install and install the Enhancement pack 3, it rocks... has all the stuff you need. In particular, the single player gfs are tweaked for better performance. Pestalence has that covered and can probably tell you more if you just want to try editng the singleplayer gfs.


Bonk.. the DV *.gf files and the Single Player GF files are almost identical.. very few changes.. the settings you list do work in single player game.. you should see how many AI I have the stock missions creating, not counting the 2x amount that the NW scripts create in the TW set...

basically the Character.gf and I can't remember which other GF file are the only ones that Single Player will not recognize from the server kit...
"You still don't get it, do you?......That's what he does. That's all he does! You can't stop him! It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!"

Member :
Xenocorp / Dynaverse.net Moderator & Beta Test Team
SFC 4 Project QA Coordinator
Taldren Beta Test Team
14 Degrees East Beta Test Team
Activision Visioneers SFC 3 Beta Test Team

Offline Bonk

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Re: help! Game running Slooowwww.
« Reply #15 on: March 07, 2005, 04:29:44 pm »
Thanks Pestalence, I wasn't 100% that those gfs would be ok for the single player game, I figured they would but wanted someone to confirm/critique.

thanks, that did the trick. my compliments. ;)

Glad you got it going!  ;D  (Which was it that did it? The db cleaner or the new gfs? Or cleaning out the old savegames?)