An utility which can increase gaming speed

Xin Yu · June 12, 2002, 22:55

Howdy! I have downloaded this utility from a Chinese site and it can adjust your gaming speed. I tried it on my game and it worked. So I'd like to share it with you. Unfortunately it is in Chinese so the interface will not be shown properly. Nevertheless it worked on my English winME.

Just unzip the file and run the exe file under the subdirectory win9x (there is also one for winNT but it didn't work for my machine, possibly because that I'm not the root user). You'll see a small window with a slider on it. Move the slider to the right will make the game run faster, and to the left will make the game run slower. The hot keys are all on the numeric pad on your keyboard: '5'=slower, '*'=faster, '-'=normal speed.

After running the exe file, start your civ3 and hit '*' 2 to 3 times. You'll get a faster game. I liked it very much since the game was really slow without the utility.

WARNING: running the utility will sometimes make your microsoft messanger cease to work. I haven't tried ICQ but probably the same thing will happen. You need to close MS messenger (ICQ) then restart it after closing the utility, or nobody can contact you although you will not notice anything except that there will sometimes be a warning telling you that one of your programs (the server for your messenger) will close.

If you have any questions please post here and I'll try to answer them. Since this is not my program I'm not responsible for any damage it may cause. I only assure you that it had worked on my machine without any unrepairable damage.

It DOES NOT work under winXP.

ChaotikVisions · June 13, 2002, 01:38

Uh, and how exactly did you find this and figure out that it sped up Civ3? This sounds more like a virus or dummy prog then anything else, especially the bits with it causing MSN Messenger to crash and such. I wouldn't quite trust this file, and don't know how its speeding up your comp. I'd also scan for trojans/virii.

Xin Yu · June 13, 2002, 01:57

This program has been used by millions to cheat in real time strategy multiplayer games like starcraft. When using this you can speed up your production and easily beat your opponent. This program has also been used by millions to fastly go through those tedious dungeon levels (like in Diablo) which they have already cleared but have to to go through them again and again. This program has yet again been used by millions to beat the bosses in games like Dune who would be impossible to kill if they hadn't slowed down the game speed. So it is safe. The problem was mostly caused by that the OS is English while the program was written in Chinese.

Solver · June 13, 2002, 06:20

Sounds like a nice candidate for disassembly, I guess it might be screwing something up. OK, I anyway use Windows XP.

redstar1 · June 13, 2002, 07:55

Quote:

Originally posted by Xin Yu

If you have any questions please post here and I'll try to answer them. Since this is not my program I'm not responsible for any damage it may cause. I only assure you that it had worked on my machine without any unrepairable damage.

Bollocks. You posted the link and suggested people use it. If it breaks their machine I'd suggest they hold you responsible for it.

mwaf · June 13, 2002, 08:26

Quote:

Originally posted by redstar1
Bollocks. You posted the link and suggested people use it. If it breaks their machine I'd suggest they hold you responsible for it.

So if I post to a link to, say, www.microsoft.com and say that windows works for me I'm responsible every time windows crashes? No, I don't think so. (Neither is Microsoft, since they've (certainly) got a disclamier)

On a side note, by the sound of it, that software is not to be trusted.

mwaf · June 13, 2002, 08:28

darn /me
I replyed instead of edited...

nato · June 13, 2002, 08:41

No offense to Xin Yu ... but man! You'd have to be braver than me to download a program you've never heard of, in a language you don't know, pressing a "*" that you don't know what it does, that crashes a well known program like messenger!

Sava · June 13, 2002, 08:56

I agree, DO NOT download this prog... It's probably a Chinese Commie trick!

Deathwalker · June 13, 2002, 09:09

How the hell it is supposed to speed up game anyway. I can see how it would work in real time games were you have always been able to speed up things like production. But Civ 3, you can speed up production and the turn time is caused by things like calculating trade roots. I dont see how it would work.

SpencerH · June 13, 2002, 09:16

A fool and his (operating) computer are soon parted.

Sinapus · June 13, 2002, 09:30

Quote:

Originally posted by SpencerH
A fool and his (operating) computer are soon parted.

Or crashed.

Harovan · June 13, 2002, 10:32

Running this program and opening an email attachment named freesexpic.jpg.vbs is probably the same. Don't do it.

Adm.Naismith · June 13, 2002, 11:30

Quote:

Originally posted by Xin Yu
This program has been used by millions to cheat in real time strategy multiplayer games like starcraft. When using this you can speed up your production and easily beat your opponent. This program has also been used by millions to fastly go through those tedious dungeon levels (like in Diablo) which they have already cleared but have to to go through them again and again. This program has yet again been used by millions to beat the bosses in games like Dune who would be impossible to kill if they hadn't slowed down the game speed. So it is safe. The problem was mostly caused by that the OS is English while the program was written in Chinese.

And the program action is... ?

A CPU overclock?
Installing a Linux high efficient core over the bloated Microsoft?
Change game code and re-compiling/re-linking it to have faster routines?
Lighting up the old "Turbo" led on some desktop case?

(Just kidding).

Really it sound a bit strange to me, to find a "silver bullet" accelerator program that improve any system.

Willem · June 13, 2002, 12:14

Quote:

Originally posted by Adm.Naismith

Really it sound a bit strange to me, to find a "silver bullet" accelerator program that improve any system.

As P.T. Barnum so wisely expressed it, "If something sounds to good to be true, it probably is."

Xin Yu · June 13, 2002, 12:24

OK. Sounds like that most of you don't trust my attachment here. (Fine. Your loss.

) If I point you to a Chinese website and it is a so called 'official' one, would you trust it? It will not take long for you to download from there since the program is small.

What it does is to give the machine a false clock. Many (in fact all) games will have codes which rely on a machine's internal clock (like "wait 1000"). Hence the faster the machine the faster the game speed. Marketing a game must consider a range of machines and pick a suitable speed so that all machines within range will run smoothly. Hence the game speed setting may not be suitable for your machine.

Well, if your machine is so out of date and it has already used up all its resources to run this game that's fine (Or if your machine is so fast that you really don't want the game to be faster that's also fine). However most of the case your machine has something to spare and it's the game itself (i.e., its internal setting) which does not let you move faster. This utility can let any program which uses a particular "interrupt" to calculate time to use the utility's clock. Of course this will cause incompatibility and some programs which accepts pulses from the internet at regular clock intervals will have trouble. That's a normal phenominom.

Xin Yu · June 13, 2002, 12:36

OK, I found an English webpage for a similar utility. It worked for XP as well but it's not FREE. So guys, this silver bullet does exist.

http://www.softcows.com/speed/index.htm

Loopy · June 13, 2002, 12:44

Quote:

Originally posted by Xin Yu
This program has been used by millions to cheat in real time strategy multiplayer games like starcraft. When using this you can speed up your production and easily beat your opponent.

It wont work. The utility speeds up realtime games because processing is slowed down to "realtime" -- by fooling the systemclock, it's possible to make things happen faster. In Civ3, processing is already being done as fast as possible so fooling the systemclock is irrelevant.

Or think of it this way. If you were to play Starcraft, Diablo, or any of those RTS games on a machine below the minimum specs for the game, the game would be extremely laggy and slow. Running this utility wouldn't let your slow, outdated machine run the game any faster.

ChaotikVisions · June 13, 2002, 12:45

So if I get this correctly, its just convincing the game to speed up. Which even if it does speed up, it will still be limited by your CPU anyway. And if you've got a fast enough CPU to get it going that fast, you didn't need it in the first place. Maybe for RTS games and action games, but in a turn based game is pretty much useless. It won't help people on slow comps speed up there turns, because even fast is gonna be slow if the CPU is. Trust me, I used to try stuff like this on my P166 to speed up games.

Xin Yu · June 13, 2002, 13:06

Loopy, ChaotikVisions: I agree with your theories. And indeed it did not work on my P120 since the machine is too slow to be speed up. However I did see a difference in speed on my PIII750. Why don't you try it on your machine? If you download from the webpage (I assume it's "safer" than mine) you have 30 times free usage.

Let me try to explain why this utility can increase civ III's speed. Let's say in order for the music, sound and graph to show properly the game needs to spend X resources in T real time interval from the machine (not machine time, since sound and graph will only be good if they play in the right speed in real time). In order for the game to be able to run in slower machines (the minimum requirement of the game), gaming speed needs to be tune down so that when you run civ III on that machine you don't have interrupted sounds or graphics (that is, the machine can provide X resources in T real time).

When you have a machine that is twice as fast as the minimal one, you will only need half of the real time to get X resources. Hence the game can be run twice as fast. But wait. What if the part which handles sound and graph is twice as fast but some other parts are not? Civ III will not always be clever enough to catch that and adjust gaming speed accordingly. In fact, almost all games rely on CPU speed for the gaming speed, but if you increase memory, especially graphic memory, you can run the game faster without any problem (then of course you need this utility to help you).

IRON_BRIGADE · June 13, 2002, 13:19

COMMIE PINKOS THEIR ALL COMMIE PINKOS THEY JUST WANT OUR CIV TECHNOLOGY
IT'S A TRICK

zulu9812 · June 13, 2002, 15:17

Quote:

Originally posted by IRON_BRIGADE
COMMIE PINKOS THEIR ALL COMMIE PINKOS

Cut the racism. It's not even funny.

Pythagoras · June 13, 2002, 15:33

Quote:

Originally posted by zulu9812

Cut the racism. It's not even funny.

Its not really racism... its "ihatecommunismism."

zulu9812 · June 13, 2002, 15:45

Quote:

Originally posted by Pythagoras
Its not really racism... its "ihatecommunismism."

And "pinkos", presumably

Loopy · June 13, 2002, 15:57

Quote:

Originally posted by zulu9812
And "pinkos", presumably

Which still isn't really racism. . . It's "ihatepeoplewhoholdadvancedliberalormoderatelyradic alpoliticaloreconomicviewsism". But if you want to be really literal, it's only "ihatepeoplewhoholdadvancedliberalormoderatelyradic alpoliticaloreconomicviewsandarecommunistsism" which can't possibly be racist.

Xin Yu · June 13, 2002, 16:12

That's good. let's continue this nonsense so I'll have more posts in my thread.

Xin Yu · June 13, 2002, 16:48

I've kinda lost patience. Has anybody tried it? I know I have fans here. Can those of you just say to yourself that Xin said it's safe, so it's safe? I just want one report, positive or negative -- if it messes up with your machine at least I can delete it immediately to save others. And I'll publicly thank you for saving other people's lives. Any takers?

For those of you who think that this utility only works for real time strategy games, here's the reason why you can save time here: when you try to move a unit, the computer instantly calculates what should happen (assume taking no time), then start moving the unit. The process of moving is like showing you a small 'video clip'. Each such clip takes a fraction of a second, but in a game you'll see this clip thousand of times. Suppose an utility can 'fast forward' the video clip so that it will take only a quarter of the original time to play, it adds up and the time you can save is substantial!

SpencerH · June 13, 2002, 17:05

Not that I'm an expert on this kind of stuff, but your argument might make some sense if the limiting factor were video, but its not. Turning off the animations completely only speeds the game slightly. There's nothing we can do to change the trade and unit movement calcs that really take up the CPU time. I wonder if this is giving the impression to you of a speeded up game but in reality its the same?

BTW: I still would never download and install it.

reefer addict · June 13, 2002, 17:06

xin... with 64kb of ram i can still finish a game on a standard map in a day. large maps are anouther story. can this download speed up my crappy comp on large and huge maps. have you tried ? thx

Xin Yu · June 13, 2002, 17:15

SpencerH: I can't ask you to do anything you don't want to. Thanks for responding anyway. I think the utility worked since I noticed a lot shorter time not only when I move my units, but also between turns. It used to take several seconds to wait for the AI, you know.