Choppy FPS Issues

[PTM]

First, my specs:
-------------------
CPU: Intel Intel Pentium P4 1.8 Ghz, 512KB cache
Graphics Card: PNY 128MB GEFORCE4 TI4600 DDR; Nvidia Video Driver 44.03 Detonator FX (latest)
RAM: Ingram PC800 ECC 128MB X 4 RDRAM (512 Total)
OS: Windows 2000 Professional
DirectX: v.9.0a

My Problem:
----------------
I've done many, many things. I've editted every concievable aspect of rise2.ini (or at least everything I've found on the internet, and in multiple variations for those A-F;Auto overrides). I've tried DirectX v.9.0 and v9.0a. I've tried the last 6 video drivers. I've turned all the settings in the game to the lowest. I've played on minimum resolution. I editted rise2.ini (or maybe it was rise.ini) to make it so I could manually disable/hide all the graphics in the game.

I've turned on/off anistropic filtering, anti-aliasing, software acceleration, etc. in multiple variations. I've allotted more memory to virtual memory, I've allotted less memory to virtual memory. I reinstalled RoN 5 times. I reinstalled my graphics card. I turned off VSYNCH, I ran it on 16-bit and on the lowest resolution.

I have basically made it so RoN thinks my system is a cardboard box powered by a hamster in a wheel.

AND YET IT PERSISTS ON SPITTING OUT AN FPS THAT'S 30 AT BEST (and I'm talking like me vs. 3 [at most] comps during the first 5-10 minutes of the game) AND 4 DURING BATTLES.

I've even had it go down to 1 FPS and then eventually freeze.

I have never, ever had an issue with choppy graphics that (that I couldn't fix) in any game on my computer. I run HL, CS, SC, AoE, AoE2: AoK, Matrix, etc. I run developer tools like Maya 4.5: Unlimited. I've run Maya, Photoshop 7, Flash MX, AIM, Word, Excell, IE, Outlook, and a few other programs simultaneously before with less slow down than RoN gives me.

I have NO PROGRAMS ON IN THE BACKGROUND. Or at least, all the programs that aren't vital to my computer's functionality are off.

Can somebody, ANYBODY help me out? I've been on the internet, I looked on several tech support forums. Nothing can solve my problem so far...

Haha, and a funny side note: It's so bad that I can't let myself go to anything past enlightenment age because the armies start becoming so large (and nukes come into play as well as bombers and an asortment of static defenses like SAMs) that the game is rendered unplayable. I have to finish it up in enlightement and even then the FPS starts to max around 12-14 (me vs 1 comp, easiest, enligthenment age, 12 tercios, 4 cannons, 6 musketeers, vs no enemy troops [Just standing around]).

- PTM

[dearmad]

Driver issue. Try uninstalling down to standard VGA deleting all the nv .dll's you can find, reboot, then reinstalling the 44's.

[jbestimt]

Try getting all the latest windows updates and security patches. Looks like you already have the latest drivers.

Try that and we'll go from there.
Thanks!

[jbestimt]

Also, while it doesn't address the slow down, you can get the game to initially run faster by turning off the vsync setting in rise2.ini (or increasing your monitor refresh).

[PTM]

Originally posted by jbestimt
Try getting all the latest windows updates and security patches. Looks like you already have the latest drivers.

Try that and we'll go from there.
Thanks!

OK, I downloaded all the things that windows update had to offer (relevant things anyway, who needs a Euro converter) when I ran windows updater. There were "critical updates" and stuff so I thought that might have been it, but it wasn't.

No change.

- PTM

[PTM]

Note that, interestingly, the newer drivers for my card (my GeForce 4 ti4600) actually degrade game performance. If I use the new Detonator 44.03 my FPS falls ~3 frames, on average, and caps lower (only ~37 FPS, even when the game starts on Nomad vs 1 comp and all I have are 3 villagers and no map revealed on the lowest video settings).

I'm using the drivers provided by the windows update, labeled 2.9.4.2. Released on 5/3/03.

Still, +3 FPS is worthless, and battles at ~7 FPS are a joke.

- PTM

[wilebill]

I also get 30 fps max with or without vsync, rise2.ini features config all set to "A" all options turned to high. Toshiba 1955-801S with latest BIOS all upgrades, newest Detonator drivers, all upgrades from Microsoft except Q811493, defragged disk, 2.2 GHz P4 with 512 Meg RAM, Nvidia GeForce4 440 Go / 32 Meg RAM, 1240 x 768 x 16, and many other excellent features besides.

RON is quite playable 1 vs 1 comp which is all I want to do. But I am seeing fps drops to 5 or less during battles in modern age. AOM (1.05) runs about 10 times more smoothly with no fps declines noticeably by eye at least. I run WarCraft III, C&C Generals, all run very smoothly.

There has got to be something in the RON graphics engine that is not set properly for Nvidia graphics cards?

[jbestimt]

What audio card do you have? What driver set is it using?
We have seen performance degradation due to some audio card configurations.

[wilebill]

Audio card is a RealTek ALC 202A Codec Chip, Software Sound, 16 bit stereo, 3D Sound Support with HRTF 3D positional audio, Direct 3D Sound supported by sound driver; DirectSound and DirectMusic (supported by hardware acceleration); Full Duplex and MIDI playback support with 64 voices.

The latest driver I find for this card is dated 10-16-2002, which I am sure is about 6 months newer than the driver I have.

Any problems with RealTek? Diagnostics in DirectX package have hitherto not complained. I do not mind upgrading the sound driver if you think it will help?

[jbestimt]

Getting the latest drivers is always a good practice

Try setting your "Sound Enabled" to 0, and see if you still get the performance degradation.

[PTM]

I turned off the hardware acceleration for my sound card last night, which is a Sound Blaster Live!. No change.

I have all the latest drivers for it too, and I tried a good old fashioned uninstall/reinstall deal for it two days ago. No change.

When I get home I'll turn off the music through rise.ini (or rise2.ini, I'll find it). I have tried running it by disabling music and the like through the in-game GUI menu. No change there.

I'll report back on the rise2/rise.ini modification on sound later tonight.

Oh and by the way: Thanks for all the help so far, hopefully we can fix this!

- PTM

[jbestimt]

Some drivers on the Sound Blaster Live! did cause perf issues. Let me know if the sound setting in the ini file changes anything.

You are welcome for the support . Just want everyone to have fun with the game.;

[pe0n]

I dont think its your GFX card holding your FPS back, it sounds like its your CPU.

[PTM]

Well I turned sound off in rise2.ini.

No change...

Any more ideas?

- PTM

[PTM]

I don't think it's my CPU either though pe0n. My friend has RoN and he's running a GeForce 4 ti4200 and has an AMD chipset with a clockspeed of ~1.4 gHz, or thereabouts.

He averages 50 fps during normal gameplay and 30fps during battles.

By that measure, I should be doing at least that or something better, considering I have better system specs than he. I asked him if he had any problems and he said he had slowdown but it went away with the new Nvidia drivers. Well that solution didn't work out for me.

Besides, I can run WCIII on maximum settings without any noticeable slowdown and with any amount of opponents. Since WCIII and RoN have nearly identicle system requirements I don't see why I should have such an issue, and why my friend Mark should have the same issue as well.

So, any ideas?

- PTM

[stju]

i believe there is something badly messed up, especially concering lo-spec GPUs...

my laptop computer has a SIS630 shared chip (& 1200 Celeron & 384 SD Ram), I know that this is not much of a 3D chipset, but it´s enough for WCIII and AoM to play 1024x768, with medium details....

in RoN I get 4-10 fps, and it does not matter much what details I turn on and of....

[wilebill]

jbestimt,

Success. Replaced audio driver with latest version from www.realtek.com.tw, rebooted. In rise2.ini, set all the grade options to "A," turned off VSync, set texture compression to "FULL," set resolution to 1240 x 768 x 16.

FPS maximum went from 30 fps to 58 fps, with fps never going below 29 to 30 fps except during the heaviest battles when it declines to about 17 fps. This is good enough to play the game without irritation from low fps driving me crazy.

Updating the audio driver was key. You were right!

[PTM]

Things I've tried since my last post.

1. New Sound Drivers + Old Video Drivers (43.45)
Result: ~30 FPS maximum, battles slow down significantly, and by the information age ~7 FPS becomes average.

2. Old Sound Drivers + Old Video Drivers (43.45)
Result: Same as above.

3. New Sound Drivers + New Video Drivers (44.01)
Result: Horrible choppiness, even worse than with older drivers. The average FPS rate declines by ~5, and the battles decline by ~7.

4. Old Sound Drivers + New Video Drivers (44.01)
Result: Same as number 3 above.



I've tried disabling sound and I've editted hardware acceleration on sound; no change.

I've disabled EVERY Graphic except Units (using ForceGraphicToggle or whatever it's called) And the game STILL slows down to the SAME FPS as it would with all the other graphics.

Lowest settings imagineable. No change.

Uninstalled/Reinstalled my GFX and Audio drivers multiple times and in multiple variations.

No Anistropic filtering, maximum anistropic filtering, medium anistropic filter. No change. The same goes for anti-aliasing.

Graphic settings in rise2.ini: all A's. No change. All F's. No change. In fact, I don't know why, but now the graphics are worse than they were when I first installed the game and it had all the settings on AUTO. Even if I put AUTO back it makes no difference. There's no longer any surf and there is some distortion on rare resource: Fish and Whales, as well as a few other things. Yes, I have them enabled. Yes, they are at maximum.

And VSYNCH has ZERO effect at all. On/Off - who cares? My FPS still maxes. If I turn up my monitor refresh rate it makes no difference either, even in the beginning of the game. Yes, I have it turned off in my GFX card settings too.

I tested to see if it was doing it right (through my GFX card anyway) and indeed it was. I was able to make my CS FPS whatever I wanted.

I don't get why WC3, a game with similar system reqs. runs PERFECTLY and this game lags so bad it's unplayable. It really angers me because this game is absurdly fun and it's like having a present under the tree that you can't open when it comes to it.

Any more ideas? jbestimt?

- PTM

[PTM]

I don't know if it matters but:

I can "hear" the slow down if I run winamp in the back. The music place fine until the game starts up then it starts to run as if it's in slow motion. It runs OK during the menu screen, even though the menu screen lags, but during game (even in the start) it runs slow. Very slow.

If I minimize RoN then the music speeds back up to its normal rate.

Kind of interesting, considering RoN is using the same system resources (99%) rather or not it's maximized or minimized.

- PTM

[PTM]

...bump?

- PTM

[jbestimt]

PTM, I understand your frustration. You have a pretty hefty system. No reason it should be struggling so much.

Someone here suggested running this utility and see what results it gives you.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/article.php?sid=311&cat=7 .

From our tests, RoN really taxes most systems (raising some graphics cards 13 degrees ).

We'll get to the bottom of this.

j

[stju]

what i cannot understand are the specs at the cover....

if the game needs min 1500 Mhz, 512 Mb Ram and and GPU thats Geforce 3 or better, as long as i know i do not really care....

but this seems to be MS-policy, want a good laugh? here are the specs for freelancer....

600 mHz
128mb ram
16 mb 3d GPU

guess if you install that one on such a system it would make you even more cry than RoN...

I still don´t get why its so slow, afterall AoM and WCIII run decently, but it really does nopt matter, i just would like to have known before I pay €50 for a game...

well at least it works on the Desktop....

[flash9286]

how do you check your fps

[wilebill]

Check FPS by going to the options screen, click on the graphics tab, there is a checkbox that says something like "Show fps on screen"

[PTM]

I'll check that util. when I can.

I'm sorry about lack of posting on my own thread, delaying the IT process. I haven't lost faith, it's just that I've had finals lately (Junior year = worst year ever).

In other news, RoN randomly started quasi-working, locking the games FPS at 20 throughout the entire game. 20 still blows, but at least it's ALWAYS 20.

I don't know why this is, but it does make the game playable. Let's see if we can't raise that though.

- PTM

[JFman01]

God, I'm having enough difficulty my frosh year... Junior will be hell. (yes I am posting for a real reason, we'll get to that eventually). I find that im going too much in depth when I study, just realized that today during my bio final. Anyways...

Got myself a 1.4 or 1.05 ghz amd t-bird (AMD may have sent me the wrong cpu) and a 64 mb Nvidia with 256 ddr ram. And the instant I the multiplayer (m-player only) game starts, im down to 5 fps. I was fine graphically, but having some connection trouble and re-installed directx, and then the trouble started. I don't know how to rollback a directx installation and I don't want to have to use system restore so...


John F

[asleepathewheel]

I'm having horrible fps as well, using a 1.7p4, GeForce2GTS 32 Mb, 384 Mb ram. Soundblaster live! value. latest video and sound drivers.

goes well, but then relatively minimal skirmishes involving possbily only 50 units will kill the frame rate.

Please someone tell me something that will save this game for me, I really enjoy it from what i've seen so far.

[jbestimt]

try turning off hardware acceleration for your sound card. Sound Blaster Live cards have some perf problems associated with certain drivers/settings.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by jbestimt
try turning off hardware acceleration for your sound card. Sound Blaster Live cards have some perf problems associated with certain drivers/settings.

Tried that, but no luck. I've played through a few games with few problems on similar settings, not sure what has been wrong the last few days. Really like the game though.

[bobadoe]

I used to have FPS problems on my comp but that was years ago. I was running windows XP. On my first try on playing the game, the game worked for couple minutes then just crashed and somehow my computer got messed up to. I had to reinstall windows XP again (no update, except new nvidia driver). This time however, the game worked with a hitch. Great FPS (150~160) and no crashes. Could it be that RON has some conflict with other programs running in the background?

I think people are just f'tarded they need to get new computers and brains. Reinstall your windows du.mb@ss. Then itll work. Stup1d fu.cks.