game speed

MIK_IZ_WAK · July 31, 2003, 13:51

Hi all

You may remember a while back I had problems getting Civ 3 working, as the file ~ef7194.tmp was not being created. I got the same error with Red Alert 2, and it took me hours on the internet to find what the problem was, and in the end, after many swear words and frustrating "oh so nears", I got both games working using a no-cd patch. Seems simple now that I have done it, but it took such a long time to figure out. It turns out the file was connected to another file that is a safedisk copy protection file, and the no-cd patch therefore negates the need for the files. Anyway, now I have it working, I can play it, but the game runs quite slowly, and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas how to help me. It is playble, but quite slow, which is surprising considering I am running a K6-2 500Mhz processor, with more than enough hard drive space, and 192mb of Ram. This exceeds the system requiremnts easily, so has anyone got any ideas to help me? Thanks in advance, if anyone gives advice like last time, its bound to be good

Thanks,
MIK

Panag · July 31, 2003, 15:51

hi ,

use the CD , ......

then things shall speed up , ......

have a nice day

Sheik · July 31, 2003, 20:45

Are you sure using the CD will make things go faster panag?

Close background tasks. Turn of the animations. And maybe making your page file bigger would help?

Panag · August 1, 2003, 16:26

Quote:

Originally posted by Sheik
Are you sure using the CD will make things go faster panag?

Close background tasks. Turn of the animations. And maybe making your page file bigger would help?

hi ,

yep it does , .....

so does buying the game instead of playing with a pirate copy , ......

have a nice day

MIK_IZ_WAK · August 2, 2003, 04:50

Hi

thanks for the help, but strangely I am using an original copy of the game, with the cd in, I close all background tasks, except the necessary ones, and I have turned off animations, but the game is still running slowly. How do I go about making my page file bigger?

Thanks,
Mik

alva · August 3, 2003, 20:56

Quote:

so does buying the game instead of playing with a pirate copy , ......

on what do you base that a legal game will be faster then a copy????

(unless you mean that by buying it, you support the programmers who can then improve/optimalise the code. Which is pretty far fetched though

)

Btw: same question goes for the CD, I never saw any improvements when using the CD?

vmxa1 · August 14, 2003, 14:09

Quote:

Originally posted by MIK_IZ_WAK
I can play it, but the game runs quite slowly, and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas how to help me. It is playble, but quite slow, which is surprising considering I am running a K6-2 500Mhz processor, with more than enough hard drive space, and 192mb of Ram. This exceeds the system requiremnts easily, so has anyone got any ideas to help me? Thanks in advance, if anyone gives advice like last time, its bound to be good

Thanks,
MIK

Not sure why you think you far exceed the requirements.
It recommneds 500MH, this is marginal really. 192MB ram is too low for most OS.
If you are on a huge map with 16 civs, you will bog down with this system. I presume it is Win9x as XP would be very slow on that rig.
Anyway what do you mean by slow? What point in the game are you talking about. On my 3.06GH with 1GB ram, I had 24 civs in a late game war and turns took 25 minutes. Twice that on my 1.7 GH box. so it just depends on what is going on. If no wars, it takes seconds, if on a standard map, it is very fast.

Banditt_Adams · March 9, 2004, 13:44

Youre kidding, right? Ive been running RA2 for ever on 128RAM and a Voodoo 3D 2000 (which is ass and doesnt support hardly any games). Its always ran like a champ! I just upgraded to a Celeron processing (one step up from pentium II) Motherboard and it flies.

I also use a No CD patch dispite owning the battle pack (with al the Red Alert Games in one purchase) and it runes fine. I LOVE no CD patches because I can listen to Audio CDs while playing games!

MIK_IZ_WAK
If youve got that much RAM and its still running slow, I would say theres data getting bogged down and bottlenecked somewhere in your motherboard. Sometimes the card controllers go bad (which is why I had to buy a new motherboard) and you may have to get a newer board (and possibly a whole new system).

In the meantime, Run a Disk cleanup and defrag. Thats the SIMPLEST way of freeing space and getting more performance. Other than that, I dont know what to tell you. What I do is uninstall RA2 and reinstall it at the base level, then update to patch: 1006:
http://www.eagames.com/official/cc/r...sh/updates.jsp

It should run fine. If youre still getting gameplay bogged down, DONT install the no CD patch that you origionally got. A few of them out there will bog down cinematics and some gameplay because the sytem has to divide resources looking for files all amongst the PC, where in a normal CD use: it will divide resources between the PC and the CD ROM (faster).

I dont know what to tell you other than that.

Willem · March 9, 2004, 17:05

Quote:

Originally posted by MIK_IZ_WAK
Anyway, now I have it working, I can play it, but the game runs quite slowly, and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas how to help me. It is playble, but quite slow, which is surprising considering I am running a K6-2 500Mhz processor, with more than enough hard drive space, and 192mb of Ram.

What exactly do you mean by it runs slow? Are the units. animations and moves, running slowly or are the turns taking a long time. If the latter, it's just the game, especially with your specs.

And no it doesn't easily exceed the system requirements, in fact I'd say it's about borderline. I'm using a 400Mhz Celeron with 446, or there abouts, RAM, and by the time I get to the Middle Ages, the turns take a loooong time to get through. There's alot of hurry up and wait in my games.