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The game runs slowly


Guest j.w.pepper
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Guest j.w.pepper

I have a celeron 600 mhz processor

32 mb TNT video card

64 mb of memory

Windows Millennium

Bc3k version 2.08 patched to v 2.09.

And still when a lot happens on the sreen,

the game runs jurky and slow.How fast must

my system be to play this game?

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quote:

Originally posted by j.w.pepper:

I have a celeron 600 mhz processor

32 mb TNT video card

64 mb of memory

Windows Millennium

Bc3k version 2.08 patched to v 2.09.

And still when a lot happens on the sreen,

the game runs jurky and slow.How fast must

my system be to play this game?

This simply appears to be a fact of life for those of us playing with non-Glide (no 3DFX) cards. All of the objects must be rendered using software only which is a huge drain on the processor. PIII 500 with 128MB RAM here and I too get slow downs, rendering + AI + large numbers of either = slow down.

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Commander Tyrn Marcel

GCV Falcon, Wraith HQ (Lyrius)

S.O.G. Wing Leader - Wraith Fleet

"Hard, Fast, Furious... FIRST!"

Wraith S.O.G. Home

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Try cycling the F1 key. That will reduce the amout of bridge view being processed and provide some much needed relief to that processor. It'll improve frame rates as well. wink.gif

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Insurgent One, Rattler

ICV Necromancer, Spectre HQ (Antis)

Commander-In-Chief,

Insurgency

Official Tester,Battlecruiser Series

[email protected]

ICQ 12894104

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Guest j.w.pepper

No tried everything,put the graphics down and

pressed F1, and it still runs slowly.What

is really depressing is that my 166 mmx with

a viper 330 video card ran the game better.I

bought this computer mainly to play Bc3k.I

installed the game sraight away,I couldnt wait to play.But to be honest it runs so slow

its not playable at certain points in the game.

Now I have to pay for the bloody thing.I suppose Ill have to go back behind the windows in Amsterdam.

OH GOD IM DEPRESSED.EVEN A 600 MHZ COMPUTER ISNT FAST ENOUGH,TO PLAY BC.WHY DO THE PROGRAMMERS DO THIS TO US????????

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Easy there tiger, I ran the game for a hellishly long time on my P233MMX w/ 64 megs of RAM and a Voodoo 1 card, ran pretty damn good if I do say so myself. Of course, now I've got a system twice as fast, with a Voodoo 3...

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Cmdr. Parias

ICV-Galatae, Awaiting final assignment

Balor Fleet

ICQ 1293359

Staff member at HardNews

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I played it just fine with my 400mhz K6-II processor, but like the man said, I had a Banshee Card and that more than made up for the difference. Graphic Acceleration is the key, that and RAM! There are more keys to diasble graphics on the bridge. Use them. It'll help. What won't help is shouting about Developers. That'll get you tossed out on your preverbial backside. "Nuff Said!"

------------------

Insurgent One, Rattler

ICV Necromancer, Spectre HQ (Antis)

Commander-In-Chief,

Insurgency

Official Tester,Battlecruiser Series

[email protected]

ICQ 12894104

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Appendix A has all the keyboard commands. In addition to F1 for disabling the bridge view, you can also CTRL + H to declutter the HUD. That might help just a smidgen more but I doubt much.

Just how much is "a lot happens on the screen"? 20 or 30 ships present with all of them fighting, shooting missiles, flying around, etc.? Each of which must be tracked and accounted for. That'll do it.

How many regions have you activated? That comes into play as well. Have you read the FAQ and adjusted your shortcut properties for the maximum benefit? You don't have sneaky little resource hogs running in the background do you? Try shutting most of your background programs off and then running the game. You konw you're going to be there for a while. biggrin.gif.

Why do the programmers do it to us? That would be Derek and it's because he wants the best and most realistic game he can make. Read the version controls file. Especially the part about NPC ships. When fleeing they no longer leave the region and drop out of the game. They go home. All the way home or to the nearest friendly base (to them) they can. Pretty damn realistic for a fictional universe I think. smile.gif

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Vice Admiral Chavik

ICV Phoenix, Sygan Starstation (Sygan)

Fleet Leader - Balor Fleet

Official BC3K Tester

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For one thing, it is highly unlikely that the game ran better on a P166 and Viper card, as opposed to what you have now.

Apart from that, you've upgraded to WinME which is not friendly to most older WIN9x games (if you didn't read about it before upgrading, then who is the fool?), let alone DOS based games such as BC3K, developed in 1998. The game was designed to operate under WIN9x and any other OS, even WinME, is unsuppported. Use at your own risk.

The game will only run in software mode and if your card has pitiful VESA support, you can install SDD and see if it helps. Read the FAQ. The TNT card is now considered sub-par at best and even for the upcoming BCM, you aren't likely to be running the game at anything higher than 640x480 with a desktop depth of 16-bit.

And before you start yelling (you're that much closer to getting banned from the site), blame yourself for upgrading to WinME with 64MB RAM. heh, even WIN98 almost choked on 64MB of RAM.

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I wanted to say something about this but when I saw what is the V330 I realized I can't delete my post smile.gif

[This message has been edited by Vaipa (edited 10-08-2000).]

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"win 98 almost choked on 64 meg of ram"

it sufficates! smile.gif

I got away because I have a fast computer..but even I upgraded to 128 ram, which was the plan from the beginning.

j.w pepper just fort he record, what mode of play are you (er) playing? Free-flight? or ACM?

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Captain Cruis In

ICV Defiance, Sygan Starstation (Sygan)

CEO, Sygan Starstation

Balor Fleet

"You can only love or hate something you truly understand"

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do a CTRL-V, what frame rates are you dropping down too? And as Cruis In asked, are you playing ACM or Freeflight and how far into the game are you??

I would also suggest going back to win98SE. I didn't have any problems with Win98se and 64meg of ram and I have a NON-3DFX card, however I have upgraded to 128meg ram and that has helped a bit... wink.gif

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Commodore Wold

ICV-Drakr, Spectre HQ (Antis)

Commanding Officer, Spectre HQ

Spectre Fleet

ICQ 4669033

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Guest j.w.pepper

Well thanks to everyone that commented on my

near suicide expierience,of my new computer not playing BC very well.

I play the acm missions.Even during the first easy mission,with at one point 8 or 9 ships doing their buisness,and my computer SLOWED,SLOWED,SLOWED,and then it ran ok.

I think your right about Windows ME.You can

also forget dos games.I have the add on version,if I load Windows ME first,just putting 98 disk in to confirm I have it,the system runs crap.If I load 98 first then add Win ME ITS OK.But that takes ages,loading both.

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Guest aramike01

From what I recall, that first ACM pretty much does that to everyone's system.

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Vice Admiral Michael Kristophers

ICV-Intrepid, Spectre (Antis)

Fleet Leader

Spectre Fleet

Official Tester, Battlecruiser Series

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From posts I've seen, I concur with mike, that first ACM brings prettymuch every computer to a slowdown.

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Commodore Kyle Antilles

ICV-Eclipse, Destiny Starstation (Nevuela)

Commanding Officer, Destiny

Spectre Fleet

"You can only love or hate something you truly understand"

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The last mission of TOD3 will also bring your machine to it's knees. The trick is to start killing off fighters (and I do mean killing, don't leave any SOS stragglers) as quickly as possible. You can quickly bring the number of NPC's down to the point that the AI processing is not quite so heavy.

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Commander Tyrn Marcel

GCV Falcon, Wraith HQ (Lyrius)

S.O.G. Wing Leader - Wraith Fleet

"Hard, Fast, Furious... FIRST!"

Wraith S.O.G. Home

Official BCM Beta Tester

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Guest j.w.pepper

Well even after all the running problems

BC gets my vote as a good game.I have played it all night until I heard the birds singing

more than once.But I think a 3d acceleration card is the only way Im going to see it in all its glory.

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This may not be relevent with the post. I had the problem once (i'm pIII 500 Voodoo3), the frame would go from 50+ to 8 then back up. I changed cacheble vram to enabled in bios(again don't know if this will be relvent in your case) tweeked with my cache setting with the program cacheman (search it on goole since I don't have the address, again could be totally inrelvent on you system),reinstalled the game, re-patched to v 2.09, ran it, now I smooth 50+ all the time except when in HEAVY combat the frame will drop to about 30.

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Yep, ACM is the most CPU intensive portion of the game simply because it has to track a lot of stuff, especially when NPCs fly through and activate regions.

And btw, there is NO graphics processing going on in regions that you are not in (or viewing), so, those framerate spikes are all 100% AI related if, eg, you are not even in a combat zone when the spike occurs.

However, you should be pleased to know that a lot of streamlining has been done in BCM. Coupled with the increased system requirements, DirectX enhancements such as hardware transform and lighting (among others), Windows virtual memory management etc, BCM runs a lot faster. BUT it is still a CPU hog, even though, this time around, the graphics engine is not the primary bottleneck. It is still the sophisticated AI kernel. One day, someone will create AIPU for computers and I'll be happy. biggrin.gif

speaking of which, you see those 1280x1024 shots I posted last night? Well, in order to even go anywhere near a combat zone at that resolution, will all the bells and whistles turned on, you need a PIII 1GHz, 128MB RAM and a graphics card with 32MB or more memory.

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cool I have 2 and 1/2 of those smile.gif

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Commodore Kyle Antilles

ICV-Eclipse, Destiny Starstation (Nevuela)

Commanding Officer, Destiny

Spectre Fleet

"You can only love or hate something you truly understand"

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DANG, and I just paid off 9 grand in credit card debt!!! Shoulda' bought a new 'puter... Shoulda' bought a new 'puter... shoulda' bought a new 'puter...

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Commodore Wold

ICV-Drakr, Spectre HQ (Antis)

Commanding Officer, Spectre HQ

Spectre Fleet

ICQ 4669033

"You can only love or hate something you truly understand"

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Trust me Wold, you're better off getting rid of that 9 grand worth of baggage.

wink.gif

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Commander Greg Miller

GCV - Sark, Orion Starstation (CENTRIS)

Fleet XO, Wing Leader, Tsunami Battle Group

www.orion-hq.fsnet.co.uk

'Here cometh the storm!'

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yea, I know, but still..... frown.gif

maybe in a few mo. i'll dig up enough cash to get a new 'puter...

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Commodore Wold

ICV-Drakr, Spectre HQ (Antis)

Commanding Officer, Spectre HQ

Spectre Fleet

ICQ 4669033

"You can only love or hate something you truly understand"

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1 ghz? I've heard of a need for speed before but this is ridiculous. smile.gif

Looks like I will be upgrading my computer sooner then I thought.

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Commander Bandus

GCV Defiant, Starbase Masada

Wing Leader, Wraith Fleet/Hammerhead Wing

"Universal Peace Through Deadly Force"

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Mmm could be soon Beta testing new PC too. Glad to hear BCM is "streamlined". I too had/have problems with ACM slowdown. But comfort myself with the fact that its the price of a decent Ai which most games seem to lack these days.

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