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The game runs slowly


Guest j.w.pepper
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spacefish? are you out there? I have that same problem in acm on my new computer. I hadn't played BC because I can't take it without the voodoo card, so I moved my voodoo to my new computer. FF seems to work ok, but as for ACM this is what happens, I'm in tacops view, my battlecruiser is on autopilot and I'm flying somewhere, you can see the trails, then all of a sudden it drops from like "smooth as silk frames" like 100 fps, to like 1fps, then quick like .8 of a second after the drop to 1fps, it goes right back up to 100fps....

i'm trying my best but have no solution, i will investigate the fix you posted tomorrow, though somehow my bios doesn't seem to be as configurable as other people's own, i have phoenix release 6.0 (something like that)

if anyone else has any quick fixes for this please post. so i can try.

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Captain Cruis In

ICV St. Helens, Sygan Starstation (Sygan)

CEO, Sygan Starstation

Balor Fleet

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

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quote:

tweeked with my cache setting with the program cacheman

SpacePhish,

Have you seen Memturbo ( http://www.memturbo.com/ )?

This software is supposed to defrag memory as well as manage your vcache. Opinions are split 50-50 on the usefulness of this program.

I have also been using Cacheman, but I'm trying Memturbo now. After I boot to a fresh session, I close everything down and scrub my memory before starting BC3K. I don't know how the program wants memory, but I wonder if having a large (120+ mb) chunk of memory is better for BC3K than getting fragmented memory.

There is a free 30-day trial version of the program without the vcache optimization, so you could use it along with Cacheman.

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S.Schacher(hey, you are the same s.schacher on alt.fan.bc3000ad?)

Thanks, I will try that.

C.In

Don't know, reinstall everything from scratch(make sure you follow the directions in the faq smile.gif). Install the programs mentioned above, load up ole bc3k and pray.

BTW how many regions do you have activiated? Just wondering.

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btw i would just like to say that my problem is ended. heres when it ended after smile.gif

i put the game on software, continued my acm, saved it to the same save game, exited, went to 3dfx shortcut, opened game, and no more crap slowdown. perfect.

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Captain Cruis In

ICV St. Helens, Sygan Starstation (Sygan)

CEO, Sygan Starstation

Balor Fleet

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

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Guest j.w.pepper

Well it seems that there are quite a few

of us with running problems concerning BC.

I think it was wrong to be so dishonest about

the system needed to play this game.On the

box it says a 200 mhz computer is recommended

Im sorry,but that is crap.It should have been

made clear that without a 3DFX video card,you

shouldnt bother buying it,unless you have a

1GB CPU and IGB of ram.

But a word of warning to a couple of my fellow gamesters thinking of buying a new computer to play BC.I did just that.I still

suffer slowdowns even on a 600 mhz computer ,and to be honest Im pissed off about it.

I think that the BC makers should help us out

by putting some downloadable software on the

BC web site to help our computers to run the game better.To me thats only fair.And it should be free,none of that shareware crap.

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I have suffered no slowdowns other than in the ACM. if FF, my framerate has always been acceptable, even in software mode.

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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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j.w.pepper,

There are other things you can do to try to boost the game's performance. How many of these things have you tried yet:

1. Tweak various settings on your computer for better performance? Maybe better caching of your virtual storage, BIOS settings, etc. Did you check MyComputer->Properties->Performance to verify that your machine is configured for maximum video and disk acceleration?

2. Are you closing down all desktop programs before running the game? Close down everything in your system tray, then press CRTL-ALT-DEL to bring up the task manager and try ending anything that is not absolutely necessary. Then you'll be running BC3k without anything else competing for the CPU.

3. What does your config.sys look like? I hate to say this, but I had problems on my machine when I followed the instructions in the FAQ. I ended up deleting the config.sys entirely and let my system use the Windows defaults. For me, the game never ran better after doing that.

4. How much memory is DOS getting? Start an MS-DOS session and enter the MEM command. What does it say?

These are just my thoughts. I'm no expert, by the way...

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Guest j.w.pepper

WELL Steve I am a big Elite fan,and that game needs 580 kb free base memory.I managed to squeeze 597 kb in windows 98,and more than

600kb in dos on my last computer.

The problem seems to be Windows Millennium.

It only has a dos prompt under windows,no real dos,so you can forget memmaker,and tinkering with the system.

Windows Millennium doesnt seem to recognise it.

My config.sys is empty,and any changes I make in my Autoexec.bat file are automatically reset by windows when the computer is restarted.So any changes are a

waste of time.

But you got mt thinking,so what I did,I deleted Win ME,see its an upgrade version for Win 98,so if its deleted Win 98 takes over.Then I ran Memmaker,got 585 kb free base memory, I had 600 kb free before I ran

it,but I lost some when I chose to add expanded memory.I then reloaded Win ME,ran

BC from a save I made when it ran slow and

it worked.No slowdown.

I dont know if anyone knows this web site

[email protected] should take a look,theres a nice screensaver,which also helps to look

for alien life.Thanks for all the advise.

COMMANDER NOT QUITE SO PISSED OFF cwm36.gif

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Guest j.w.pepper

cwm21.gif when it runs smoothly I get 9-12 FPS

When it gets just a bit busy on screen,that drops to 3-5 FPS.The game just runs crap on this system.

Then I shut down all the programs on the desktop before I stated,and in the game config menu I set all the graphic details to minimum,and then i got 6 FPS.And this is during the first mission.

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j.w.pepper,

Unfortunately, the first ACM is a bad measure of how the game normally plays.

Just for kicks, try starting a new free-flight game. After you launch, fly around a little and tell us what your frame rate is.

I am running a Gateway Pentium 3 550 mhz 128 mb ram system, and I'm getting average frame rates in the 45-55 range when there is little going on. In a fresh game, I've seen it up in the 60-70 range (I'm now in Gammulan territory, so I probably have a lot of regions active). During battles, the frame rate drops to 20+, and when lots of missiles are floating around it drops in spikes to 6-7.

I don't know much about Windows ME, but I haven't heard good things about it yet. That may be the reason for your poor performance.

I just found a program called MemTurbo that I'm trying out. It's supposed to defrag memory and boost performance. I don't know if it really does anything noticable yet, but on your low-memory (64mb) system you might want to try it out. It's at www.memturbo.com. They have a free trial version that you can test. Maybe you are memory-constrained.

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There's also free program called Rambooster in http://www.sci.fi/~borg/rambooster/index.htm (yes, it's Finnish program cwm11.gif ) and it works fine. BTW Pepper don't run seti@home same time with bc3k, 'cause it's a ram eater. I've been using seti@home since 4.1999 and I use Distant Stars seti@home version with it just to see where those signals are coming from.

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

Cmdr Jason Cloud

GCV Silver Lining, GENESIS (Moon)

26 Squadron Commander, 2nd squadron

Prime fleet, Gamma Wing

[This message has been edited by Papi (edited 10-21-2000).]

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Guest j.w.pepper

Well guys heres the readout. 16 FPS in free flight mode.Turbo Mem and Ram Booster have

little effect.But they are nice and colourful

I am sure its my lack of ram.I get paid next

week,so it looks like at the supermarket ill

be asking for milk,eggs,bog rolls,and an extra 64 megababies ram.

Why did I think of Windows ME,when I wrote

bog rolls?

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Guest aramike01

Hehe, don't know sput about Windows ME, but heck - even '98 SE could use more than 64.

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Vice Admiral Michael Kristophers

ICV-Intrepid, Spectre (Antis)

Fleet Leader

Spectre Fleet

Official Tester, Battlecruiser Series

You can only love or hate what you truly understand!

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  • 5 weeks later...
Guest j.w.pepper

Well the latest development is that I now

have 192mb of ram,and the game still runs

crap.I get 14 frames per second if its quiet

on screen,and down to 3 fps if its busy.

I am totally stunned.Could it be my on board

video card?Or could the game be badly written?

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Guest aramike01

Again, check your virtual memory settings. Then, see how much free space you have on your HD. VM doesn't mean squat without free HD space. Also, what kind of onboard video are you running? You sure it's disabled in both the BIOS and Windows?

quote:

Could it be my on board

video card?Or could the game be badly written?

If the game were badly written, then I would imagine that a lot more people than you would be having this problem. I have a slower processor than you do, and I don't experience any such kinks. Also, before you keep blaming the programmers, perhaps you should consider the fact the BC3K was not designed for Windows ME.

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

Vice Admiral Michael Kristophers

ICV-Intrepid, Spectre (Antis)

Fleet Leader

Spectre Fleet

Official Tester, Battlecruiser Series

You can only love or hate what you truly understand!

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YOU NEED MORE RAM!!!

Windows ****s up at anything less than 128 MByte!!!

Had a faulty RAM-Module a few weeks ago (64 MB PC-100 Sdram), so I took it out 'cause it

****ed up all file transfers and processes,

and I couldn't even play Command & Conquer

at a proper speed. Now, I've got 128 MB again, and everything runs fine...

Cape diem, Ram's cheap at the moment!!!

regards

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

Commander Steele

GCV Terra Kresta, Wraith HQ (Lyrius)

Wraith Fleet/SIN Wing

Stealth - the only thing between you and your enemy's guns

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Guest j.w.pepper

I have a TNT Aladdin 32,[AGP}but it does use

shared memory.It is my only video card,

and is active in the bios.I can allocate

up to 220mb memory to it as I understand.

My motherboard only has pci slots for an

external video card,which is not ideal,but

I didnt notice that until I had bought it.

My system runs the game bad in Wins ME,95,98.

I have tried all 3.I suspect my video card is

not suited to BC.

The game should not be such a cpu hog,and

is only friendly to 3dfx owners.I bought

this computer to play BC,thats why I am

a bit pissed off.

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Guest aramike01

quote:

The game should not be such a cpu hog,and

is only friendly to 3dfx owners.I bought

this computer to play BC,thats why I am

a bit pissed off.

Well, you should be pissed off at yourself. I was playing BC long before I had a video accelerator, and I had no problems. And, my processor was slower than yours. It's got to be an issue with your system!!!

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

Vice Admiral Michael Kristophers

ICV-Intrepid, Spectre (Antis)

Fleet Leader

Spectre Fleet

Official Tester, Battlecruiser Series

You can only love or hate what you truly understand!

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Guest j.w.pepper

When I run for instance Populous 3,it runs beutiful.No jurky graphics,no slowdowns,and it ran much slower on my 166 mhz.Now my 166 mhz ran BC better than my present system.I cant think why that is.

I have run Homeworld without a problem,my

system is faster than the old one for sure,

but BC and my system just dont like each other. cwm23.gif

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Hey Epsilon, congrats, that gives you the

first turn-based spaceflight-simulation ever

released cwm35.gif

Best regards

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

Commander Steele

GCV Terra Kresta, Wraith HQ (Lyrius)

Wraith Fleet/SIN Wing

Stealth - the only thing between you and your enemy's guns

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