Slow Performance?

[keith63]

Hi all, could use some help here. Just loaded this game up again after a few years away from it. The game loads fine but it plays super slow and things like map scroll are super slow with a good 5 second lag delay. An help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[spence]

I'm using Windows 10. My command line is as follows:

"C:\Matrix Games\War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition\Beta2\War in the Pacific Admiral Edition.exe" -f -deepColor

Everything works fine without any delay in scroll or when selecting units.

[keith63]

Thanks for the response Spence. But for the computer challenged like myself, how do I fix this?
Thanks

[Trugrit]

I have Windows 10 and I'm running the Beta. The command line is in the games shortcut.
Right click on the shortcut and open up the properties.

The Beta creates the shortcut so you just need to add the command line.
The command line is different for each player.
You just need to experiment to see what works best for your system.

My setup to run the game looks like this and it works fine.
You can start with my setup and work back to get what works for you.

[Yaab]

Keith63, as Trugrit said, you have to fiddle with switches a bit to find a combo that works for you

Here is mine for Windows 10. Game runs smoothly without any lags or delays.

"C:\Matrix Games\War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition\Beta2\War in the Pacific Admiral Edition.exe" -altFont -skipVideo -archive -deepColor -dd_sw -px1600 -py900

[Mr Pink]

I didn't have any issues before windows 10 autoupdated last night.
I solved it by adding the -cpu2 switch, then it was running smoothly again

Code: Select all

-skipVideo -px1920 -py1080 -altFont -f -deepColor -dd_sw -cpu2

[keith63]

Thanks for all the responses guys. I'm not running the beta and everything you posted might as well of been in Elvish lol. But I appreciate you all trying to help.

[tarkalak]

There is a document in the game folder that describes what the command line switches do. I don't remember how it was called though [:(]

Look at all release notes and the files in the doc folder.

[rustysi]

I'm not running the beta

That doesn't matter, its more about Win 10.

[keith63]

Thanks for the posts gang, but changing lines of code is nowhere in my skill set. I will just plod along with a slower game lol.

Thanks.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: keith63

Thanks for the posts gang, but changing lines of code is nowhere in my skill set. I will just plod along with a slower game lol.

Thanks.

It isn't changing lines of code. You just create a shortcut that points to the game executable file (right click, create shortcut, drag it to your desktop).

Then right click on the shortcut on your desktop and choose "Properties" down at the bottom. That opens a little window with some tabs, but it will already be open to the correct tab. Look for the section that says "Target" (i.e. it points to the game executable file).

The switches we speak of are fairly simple to understand and easy to put in after the pathway already in the Target box. Don't worry, the text can scroll past the end of the visible window in the box.

You do have to be careful to get the syntax correct, capital letters where required, one space only between switches, use the hyphen at the top of the keyboard, not the minus sign on the numeric keypad.

Here is my line of code from that box with explanations:

"C:\Matrix Games\War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition\War in the Pacific Admiral Edition.exe" -altFont -archive -deepColor -px1680 -py1050 -w -fixedArt -skipVideo -multiaudio -SingleCpuOrders -cpu3

The part in quotes is the path that should already be there when you created the shortcut.

-altFont uses a different font than the one installed by the game by default. Most players find the alternate font easier to read because it is sans-serif

-archive tells the game to save several reports from each turn. This is only important if you want to go back on a previous turn (not otherwise saved) and look at what the reports said back then. You will see some players talk about Tracker and IntelMonkey utilities and maybe post some screenshots from them. These extra (free) programs use archived data to present info you request about a period of time .

-deepColor tells the game engine to let your computer's video card settings define the resolution and colors available rather than use the limited resolution and small set of colors the game sets as default

-px1680 -py1050 the resolution width and height in pixels I am telling the game and my video card to use

-w sets the game in a window rather than giving it full screen control. I prefer full screen but when I had to use Win 10, it does not let me use full screen without issues so I went to a large window for the game. No biggie.

-fixedArt just prevents some of the graphics for aircraft from rotating to give you a 360º view of them - distracting fluff IMO.

-skipVideo just prevents the showing of the video at game start. Once you have seen it, you don't really want to sit through it every time.

-multiaudio I put that in because someone suggested it might help a problem I was having with graphics jumping up and down on some screens. It didn't help and I don't need it for audio playback so I could drop it.
-SingleCpuOrders tells the game engine not to use the multi-channel processing of modern computer CPUs (most have four channels ; see my next item)

-cpu3 tells the game to use that specific channel to handle the game. From tech experts I learned that Windows operating system uses cpu1. I was using -cpu2 for the game when I was on Win7 operating system. When I had to go to Win10 I was having problems with time delays after clicking on something in the game so I changed the setting to -cpu3 and the problems went away.

[rustysi]

ORIGINAL: keith63

Thanks for the posts gang, but changing lines of code is nowhere in my skill set. I will just plod along with a slower game lol.

Thanks.

If you're an old fart, like most of us, you could get your grandkids to help ya. If you're younger ask the kids.[:D]

If all that isn't an option, just call the 'Geek Squad'.[:'(]

Seriously there's no reason to play this game 'slowly' on a new computer. Heck mine is 8 years old and I have a power option set up to slow the thing down. All you really need to do is change that target line shown above. The worst that could happen is you mess it up to where it doesn't work at all. Then just do a reload and you're back to square one.

[BBfanboy]

Another factor in scrolling speed is how much crap you are trying to display. Most of the buttons that lay more info on the map are done by overlays, and this really eats up your video card memory. Trying to scroll the normal map plus each of the overlays takes time.

So if you are using the F6 button to show the hexes more clearly or the range circles for aircraft or ships or the search arcs for patrol aircraft, turn them all off and just use them momentarily when you need to see something in detail before you give orders. Same with the R button for roads and railroads or the W button for who controls hex sides or the 1 button to show terrain types.

[keith63]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

[rustysi]

Good points BB.

Edit:Mine crawls when I turn on my search arcs.

[Technopiper]

ORIGINAL: keith63

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

Don't give up just yet. Right-click on the shortcut you use to launch the game, then select "Properties". It's right at the bottom of the menu that pops up. Tell me what you see and we'll go from there. It isn't coding and you can't break anything.

[VPaulus]

There's the utility created by Kovar that might help you keith63:

tm.asp?m=4415089

[Trotsky21]

After much fiddling with the switches, what appeared to make an enormous difference was adding -altFont. Literally everything speeded up by about 20x after I added this switch. Appears the new machines, video cards can't deal with the old font from 2009.

Here's my switch line for reference (I have an AMD multi-core): -SingleCpuOrders -cpu1 -multiaudio -px2048-py1536 -altFont -deepColor -skipVideo -f

[Bif1961]

I am having trouble with the glacier pace of my scroll speed and response time to clicking on a selction device. I have made the changes suggested above -cpu2 or 3 -altFont, -deepColor -w and changing the resolution size to match my video card of -px1366 -py768. Nothing has improved performance.Does anyone have any other suggestions. I am running the 1124 patch.

[Anachro]

for win 10 issues like slow scroll speed, using -dd_sw is what helped me, as well as -dual or -cpu2 as some others have mentioned. If your game is getting other applications "bleeding through," you need to set the game to windowed mode with -w