Sluggish strange behavior with 2.0

strollen · Post by **strollen** » Fri Nov 08, 2002 4:43 pm

After installing the game I find that it takes a very long time to get past the splash screen (several minutes.) Left clicking or hitting enter bypass the splash screen, but then I get a corrupted screen.

I have a similar problem with hitting end turn on PBEM game. It doesn't seem to transistion to the save screen. The only way I seem to bring up the save screen is to use Alt-Tab to cycle between applications.

Any suggestions?

P2.4 Giga hertz
GE Force 4 Ti4600 (64 Meg)
512 Mega Ram
Windows XP.
Computer is only 3 weeks old.

mogami · Post by **mogami** » Fri Nov 08, 2002 7:07 pm

Hi, Are you closing all applications not needed prior to running game? (cont-alt-delete) I have made several PBEM turns (3 games) and seen nothing strange (and you have a faster maschine)

Caltone · Post by **Caltone** » Sat Nov 09, 2002 6:31 am

2.0 is running slow for me as well. Same notes as Strollen, also see it when selecting saved games. This is a 1.4 pbem game.

PC
Athlon XP 1800
512 DDR RAM
GF3 Ti 500
XP Pro

strollen · Post by **strollen** » Sat Nov 09, 2002 6:46 am

I guess all the features slowed the game. I timed it the load time in a good 10 seconds slower than 1.4.

The end of turn takes between 50 and 55 seconds to go from the game map to save screen. Basically, I was impatience and thought the game had hung.

It is pretty sluggish which wouldn't have been so bad. If they had put up the hourclass cursor after you hit end of turn.

The only open application is Outlook express and explorer.

Ross Moorhouse · Post by **Ross Moorhouse** » Sat Nov 09, 2002 7:45 am

We changed the way the game is saving files which can cause a small slow down when saving and loading saved files.

The game now encrypts the save files for PBEM security. It also compresses them. Most of the save files prior to this patch were around 9 megs. Now with the new file compression they go down to around 900kbs.

Now when you load a save file it has to uncompress that file.

So you will get some form of slow down when either of the above is happening.

@ strollen : We have a machine at Matrix with the same specs as yours and when we run the game on it there is no slow down as you have described.

Be aware that things like a personal firewall may be slowing your machine down. Even if its not running it still is active. How many applications are in your task bar ? If there is an icon there that would mean that an application is running which could also be helping to cause a slow down.

strollen · Post by **strollen** » Sat Nov 09, 2002 10:10 am

I guess I was not particularly clear.
The time to start the application has increased by a noticable amount from 1.4. To the point now where after clicking to get past the films, Matrix logos etc. It take a least 15 seconds longer to get to the initial screen. This wouldn't be a big deal except for now we have to restart the game every time we switch games.

Since I am basically only playing PBEM, this is kinda of annoying.

The 2nd delay is the time between when you click End Turn and the list of Saved Game slots is displayed. As I said this is 50-55 seconds on my pretty fast computer and is definitely annoying.

The actually load and savings of games maybe a bit longer than 1.4 but it is not really noticable and certainly not a problem.

I don't have a firewall, and am only running outlook express, generally Explorer, Norton, and Windows messenger.

mogami · Post by **mogami** » Sat Nov 09, 2002 10:47 am

Hi, to save a little load time go into video folder and select all, cut now go to patch folder and paste. Always start game by clicking on exe icon (rather then short cut on desk top) The videos will not run and you get game loaded a little faster.

Ross Moorhouse · Post by **Ross Moorhouse** » Sat Nov 09, 2002 2:32 pm

Originally posted by strollen

Since I am basically only playing PBEM, this is kinda of annoying.

The 2nd delay is the time between when you click End Turn and the list of Saved Game slots is displayed. As I said this is 50-55 seconds on my pretty fast computer and is definitely annoying.

The actually load and savings of games maybe a bit longer than 1.4 but it is not really noticable and certainly not a problem.

I understood you as I said we are running a machine at Matrix thats the same specs as you and its not taking as much time as yours.

When was the last time you did a disc defrag ? Doing this should also help.

Caltone · Post by **Caltone** » Sat Nov 09, 2002 6:57 pm

Thanks for the suggestions Ross but I think the problem was running 1.4 files. At least that seemed to be the issue in my case. Today, my opponents all returned 2.0 files and it is much faster. Even the delay to reach the save screen is reduced and since the files are now compressed, it is faster than 1.4 overall.

CommC · Post by **CommC** » Sun Nov 10, 2002 10:56 am

Yes, deleting all the old 1.4 save files greatly speeds up the access to the save game screen. However, the more 2.0 save game files saved, the slower the access.

I think it may help to defrag my hard drive, I haven't done that in a long time.

Matrix: I think you should add this tip about deleting the 1.4 save game files to the FAQ or readme doc for v2.0

Ross Moorhouse · Post by **Ross Moorhouse** » Sun Nov 10, 2002 11:29 am

Originally posted by CommC

Matrix: I think you should add this tip about deleting the 1.4 save game files to the FAQ or readme doc for v2.0

Its too late to change the v2.0 docs but I will now go and add this to the UV FAQ section here.

Cheers

Sluggish strange behavior with 2.0

Sluggish strange behavior with 2.0

hmmmm?

Time saver