Why are turns taking so long to run?

[mutterfudder]

(You new guys wanting to buy these games should be aware of this nuisance.)

This slowdown between turns has been my only issue with both WITP and UV sense I bought both these games many moons ago.
I’ve read other players post complaints of this very same issue, so I known I'm not the only one having this problem.
When the complaint is posted fanboys are quick to claim that this is a fluke because the player has a slow or outdated computer.
They also make claim that they have never experienced a slowdown nor have ever seen one.
Honestly, I don't think they are being truthful.


Now don’t get me wrong, I love this game. I just get so damn frustrated when it takes me many weeks in real time just to get to Jan.42.
I think Aug.42 is the furthest I have ever gotten in the full campaign. This is because I lose interest due to having to sit for prolong periods of time staring at the monitor waiting for my next turn.

Look, I’m tired and I just got off an all night, 16 hour, nightmare of a shift, at work.
I'm at my home now and want to relax by playing my favorite game, which is WITP.
I'm ranting because I doubt I can keep awake between the long pauses between my turns.

(Sorry, for the venting but you guys are the only ones that know WITP is.)


Anyone care to try to explain why it takes so long between turns in laymen?

BTW
I play the AI.

After giving it some thought, I think the ones who not know of the slowdown are the ones who only PBEM.

[Terminus]

It IS slow, but you have to put it into perspective. It is 1 day-turns we're dealing with and the game has a look at EVERY SINGLE ship, sub, aircraft, squad, etc. every single turn. It actually used to be even slower...

[Iridium]

I played WitP on my previous PC (800 MHz PIII, 512 MBs RAM, 64 MB GPU) and it took at least 15-20 mins to complete a turn.

Now with my current computer it take all of 5-10 mins depending on whether I want to watch replays or not. It may very well be your setup.[:(]

[bradfordkay]

The number one factor in the speed of turn processing seems to be memory type and amount. My old desktop took about 15-20 minutes to process a turn. I purchased a laptop two years ago so that I could take WITP on vacation with me. I shortened the time to about 10 minutes. My new desktop has further shortened the time, though the v1.8 series of patches has improved on this even more.

Between the old desktop and the laptop there was no increase in the amount of memory, but rather the type of memory. The new desktop is an improvement in both.

[Rainer]

You can shorten the execute phase considerably by hitting the ESC key after hitting "End the orders pase" (E).
If you do that a list of "house keeping" messages will flash by, like "Setting CAP levels" and so on (what the game calls "Routine Operations"). These messages contain no useful info. When the real execution starts, the game will slow down, so you can see what's going on.

That way a complete execution turn on my system needs appr. 15 minutes. The planning phase - where I key in my orders - is way longer (about 45 minutes).

Beware to hit the ESC key only ONCE.
Try it.

Cheers
Rainer

EDIT: Please DO NOT use the ESC key when playing PBEM (may cause sync bug!). Use Z instead (thanks to Terminus for the hint).

[tsimmonds]

Some easy fixes to try. Apologies if you already do all this; lots of guys don't.

Kill Spyware daily
Disk Cleanup weekly
Disk Defragmenter weekly
Turn off your PC when you aren't using it, and
Don't run other apps in the background.

[TulliusDetritus]

The problem is: if the "execute combats phase" is too short, you don't know what's going on. Or if the combat animations are off: you are losing a lot of intel. Pros & Cons. Mudderfudder is basically right: this game needs a lot of people's free time. More than other games.

[histgamer]

Hey question i have a Laptop that if i get this game i will play it on. what do you predict for the following toshiba Laptop in terms of performance.
 
1.63 GHZ dual Core Processor
1.5 gigs of RAM
128 MB Video (generic laptop carD)
120 GIGs of hard drive.

[VSWG]

ORIGINAL: flanyboy

Hey question i have a Laptop that if i get this game i will play it on. what do you predict for the following toshiba Laptop in terms of performance.

1.63 GHZ dual Core Processor
1.5 gigs of RAM
128 MB Video (generic laptop carD)
120 GIGs of hard drive.

It's better than my notebook (Pentium M 1.5 GHZ, 1,2 Gb RAM, 64 MB GPU), and I have no problems running WitP at all.

[kilowatts]

ORIGINAL: VSWG

ORIGINAL: flanyboy

Hey question i have a Laptop that if i get this game i will play it on. what do you predict for the following toshiba Laptop in terms of performance.

1.63 GHZ dual Core Processor
1.5 gigs of RAM
128 MB Video (generic laptop carD)
120 GIGs of hard drive.

It's better than my notebook (Pentium M 1.5 GHZ, 1,2 Gb RAM, 64 MB GPU), and I have no problems running WitP at all.

And your laptop is better than mine (1.2GHz, 512MB RAM, 30GB HD) and I have no problems running WitP. Since I am currently playing against the AI I turn turn the combat replays off and don't really miss them. Takes about 15 minutes to run through a turn. I use the time to grab a drink, write-up notes, kiss the kids goodnight etc.

[Terminus]

ORIGINAL: Rainer

You can shorten the execute phase considerably by hitting the ESC key after hitting "End the orders pase" (E).
If you do that a list of "house keeping" messages will flash by, like "Setting CAP levels" and so on (what the game calls "Routine Operations"). These messages contain no useful info. When the real execution starts, the game will slow down, so you can see what's going on.

That way a complete execution turn on my system needs appr. 15 minutes. The planning phase - where I key in my orders - is way longer (about 45 minutes).

Beware to hit the ESC key only ONCE.
Try it.

Cheers
Rainer

DO NOT EVER EVER EVER EVER hit the Escape key for anything other than exiting combat report or combat animation screens. It can cause the synch bug. Only use the Z key; has the same functionality and doesn't have that particular drawback.

[wdolson]

A lot of factors can slow down a turn. Some are controllable others aren't. If you're playing against the AI, there will be a period after going where the AI will plan all its rders for the next turn. This usually takes a few minutes on my computer. The program is crunching through a massive ammount of data.

My turns were taking forever before I shortened the message time to the minimum allowed, which I think it .1 seconds. That sped up execution quite a bit.

The speed and RAM in the computer can be a factor. So can having programs running in the background.

At the end of every turn, the game also does a save. The saved file is 32 MB long, and is then compressed. When you manually save the game it takes a minute or two to do just the save. I would suspect that's what is happening in that long pause at the end of the turn before you get control back.

Unfortunately, just the nature of the beast is that it's going to take a while to crunch all that data. I try to use the time waiting for the computer to either get up and do things I need to take care of, or stretch so I'm not stove up from sitting in one position for hours.

Bill

[Reg]

Mutterfudder, I don't believe a slowdown BETWEEN turns is your imagination. (Some of the posts above seem to be referring to the time to execute one turn - a slightly different issue!!)

I run WITP on a 450Mhz PIII (eat your heart out guys) so I notice these things. What I did notice was that the first turn would run in just under 20 mins but the second would take slightly longer and the third would be out to half an hour. Close down WITP, restart the game and turn resolution time would be back to normal. (Note I had every option turned off so the turn would just run through without intervention).

I increased my PC memory from 128MB to 384MB but disappointingly this didn't have any appreciable effect. Law of diminishing returns I suppose but I haven't used any virtual (disk) memory for other programs since!!! (WITP is such a monster it takes all you can give it and more!!!)

What I did find was that disabling the sounds (by renaming the sounds directory) made a huge difference (turns are down to about 10 mins) and I haven't noticed the slow down since. It looks like the slowdown could be some sort of resource leak associated with sound which means it is a DirectX issue and not the fault of Matrix at all (Well done Bill....)

Have patience, its a great game and just watch the info flow past like I do (though I will admit I was pleased they shorted the turn slightly in the latest patch....)

[huggarn]

I have no problem at all : AMD Opteron @2.66 GHz and 2GB of memory

Get a better rigg boyz!

[m10bob]

Considering the detail, it might take me 10-15 minutes to give orders to all my units.(Some take longer because they micr-manage everything). Considering everything the AI (or human opponent) must look at to give his orders, I should expect it would take a like time...Heck, it takes as long to play a good chess game, for some.
But then, the original poster did mention he had just gotten off a long 16 hour shift at work, and was tired.
I can use the time to get my snacks,etc.[8D]

Besides, if it takes me so long to plan and order my units, an "instantaneous" response from the AI might shatter my brittle ego, and make my efforts appear rather anti-climactic..[:D]

[Sardaukar]

Played WitP even on Celeron 500 with 192 (!) megs of RAM...[:D] Disabled sound and video directories etc. Did run 15 mins / turn...not bad. 

[patrickl]

Hi,

I first played WITP in 2004 on my HP pc running on Windows ME. Sure took 25 mins to run a turn.[:@]. Then, after 4 months with that HP, junked it and got a Compaq that ran on Window XP - one turn only took 10 mins. [:D] Windows XP plus lots of RAM helps - ! GB ram is a surefire.[:D]

Pat

[Valgua]

Let's face it. Wargames are mostly games that take a lot of time to play and the number of turns on a big scenario you can play in an evening are often very few. I am strongly intrested in chess, so I'm used to wait between turns. [;)]

The trick is to find something to do while you're waiting. I use to read books related to the scenario. It helps me to get into the right mood.

Filippo

[Rainer]

Good point Terminus.
Thanks for the hint.
As I always play against AI I never came across sync issues.
Nevertheless, the Z key will be tried next time.
Cheers
Rainer

[Oliver Heindorf]

synch bug only affected in pbem. but I would never use it too.

I ran witp on a PIII 1,0 Ghz machnine w 512 MB RAM and it was OK but a bit slower then now. I changed my Desktop PC to a Pentium M 780 with 1 GB of corsair memory in 12/05 and this helped alot [:'(]