Sluggish Graphics and Animations

[Tankerace]

The game runs good (with sound mind you), but Map scrolling (on scroll delay = 0) is sluggish, and combat animations are slow, playing about 3/4-7/8 the speed they should. Everything else runs fine, no glitches, no problems. How can I boost performance WITHOUT going to nosound? My system specs:

Windows XP Pro.
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Barton Core 333mhz
Geforce FX 5200 128mb AGP8X Card
512mb PC2700 DDR RAM
80 gig HD, 5 gigs free.

Is there any way I can run it in 800X600? That solved all slowdowns on my old PC of UV.

[2Stepper]

ORIGINAL: Tankerace
The game runs good (with sound mind you), but Map scrolling (on scroll delay = 0) is sluggish, and combat animations are slow, playing about 3/4-7/8 the speed they should. Everything else runs fine, no glitches, no problems. How can I boost performance WITHOUT going to nosound? My system specs:

Windows XP Pro.
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Barton Core 333mhz
Geforce FX 5200 128mb AGP8X Card
512mb PC2700 DDR RAM
80 gig HD, 5 gigs free.

Is there any way I can run it in 800X600? That solved all slowdowns on my old PC of UV.

First question. What sound card are you using? There's been a LOT of trouble with the Audigy 1 board. Though I'm uncertain as to why. Suffice to say it's a subject covered in the upcoming sound patch.

Next question... only 5 GB free on the HDD? That seems VERY low. I can't help but wonder if Windows isnt struggling somehow. Here's my system specs to compare... I actually had to slow the game down some using the delays...

AMD Athlon 64 bit/3000 800mhtz FSB
1 GB RAM
128MB Nvidia FX5200
120GB HDD (running on an 80GB partition with 53GB free)
Audigy 2 OEM Soundcard
Win XP Home
Direct X 9.0b
all other drivers updated

As to your last question about screen size? Far as I know it's set to 1024X760. There was talk I think about making options available, but I suspect it would affect gameplay due to the map size... So no dice there... You SHOULDNT have a problem with the map. Maybe what you might want to do is put a slight delay on it. The "sluggish" behavior of the scrolling may be because it's actually TOO FAST. I had to do that to slow it down some. Just a thought.

EDIT: One OTHER thought came to mind... have you overclocked anything? There's a few possibilities as to what your problem might be... You might have your refresh rate set too high and it's stuttering... Assuming WiTP doesn't run at a default refresh of 65htz or something. Don't know. Just a thought though.

[Fallschirmjager]

Update your sound drivers first. If that doesnt help then change your folder to NOSOUND. That has helped other people.
They are working on a sound patch so you should only be without sound for a few weeks max.

[2Stepper]

Falls is right about that... Check those drivers... DX included. Make sure they're all updated. Then try the other things. While it SHOULD work, the NOSOUND option is sort of a "last resort" in my book... just MHO

[TheHellPatrol]

ORIGINAL: 2Stepper

Falls is right about that... Check those drivers... DX included. Make sure they're all updated. Then try the other things. While it SHOULD work, the NOSOUND option is sort of a "last resort" in my book... just MHO

[X(]Notice he said "A Few Weeks"[X(].

[Tankerace]

No idea what the sound card is, an Esoniq something I think, a friend gave it to me. I can always try onboard sound, see if that helps. As far as everything else, Im running latest drivers and DX 9.0b.

On my HD, I am running as I said about 20 games, with a 766mb Page file, 1.5-2 gig for backup, and some stuff for mods, backups, and sound editing stuff.

Hmm, since its not the RAM of vid. card, let me try my other sound card, and also see about freeing up some space. I don't see how Windows could be struggling, I run a pretty tight ship, no adware, spyware, or stuff running on startup.

Let me try those things, and Ill post how it runs then.

EDIT: Oh yeah, nothing overclocked.

[SunDevil_MatrixForum]

If you do not know what the sound card is, you most likely do not have the latest drivers for it. Goodluck with your problem. YOu could always rename your sound folder to nosound, to verify that it is the sound that is causing your issues.

[Tankerace]

Well gents, the sound is not the problem. I just renamed it to nosound, and the problem persists just as bad.

To clarify, these are how the animations are acting sluggish.

Naval Battles: The Shell firing, hits, and splashes all play slower than they should (I think, they are slower than in UV). If there are several ships, or some are burning, they run even slower.

Air attacks: Bomb hit and torpedo hits play slower, flak explosions are sluggish.

However, smaller naval battles run faster, but still slower than it should.

When I click on a ship at sea, the wake animation plays fine, and as fast as it should.

On the map, it isn't as sluggish, and I can live with it.

[soeren01]

Map scrolling, try Hexside details of in your preferences.

[2Stepper]

Ya, it sounds to me like some playing about with the preferences/delays would probably help. You have a pretty sound system there which shouldn't be giving you as much trouble with this as it is... Just out of curiousity, did you run DXDIAG? Just to see how well Direct X is supporting your system? It's not a 100% bet, but there may be some other problems there leading to your trouble.

Graphically though, you should have ZERO problems... Still can't get over the harddrive space... my thinking on that may be a tad antiquated, but I've ALWAYS tried to give windows room to breathe. Simply because when it has only limited free space to work with the whole system struggles.

At any rate, I'd try and adjust your delays a bit to see if that helps. Also, did you check the refresh rate that your video card is set at? I know I'm bobbing for apples a bit here, but it might actually be either low or too high. Will drop something else here if it comes to mind.

[Tankerace]

Alrighty, I disabled my no name PCI sound card, and updated the drivers to my on board sound. Still no joy. I had run WiTP at 72 and 85 hz refresh rate, so I'll take her down to 60, see if that helps.

Unistalled some things, I now have 8.2 gigs free, and I defragged to see if that would help. Again, no joy.

Ill lower my sound acceleration, see if that helps. The map is improving, but combat animations are still sluggish, but here is hoping.

[2Stepper]

ORIGINAL: Tankerace

Alrighty, I disabled my no name PCI sound card, and updated the drivers to my on board sound. Still no joy. I had run WiTP at 72 and 85 hz refresh rate, so I'll take her down to 60, see if that helps.

Unistalled some things, I now have 8.2 gigs free, and I defragged to see if that would help. Again, no joy.

Ill lower my sound acceleration, see if that helps. The map is improving, but combat animations are still sluggish, but here is hoping.

Progress, however small is always a good thing...

One more thing too... Erik posted a thread in this part of the forum regarding the sound patch in works... It's got some insights on how to make it run with sound... Don't know if you've been there, but despite being a little quirky after using his method guys without sound were reporting MUCH improved performance.