Tuning SH3 for a slow Machine

[Grayson02sept1980]

Hi!

Simple question:
after installing OLC GUI I found that my PC is not fast enough to play really good...

I mean during use of the periscope with all the bluring effect all slows down - it happenend to me twice that with this slowing effect I had great difficulties getting the solution and calculation done right.

IS there a way to turn those blurring effects off?

This has nothing to do with cheating... it is just so darn frustrating... :damn:

it is not a problem as long as I can keep the scope above the waterline but within a convoy I need to keep the scope low or I will be spotted and get under fire... etc.

Anyone have a clue to minimize te blurring effect?

[Reventlow]

I have the same problem with the periscope and I run the game on a pretty powerful laptop. I'm looking for a solution as well.

[Grayson02sept1980]

ttt

[hammer-princess]

I can only seem to get SHIII to run on a fast PC, so I'm in a sticky wicket.

[Madox58]

the blur effects are controlled by the Cameras.dat
You can reduce all blur effects there.
If useing a Stock SH3 Cameras.dat, TT's mini-tweaker and rule will work.
If useing a modified Cameras.dat, TT's tool may still work.

[irish1958]

Get 2 Gb of memory. It doesn't cost much and will give you the best boost. Next, get FSautostart and clean out your unnecessary programs so your computer is just doing SHIII.

[Grayson02sept1980]

the blur effects are controlled by the Cameras.dat
You can reduce all blur effects there.
If useing a Stock SH3 Cameras.dat, TT's mini-tweaker and rule will work.
If useing a modified Cameras.dat, TT's tool may still work.

modified means what? Mods like GWX etc?

and what is TT's mini tweaker?

---

Getting another 1Gig of Memory is not possible... I also play on a notebook.

[irish1958]

1 mwni-tweaker is a program to change dat files. Do a search and you will find it.
2 I have a notebook and have 2Gb of RAM (DDR2)

[Tessa]

Recently I had to replace my laptop (previously the only machine I play SHIII on) as it got stolen. Though my insurance covered the replacement, I still got roughly the same hardware on my new one with a few notable differences: 1.66 Ghz Dual Core vs 2.2 Ghz Core Duo w/4mb cache on new one | 1 Gb of memory vs 3 Gb on the new one | ATI x1300 vs Nvidia GeForce 6800 GT and a 7200 rpm disk opposed to the usual slow 5400. Both machines have (had) XP SP2 Media Center as the OS.

On my old laptop never had the problem with skimming the periscope as you refer too, main places it would choke is going anywhere fast and having any extra animation on the screen. Biggest problem was travelling at 1024 speed was dangerous as you might collide with something as you're trying to slow down the time or even just to pause it. Extra RAM will never hurt, though think you need a good pairing of any two: ram, cpu, video. I haven't installed it yet on my desktop machine which could potentially give better clues. It's got 4gb of ram, same video but a highly overclocked dual core cpu. Only factor that might skew anything is that the desktop has Vista x64 on it.

[hammer-princess]

Vista again?!:damn:

[Grayson02sept1980]

I found the problem must be the Graphik chip... it's a lousy ATI Radeon Mobility X300! But miraculously SH3 runs smooth... well ran... till I installed GWX which blow my Harddisk speed and now with manual aiming I get problems with this animation of the blurring which I avoided with GWX using my WO to do the soultion...

But I adepted now and avoid those little "breaks" and then set up the Solution or swith to F6-screen where the game is running flawless 8I can keep some number ;) I know all my friends mobil phone numbers ahich are at leas 6-7x13-14numbers ... kind of a curse :lol: )

right now I miss around 25% of all shots but never one by this pc-problem... when I miss I did a wrong calculation or assumption... so the problem is somehow...not there anymore

[devildog]

i'm newbie-found out need more ram thanks to this forum and it's on it's way. in the meantime changed particle density to 50% in game options-no ctd's ect since then-gonna reset to max once ram installed-just an idea-also apoligse for not responding to personal msgs. get odd error msgs. whenever i try-suspect it's got to do with firewall or somthing-got old drinking buddy who works for ibm coming over so that should help, but if you can live w\o eye candy until you get more ram try it-nothing to lose-cheers and thanks to all-devildog:D

[Tessa]

Even with a modest video card the game will still slow down or get blurry with 1 gb of RAM. Even for laptops RAM is cheap, long as it can recognize 1gb chips the game's performance shouldn't drop when you're playing GWX. Getting 2 gb should be affordable. With more RAM you could possibly reduce the size of the pagefile forcing the machine to use the RAM instead of the disk. Disk I/O sucks on laptops, even with sata drives they are still noticeably slower (the 7200 rpm ones aren't that bad; but am assuming that the machine in question is a bit older).

[Grayson02sept1980]

my Machine has a 7200rpm harddisk still you're right... it sucks!

The problem is I have 1 GB and it is taking up both slots so I will have to buy the 2GB completly new... not really an upgrade but a replacement meaning extra $$$ to spend... :roll:

Will consider it though.

Thanks for all the help folks!

Update/Edit:

Just asked a friend and 2GB are not that expensive... he will order them for me and when I have replaced the 2x512 with the 2x1024 I will tell you if it makes a difference

[Communazi]

I've tried to remove this goddamn slow blur effect before, but I didn't get it.

first, TT is useless here. TT can change values of "DropsDuration", "BlurDuration", "Radius" in "CameraEffect" of "obs_periscope" and "periscope" without OLC GUI, but all those functions just do some chage about blur effect, they aren't stopping blur effect. then I used UltraEdit to remove the whole parts of "CameraEffect" in Camera.dat file, it would remove the blur effect successfuly, but both persicopes become unrotatable, even I did touch any values in "RestrictedRotation" function.

in Effect.cfg file, we have
[BlurEffect]
MaxBlurMipMap=4
change this value to 0 will still not stopping blur effect, which just makes blur intensity lower, but, yes, blur effect slow down ur machine as usual.

adding ram shorten the loading time, but i'm pretty much sure it will not help with blur effect problem until u got money to change ur millions years old vedio card

anyone got the solution how to modify this Camera.dat file?
i'm listenning...


btw, I command U-69 with GWX+OLC on Mobility Radeon 9000

[Grayson02sept1980]

...still will try the Ram update nevertheless.. the Chips are not that expensive

I also did some cleaning with a program to make RAM free and also get rid of some ueless programms... now my system is set up 100% optimal .. as good as it can get

I also found that the problem mainly occurs during bad weather effects... if the weather is ok and waves are not that igh it is there... the problem... but not so strong