Finally...My Turn!
 

I was scrounging through my storage unit yesterday, looking for movies I wanted to watch again, and I stumbled upon my copy of...SH4! I bought it last year, just a few weeks after the release, but couldn't play it because I was homeless at the time. I've been in my own place for four months now, but couldn't find my SH4, and since I've been busy with SH3 stuff I didn't worry about it.

Now I have it installed, and patched to 1.4, and I'm having the oft-reported lousy frame-rates. Since I just recently upgraded my PC to 2GB of RAM, I'm assuming the problem is my ATI 9600 video card, which is 128MB. Even with everything - and I mean everything - turned off the best FPS I'm getting is 35 inside and 20 outside. With any effects enabled I'm looking at 15 and 9.

I've searched the forums and read several threads, and so far it looks like I'm stuck playing at the minimal levels until I can either get a better card or a whole new computer. I'm currently running a 3GB P4, and you've seen the rest, so I won't go into it. Even a moderate improvement would be nice; I won't need too much since I'm ultimately looking at 100% anyway. I would like to look at all the pretties once in awhile, though, and I'd like the ships to look the best possible. Just wondering what my options are, especially since I long ago downloaded most of the available mods and anxious to start experimenting.

Oh, and first impressions: While I like the SH3 interface, the new one's not so bad. I hate the voices, but that's what SH1, SH2 and Pacific Aces sound files are for. It will be awhile before I really understand what's what, but at least it's a start.

What speed is your processor? I run SH4 on 3.0 Ghz p4 with 2 Gb RAM and a geforce 6200 256Mb card and setting set to medium. I do have no fog and other things turned off, but I get a good frame rate, even with taskforces.

Its the graphics card that runs the game so just upgrade that and you will be good to go . The 3.0 gig pentium is great , 2 gig of ram is all you need . Ati cards are as cheap as chips and you dont need an expensive one to run SH4 at descent frame rates . cheers .

Sorry, forgot that part. Mine is also a 3GB P4. And thanks, sober. I figured that was the problem from things I'd read on other threads, but wanted to be sure. Unfortunately, it'll have to wait awhile, as even a cheap card is out of my budget right now. But it's okay, I have other things to keep me occupied.

Oh, and another observation. I found the mod that removes the grainy effect from the Post-Processing Filters, and with PPF turned on it looks so much better, and a t a very small framerate drop, so I'll live with it. And the animated crews on AI ships are a great addition.

Steve, I understand your excitement. I remember seeing a preview of this game a couple years ago and then over the next several months forgot about it. All of a sudden one day I remembered and found out that it had been released for a couple months so I went out and bought it. Like you I suffered through crappy frame rates (way worse than yours) until about 2 months ago when I finally got a new computer (quad core, 3gigs of ram, 8800GT). It was worth the wait and it is a beauty to play.

Steve, I assume that your system uses an AGP bus, not PCI-E? If this is true, for a mere $200 you can make SH 4 look smooth as silk. Save up for an ATI Radeon 3850 AGP video card. That's all I did to my elderly AGP system(well ok, I also added a new 650W PS) and now she's running SH4 like a dream with all the eye candy turned on, and sliders at medium.

My point being, even though $200 is a lot of money, it sure beats $2000 to build a new system.

Thanks for the recommendations. I agree $200 is a trifle when compared with $2000 or even $1000, but when you said "mere" I had to laugh: it's taken me almost two years to finally have the $100 for a 2GB memory upgrade, and I thought I was lucky when I suddenly found $30 to finally have a real sound card.:rotfl:

But who knows? A decent job might be right around the corner, and until then I'll keep playing with mods and things, if not actually running a real career.:sunny:

[edit] This is strange, but only in that I don't understand what I'm looking at. What I'm looking at is the precise specs, using Sandra. The video device type is listed as "PCI\VEN etc", but the adapter type is "ATI etc AGP".

Same with the sound card: "PCI\VEN etc"

The "etc" in both cases is a string of numbers and letters, referring to the model and type. I can give you all the numbers, but I'm just wondering what the references mean.

One possibility from SANDRA faq:

http://www.sisoftware.net/index.html...us&langx=en&a=
Another possibility is the AGP runs off the PCI controller, so while the card is AGP, it still detects through the PCI bus.

And a 3rd possibility is your chipset drivers may be installed incorrectly.

Well, that certainly makes sense. I don't like it, but it makes sense.:dead:

ATI Radeon 9600 was launched in August 2002, so the fact that SH4 runs with 35 fps on a 6 year old card is a feat of engineering :rock:.

PS: with all the real estate crisis in the US, you managed to get a place of your own, it makes me proud of you.

LOL consider it even more amazing that despite Steve having been for a long time without internet connection (Only some hours daily in the public library) he is way beyond the 14000 posts mark, and cracked first ever here the 10000 mark :lol:

I knew you were a hobo.:rotfl:

I'd be offended, but...brother, can you spare a dime?:rotfl:

Geez I can lend you at least US$10,000 but you have to give me your name, address, social security number and next of kin so my Unka Guido from Palermo can find you if you fail to repay. I told you I have mafia connections! Unka Guido is looking for Ducimus right now to lean on the git!:yep::rotfl: Now, excuse me I have a US Presidential candidate to threaten!:lol:

$10,000? Is that all???

Ambassador Bishop Arnold Mustafa bin Hersheimer has offered me a cool million, and all I have to give him is my bank account number!

Cheapskate!:rotfl: