Slugish game need setup help (FIXED)

Hi
I bought the game a few weeks back but have just had time to look into it..
when i start up the game is slow and slughis.. mouse moves slow after loading..

i've been looking around here and tried to use the vertical sync fix but no go.. and turn off dev's .. i tried to optimize my gfx cards and it went from bad to awful...
currently they are blinking blury on and off..

system.
Vista Ultimate
Dell XPS 700
Intel core 2 6800 extreme stepped to 3400 something.
2x Nvidia 7900GTX 512MB SLI
dell hybrid mobo with nvidia 590 sli chips on.
2GB ram
2 250GB striped disks..
Creative X-Fi extreme music.. latest drivers.

using latest forceware for gfx and mainboard.

3d settings currently set to
AF: application controlled
AA: application controlled
AA transparency: multisampling
conformant texture clamp: use hardware
force mipmaps: off
multidisplay : single siplay performance mode
SLI performance mode: Force splitframe rendering (when i do every second it just blinks blury.)
texture filtering:
anisotropic mip filter optimization: off
anisotropic sample optimization : off
Negative LOD bias: allow
quality: high performance
trilinear optimization: off
Thread optimization: on
Triple buffering: on
Vertical sync: forced on.

i bought the system new last fall... it should be able to run it pretty smooth with high resolution... asume 4 frame pr sec is too low..

atm the game is just unplayable .. please help something i should change.. set up in game??.. yes i have installed 1.3 patch not that it helps ..

i run other games on this system like Lineage2, Company of heroes, medieval war 2 with out any problems...

[minsc_tdp]

My system similar, except one 8800 GTS card but you have SLI. Even so, 4 fps is way too slow for that setup.

Try disabling SLI.
Try getting the latest BETA drivers for Nvidia (the ones that fix the Lost Planet problems.)
I've had so many major driver issues with the Nvidia stuff that I've resorted to using Driver Cleaner Pro in Safe Mode to strip out the drivers before installing any new ones, always.

[Jmack]

for me what it worked was setting affinity and priority of cpu

start game » ctrl+alt+del » processes » sh4.exe » set afinity to cpu 0 or to cpu1
also set priority to real time ... that will give sh4 priority over other processes running

the issue with this is that it has to be done every time you run the game
but there is a small application called SetAffinity that allows you to preset this.

also ... some recomend to turn off the threaded optimization of your nvidia card since its only used for openGL.

also ... some recomend that vertical sync is off in game

there are several other tricks people recomend

do a search for stutters or fps ... you will found related stuff

[Von Manteuffel]

Hello, Lioneye - and welcome to the best game community in the world.

I'm running a very similar system to yours on my desk-top under XP and on my lap top under Vista ( except on the lap-top I only have one 7900GTX.) I've not experienced problems with either. The desktop is running a 21" iiyama at 1680 x 1050 and the Dell XPS laptop is running at 1900 x 1200 - both without problems.

It does sound like a driver problem. Have you made sure you're not running anything else in the background, have minimised the processes which are running and have turned anti-virus software off?

thanks .. i'll try turning off everything in the background.. look for beta drivers.. i looked last week but didn't find any.. i havn't had the need to turn off anything else for other games so far.. but does Sh4 takes so much more resources than other games??

i btw have a 30" widescreen monitor.. so i'm trying to run Sh4 on 2500x1600 ... that could be the culpit??..

[Kant Schwimm]

Originally Posted by Lioneye

thanks .. i'll try turning off everything in the background.. look for beta drivers.. i looked last week but didn't find any.. i havn't had the need to turn off anything else for other games so far.. but does Sh4 takes so much more resources than other games??

i btw have a 30" widescreen monitor.. so i'm trying to run Sh4 on 2500x1600 ... that could be the culpit??..

I have an almost identical rig to you and my game runs fine all maxed with volu fog turned off, however I only have a 19" monitor running at 1280 res - so I would say yes its your resolution thats bringing your frame rates down.

A good tip I had was to turn everything off in your nvidia control panel and in your game options then tweak them up 1 at timeuntil you find the frame rate killer, it was volumetric fog for me, takes awhile to do but is worth it, hope this helps

[ryanwigginton]

Help... I'm a v-sync junkie.

Only thing is now my frame jumps between 60fps and 30fps. Thing is when you get a taste of 60fps then switch to the bridge and drop to 30fps you really feel the blow. And I can't stand ripple effect you get with v-sync off. lol. bummer. I've become a true fps snob.

Change you drivers man. And steer away from that v-sync button, lest you fall foul like I did.

[ryanwigginton]

By the way... (and kind of on topic) any gurus here got good advice on virtual memory settings? Should windows manage or is there a general rule that will give us better performance?

[SHARKMEAT]

Originally Posted by ryanwigginton

By the way... (and kind of on topic) any gurus here got good advice on virtual memory settings? Should windows manage or is there a general rule that will give us better performance?

I use nopageing in virtual memory settings, and love it. The game loads alot faster, example the first load of the day takes about 18 sec's after that about 3 to 5 sec's, missions about the same. Corsair Memory running at 1066 mhz, with a Extreame 6800 CPU with 1066 FSB........CHEERS

[Rilex]

also set priority to real time ... that will give sh4 priority over other processes running

Bad idea, that prevents other critical processes from gaining any CPU time, including some kernel processes for sound/video.

By the way... (and kind of on topic) any gurus here got good advice on virtual memory settings? Should windows manage or is there a general rule that will give us better performance?

Let Windows manage it. You can never disable paging, you'll just end up putting more pressure on physical RAM than is required. Ultimately, this can lead to crashes since no available memory left == processes killed to free memory.

[SHARKMEAT]

Originally Posted by Rilex

Bad idea, that prevents other critical processes from gaining any CPU time, including some kernel processes for sound/video.

Let Windows manage it. You can never disable paging, you'll just end up putting more pressure on physical RAM than is required. Ultimately, this can lead to crashes since no available memory left == processes killed to free memory.

As my saying goes if the motor is running you don't haft tp paddle . I Been useing nopageing for along time, and I have had no problems of crashes, I run Company of Heros, Far Cry all the heavy pullers, and I never get no ERRORS for out of Virtual memory. I have 4 gigs but as you no Windows dosen't pick it all up, but I have enough to keep me spinning alone.....CHEERS

[Rilex]

Except the paging file is largely irrelevant to game play. There is no benefit to disabling it. Instead of being able to push out irrelevant pages to the page file, you end up keeping them in memory which is more costly.

Also, you'll still end up paging to backing stores (executables, dlls). You cannot disable "virtual memory" in Windows.

[SHARKMEAT]

Originally Posted by Rilex

Except the paging file is largely irrelevant to game play. There is no benefit to disabling it. Instead of being able to push out irrelevant pages to the page file, you end up keeping them in memory which is more costly.

Also, you'll still end up paging to backing stores (executables, dlls). You cannot disable "virtual memory" in Windows.

I don't disable it lol.. and once the game has loaded I get no HD led activity, if I let windows manage it the HD light stays on most of the time go figure, what do you mean as more costly ?...If I was worried about money I would be playing on a console LOL......CHEERS

BTW: Would they put the nopaging setting if it wasen't there in virtual setting, it works for me that all I care about is keeping that HD light off. one more thing look at the fragmenting area and see that the area set a side for virtual memory is no longer there. I also use a program (gamejackal=Virtual Drive) to replace the EXE to start the games, which means no more DVD or CD action or spin-up during game play.

[Rilex]

if I let windows manage it the HD light stays on most of the time go figure,

LEDs really don't mean much. You can have no performance-impacting activity and have the LED stay lit.

what do you mean as more costly ?...

More expensive (computational/performance) wise.

Would they put the nopaging setting if it wasen't there in virtual setting

Because, just like the Task Manager, many, many things are mislabeled to make them "easier" to understand.

Go read Windows Internals to gain some knowledge about the Virtual Memory Manager and paging. You'll understand why, in general (which means, gaming, every other end user task, and many server-level tasks), disabling or changing page file settings really doesn't do much or is detremental to performance.

Originally Posted by Von Manteuffel

Hello, Lioneye - and welcome to the best game community in the world.

I'm running a very similar system to yours on my desk-top under XP and on my lap top under Vista ( except on the lap-top I only have one 7900GTX.) I've not experienced problems with either. The desktop is running a 21" iiyama at 1680 x 1050 and the Dell XPS laptop is running at 1900 x 1200 - both without problems.

It does sound like a driver problem. Have you made sure you're not running anything else in the background, have minimised the processes which are running and have turned anti-virus software off?

what is your exact settings on the system with the 7900GTX?? .. if i turn on AA and AF SH4 seems to crash.. just wonder if it's hardware or if i should OC the cards a bit..