severe stuttering problems in SH3. but why?

[BilgeMatt]

Hi all--

I purchased SH3 a couple years back but just recently decided to get back into it and installed it on my desktop with its new install of Win XP. I installed the SH3 1.4b DVD patch and have installed no mods.

For some reason, I run into severe stuttering and freezing when in the #2 training mission (naval artillery). It seems to happen when a ship is exploding and sinking. And in particular when using binoculars or UZO. Sometimes it's so bad, it takes me a minute to regain control to exit the mission.

I've tried installing the latest Nvidia drivers, the latest drivers for my sound hardware (AD 1988) and have tried turning off all nonessential things running in the background (ipod junk, defrag service, Mcafee services). I've also tried turning sound hardware acceleration all the way up and all the way off. No difference!

Things do seem to run better when I set 'particle density' to 0. But it just doesn't look good at all, and my machine shouldn't have to be set that low.

My system details:

Asus P5B Deluxe motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 (2 x 2.4Ghz)
Win XP SP3
2GB RAM
Nvidia 7800 GT (256MB RAM)


What's weird is I have no performance issues when playing relatively modern games (like Dead Space, Half-Life 2, Bioshock)

I was planning on getting back into SH3, maybe doing the GWX3 thing, etc. But if the second training mission causes problems this bad, then I'm not sure I want to pursue it

I guess the next thing to check is cooling on the video card, and cpu (?)
anyone know of some programs that will log system temperatures with timestamps or something similar?

Please throw any suggestions you have at me, at this point I'll try anything

Thanks!
-Matt

[K-61]

Do you have an onboard sound card or a standalone sound card? A lot of systems today have the sound processor on the motherboard. My gaming computer had an onboard processor and I would get the stuttering problem when the game was trying to render explosions and the like. As soon as I installed a dedicated sound card the issue went away. The sound card on my gaming desktop is a SoundBlaster Audigy Value. Not very expensive at all. Something to consider.

[ccc]

I had this problem with my sound for the longest time. Severe stuttering and freezing due to multiple sounds (planes, explosions) in SH3 & 4. I just had to put up with it but finding someone else may have the same problem got me thinking about it again.

I think I may have found a solution. My onboard sound shares an IRQ with the USB controllers. I just disabled "legacy USB support" in BIOS, and it seems to be perfectly smooth now! It's something to try, although no guarantees since I don't know if it's the same problem as you have, and I haven't had time to test it beyond a few training missions.

[BilgeMatt]

Ahoy, K-61, thx for the reply. Yes this is something I've been thinking about as I pore over the various posts by people that have reported issues. Kinda sad if this is indeed the case, shouldn't the AD chip be up to the task of doing multiple explosion sounds? These things are made to play back 5.1 audio for DVDs, etc!

Fwiw, I just ran some stress and benchmark tests with Furmark ( http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/ ) and my video card seemed to hold up well. It ran at 103C for quite some time in the stress test, before I terminated it at 10 minutes. I also ran the benchmark and seemed to come in ahead of the comparable systems (of course, nothing by today's video card standards): http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fu...d3b72854132e8e

compared with the standard table it does better than the Geforce 8600 GT that is cited here, run with the default settings: http://ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/#comptable


I think I might have an old sound card kicking around the garage. I'll take a look around.

[K-61]

BM,I never thought to check into a possible IRQ sharing snag. I've now been with my SoundBlaster card for so long I'll simply stick with it. On my new gaming notebook everything works fine, but I did pay a pretty penny to get a higher end notebook specifically for gaming. In general I'm a fan of dedicated hardware for sound and video, allowing the CPU to do what it does best without having to carry extra processing. Onboard controllers are convenient if you don't push the system hard and also allow for inexpensive systems.

[BilgeMatt]

heh I realized right after I created my nick that 'BM' would be the initials. kinda fitting for bilge, I guess

well this doesn't bode well: I plugged in a USB sound device I have (Edirol) and made that the default sound playback device, and I listened with headphones. Things go fine until I hit the training again..then the same issues.

There must be some low-level incompatibility with my video hardware and the way the code is written. I might just go for broke and install GWX3 to see what happens.

heh I see Ubisoft has a total of 7 questions on their support site for SH3. You know you're desperate when you're checking the publisher's site!

I have an Nvidia 8800 card I plan to move out of my MythTV box so I think I'll try installing that.

thx for the tips, guys!

[K-61]

Let us know how it works out for you. And don't despair. Soon you will be promoted to "nub."