What gives with the time compression stutter? (And a couple other things)

[vtccgolf]

Hey folks,

Well, I am new to the forum, and I have done my best to find out if this issue has been addressed already. Since I am coming up dry, I decided to start this thread in hopes of finding an answer. I recently bought SH4 (along with SH1 and SH3) after playing some SH2. I was a big Silent Service fan, and I have a personal love for the Pacific Theatre. Probably why I do the real thing for my day job. Anyway, my one big issue so far with the game (other than the ridiculous medals) is the time compression. It works great at first, but, as I sink more ships in the game, the time compression starts to "stutter" over 2048X. In fact, it has gotten so bad that I end up running at most 512X. I have noticed it gets really bad if I sink several ships close together and in shallow water (i.e. harbors).

I am running NSM4 light to help, but the stutter is still there. I am running the following mods using JSGME from top to bottom: RSRD Sound MOD.SPAX, Webster's Better Air Patrols for v1.4 and v1.5, Map Colour Scheme 1, NSM4 Light. Occasionally, I will run Webster's Improved Torpedo Power and Upgraded Deck Gun also. My SH4 version is 1.4.

My rig runs a Intel Quad Core Q6700 2.67GHz with 4 GB RAM and Vista 64 bit Home Premium. My vid card is the nVidia 8600GT.

Anybody know what I can do to remedy this?

One last question...anyone have any idea why I only get Navy Crosses after each partrol no matter how much I sink? When I first started playing SH4, I could get a CMOH with my eyes shut. After moding a little, all I seem to get is the Navy Cross. Weird.

Sorry to be long, but I wanted to answer all the questions I see others get when they ask a question. Good day gents!

[groomsie]

The "stutter" I normally interpret as when there is a lot to process in the game, such as if you are nearing a coast, shallow water, or lots of contacts in area. Keep in mind that the "contacts" may not yet be detectable to you, and I know when you see this stutter with no explanation it may be time to look closer (maybe go to 100' or so and listen?).

Are you seeing this stutter all the time, or in particular are you seeing it in open ocean away from contacts and land?

Regarding awards, may want to look into Captain Scurvey's (sp?) Medals mod, it is very good I think and now that he has it updated for TMO 1.6.3 and I've gotten back to port I'm going to re-initiate it.

Something I saw allueded to some time back is I do think it is possible the way you start your career impacts awards: My first career I started the game in "Easy" and gradually worked up to manual targeting and full realism, but I almost always got the CMOH at each patrol end, to the point it was kinda annoying. This career I started in "Realistic" and no reknown, then adjusted settings to same as first career--what I'm seeing is after 5 complete war patrols and comparable results, I have 1 award (a silver star) to my credit. So, I've heard that your initial setting carries on for awards despite what adjustments you may make from there on gameplay, and I'd say what I have seen supports this.

[Rockin Robbins]

First of all, welcome to Subsim, where the people tank always has room for one more.

I've found that most time compression stutter comes from all the targets in your sensor range, even the friendly targets. Time compression will also lag for a couple of seconds if you advance it quickly from 1 to 2048 or above. It seems like the game is doing a few housekeeping tasks, clears the memory and then the time compression takes off with great vigor.

Now you have a better processor than my Opteron 175 and a slightly faster vid card than my nVidia 7600GT. You should be charging around at 4096 or higher and not even worrying about it.

How long has it been since you defragged the old hard drive? That will make a major difference. You can get lag from background processes, especially instant messengers, update checkers, virus scanners, spyware turning your machine into a zombie, etc. Background Internet access is also a load you can do without. Rebooting if you find the game going slow helps almost all the time.

In spite of the fact that SH4 is not usually thought of as being in the current generation of resource hogging games, I've found that its demands are very high compared to some games that are traditionally thought of as resource hogs.

[AVGWarhawk]

If I were to pick up one thing in your post that would lead to the stutters in compression....your video card would be it. You have all kinds of speed in your CPU and memory but your card is holding you back. I suspect that a faster card would stop the stutters in compression. My CPU is as fast as yours and memory the same. My card is the 9800 gt. I can compress to the max without stutter. I run about the same mods as you.

[vtccgolf]

Thanks for the warm welcome and the replies so far. Being a professional bubblehead yet only seeing the inside of a shipyard for three years...you can imagine why I love these games so much. Of course, my wife isn't much for any games whatsoever, even if I try to pass it off as "professional development."

Just to get back to a couple questions:

1) I have noticed the customary stutter when approaching contacts, the coastline (except those small islands you only see on max zoom), and when radio messages come in. The stutter that I am concerned with is when anytime I am above 2048X after sinking dozens of targets. I tend to go in a refit and go back out (particularly early in the Asiatic fleet...get 'um while the bases are close!). So, over time the sinkings on the map pile up, and the stutter gets worse. I have no problems when first heading out on a new patrol, so that makes me believe it is related to that. When I have about 50 total sinkings (yeah, I am playing "no duds" and do a couple refits), it starts to get bad around 1024X...to the point it is actually faster to keep it on 512X. I have seen it much worse when more of the sinkings are in harbors.

I haven't tried it, but I may go back through the bottleneck near Merak (west side of "Jawa") heading back to Fremantle and see if those tankers are still there sitting on their side in the harbor. I am thinking the game is slowing because it keeps those sunk targets in the game. It could regenerate them too...I have sank the same Yamato and Kongo battleships at sea (and received no credit the second time). That leads me to believe it is a respawning issue. Even better, I have been able to tell they were respawned when I see the contact show up at long range with the specific ship type, not just as merchant or warship.

2) On the video card issue, I have been told my 8600GT is on the low end now. I am thinking about bumping up to the 9800 series...just have to update my power supply too (running at 350W right now). That may help, but then I am thinking it is a game related issue. Don't want to drop $279 when it won't help right now.

3) About the awards issue...I can see how the initial difficulty setting does play into that. I have always set it to easy until recently so I could custom change the settings. Before, it was a record number of those Victory Medals, now only the Cross. They are shorting my crew too, so I think that needs some attention. I don't really care about getting a ton of medals, but when your crew busts their butts and survive some ash can rain, they deserve a little more than one silver star and a couple purple hearts for the whole boat. I already fight those award battles in real life!

Thanks again for all the help, and I hope that I can figure out this compression thing. It's really frustrating to run the game while running errands out in town just to come back and find a gunboat did you in.

[AVGWarhawk]

2) On the video card issue, I have been told my 8600GT is on the low end now. I am thinking about bumping up to the 9800 series...just have to update my power supply too (running at 350W right now). That may help, but then I am thinking it is a game related issue. Don't want to drop $279 when it won't help right now.

tigerdirect.com
newegg.com

You can get this card for about $100.00. Yes, get a power supply. A good one to run this card should run you about $60-70. Tell the wife it is therapy. That is what I tell mine. Anyway, the 9600 gt card will work also and few dollars less than the 9800gt. It really is not a game related issue, I can assure you that.

You TC when you go out on errands?

[vtccgolf]

I don't TC too much when I run out, but I might as well if this is going to keep up. One time I was cruising through the Central Pacific on 512X I believe, ran over to a neighbors to return something (yeah, that whole multi-tasking thing). When I got back into my study, I found the USS Gar was getting owned by a small gun boat on the surface. I only stepped out for five minutes too! You can guess what I set my default settings to on contact after that...give 'um the deck gun!

On a separate occasion, I was cruising around the Luzon Strait on about 32X, stepped out for a cup of coffee, and came back to one interesting sight: The Flying Dutchman! Yeah, I was wondering what it was at first (some Easter Egg of course). I guess the Flying Dutchman is copyrighted too since they didn't call it that by name in the game. I'm sorry, that medal copyright excuse just kills me. I need to find a good mod for v1.4. I saw a couple for v1.5. Any suggestions?

[SteamWake]

You can have the biggest baddest rig in town and your still going to get stutters at high rates of TC. Espically around busy ports/shipping lanes.

It is what it is. There is a point of diminishing returns using TC depending on your big bad rig. For me its around 1024. Any faster than that and the 'stutters' get so bad it actually takes longer to get where your going.

[peabody]

Well, my suggestion goes along with Rockin Robbins, first thing to do is defrag, it made an unbelieveable difference to my game.

Secong if I get anywhere near a harbor the studdering is MAJOR. I am only running a 7600GS which is slower than the 7600GT that Rockin has. You running a 8600GT should be a lot better than we are. And some of the 8xxx cards are actually faster than the 9xxx cards. So I wouldn't rush right out and spend money on a new card right away. Around harbors you don't usually need to go much more than 512. I would play the game for a while in "open sea" and check it out and see if it is the harbor that is the problem.

And as commented, when you get a contact you will either get studdering or slowdown to about 8X. So as commented if you are in open sea and are going along fine and start a studder, you can be sure there is a convoy or task force nearby. I have heard some in here actually use this as a way to find the enemy. They patrol at high Time compression until they get a studder and then try to figure out where the target is.

You have to realze that you are using a program that although not anywhere near the worse for grapics intensibe it is a heavy user, and then try to run it 2000 times the speed it is suppose to run, you are putting quite a load on your system.

And AVGWarhawk I am partially disagreeing a bit with your comment and I mean no insult to you at all !!!!, since I am running a 7600GS which is a LOOOOOOOG way from a 9800GT. I can not run with everything maxed out I will definately admit that, but I can have great graphics and great game play if dropped a bit from max. Harbors are definately a problem, but I am not a harbor raider.

To OP if you can afford it and want one then go for the new card, but if you can't, it should be able to get the game going quite well with what you have. So my personal opinion is try some other options first if you can't afford a card.

I have made this comment before and nobody beleved me, the biggest increase in speed I got was a defrag. The little things sometimes make a big difference on a slow card. And it also depends a lot on how many Mods you load it up with, If you are the type that needs everything, then you may need to go for the new card.

Another thing not considered is the motherboard and settings. With the information given it is not a definate that a new card will solve the problem..There is no info on the RAM or FSB which can make a difference.

Now I will admit I am not a big time gamer, I play SH4 and Falcon, that's all. But I only post this because I am not going out and spend $200-300 (new card and Power supply) to play a $30 game. I can't afford it, so just offering suggestions for those in the same boat as me. And there will be a lot of people that will be discouraged from buying this game if they read that they have to build a totally new system to play this. Some had to wait until the next pay check to buy the game.

So if you can afford the best (read-expensive) then go for it. I would love a Ferrari. But if you can't you can still have a great time playing the game within the limits of your equipment, by tweaking settings and play the way it plays well. If harbors give you a problem, don't go there. Usually there isn't much in most of them anyway. If you sink a lot of ships and get studdering, it may not be the ships you sank. You may have a couple DDs that were not sunk and everytime the game gets a contact, it drops you to 8X. So it may not be the sunken ships causing the problem it may be the ships you didn't sink. And you don't have to go very far to get away from them.

Just my 2 cents.

Peabody

[Armistead]

Unless you have a uber system, you're gonna deal with some stuttering at high TC.

I have a AMD64xx2 3800, 4 gigs of ram, 9600gt card. I was using a 7800gt and still played the game OK, just wierd sky effects at night.

I run all high settings. Still, if I get in a harbor that has 30+ ships the game will come to a crawl...just taking in all the info. If you refit and fill you patrol up with a lot of info, over time it can do strange things.

The game is the game, like all others, it all comes down to the one with the most toys gets the better game. Low end users like myself deal with minor stuff. If you're getting stuttering running lower than 2000 TC...it's on your end.

If I get near a base to refit or dock, cut you're radar off, less info to take in.

Defrag is a must anyway, but I cut all background programs and services off I don't need. Updated drivers, blah blah.

I use nHancer settings listed..that helped the graphics somewhat. You can tweak ta death, but still the game should be very playable for you. I think you need to stop all the refits and loading up all the kill info in one patrol.

I got my 9600gt for $90.00 and happy with it for now.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by vtccgolf

Hey folks,

Well, I am new to the forum,

Welcome aboard!!

Neal

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by vtccgolf

I don't TC too much when I run out, but I might as well if this is going to keep up. One time I was cruising through the Central Pacific on 512X I believe, ran over to a neighbors to return something (yeah, that whole multi-tasking thing). When I got back into my study, I found the USS Gar was getting owned by a small gun boat on the surface. I only stepped out for five minutes too! You can guess what I set my default settings to on contact after that...give 'um the deck gun!

On a separate occasion, I was cruising around the Luzon Strait on about 32X, stepped out for a cup of coffee, and came back to one interesting sight: The Flying Dutchman! Yeah, I was wondering what it was at first (some Easter Egg of course). I guess the Flying Dutchman is copyrighted too since they didn't call it that by name in the game. I'm sorry, that medal copyright excuse just kills me. I need to find a good mod for v1.4. I saw a couple for v1.5. Any suggestions?

I multitask also but this is something like switching a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer for my wife. I leave the game at X1. Go to the neighbors for a beer and at X512? Never, I hit pause! I find this truly amazing you would do this.

[vtccgolf]

AVGWarhawk...my wife would tell you that there is plenty of things that I do that would truly "amaze" anyone (all married men reading this will know that this is code for all the stupid things we do). I quote: "Oh honey...THAT's just so amazing! How long do you plan on doing THAT?"

My main TC usage while multi-tasking involves that long truck back to Pearl or Fremantle...especially since I am limited to 512X. Usually, these routes are clear of the enemy. I am still wondering what a small gun boat was doing in the middle of the Pacific. I am going to check the defrag and cut back on the background programs. Since I run Vista, I have to be careful what I install so the gods of Microsoft don't rain down thunder on my desktop. I am going to bump up that video card before StarCraft 2 hits the shelves.

Peabody...just a couple things you mentioned that I didn't mention. My rig has a FSB of 1066Mhz and the RAM is a PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM.

One last question for everyone. I love to hit the harbors since that's where the large tankers like to hang out. And Kobe...holy cow! Both Yamatos and several carriers! Anyway, is there a MOD out there that would cause these ships to get underway under fire? It's easy tonnage with them sitting there, but that gets old quick.

Thanks guys! Love the warm welcome!

[ReallyDedPoet]

Originally Posted by vtccgolf

Thanks guys! Love the warm welcome!

Here is another than , welcome to SUBSIM

Enjoy your stay.

[les green01]

welcome aboard when i got to do something else even for a few mins i kick the tc down as it only takes a a few seconds to get in trouble also kick off all the back ground programs you can,end it all works good for that