Help OFP play reduced to a crawl

[Tannethal 0]

Recently did a clean install after i reinstalled XP (upped with the SPs). So did some testing with fraps and with Keygets Postproccessing thinge.

My Addons are cleanly in folders organised, only things in addons are the AGS kits and the baracken kit.

The Problem is that Ofp gives me even at a clean start with -nomap command and without any modfolders loaded a mere 20-30 fps. In the battlefield mission it drops down to 10 and even below that.

Tried the RHS T55s in a modfolder and their mission intro gave me a mere 10 fps, in the mission itself it's averaging 15.

So this seems to be way off performance wise.

Settings at 800x600:

LODs highest, frames highest

resolutions of textures 1024x1024

Viewdistance 800

everything other on autodetect in Setup (Geo performance is roundabout 4700 to 4900, depends on retrys)

AF&AA are of on driver level

general driver level set at balanced

System specs:

Athlon XP2200 @ 1.8 GHz

512MB SD RAM CL2

GF 4 TI4200 with 128MB DDR at standart clocks, Det 45.23 as of October 2003 (supposed to be 'best' driver for card)

all on a Shuttle AK32V3 (Via KT266A) RAM and CPU clock in Sync

If anyone knows a cure help me out. Ten fps is unplayable.

Not sure if it's connected with XP though.

Thanks in advance!

S!

[lee_h._oswald 0]

Are the VIA 4 in 1 drivers installed?

Is your harddisk running in dma (whatever it can) mode?

MfG Lee

[Heatseeker 0]

Recently did a clean install after i reinstalled XP (upped with the SPs). So did some testing with fraps and with Keygets Postproccessing thinge.

Have you tried disabling DXDLL? Especialy postprocessing, pp steals me 10/20 fps, its big no no for my card (same has yours), also if you push the water reflection settings too much it may also reduce performance significantly.

Also run opf preferences, click autodetect and check your benchmark, you should get way better performance with that sistem. hmm, yeah set terrain detail to low too.

Good luck, hope this helps .

[McWolf 0]

Your PC can ran default OFP in a acceptable FPS, add more ram.

For runing WinXP fine, you should have at least 768M ram.

[Tannethal 0]

@lee: Via4in1 V4.45 installed, there are newer ones but that won't do anything to my board.

DMA is enabled for the harddisc.

Maybe install a newer version of them might help, will check that out.

DXDLL has each and everything disabled it runs as a mere counter to crosscheck with fraps results.

Will try out how ofp behaves when it's removed.

Thanks so far in advance.

S!

[Heatseeker 0]

I have the same video card you do, we shouldnt need to use "-nomap"(i dont), ive heard it may also slow things down, if the game runs good without it try not to use it and see if it helps .

[McWolf 0]

I have similar system with yours. If you have many mods and addons installed, you should enable "-nomap", or disable it.

[Tannethal 0]

Fiddling with each and everything in the config, trying out deliberately every hint ever released on the forums and still can't get more than 15 average FPS in Battlefield with a clean OFP, with ECP it worsens to a mere 10 FPS at max.

Either it's the RAM or i should upgrade the MOBO.

But strange enough other games run at decent FPS, CoD UO or IL2FB+AEP for example.

S!

[Tannethal 0]

I beg for Help cause I'm lost on this one. Even a new and deliberately left clean GOTY V1.85 Install with the autodetected Graphic settings won't bring me no more than a average 20 fps in the Battlefield mission.

Tried the Resistance first two missions in campaign and it's a crawl. Unplayable simple as that.

Installing the all to 1.96 GOTY Patch doesn't improve anything.

Cranking up the Graphic settings is out of the question it will drop below 10 fps and stay there.

I've now tested various drivers for my card, tried different drivers for mobo but this seems to lead nowhere.

Still i suspect this is some issiue with winXP (upped with SP2).

So now anyone still in for a hint?

[sanctuary 19]

That is strange, i have a lower CPU, a lot less RAM than your system and a GF 2 and find OFP pleasantly playable

the graphic part of my Flashpoint.cfg

Quote[/b] ]Resolution_W="800";

Resolution_H="600";

Resolution_Bpp="16";

LOD=0.105000;

Limit_LOD="0.105000";

Shadows_LOD=0.950000;

MaxObjects=200;

Cockpit_Textures=128;

Landscape_Textures=64;

Object_Textures=128;

Animated_Textures=32;

Textures_Drop_Down=0;

Texture_Heap="0";

File_Heap="0";

the graphics settings of my UserInfo.cfg

Quote[/b] ]frameRate=30.000000;

visualQuality=0.005583;

objectShadows=0;

vehicleShadows=0;

cloudlets=1;

viewDistance=900.000122;

terrainGrid=50.000000;

Try those settings , it should give you a good smooth OFP (then you will be able to up a bit those settings according to your better hardware)

If you have an Anti-Aliasing setting in your GF panel, try to disable it and see how it run.

Remember that some addons have a lot of polygons and huge textures, and can be a pain for some system.

Running too many scripts in the background in a mission can be another cause of slowdown.

Using -nomap when you have no crash problem is not good for the performance too

add command line option -nomap, which will use more compatible way of accessing files, at some performance penalty.

[sputnik monroe 102]

I have the exact and I mean to the "T"  exact same problem as Tannethal.  

     I to get 14 FPS average on the mission Battlefield. On any thing else I only get about 18 to 22 FPS.

   Here is a copy and paste of my system specs.

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600

OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation

System Manufacturer INTEL_

System Model D865PERL

System Type X86-based PC

Processor x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 9 GenuineIntel ~2593 Mhz

Processor x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 9 GenuineIntel ~2593 Mhz

BIOS Version/Date Intel Corp. RL86510A.86A.0061.P09.0308281850, 8/28/2003

SMBIOS Version 2.3

Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)"

Time Zone Eastern Standard Time

Total Physical Memory 1,024.00 MB

Available Physical Memory 757.16 MB

Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB

Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB

Page File Space 2.41 GB

Page File C:\pagefile.sys

I h ave the same video card as Tannethal.

   I've tried every resolution and setting I can and nothing seems to help except lowering the the view distance to 400.

      It's terrible, I've been playing Toecutters Dynamic USMC campaign lately and It's nearly unplayable in the jungles. For that one particular mission I created a shortcut that only uses two modfolders. One is 337 megs (contains all the required addons for toecutters mission) and the other is a little over 200(llaumax).  If I play with out llaumax there is no frame rate improvement.

       I can't understand why I'm only getting 12 to 18fps on his mission. In his mission you have 13 marine pack marines, 3 bis hummers, 2 bis cobras and a randomely generated enemy squad of UCE arabs and edge resistance troops at any one time. That should't be taxing at all.

       I think as soon as I release my replacement config I made I'm going to delete all my addons. I can't use them really any way. The only thing though is addons are like the tree of freaking knowledge, once you've taken a bite you can never go back to the way it was before. Clean OFP just isn't the same. Once you've seen Hyakushiki's Infantry, BIS's West troops are hideous.

       What kind of computer do you need to run this game at a good frame rate? Is there any hope at all?

[sanctuary 19]

That is strange, according to your system specs in theother thread, you should have no problem.

What are the driver you are using ?

Latest drivers do not always mean the best, and very often you can see that some drivers can make your system to crawl when playing some games.

With a GF4 like you have, you should try to use some 4x.xx (some source claims that 44.03 or 45.23 are the best for the GF4) drivers instead of all those 5x.xx or 6x.xx ones that are more ressource hungry and not optimised at all for GF4 or lower card.

If you are using anti aliasing, try to turn it off in your GF4 control panel, to see if it is not responsible of the stuttering you are experiencing.

On another note, if the responsible is not the driver, there can be a or some ressource hungry programs you are running in your background to slow down your OFP experience.

[sputnik monroe 102]

My video card driver is 6.6.9.3.

    Where can you get older drivers? I must admit drivers confuse me. I hear people talk about detonator I believe it's called, I have no idea what it is.  Also Lee mentions "Are the VIA 4 in 1 drivers installed?" What are those?

[sanctuary 19]

So you have the 66.93 , the latest official nvidia driver

For the Window XP/2000 archive of official driver -> Click THERE

For the Window 9x/Me archive of official driver -> Click THERE

To install an older driver (or a newer) , you must uninstall your current driver first.

Finding the best driver for your system can be long if you test several ones, but at the end the gaming performance gain is really worthing it when you find it.

But as i have not window xp , i can't help you on the procedure, but you can read more THERE.

The VIA 4-in-1 are drivers for motherboard with VIA chipsets.

Often a cause of slowdown depending of the version of those drivers used.

If you have no VIA motherboard, ignore the VIA 4-in-1 drivers

[sputnik monroe 102]

Thanks for the link Sanctuary. I tried a few of the older drivers with no improvement.

I guess I'm just out of luck.

Tannethal's framerate is identical to mine. Battlefield is about 14 FPS for me. That's with all dxdll features off and no addons. Do I need a new video card? More ram? Is it even possible to have 2 gigs of ram?

I'm thinking about uninstalling and starting from scratch. Could that possibly help?

I really wish I could just squeeze out 10 FPS more. I mean even with one squad of MAP marine I drop to 18 FPS. Are they really that processor hungry of units.

How in the world does every one play with their views set to 2500? I would be happy just to get a good frame rate at 1000.

I am so depressed.

[sanctuary 19]

Battlefield is very processor intensive i guess (bunch of units of both side in a small area), i have stuttering at the start , but it becomes progressively better and smoother (it was less intensive in the 1.46 era , as the AI had been enhanced between CWC and Resistance, giving more difficulty to missions like Battlefield).

I think the MAP units and weapons have less polygons than a lot of the newly released units, a contributing factor of their big success as you had great quality west and east units without making your system to crawl.

With a replacement using HYK and ORCS west and east units, Battlefield is more stuttering for me.

Using BIS only units on Battlefield, i remember having seen FRAPS to show 8 fps (in the beginning, when it is stuttering) climbing to 15 when we approach the soviet defenses.

So there must be something wrong for you as you have a way better system than mine if you have only 14fps in Battlefield.

Have you tried to play it offline , turning your antivirus/firewall off to see how things are going (assuming you already tried the previous OFP and GF4 graphic settings suggested too).

[sputnik monroe 102]

I always turn off every thing while I play ofp. I'm never connected to the internet while I play.

Quote[/b] ]With a replacement using HYK and ORCS west and east units, Battlefield is more stuttering for me.

I haven't been playing with my model replacement config, my computer can barely handle it. When I can get my framerate to stay over 20 I'll consider using it more often.

If I were to get a new video card would that likely help?

[crashdome 3]

I had similar before also.

I purchased a GF 5600 series and an extra 512mb ram and saw a BIG difference.

I then upgraded to 2.8ghz and now it's a HUGE difference.

My point: Every little bit will help.

[theavonlady 2]

Slow down everybody.

I've got a 2ghz P4, 1GB Ram and a piddly 64MB Geforce 4 Go chipset on my Dell Lattitude and I can pretty much run OFP with the best of addons and enjoy normal, if not fantastic, gameplay.

So your system should fair no worse. Here are some things I would check:

1. OFP preferences and settings. Did you set something to above what you can handle?

2. Viruses and spyware. If your system's infected, they can produce some pretty nasty slowdowns.

3. Anti-virus software. Some less know AV products are a drag on performance. Never had such a problem with Norton but I have seen it happen when two separate AV products are running concurrently.

4. Click on the Windows START button, click on RUN and execute MSCONFIG. In MSCONFIG click on the STARTUP tab. Do you know what all those startup programs are? If not, you'll find most of them listed here. Elimintae the ones you're certain are worthless.

5. Defrag your disk.

[theavonlady 2]

Two last things:

6. Graphic card's anti-aliasing, anisotropic and other settings can often lag gameplay. Check them out.

7. Search The FAQ for words like "lag", "performance" and "sluggish".

[sputnik monroe 102]

Avon thanks for the link and the info about msconfig and startup. I have a little hope again.

The only program in the start section of MSconfig is rundll32. The site you linked to said that if you're seeing that in XP you most definitely have a virus.

I'll admit I'm kind of a fool and have been with out a virus scan for about a year now. I'm getting one later today. Can a virus really just hinder the performance of one game though? I mean my other games run fine, seems to just be Flashpoint that runs like crap.

[theavonlady 2]

I'll admit I'm kind of a fool and have been with out a virus scan for about a year now.

Any last wishes?

Quote[/b] ]Can a virus really just hinder the performance of one game though? I mean my other games run fine, seems to just be Flashpoint that runs like crap.

Most likely not. So, after cleaning up your machine (you better check for spyware as well), follow up on everything else as well.

[sputnik monroe 102]

I actually do have two spyware programs that work very well. I just haven't gotten around to picking up a virus scan.

Looking at the other stuff on that tast list site you posted has me gaining hope. It looks like I might have a lot of viruses. How could that give me hope you might be wondering? Well if there are viruses then maybe it's not the game.

Virus scanners can remove viruses right?

One thing I notice is if I do control alt delete and look at the processes tab is that i have about 8 copies of svchost.exe running. From what I read that means I probably got a couple of viruses.

[Placebo 29]

One thing I notice is if I do control alt delete and look at the processes tab is that i have about 8 copies of svchost.exe running. From what I read that means I probably got a couple of viruses.

Possibly but not necessarily.....

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000517.htm

Quote[/b] ]Multiple svchost.exe files are loaded when a program needs to be grouped from other Windows services. This is a normal operation of Windows and it is common to see three or four svchost.exe in the Task Manager processes.

There's a pretty good free online virus scanner which I've used myself in the past, perhaps not as good as a "big name" installed package but worth a try

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

[sputnik monroe 102]

Thanks Placebo trying it out now.