I give up there is no hope... so now what?

[sputnik monroe 102]

Quote[/b] ]Sputnik Monroe : you should check what kind of programs are running on your background too, maybe one of those is eating too many ressources.

   Here is a screen shot of my task manager. I'm not sure what is safe to shut off and what isn't.

I also looked through Intel's website that Dutchie linked to, though I couldn't make much sense of any thing. There is a download for some sort of application accelerator program... would that help?

I'm pretty sure my ram is two identical 512 chips. I'll check to make sure though.

[sanctuary 19]

I see you have a lot of symantec programs running there.

Have you tested , while being totally offline of course, to shutdown all your symantec norton products to see how OFP is running like this ?

and if you are confident enough, and always offline, setup them to not load at the startup and see how OFP is running if no symantec programs are in the background ?

[Placebo 31]

Personally I don't have anything that starts itself with windows other than the absolutely necessary windows items + Zone Alarm, if I need something I'll start it myself when I want it

If you google for any one of those items in your list you'll find a multitude of web sites that explain what each thing does for example here http://www.windowsstartup.com/wso/index.php

I use Startup control panel to turn off all the crap that tries to start itself with windows, somethings will need disabling through "services" click start/run type services.msc and click ok, for now only stop non-microsoft things (to be safe)

[sputnik monroe 102]

Thanks for the links Placebo. I tried that startup control panel utility, but it only showed 5 processes. I shut all of them off and still no gain in FPS.

I've tried turning off my symantec virus scanner and that didn't improve either.

In the past I had tried using older Nvidia drivers but to no avail. Could some one suggest the best likely driver for the Geforce ti4200?

Boy I'm feeling depressed. Flashpoint hates my guts.

I tried just driving around Nogova today with 4 of Hyakushiki's troops in a combat! Humvee with an average of 23 frames per second. I plopped down 3 squads of 9 BIS FIA and a BIS T55 in trosky and the frame rate stayed at a constant 16 to 20. Am I expecting to much performance from this game for what my system specs are?

[MSpencer 0]

Have you tried all of the above settings? What about decreasing your VD? What about decreasing your resolution (1500x1200 is very high)? What about removing all of your addons from your OFP directory?

[sanctuary 19]

I tried just driving around Nogova today with 4 of Hyakushiki's troops in a combat! Humvee with an average of 23 frames per second. I plopped down 3 squads of 9 BIS FIA and a BIS T55 in trosky and the frame rate stayed at a constant 16 to 20. Am I expecting to much performance from this game for what my system specs are?

I am beginning to think : are you saying that the framerate number is not high enough or are you saying your game is "stuttering" as it is 2 different things.

If you have constant 23 fps , you should find OFP to be smooth even if i find strange that on your system you can't pull more framerate per seconds.

The goal in framerate is to have constant fps (of course constant high fps is always better than constant low fps), it is drops in framerate that make the game feeling "stuttering".

And the resolution of 1024*768 should be enough

For a driver, for a GF4 , i suggest to use a driver between 4x.xx and 5x.xx . I read good reports for 44.03 and 45.23 (notice that nvidia introduced some new nvidia program to run in the background with 5x.xx, not really what is lightening the ressource consumed)

From reports, 6x.xx and above are only optimised for he latest nvidia serie of card, and you should not see improvement for your system with it (more likely worse)

If you play modern game, i suggest to not use something under 42.xx , as Nvidia introduced the support of some features used by modern game starting with such drivers.

Using a previous driver than such 42.xx ones and modern games should lead you to lots of graphic artefacts.

[sputnik monroe 102]

Quote[/b] ]I am beginning to think : are you saying that the framerate number is not high enough or are you saying your game is "stuttering" as it is 2 different things.

If you have constant 23 fps , you should find OFP to be smooth even if i find strange that on your system you can't pull more framerate per seconds.

Basically it'll hover around 20 to 30 if nothing is on the screen. However if there are few units on the screen (about 4 soldiers or an empty tank) it'll drop to about 18 to 20. Any thing more than that and it jumps all over from 8fps to the low twenties.

I pretty much can't play any thing other than clean sweep 1 or steal the car with out a lot of chop.

The screen resolution really puzzles me. I know lower resolution should greatly help but it doesn't with Flashpoint for me. I've run the fraps benchmark test and have gotten the same results for 1600x1200x32 as I do for 640x480x16. Could the refresh rate have something to do with it?

Also something that kind of seems odd to me, with my monitor's resolution set on any setting below 1280x960 it has humongous scan lines. I never seemed to get those on any older monitors I had in the past. I use to always use 1024x768 and there was no giant scan lines (when Flashpoint came out I played in 1024x768 on a 900mhz computer actually and there were no giant scan lines). Could my monitor some how be causing problems?

[sanctuary 19]

Personnally i play in 1024*768

I never understood but if i put the resolution to 640*480 i see no improvement in comparison with 1024*768.

But if i put it in 800*600 i can see some improvement in comparison with the 1024*768 i use.

It occurs only in OFP, in other games the differenc is visible.

Those scanlines can be related to your refresh rate too, maybe trying to change it yourself (or set it to "optimised" , i don't know how this is displayed in english version of the OS) can solve this.

I remember some nvidia driver had a problem with refresh rates.

As i never ran into it myself i have no more infos unfortunately.

[Dutchie 0]

Plse note:

The Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility installs

to the target system the Windows* INF files that outline to

the operating system how the Intel® chipset components will

be configured. This is needed for the proper functioning of

the following features:

- Core PCI and ISAPNP Services

- AGP Support

- IDE/ATA33/ATA66/ATA100 Storage Support

- SATA Storage Support

- USB Support

- Identification of Intel® chipset components in

the Device Manager

and as to:

The Intel® Application Accelerator is designed to improve

performance of the storage sub-system and overall system

performance. This software delivers improved performance

through several ingredient technologies (components).

Certain components will be available only on Pentium® 4

processor-based systems running Microsoft Windows 2000 and

Windows XP. Software installation is flexible and fully

automated for Microsoft Windows 98, Windows 98 Second

Edition(SE), Windows Millennium Edition(Me), Windows

NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Windows XP operating systems.

This Intel software should have been supplied with your PC on a CD for your motherboard.

Otherwise download the two programs and check the readme's prior to installing.

[sputnik monroe 102]

Ok I just reformated my computer completely. I installed all the stuff from the intel CD that came with my computer.

    Big problem... It will not install the application accelerator. I get the following error...

Incompatible hardware. This software is not supported on this chipset. Please select 'Yes' to view the readme file for a list of supported products. Refer to section 2 titled 'System Requirements'.

Now here is a cut and paste from the readme section 2 titled 'system requierments'.

Quote[/b] ]

************************************************************

* 2.  SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

************************************************************

1.  The system must contain the following Intel products:

* Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor

* Intel® 82801ER I/O Controller Hub

2.  The kit software should be installed on systems with at

   least the minimum system memory required by the

   operating system.

3.  Microsoft* Windows* XP Professional or Home Edition or

   Microsoft* Windows* 2000 operating system.

4.  Installation of the Intel® Chipset Software

   Installation Utility prior to loading the Intel®

   Application Accelerator RAID Edition.

    I meet all those requirements, except maybe one. Intel® 82801ER I/O Controller Hub. How do I find where mine is listed to see it's version?

    What I find extremely strange is that the CD entitled Intel Desktop Board D865PERL Intel Express Installer CD would include a application accelerator program that will not work on a D865PERL.

     What gives? I can't figure any of this out I feel like a moron.

[sanctuary 19]

I am not sure about "program accelerators" but on an older computer i had several drivers that were present on those good old floppy disk.

On one of those disk there was a driver for a soundcard that was different from the model sold in my system.

Sometime the system builders made some variants of one computer but include the same disks/cd without caring really of the exact hardware in it.

[madmanslegend 0]

I've had a similar problem like this in the past,where my PC was more than capable of running games but it would slow down to a crawl,the problem turned out to be another software I installed that was spying on me,I'm not sure if that's the deal in your case but check for trojans or spyware on your PC.

[Dutchie 0]

I meet all those requirements, except maybe one. Intel® 82801ER I/O Controller Hub. How do I find where mine is listed to see it's version?

Run: msinfo32.exe and search under I/O

or Start/Configuration Screen/Performance-Maintenance/System/Hardware/Apps Management

(I have Dutch XP version so don't no whether this translation matches yours)

Now you should see a listing of all your hardware. Try to find it under systemapparatus.

Hope you succeed

[sputnik monroe 102]

I don't think I can use the application accelerator at all. It requires RAID to work. From what I read it seems you need a minimum of two hard drives for RAID, I only have one.

To set up raid you have to do it after you reformat and before your install your OS. RAID is a file system like FAT,FAT32, and NSTF. I'm actually too chicken to try this, it seems way too complicated for me to figure out. I also am confused as to how it will improve performance on computer.

I feel like a cave man.

[sputnik monroe 102]

Good news... and some fears.

I installed the nvidia 45.23 drivers that Sancuary suggested and the game seems to be running a lot better. I seem to be getting 5 to 10 more frames per second and over all it seems a lot smoother.

I played through Battlefields just now after installing Flashpoint. My frame rate was around 20 to 23. That might sound bad to some but before I got 10 to 18. Also even though it was only 20 to 23 it was very smooth. I could turn 360 degrees with out chop and people were not warping along like a slide show.

Now here are my fears. I'm afraid If I patch the game (it's at 1.85 right now, GOTY out of the box) or install any addons It'll kill performance again. I also still haven't installed my virus scanner or service pack 2 yet.

Maybe I should just stay at Flashpoint 1.85 and ignore addons, service pack 2, and my virus scanner all together. I mean this is pretty good as is

Honestly though I'm dreading changing any thing on my computer. I just have this premonition that the moment I install service pack 2 Flashpoint will return to the realm of chop again.

[LtUlrich 0]

Install, update, and run this program.  It will take care of any spyware and allow you to manage your startup processes.  It's called Spybot: Search and Destroy.

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

I run Symantec stuff and Nvidia Detonators on a much lower-end system with no issues except for some jumpiness when I first look around upon insertion.

Running Outlook in the background, or MSNM, kills me.

I recommend SP2.  I don't think it makes much of a difference but it makes things much easier for power users.  Also it will eliminate the need for ZoneAlarm or Norton's firewall programs.

Is this machine plugged directly into a cable/dsl modem?  If so, you're using cat5 and not USB, right?  Is it running shared resources such as folders or printers?  Does it have a scanner or webcam installed?  Is it, by any chance, a DHCP/ICS gateway server?  These things will hurt you.

I am running Directx 8.1b.  If 8.1c were absolutely nescessary, it would be available to all.

Had you not reinstalled, I would have said that your addon folder is probably a total mess.

You should go up to v1.96, and when you install addons, do them one by one, and use mod folders if you don't already.  I guess that's about all I can suggest.  Make sure it's a legit copy of Flashpoint.

[sanctuary 19]

Good news... and some fears.

I installed the nvidia 45.23 drivers that Sancuary suggested and the game seems to be running a lot better. I seem to be getting 5 to 10 more frames per second and over all it seems a lot smoother.

I played through Battlefields just now after installing Flashpoint. My frame rate was around 20 to 23. That might sound bad to some but before I got 10 to 18. Also even though it was only 20 to 23 it was very smooth. I could turn 360 degrees with out chop and people were not warping along like a slide show.

Now here are my fears. I'm afraid If I patch the game (it's at 1.85 right now, GOTY out of the box) or install any addons It'll kill performance again. I also still haven't installed my virus scanner or service pack 2 yet.

Maybe I should just stay at Flashpoint 1.85 and ignore addons, service pack 2, and my virus scanner all together. I mean this is pretty good as is

Honestly though I'm dreading changing any thing on my computer. I just have this premonition that the moment I install service pack 2 Flashpoint will return to the realm of chop again.

Good to read the solution was more likely the driver version (as latest nvidia ones had always be a source of a lot of problem for my non-recent games)

There was a difference in performance between 1.46 and 1.75/1.85 , due to all the new features , AI improvements and texture size in Resistance.

I doubt patching up to 1.96 will kill your framerate (and as you don't need the CD in drive with 1.96 it is always a good idea for your OFP gaming pleasure).

No idea of what to think about "service pack 2" , as i don't have XP

And 1.96 solve a lot of problem , and fix a really critical problem when directplay is used instead of socket.

[sputnik monroe 102]

Well It's been a week since I reformated and began using the older (but better) drivers for my video card.  I can pretty much say now that nothing has improved. I actually wish I never went through all the trouble of reformatting.

   I can play though, I just have to limit the engagements to about 20 or less BIS troops total with no vehicles involved what so ever.

   Here is my FRAPS log from a normal sized battle I attempted.

Quote[/b] ]2005-03-03 14:33:18 - FLASHPOINTRESISTANCE

Frames: 7251 - Time: 409916ms - Avg: 17.689 - Min: 10 - Max: 36

   Now I know the frame rate doesn't really matter. The thing though is when it drops below 22FPS it gets real jerky and I can't aim or hit a thing do to the jerky movement.

   So basically there is no hope for getting Flashpoint to run on my system.  So what should I buy for my computer (if I ever have an income again) that would help the most?

PS... If any ones interested the battle I made that the benchmark is from included the following.

3~T72s

1~T80

3~BMP2s

18 East Infantry

4~M60s

1~5ton Truck Covered

1~5ton Truck Open

1~Hummer

22 West Infantry

     All were BIS default units. The Location was the village Lany in east Nogova. Too many units and/or poor location?

[madmanslegend 0]

Is that a brand new processor?where did you buy it?Get CPU diagnostics tool and make sure it's running at tolerable temp.and doing a memory check also wouldn't kill you.to me sounds like faulty hardware,how are other games running?

[Victor_S. 0]

I never installed SP2 because it is supposed to cause problems with games, but then again i never installed it so...

[LtUlrich 0]

I'd give it a shot.

Because of its scalabiltiy, OFP is one of the games I can count on my older computers running. It's quite playable on my Duron 1000/256MB/MX440/W2k, so there really HAS to be some piece of hardware or software that isn't working right.

There are hundreds of small tweaks you can do to 'optimize' (I hate that word) your system. Try X-Teq X-Setup, it has lots of little control panel applet like things that really open up resource control. Allows you to set minimum swap file size, disable predictive/personalized menus and other windows 'features' that suck up cycles.

If at all possible, pop your graphics card into a known good (AGP Equipped) machine that runs flashpoint okay. Also do this with your RAM.

Run Scandisk and do a full, deep scan on your hard drive. Do you have only one drive? Only one partition? NTFS, right? Of course defrag and clean your registry regularly.

My final suggestion, which may very well be the source for all your problems, is BIOS settings. Specifically your AGP aperture (could be set on 1x) and bios/video bios shadowing. Of course there are plenty of other settings in there that could hurt too, like having UDMA off or a set ram latency of 3.

What kind of BIOS setup utility do you have? By this I mean Award, American Megatrends? IBM? Is Phoenix even still around? Anyway, posting this info will help others manage their BIOS for performance.

[swatdog 0]

I'm running a GeForce MX420 64MB PCI card and I get between 20-30 FPS during a good size battle, and maybe 50-60 FPS on a clear open (unitless) terrain. I also do have good memory/cpu:

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ running at 2.485GHz and memory running at 230MHz. Also, I'm using the 44.03 drivers and it jumped my FPS about 4-5 as opposed to when I was using 53.03.