Newbie with game problems here.

[Ether Dragon 0]

First off, I've got that "input lag" bug.  From doing a search of the forums, I came up with some proposed fixes, but none of them have managed to completely fix the problem.  Dropping the pre-render rate down to zero did the most good, it seems, but I still have a small dollop of lag.  I need additional suggestions besides that, or a flat out fix from the developer.

Also, is there a way to minimize the name icons that appear in the game?  In trying out the game (which isn't terribly fun with the input lag, I might add,) I had a couple of incidents when some floating text completely obscured my view of a target!  Is there a way to make it less intrusive?  Thanks for any help.

System specs:

nForce 420D motherboard (integrated GeForce 2, 5.1 sound)

AMD Athlon XP 1900+

1GB RAM

Windows XP

* latest Detonator Drivers (DL'ed new release this weekend.)

OFP upgraded to 4.0

Anything important I missed?  Let me know.

[Placebo 28]

Moving to Troubleshooting

[Ether Dragon 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (placebo @ Mar. 25 2002,16:18)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Moving to Troubleshooting <span id='postcolor'>

I appreciate your attempt to help, Placebo, but I fear it's misplaced. It's my experience that there's a lot less traffic available in troubleshooting forums, and that's exactly what I don't want when I'm trying to find a fix.

[Mister Frag 0]

What video settings (resolution and color depth) are you using? Are you using FSAA?

[Placebo 28]

Perhaps but troubleshooting questions belong in the troubleshooting forum, plus being in here the tech heads are more likely to find it instead of it getting pushed to the bottom of the other forums

If you haven't already try having a look in Avon's FAQ

[Ether Dragon 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Mister Frag @ Mar. 25 2002,16:46)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">What video settings (resolution and color depth) are you using? Are you using FSAA?<span id='postcolor'>

Yup, I found Avon Lady's FAQ. I tried all the listed fixes there. While the lag was noticeably reduced, it still persists.

As for my video settings, I'm using 1280 x 1024 x 32 both in and out of game. In game, I also have Direct 3D HW T&L selected. All of my other settings are set as high as possible, too. By FSAA, I assume you mean (something something) Anti-Aliasing? If so, no, I turned Anti-Aliasing off - another tweak recommended by the Avon Lady.

[Placebo 28]

Had you tried playing it before these new drivers? It would seem that sometimes Nvidia's releases can be a smidge buggy, might be worth trying a previous release......Sure your GF2 is up to that resolution at 32bit? I know you have a fair processor and plenty of ram but the gf2 is getting a bit old these days

[762WorldOrder 0]

What kind of "lag" are you talking about? Game latency in online MP games? Or suttering in framerate?

I myself had a problem where the game would skip frames (slightly pause) every few seconds. I eventually figured out from someone here that it was because my joystick was configured in Windows but not plugged in. Apparently the game was pausing every few seconds that it was checking for a joystick. If that's your problem, try it.

[Ether Dragon 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (placebo @ Mar. 25 2002,19:51)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Had you tried playing it before these new drivers? It would seem that sometimes Nvidia's releases can be a smidge buggy, might be worth trying a previous release......Sure your GF2 is up to that resolution at 32bit? I know you have a fair processor and plenty of ram but the gf2 is getting a bit old these days <span id='postcolor'>

Well, because it's all a fairly new system, none of the drivers are particularly old. I did try OF with the last Detonator drivers, and only upgraded in the course of troubleshooting the input lag problem. I found out about the new driver release at nvmax.com.

As for being up to the resolution, I'm confident it can handle it. I can't tell you what the FPS are, but everything runs smooth in-game without any hint of choppiness. I have to point out that the name "GeForce 2" is a bit misleading being that it's integrated as part of the nForce motherboard. For those who don't know, the nForce architecture was designed by nVidia for speed and power. Rather than being restricted by PCI pathways, everything is opened up for smooth data transfer. Yes, it's still a GeForce 2, but it runs very smoothly. I've also overclocked it slightly (but tested OF at default performance just in case.) =)

Okay, as for what I mean by "lag," no, I'm not talking about multiplayer performance. "Input Lag" is a known bug/incompatability issue which causes any actions by the mouse (and keyboard?) to react slowly. When I first started with the problem, it was very pronounced - move your mouse to one side, and watch the pointer move over a second or so later. Only by doing small, slow movements and waiting for the results to show up could I do something as simple as clicking on an button in the option panel.

By using the tweaks I found in The Avon Lady's FAQ, I've seen a lot of improvement in the game. It's "almost" gone. The big change seemed to come with switching off pre-rendering. Even so, with the small remaining lag, it's still hard to do fine control. Targeting a distant soldier takes longer because you still have to keep adjusting the mouse slowly so you can see the effect of your motion. Large movements will find me looking off into la-la land, as the mouse is likely to keep going even after I stop. Pull the trigger, and hope that your target doesn't move before the mouse catches up and actually fires the weapon.

The reason I'm not sure about the keyboard portion is because I don't have anyone else to compare it to (that may change as a friend just bought the game yesterday.) When I run to a bush, and try to stop behind it, my soldier invariably continues moving and I find myself standing in front of the bush instead. Does the game model momentum, or is it input lag? Much like the mouse, I spend a lot of time doing slow movements a little at a time if I want to get in a particular spot.

Nothing else lags. I'm not having problems with troops blinking around, or dying long after I've hit them. Everything else reacts normally, it's only my input which is slowed. My friend has reported that his movements have been sharp and crisp, with the mouse moving exactly where he wants it. I'm very envious.

[Placebo 28]

Forgive me if I'm being blind but I don't recall seeing what type of mouse you have? Is it a bog standard one or perhaps one that may need specific drivers?

[Ether Dragon 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (placebo @ Mar. 26 2002,11:07)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Forgive me if I'm being blind but I don't recall seeing what type of mouse you have? Is it a bog standard one or perhaps one that may need specific drivers?<span id='postcolor'>

Oops, good catch. It's a Logitech iFeel optical mouse (USB).

[Ether Dragon 0]

I just got done reading through a GeForce tweaking guide located at 3D Spotlight (following a link provided at The Avon Lady's site,) and it has mentioned somethings that are different from what the FAQ suggested at The Avon Lady.

The guide recommends leaving on V-Sync in both Direct X and Open GL modes - as they offer better image quality, while turning them off will allow for faster frame rates BUT induce something called image tearing and...wait for it...input device/controller lag. It goes on to say that prerendering should be used when V-Sync is off - and 1 or 2 frames rendered ahead should reduce or eliminate the controller lag (more than 4 is not recommended.)

Now then, by contrast, The Avon Lady FAQ recommends setting the pre-render rate to 0 and also turning off D3D V-Sync. What the heck?

[ALDEGA 0]

I have V-sync off and prerender at 0, works fine.

[Placebo 28]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Ether Dragon @ Mar. 26 2002,17:56)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Oops, good catch.  It's a Logitech iFeel optical mouse (USB). <span id='postcolor'>

Ahhhhh and what drivers do you use for it?

[Ether Dragon 0]

I...I...I...don't...know...? Hmm. I'll have to check on that and get back to you. Has anyone noted a problem with the iFeel and this? I can't say as I saw anything (except for a problem with the force feedback.)

[Ether Dragon 0]

I think I've got it. The mouse still seems "floaty" but it seems to be reacting at something near real time. Here's the deal: NVMax only allows me to set my prerender rate to a minimum of 1 frame, instead of the recommended 0. In order to get to 0, I had to use nVidia's advanced options in Window's setup. However, as I was using NVMax for all other tweaks, the minute I reopened the program, it reset my prerender to 1 again. Thus, I just have to make sure I go back and reset my prerender after I use NVMax and before I go into OF.

Here's the thing: I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO DO ALL OF THIS. Ahem. I've never encountered a game that required this much tweaking. What's more, this tweaking is counter productive to all of my other games. This is just plain poor coding - seeing as how every other game I've encountered seems to have found a way around the issue. It's unimaginable to me how this could not be fixed, something like eight months after release, especially considering it involves the extremely popular Detonator drivers.