Got Lag? I have an answer.

[Fish]

What system do you have?
Mine is running at 120FPS Mostly to 54FPS At worst.

CPU: I have an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ at 2.2GHz. It is the same as a P4 at 3.6GHz. I think you should not go below a P4 at 2.8GHz.

RAM: I have 1GB but I think 512MB is OK. Up grade if you don\'t have 512Mb.

Mouther board: Ram access must be over 333MHz or you are domed. Get one that handles 8X AGP.

Video Card: This one can make or brake the hole system. One rule of thumb is spend as much fore you\'re video card as you do fore you\'re CPU.
I have a SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9600XT
Memory/Effective Speed: 256MB DDR/600MHz
BUS: AGP 4X/8X
Ports: VGA Out(15 Pin D-Sub) + TV-Out (S-Video/Composite Out) + DVI
Support 3D API: DirectX 9, OpenGL 1.5
Max Resolution@32bit Color: 2048X1536

Connection: Dam little data is getting transfered. So ping time is the only thing that can hurt you. If you are using a satellite link (The one\'s in space) you are dead. And wont be able to run any on line games. Other then that the problem isn\'t the connection. So unless you can say  that it is over say 2.0 sec or something crazy posting that is you\'re problem is a grate way to get flamed.

The point is if you spend about $700 U.S. then your system be good for about a year.  The system I have cost around $1,000 U.S. including the operating system.  If you spend a whole lot more than that then you\'re paying a lot of money for a system that you probably won\'t use all the way until it\'s worth about $700 to $1,000 again.  The key is {and where I have all the fun} is to spend as little money as possible to get the maximum possible gaming machine.  Mine plays Doom 3D at high resolution at around 40 frames per second.  Not bad, huh?!  Got to have DOOM!

That about covers it fore hardware so if you got a kick but system and still ?got lag? there is problem with software. So lets go over some ways to fix that up.

Spyware: I have often wondered if this crap should even be legal. Spyware sucks! How ever if you got it kill it with -
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
and
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
and
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
If you don\'t it will hammer you.

Virus scanner. These babies are resource hogs knowing when to turn the suckers off is key to performance.  Since it\'s unlikely to catch a virus from playing Planeshift turn it off.  This is especially true with Norton Utilities which is the King Kong of virus protection hogs.

All of your communication software \'you need to turn all this crud off too\'.  It\'s important because it will interrupt your planeshift server and client.  And cause all type of havoc.  

Another tool is control alt delete.  And find out if any other process is taking up clock cycles.  Try to kill them.  

Another great solution is if you get kicked off abnormally fire up Planeshift and quit immediately.  This will close down all of the plane shift applications properly.  If you don\'t you will get all sort of bizarre stuff that won\'t allow you to run it.

And now fore the most important point. UP DATE ALL THE TIME!! Run the update every day or don\'t post that you have a problem. GOT IT!

DMZ:  I run with a Linksys router. The DMZ is a place where a system gets all of the socket connections without problems. Be warned throw you can get spanked by hackers  and crackers if you do it wrong. Try port range forwarding or port triggering first. Or use Linux (I use SuSE).

This has worked for me quite well.  I\'m able to get pretty good frame rates by following these rules.  

[Kramy]

I have to agree with you on Norton. When I put it on my 1.7ghz, Freecell had unbearable lag. Don\'t even mention Netscape or IE!(or games )

I turfed norton out the window after 5 hours.

On an interesting note though, my brother\'s 1.0ghz runs fine with norton.(and he has an older OS than me ?( )

Also, I somewhat doubt 512mb is enough. Watching my memory usage, PS hovers around 24kb free. Every once and a while, if I turn around, there\'s massive lag for about 10 seconds.(10s before next frame) Upon inspecting my system monitor, it seems that when that happens PS dumps about 250mb out of memory, then loads it back in....at runtime.

On my GE Force 2 MX 400 I hover around 6-18 FPS at 1024x768(16 bit), and 12-28 FPS at 800x600(16 bit).

[Fish]

Also, I somewhat doubt 512mb is enough. Watching my memory usage, PS hovers around 24kb free. Every once and a while, if I turn around, there\'s massive lag for about 10 seconds.(10s before next frame) Upon inspecting my system monitor, it seems that when that happens PS dumps about 250mb out of memory, then loads it back in....at runtime.
 

I have to agree with you.  More ram is the easiest thing to install in the computer there is.  And it improves performance so much.  The other point might be that as planshift evolves and gets more textures and so forth it will be less likely to work in 512MB.

[Zorium]

I have to agree with you. More ram is the easiest thing to install in the computer there is. And it improves performance so much. The other point might be that as planshift evolves and gets more textures and so forth it will be less likely to work in 512MB.

But with further code optimisation it will require less ram so expect the ram requirements for PS to hover around the 256-512 MB range for a while.

-Zorium

[elscouta]

Originally posted by Fish

Also, I somewhat doubt 512mb is enough. Watching my memory usage, PS hovers around 24kb free. Every once and a while, if I turn around, there\'s massive lag for about 10 seconds.(10s before next frame) Upon inspecting my system monitor, it seems that when that happens PS dumps about 250mb out of memory, then loads it back in....at runtime.
 

I have to agree with you.  More ram is the easiest thing to install in the computer there is.  And it improves performance so much.  The other point might be that as planshift evolves and gets more textures and so forth it will be less likely to work in 512MB.

Strange you say that. I have 512 but don\'t have any problem at all. I\'m usually running two anti-virus, Firefox + Thunderbird on top of PS...

But i guess it\'s just the MB low fps randomness.

[Fish]

Zorium

But with further code optimisation it will require less ram so expect the ram requirements for PS to hover around the 256-512 MB range for a while.

I think the code is a small part and the textures are the bulk for size so code optimization will help for a lot of stuff but not size I think. Add a some monsters and new charter models and 512MB wont do it. However most people have some real space wasters that auto load at startup. A lot of computers desperately need a fresh install of windows to get rid of it. Or uninstall programs you don\'t need. For most just get more ram and you\'re problems will go away.

Strange you say that. I have 512 but don\'t have any problem at all. I\'m usually running two anti-virus, Firefox + Thunderbird on top of PS...

Firefox is a web browser (One that I like a lot).
Thunderbird 1.0 is Mozilla?s next generation e-mail client.
They are not an  anti-virus program. However they can save you a world of pain if you switch to them.
If you are doing fine with 512MB all I can say is ?SWEET go for it!?

[Nikolia]

Got Lag? I have an answer! I\'m an idiot hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahaahhahahahahahah


You seee the reason you have lagg is because of windows
Get a Real Os Next time. I take it from your useless thread
WINDOWSWINDOWSWINDOWSIWNIDNIOSN/END


Idiots >> Sissys >> Windows >> Internet >> Spyware >>
Idiot and so it loops. Thank you for time.

P.s Poo bum

[Crash]

strange i only have 256 ram and my computer never goes over 180 mb of useage. I have another stick of 128 ram but it my computer doesnt work when install it, even though im pretty sure its the correct type. I have a rather old computer, a 650mhz athlon with a radeon 128mb 9200, i can run the game fairly ok i just lag like hell in the plaza.

A tip for anyone who lags when there are alot of people on screen and you only want to just run by them, point ur camera all the way down or i suppose up would work aswell

[Fish]

WELLLL.....


Nikolia

I would definatly not say Crystal Blue is stable
I cannot even play the game for more then 5 mins without
it crashing and then giving me some error I spent all morning
downloading it and I have played it for less the ... hmm 15 mins

Not able to play are you. Dam I have had no problems. I run it on windows XP. You are right it\'s not stable but it\'s not that bad.


Nikolia

You seee the reason you have lagg is because of windows
Get a Real Os Next time. I take it from your useless thread
WINDOWSWINDOWSWINDOWSIWNIDNIOSN/END

You could use a few pointers. If you never got it to run right.

Don\'t you hate it when they know how to search?

[DarkArchon]

i think that the main problem of lags is the fact that this is a bete test and the client makes many operations not needed in the future (like recording and saveing *.dmp files). btw... don\'t you think that the game require too good hardwere ?? I mean not everyboby have 64-bit procesors +2GHz and 512MB -1024GB RAM. I think thats a little to high. But nevertheless you\'re right, A virus scan and spywere sacan is needed, and ofcourse of course killing unneeded proceses.

Fish - you definitely know what you\'re saying

[Moogie]

Originally posted by Nikolia
Got Lag? I have an answer! I\'m an idiot hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahaahhahahahahahah


You seee the reason you have lagg is because of windows
Get a Real Os Next time. I take it from your useless thread
WINDOWSWINDOWSWINDOWSIWNIDNIOSN/END


Idiots >> Sissys >> Windows >> Internet >> Spyware >>
Idiot and so it loops. Thank you for time.

P.s Poo bum

Windows works fine for PS here. No real gamer deliberately chooses to use Linux, unless they think it\'ll make them look \"cool\", or are under the misguided conception that \"everything is better in Linux\". Because it isn\'t.

[Fish]

Quick and dirty up grades >>NEWEGG.COM<< There are many others.

Video Cards
Rosewill ATI RADEON 9200SE Video Card, 128MB DDR, 64-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model \"RW92SE-128D\"
Specifications:
Chipset/Core Speed: ATI RADEON 9200SE/200MHz
Memory: 128MB 333MHz DDR
BUS: AGP 4X/8X
Ports: VGA Out(15 Pin D-Sub) + TV-Out(S-Video) + DVI
3D API Support: DirectX 8.1, OpenGL
Cable/Accessories: 1 Cable, Manual, Driver CD
Max Resolution@32bit Color: 2048X1536
Retail Box (See pics for details)
Price: $42.00

Or

Biostar nVIDIA GeForce MX4000 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 64-bit, TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model \"VN4000XC2T-H00\"

Specifications:
Chipset/Core Speed: nVIDIA GeForce MX4000/275MHz
Memory/Effective Speed: 128MB DDR/400MHz
BUS: AGP 8x/4x
Ports: VGA Out(15 Pin D-Sub) + TV-Out (S-Video Out)
Support 3D API: DirectX 7, OpenGL 1.3
Max Resolution@32bit Color: 2048X1536
Cable/Accessories: S-Video Cable, Driver CD
Price: $43.00

I find that nVIDIA has a wonderful Linux driver that runs open GL (Or mesa) without a problem.


AMD Duron 1.8GHz Socket A Processor $50.00

Or
AMD Sempron 2300+ 1.583GHz Socket A Processor $58.00

The key to getting a processor is not getting all wrapped up over speed.  One of the things you\'ll find is that a lower gigahertz, but better class processor, will vastly outperform a faster speed lower class processor.  Another interesting point, if the speed of your upgrade isn\'t double what you have now you won\'t notice the difference.  Therefore, in the same class paying $300 for a 3.2 gigahertz versus $600 for a 3.6 gigahertz of the same class, you just spent a lot of money for something you won\'t even see.  

mouther board
One rule of thumb is -

       >> Replace the mouther board with a presser upgrade <<
Trust me you will thank yourself later. Most times you wont have a choice anyway.

ASRock \"K7VT4A+\" VIA KT400A Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU

Supported CPU: Socket A AMD AthlonXP/Athlon/Duron Processors
Chipset: KT400A + VT8235
FSB: 333/266MHz
RAM: 2x DIMM support DDR400/333/266 Max 2GB
Slots: 1x AGP 8X, 5x PCI
Ports: 2x PS/2, 1x COM, 1x LPT, 6x USB2.0(Rear 4), 1xRJ45, Audio Ports
IDE: 2x ATA 133 up to 4 Devices
Onboard Audio: CMedia CMI9761 6 channel
Onboard LAN: VIA 6103 10/100 Ethernet
Form Factor: ATX
Price: $36.00

AOpen \"AK77-600N\" KT600 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU
Supported CPU: AMD Athlon XP(Barton)/Athlon/Duron Processors
Chipset: VIA KT600 + VT8235CD
FSB: 400/333/266/200MHz
RAM: 3x DIMM for DDR400/333/266 Max 3GB
IDE: 2x UltraDMA 133 up to 4 Devices
Slots: 1x AGP 8X, 6x PCI ,1x CNR
Ports: 2xPS2,1xLPT,2xCOM,1xLAN,6xUSB2.0(Rear 4),Audio Ports
Onboard Audio: Realtek 5.1-Channel AC97 Codec
Onboard LAN: Realtek 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet
Form Factor: ATX
Price: $45.00
If you got to have a name brand (I don\'t).

The point is motherboard technology is getting better all the time.  Many times the slow point in a process isn\'t the microprocessor so if you don\'t upgrade your motherboard you might not see any improvement at all.  Another point is they\'re not that expensive.
 
RAM
The most important part about RAM is what is the return policy.  There is a lot of bad RAM out there.  There are many programs that will exercise your RAM to see if it has got problems.  Go search on Google.  There are a lot of them.  

The last part is a problem called ESD.  This is called electro static discharge.   There is a lot of people out there that figure it does not exist.  However, it is the primary reason why when you get your system together something is broken.  This is especially true with RAM.  The key to preventing ESD is to keep yourself grounded when you\'re putting your system together.  You will see RAM go bad when it really wasn\'t for precisely this reason.  If you\'re putting your computer together in a dry climate keep yourself grounded to the case when you put the components in.  I have heard a lot of sob stories that could have been prevented by not zapping your stuff.  

Okay, if you\'re thinking at this point \'why is this guy recommending this junk?\'  your system probably rocks and this thread wasn\'t for you anyways!  On the other hand, these recommendations will get you up to the planeshift recommended performance level for your computer for, heck, not a lot of cash.  

Disclaimer:  I am not affiliated with new egg in any way.  Building said system using my recommended parts I would never do.  This is basically because it wouldn\'t really be that great of a performer.  
However, by adding a little more money you should be able to do well.  This is only an example of what I would consider dead minimum for any kind of gaming.  

Happy Shopping to you all!

[sashok]

Originally posted by Moogie

Originally posted by Nikolia
Got Lag? I have an answer! I\'m an idiot hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahaahhahahahahahah


You seee the reason you have lagg is because of windows
Get a Real Os Next time. I take it from your useless thread
WINDOWSWINDOWSWINDOWSIWNIDNIOSN/END


Idiots >> Sissys >> Windows >> Internet >> Spyware >>
Idiot and so it loops. Thank you for time.

P.s Poo bum

Windows works fine for PS here. No real gamer deliberately chooses to use Linux, unless they think it\'ll make them look \"cool\", or are under the misguided conception that \"everything is better in Linux\". Because it isn\'t.

AGREED!

Windows is not reason for any problems... In fact, every game out there makes the game as compatible as possible for windows platform numero uno.

Linux is stable.. It\'s simple, It open source...  Better?
More stuff is made for windows, that\'s the power of it

[Fish]

This is basically my last post on this topic.  If anybody complains about lag tell them to search for this thread.  

I was looking around my house and found out I had a lot of old computer parts.  I have a G-Force 2 and a G-Force 4 and can run on almost any ram configuration there is.  

G-Force 2.  This should no longer be recommended as minimal in the latest release.  I think the people that have access to changing mimimum computer specifications on the main board need to say the G-Force 2 is inadequate to play planeshift unless you\'re looking for 2 frames per second.  You can kind of get away when you\'re looking for a single rat in the corridor but in general it sucks.  

G-Force 4.  This seems to be about dead minimum.  The frameright does not totally suck.  However, I wouldn\'t call it the good performer.  It just so happens they don\'t make these things anymore.  They\'re too out of date.

So, the conclusion is any modern accelerated video card that is currently made today will probably work fine.  Just beware of the old ones.  

If you get a message saying that planeshift can not use your video card and is going to software rendering, you will get about 1 frame every 3 seconds.  It\'s actually kind of funny to play that way.  I had fun anyways.  The key is microsoft corporations driver is inadequate to play video games.  That\'s pretty close to any video game, not just planeshift.  You need to download the driver from the manufacturer and install it according to their directions.  Or, suffer one frames per second or worse.  

Ram.  I have to say after messing around with several configurations.  Get 512 mb or prepare to get booted.  If any process kicks on while you\'re playing planeshift with less than 512 you\'re going to get kicked.  It\'s going to off-load something with the harddrive and then there you go.  It is possible to work with less than that, I just can\'t recommend it.  

Well, that\'s about it.  It took me about 2 days of messing around to get it.  Have fun playing!

[diabolus]

 don\'t you think that the game require too good hardwere ?? I mean not everyboby have 64-bit procesors +2GHz and 512MB -1024GB RAM. I think thats a little to high

I agree there. It\'s ironic that you almost have to spend all the  cash you save by playing a free game on hardware to run it smoothly I sure hope \'code optimization\' still needs to occur, because i run Doom3/Half Life 2 just fine on my system but PS sure stretch my system to the absolute limits.  Or is this something common in MMORPG to have such high requirements?

It\'s those types of reqs that drives me to consoles.