X3[1.3] Open IG-Menu == Almost Freeze

[DerDu]

After the 1.3 installation all works fine for me. I was finally able to play the game (set all grafics to minimum). But if i open up the menu, e.g. Pilot Information, the game went to be a Dia-Show (1fp3s).

[euclid]

!.3 suffers from heavy lag due to the massive fleets moving around in many sectors and due to the dynamic of the newly spawned little roids.

I suggest you first kill some of the Xenon fleets to 'free' some fps.

Alternatively you could check the S & M forum for some mod to reduce the little roids or even use LV's cheats to reduce the numbers of Xenon fleets.


Cheers Euclid

[DerDu]

hm.. i dont think its caused by the massive fleets, becaus it all works fine even sektormap and universemap works smooth. The stuttering starts only if something causes the bottomline menu to show (where load, save, options and so on is located)

S&M Forum? cant find it.. link please

[CBJ]

With a Ti4600 as your graphics card, you are going to have to work fairly hard to get the game to work, and you may have to accept some compromises with regard to performance when the screen is busy. The menus will add some load, perhaps more than you realise, to the graphics. I'm surprised that it is quite as bad as you mentioned, though, and I would recommend you use Fraps to get an accurate figure for framerate.

[euclid]

....S&M Forum? cant find it.. link please....

Try this - good luck!

Cheers Euclid

[DerDu]

@CBJ

as said before: the game is running

fraps got measurement of 12-45 fps (depends on ships in sector)

but if the menu gets on screen (another example is docking at stations) fraps fps drops to 0-1. I sense this as an repeatedly effect of 1-3 frames moving followed by 4-6 seconds of waiting (freezing).

This effect is exactly the same, the whole game is doing without the patch. The "patch readme" tells that the HUD was one big performancekiller, maybe the menu got the same problems in programmperformance.

This testing was made under a clean win2k sp4 installation (official nvidia driver 81.98 and nForce 5.10)

---
i would be glad if this problem is observed in the next patch/hotfix

[DerDu]

Hi again...

I've noticed that there is a 1.3.2 beta patch so i reinstalled the game (same environment like previous post).

After setting grafics and new options to minimum or off i've got a little more (extra)performance. The game is now running complete smooth (except loadtimes / massive action).

But:
The problem i've got with freezing if the menu pops up (previous post) is still there / hasn't changed behaviour

Is it possible that menu transparency is the problem?
I would be glad to test this if u provide a button to turn it off

[arnak]

Hi,

I strongly suspect that your video card is the real problem.

It is a bit long in the tooth for this type of game, you could do with an upgade if you can afford it?

Arnak

[bouncethehead]

Sounds familiar.

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=125689

[DerDu]

hi..

I strongly suspect that your video card is the real problem.

iam sry but i "dont think so".. because the game (as mentioned manny times before) is runnig very smooth.

the only thing that may be a card problem is the DX support.. the ti4600 only got DX8 (hardware-)support but is DX9x (software) compatible.

the last resort i can think of is this:

the game programming is using a DX9x function that is rendered using hardware support only and which is not supportet by DX8 videoboards. maybe not even in software compatibility and so it adds heavy extra load to the cpu of my comp to be rendered by "true-software"(means the cpu).

this would be a reliable reason for almost-freezing behavior at ingame menu.

i would like the egosoft-team to check on that

PS:
it also would go together with the words of CBJ about the heavy-load-universe which is also prossesed by the comp cpu (means extra-extra-load)

PPS:
sry 4 the bad english, but iam no mother tongue eng.

[arnak]

Hi,

Ok, if you think it is the cpu but I relly have to disagree.

The vid card is only an 4 agp and 128 meg that is relly going to cause you problems believe me....

I'm only on a 2600 cpu and that only runs at just over 2, I upgraded my card for playing X2 let alone X3!

Arnak

[Reckless]

I've had two problems that this remind me of.. and looking at your setup, I see why... your motherboard.

1st problem: 2-3 FPS in the main menu (new game/continue/etc) ... and with no HUD game flows great, slightly less great with HUD on... and doesn't flow at all if the menu pops up.


Solution: download the latest nForce2 drivers from Here.
platform/nForce Drivers > nForce 1/2 > (OS)
be sure to pick the right OS ... the normal XP/2000 didn't do a thing for me, but the XP Professional ones did incredible work.


2nd Problem: I had a stop motion kind of thing going. 2-3 seconds of normal FPS then it'd go down to 0-1 FPS for a moment then go back up.. repeat, loop.

Solution: I installed the latest Omega graphics Drivers, rather than the latest nvidia geforce graphics drivers.


that cleared it up instantly for me anyway. your experience may wary.

and get a non-onboard soundcard. the difference is profound.



my setup:
ASUS Athlon 3000+
ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe
1024 RAM
Gainward GeForce 6600GT
Soundblaster Live!

[Zakalwe]

@DerDu

X3 works okayish on my system which is somewhat similar to yours, ~20fps average with the benchmark. I do not observe the massive fps drop when docking at a station or opening the menue, your problems might be related to your graphics card after all. I do not know how the 4200 and 4600 compare, but i guess the 4600 should perform a little bit better than the 4200, so it's maybe a driver issue, have you tried using older drivers (41.09, 45.33, etc.)?

[arnak]

Hi,

You could also post a dxdiag and a list of process just before you start X3, there maybe something we can do to speed things up there.

Arnak

[Reckless]

btw, I only just a few days ago bought a new graphics card ... which was when these problems started occuring. before, I had an ATI Radeon 9600pro ... now, a nvidia geforce 6600gt. for me it was the combination of graphics card and motherboard that caused my problems.

[DerDu]

ahoi.. again.. sry for the late reply but here it comes..

Finally after trying all the stuff u guys mentioned before.. i gave up

I bought an ASUS N6600TD (256)
I installed everything new and i mean all (win2k incl.!)
I am using the newest driverversions
I installed X3 with 1.4

and.. it works no more freezing if the menu pop up

FINE i thought.. but that was a little to optimistic..

After a few hours of running smooth and nifty the menu got me again.
But with new tricks.. watch the pics

http://www.4urneeds.serveftp.net/webspa ... n00001.jpg
http://www.4urneeds.serveftp.net/webspa ... n00002.jpg
http://www.4urneeds.serveftp.net/webspa ... n00003.jpg

After all, playing is finally possible but iam realy sure about this "effect" is the troublemaker for my GF 4600ti

PS: i experienced another "bug".. i let the game run trough nighttime and as i woke up.. the game has switched me to the main menu (new game/loadgame/and so on) without warning of course.. i thought maybe something destroyed me.. so i tryed this in argon prime.. raised my ship in sector-center up above where no ship has gone before.. but.. after another night .. main menu. very strange

[CBJ]

Regarding your first problem, I'm a little sceptical as to whether you've installed 1.4 properly. The ghost menu problem was one of the items fixed in that patch.

Regarding your overnight issue, flying away from the plane of the ecliptic does not stop you from being attacked. I am fairly sure that you just got killed.