serious lag issues with X3 TC

[BugMeister]

hey, SpaceSquirrel..

- are you running with 32-bit XP and 2G RAM onboard..?

[perpiotrredman]

This is about how much memory the application can address - not how much physical memory is in your machine, though that helps too, of course.

[SpaceSquirrel]

Ya I have 2 gigs of ram.

win xp 32 bit

[Dahzeal33]

Hey, could I get a link to this program? I found a program called CCF Explorer and it's only for use with ccf files. It won't let you pick a .exe file, so it's gotta be the wrong program.

[Dahzeal33]

Nevermind. I found it here http://www.ntcore.com/exsuite.php

I couldn't figure out for the life of me why my pc kept stuttering so bad.

Vista 64
Core 2 quad qx6700 Extreme
2x 8800gtx in SLI
4 gigs of Corsair Dominator

Anyway, I think this program has definitely helped. Thanks!

[SpaceSquirrel]

Well it sped up my flying in sectors and menus, but it didn't change my freezing and stuttering when I go into combat.

Does this mean I need atleast 4 gigs to have it run smooth in combat?

[mad_axeman]

Ok i had the same problems and if you updated al your drivers and the problem still exists like me then this is what i did and it workt!!!!
Apparently the .exe file uses only about 2 gig even if you have 3 or more gig you can make it bigger with ccf explorer there is a thread somewhere in this forum that explains everything sorry i can`t find it annymore.
But it made a big difference for me and it was verry easy to do and if it dosn`t work you can put it back to normal again.
If you downloaded CFF Explorer install it and open your x3tc.exe within ccf explorer.
then click in the left window on File Header
On the bottem wright click on Click here
Now a new window opens
And here you mark the line that says: App can handel >2gb address space

And there you go
Hope it works for you guys

This app (found in the same place as CFF Explorer) does the same thing and automatically backs up the exe before making the change: http://ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php

[Telkorenar]

The option enables the game to use more than 2 GB of RAM. If you do not have more than 2 GB of RAM it obviously doesen't change a thing for you. The stuttering is a RAM problem and results in the constant reloading of ships, textures, etc. during combat.

Other games have the same problem with only 2GB. Lowering the graphic setting really helps because the game will load smaller data filles. So if you have a badass CPU and graphic card... do yourself a favor and get at least 4 GB RAM. Don't forget that you'll need Vista64 or at least XP64 to adress the increased memory.

[BlkKnight]

AFAIK the application still won't address more than 1.5gb or ram (or thereabouts) - even with the >2gb enabled.

[perpiotrredman]

The option enables the game to use more than 2 GB of RAM. If you do not have more than 2 GB of RAM it obviously doesen't change a thing for you.

It's not as obvious as you think. You're always able to open files larger than 2GB even if you only have 2GBs of RAM, or you can use programs that use 1GB of memory even though you only have 1GB of RAM, because the setting we're talking about has NOTHING to do with the RAM physically in your computer, it's the amount of memory that the application can address - virtual, physical or even just reserve a theoretical memory space that'll never be used at all.

If your assumption were true, you could never start two applications on a computer with limited RAM, but you can - thanks to virtual memory and private addressing and data that won't fit in RAM at any one time, will be paged to disk instead and fetched when needed.

And while the flag tells the operating system that this application CAN address 2GB of memory, the program will have to actually do that, before there can be any change to performance. If the code never loads more than 1.5GB of data (for example) no amount of editing the PE flags will make it do so anyway.

so the question is still if the game or game engine is coded in such a way that it will load more data or use smarter streaming or caching when the >2GB flag is set. In my opinion, that's still a very small chance.

The stuttering is a RAM problem and results in the constant reloading of ships, textures, etc. during combat.

This, however, I do believe is the likely explanation for the issues.

[gandy|UKCS|]

imo it has nothing to do with ram.. i say this because there are people with slow ram who don't have the lag and there is also people who have fast ram who don't have the lag.

Also changing a flag on the exe does not change the way the exe was compiled.

[perpiotrredman]

imo it has nothing to do with ram.. i say this because there are people with slow ram who don't have the lag and there is also people who have fast ram who don't have the lag.

It does have something to do with RAM, but not the speed of the RAM, but with the application's active RAM "running out" and the application needing to fetch data from hard drive which, as you know, results in a delay measured in MICROseconds, rather than RAM's nanoseconds.

Also changing a flag on the exe does not change the way the exe was compiled.

Exactly. So the real question is if the binary was written in such a way that it does in fact know how to address large memory spaces and EgoSoft simply "forgot" to enable the PE flag... In my opinion, that's extremely unlikely. It's not something you should ever need to manually enable.

[gandy|UKCS|]

I am also a 64bit os user so i can take advantage of more than 4gig ( only have 4gig in my pc )

If this problem was only restricted to a 64bit os then we know it would be a compatibility issue. I've put on xp pro to see if the issue of lag would go away but sadly it didn't, I've tried a few things to see if i can solve it on my pc and nothing has really worked for me.

I think i can remember someone saying that its more a compatibility issue with certain hardware configurations and i might explore that over this weekend as i have plenty of spares to test with.

if it was a hardware issue then i would guess it could be linked to the motherboard, graphics card and memory.

If anything it will be fun finding out.

[perpiotrredman]

Was going to try playing without sound.

[gandy|UKCS|]

I have tried disabling sound which gave me a small boost in fps and a little amount of stutter but it also caused the game to crash when i docked at a station.

I've tried 4 sets of realtek drivers and 2 sets of creative xfi drivers as well as 3 lots of ati drivers.

I've also tried no chipset drivers as well

Ive used windows 7 beta x64, windows vista ultimate x64 and xp pro and there was no change.

[SpaceSquirrel]

Like I said before, even if you have only 2 gigs or ram, this CFF explorer made a big difference in sectore flying and speed of menus. But unfortunately didn't fix my freezing stuttering in combat. I'm curious to find out if other people who have more than 2 gigs if it stopped their stuttering and freezing during combat?

Also has anyone tried something like ProcessMon? or a similar software?

Somebody on another thread said maybe its a scripting problem?

[Dahzeal33]

Well what ever it is, that CFF think really helped my huge stuttering in combat. I'm not saying "oh i think I noticed a little better performance", I mean it went from absolute crap, to damn near perfect.

I hope you guys get your problems fixed. Good luck!

[SpaceSquirrel]

Dahzeal33 what is your system specs?

Does X3 have its own crash log? Atleast Mass Effect had a crash log and you could use that information.

[Dahzeal33]

Nevermind. I found it here http://www.ntcore.com/exsuite.php

I couldn't figure out for the life of me why my pc kept stuttering so bad.

Vista 64
Core 2 quad qx6700 Extreme
2x 8800gtx in SLI
4 gigs of Corsair Dominator

Anyway, I think this program has definitely helped. Thanks!

System specs yo

[Ravenous6]

This app (found in the same place as CFF Explorer) does the same thing and automatically backs up the exe before making the change: http://ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php
.

You are wright but know that this prog. change all the 32bit applications and i don`t really like that.It could cause some troubles for other programmes(i think?!?).