Jerky game-play in C4 ?

**HardcoreUproar** · 10-21-2002, 09:58 PM

When a lot of baddies appear on my screen (helos, SAM units, tanks etc) the frame rate sometimes gets REALLY jerky. Its so bad that sometimes the frames advance @ 1 FPS...like the second-hand on a clock.

Im guessing this is some sort of RAM problem? 98% of the time the game plays silky smooth (even when the screen is full of bad guys). Its only sometimes that I get the jerkiness.

I was wondering if any of you had experienced the same thing and could offer advice on fixing it!

Thanx

[Edited on 22-10-2002 by HardcoreUproar]

**Tristan** · 10-21-2002, 10:19 PM

I had to do a lot of stuff to get C4 to run acceptably on my machine, including shutting off force-feedback and tweaking the settings on my video card.

One of the interesting things I discovered was that C4 actually ran better with anti-aliasing *on* than it did with AA off; figure that one out.

I also edited my registy to make my computer do a memory purge on startup, deactivated, or set to "manual" a bunch of Windows XP Services, and shut off a lot of Windows XP eye candy to free up as much processor capacity as possible.

Things run pretty well now, though I think a couple of the C4 missions have bugs in them that can't quite be worked out with video tweaks. I'm just guessing here, though.

Tristan

**Tristan** · 10-23-2002, 01:23 PM

Hmmm...anybody else want to jump in here?

T.

**Charger** · 10-23-2002, 07:15 PM

I’ve had trouble with screen lag when there was a lot of effects’ on the screen. The only suggestion I have that may or may not work is to set your bit depth to 16 and set particle density to low. I have resolution on 800x600 but that would only be a factor dealing with what your video card can handle. Sometimes turning everything down a notch can help but you sometimes lose the near perfect graphics though with C4 it seems to look pretty good no matter.

**HardcoreUproar** · 10-24-2002, 03:32 PM

Thanx guys for your suggestions! I'll mess with turning down the screen res and notching-down the effects a bit !

**Tristan** · 10-24-2002, 03:55 PM

Would you mind posting your system specs, Hardcore? System info would make it easier for others to understand what problems you may be having.

Thanks.
Tristan

**HardcoreUproar** · 10-24-2002, 07:58 PM

Sony Vaio desktop
------------------------
-Intel Pentium 4 CPU @ 1.70Ghz
-75Gb hard drive, 29Gb free
-256Mb EDD DDR-SDRAM
-Memory bus speed: 2 X 134Mhz
-True allocated memory load: 144%
-Max page file: 735Mb
-Current page file: 439Mb
-Free page file: 545Mb, 74%

**Tristan** · 10-24-2002, 09:59 PM

OK, great. Thanks, Hardcore.

Hmmm. I don't see a graphics card listed in your rig specs. Does your Vaio use integrated graphics rather than a dedicated graphics card?

A lack of a dedicated graphics card would explain why you were getting poor frame rates.

**ArcticWolf** · 10-27-2002, 03:35 PM

A lot of people feel that it's the graphic's card, but it can ALSO be a monitor problem - not having a fast enough refresh rate. Even though I have a GeF4 Ti 4600, and a newish Flat Screen ( flat screen is about 6 months old now that's why I call it newish) I still sometimes have problems in some maps/games where the frame rate will drop. Setting the screen to the smallest viewable size (640x480) made a marked improvement. Also, if you don't have that good of a vid card, lowering your colors/effects to minimum will make a difference too.

Just my $.05 worth ...

**Tristan** · 10-27-2002, 04:32 PM

Yeah, that's right about the monitor. I have to keep mine on the very lowest resolution setting in order to enjoy the highest possible refresh rate. Good point.

Tristan.