[monsterfurby]

Yes, yet another problem with my FS2 game. After I got it to work, I encountered another major problem:
When using FS2 Open and any kind of graphical modification (Models, Textures, Effects, not to talk of advanced effects)
the game slows down - excessively. The strange thing however is that this only happens when a Herc is in my
field of vision. Other fighters or even the Colossus don't cause that slowdown - only a Herc as encountered in the first mission.
Could this be related to the Herc Mesh or sonething (I actually know that the lag got better when I gradually uninstalled all
expansions except models as that didn't seem to impact it that much) and is there a way to solve that fps drop?

My Specifications are as follows:
Pentium 4 HT 3,200
512 MB RAM
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 Pro (128 MB)
WinXP Pro SP2

Thanks in advance!

[taylor]

What version of fs2_open are you using and are you running the game in D3D or OpenGL mode?

[monsterfurby]

I'm using Version 5.3 and am running it in D3D as I am unsure about the stability in OGL (actually it CTDs after I get past the Pilot Login Screen)

[WMCoolmon]

The biggest difference in Herc rendering speed should come when you move/remove mv_models.

Do you know if the Mobility shares the main memory? You might try -img2dds (in the most recent CVS builds) to reduce the memory usage. Also, try turning off -pcx32 (you should NOT be using the option with that kind of a system) and -jpgtga.

Since it's a HT P4, you should definitely try a CVS build, there are some fixes in there for dual-core PCs that may affect hyperthreading. And, try setting FS2's affinity (in task manager) to one of the 'processors'. IIRC the way Hyperthreading work is to show up as two virtual processors.

As far as the CTD with OpenGL, running a debug build (EXEs that end with "_d" or "_debug") should tell you what the problem is.

[Taristin]

Use OpenGL instead of D3D. I dunno about your CTD, but OGL is a lot more optimized and stable than D3D.

[monsterfurby]

First: Thanks a lot for your responses I'm still trying to get it to work though.

As far as that OpenGL CTD goes, the last lines in the fs.log are

cf_get_file_list_preallocated looking for type=29, filter="*.plr"
cf_get_file_list_preallocated looking for type=28, filter="*.pl2"
cf_get_file_list_preallocated looking for type=28, filter="*.plr"
Got event GS_EVENT_MAIN_MENU (0) in state GS_STATE_VIEW_CUTSCENES (38)


while the errorlog tells me

fs2_open_367_p4_d caused an Access Violation in module fs2_open_367_p4_d.exe at 001b:0048c2d8.
Exception handler called in Freespace 2 Main Thread.
Error occurred at 12/28/2005 11:27:52.
C:\Games\FreeSpace2\fs2_open_367_p4_d.exe, run by Fabian.
2 processor(s), type 586.
512 MBytes physical memory.
Read from location 000000d0 caused an access violation.

The CVS downloads seem to be not quite available right now, I'm going to try that again later.

Removing the mv_models and changing the processor affinity each bring a certain increase in the fps and
somwehat ease the slowdown (especially the mv_models part). However, it also causes the game to
CTD with a somewhat cryptic error message after the first mission (related to a models file) and doesn't
really solve the overall performance problem. I guess OpenGL or those CVS builds would be my best bet -
I'll try that.
Thanks again!