Low performance when playing but not when in ready room or warmup

HunterDigi

First, I have the recommended hardware specified in the requirements but I can barely play this game at lowest settings...

There's something in the game mechanic that drains the performance out of it because it runs good in the ready room or when a commander is not chosen... I suspect ragdolls have something to do there, but I can't find anything to disable them.

I've uploaded a log from a round.

GhoulofGSG9

In generell more Entities = more Cpu load. Also use r_stats in the console and run around the map, you'll notice that depending on every room and at what you look the fps will differ pretty much. No if you are bound by cpu (Waiting for render thread > 4 ms) your performance will get even worse as longer as a round goes on because more and more entities are created.

Could you maybe post a tech_support.zip so we see your settings and the used hardware.

HunterDigi

I don't know what entities are listed as in r_stats, look, two similar stats:

http://i.imgur.com/QvCSCRJ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Ap7sDlg.jpg

...but huge FPS diference, so r_stats doesn't seem too useful.
The only thing that's not there are light probes but I've had 10 light probes in one scene and it ran fine, when I was walking around the map in warmup.

I've uploaded the tech support zip.

IronHorse

"Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E4600 @ 2.40GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.4GHz"
NS2 store page minimum requirements: "Processor:Core 2 Duo 2.6 ghz "

Looks like your computer does not meet the minimum required, i'm sorry.
You should really consider upgrading that CPU, since its pretty outdated now. (almost 8 years) Plus, you have that AMD Radeon HD 7700 already.. (remember: generally speaking, you are only as fast as your slowest part)
Also get some more ram than 2 gb... ram is dirt cheap.

Use that CPU benchmarking site to help you shop for a new CPU

HunterDigi

My CPU is overclocked to 2.8Ghz, those logs failed to inform you of that it seems :}

To upgrade I need MB+CPU+RAM in order to be cost/performance effective, but I can't afford that now.

It doesn't feel like the game needs extra RAM anyway, I don't have freezes or stutters, I only have low framerate, it's too processor intensive, much more than it says it requires... I highly doubt this game has constant 60 fps on a factory 3Ghz Core2Duo.

I'd like to test out my theory with ragdolls but I can't find any way of disabling them, can anyone make a mod for that or something ? :}

HeatSurge

I get 120-150 fps-ish, dipping down to 60-70ish in "bad situations" late game with an I7-920 at 4.1GHz... so there you go. I would say 3GHz even on the latest intel/amd CPUs will slow down a lot late game. Early game should be fine.

IronHorse

"minimum requirements" are not really determined by whether they can reach acceptable levels of performance, btw..(especially considering how subjective that is) they are based on whether the game can simply run at all.
And if you ask anyone.. those required specs listed are far too low :-/

I recommend an i5 @ 3.5 ghz at a minimum. I personally run a i7 920 @ 4 ghz
I get that you cannot afford a new rig, totally understand that.

Just keep in mind that PC gaming is a fast paced changing environment and much unlike consoles, games are designed to take advantage of the newest hardware, not the same hardware from 8 years ago (when your processor was released - and coincidentally the lifespan of this last console generation's hardware)
*remembers buying an expensive voodoo2 to finally run his quake2 back in the day*

Best of luck to ya!


edit: and no dxdiag is not reporting your overclock

HunterDigi

Yes, but I wasn't refering to minimum requirements, but to the misleading recommended ones, it seems.

Anyway, the devs should really either change the recommended specs on the page to avoid any more bad experience from players... or optimize some options and allow even more stuff to be disabled to ease up on the CPU... like-uhm, ragdolls :P

But optimization seems unlikely since the game ran like this ever since the first free weekend and I was mislead to belive that there were issues with it in the last weekend and that it was fixed... apparently not, since it runs the same for me as it did back then

Kouji_San

As far as I know the E4600 was a budget CPU or rather "eco mode" processor that was introduced as a more affordable option versus to the high end performance range C2D and C2Q CPU. I believe this was the second generation Core2 family (E4xxx, E5xxx E6xxx)? I forget its so long ago... So we're talking about an already very old CPU (Q4 2007) and from the low end range at that.

It would be quite impossible to get a CPU intensive game like NS2 to run properly on this CPU in any case, I'm afraid... The real minimum would be the E6xxx versions, I guess. And running on minimum requirements would probably run the game at 15-30FPS during mid- and end-game of a round...

IronHorse

Yes, i agree that the recommended specs are too low.. (you still don't meet those anyhow tho) you do in fact need modern hardware (no later than 3 years old ~i7 tech) to run this game at acceptable framerates.
This game is CPU heavy, just so you know.

In any case, i'd imagine if you intend on gaming on your PC in the future and you plan on playing recently released games, i do highly recommend you upgrade your hardware. Eight years in PC hardware is like 2 life times :-B

HunterDigi

I OC'd my CPU at 3GHz so it's technically at recommended settings :P

It is kinda playable at 640x480 with AA and AF (AA&AF have zero effect on FPS) in a 20-player server... but descyphering the map is a challange... or if someone types something in the chat it uses 80% of the screen and renders over my crosshair

So my request is a downscale render option, like Serious Sam games have (and some other)... and even upscale too, for uber HD fans. With that option I can play with higher resolution HUD but lower resolution render, which basically allows me to play the game.

Also, the game seems to have some kind of effect that makes it look like it has higher FPS, at 20fps it feels like 30fps... this is a good thing. It's terrible when a game has the opposite effect, I've played games that on 60fps (FPS display from Fraps) it runs jaggy and feels like it's 25-ish fps.