Choppy/action halting screen - how to fix?

[Von_Eutin]

Just got CFS3 yesterday and I happen to notice when flying the intercept mission, it seems the more plane, the worse the screen gets, i.e. its not constant, fluid action on the screen.  I noticed this with Do 335 against 2 B-25s and 3 Hawker Tempests.

Is there something that I can do to speed things up?

I have a NVIDIA GeForce4 MX video card.

Anyone experience this and is there a solution?

[1danny]

Check out the tweek sticky  above.Welcome to the tweeking society.You will learn alot about you system in the days and weeks to come stick with it .I love thisgame.

[bobc1]

Hi Von_Eutin,

It would help if you listed what speed processor (CPU) that you have and how much RAM (memory) you have in your system.

I'll try to make this easy for you. I'll list the things for you to do in order and number them.

1_ The first thing that I would recommend is that you update to DirectX_9.0b. Go here and get it:

http://www.microsoft.com/directx

2_ Then restart your computer and get the English Combat Flight Simulator 3.0 update which will update CFS3.0 to version 3.1. You can get it here:

http://microsoftgamesinsider.com/CFSIns ... _Notes.htm

3_ Restart again and get the CFS3.1 No_CD crack. Some people report that it speeds things up a bit but I like it because I no longer need to screw around with the CD and listen to my CD drive spinning like crazy. You can get it here:

http://www.simviation.com/cfs3_misc2.htm

4_ If you want to you can get the CFS3.1 Aircraft Update. It won't help you with performance but you may as well patch CFS3 so all your aircraft will work as they should. It's at the bottom of the http://microsoftgamesinsider.com/CFSIns ... _Notes.htm

[Von_Eutin]

Thanks for the good info - just finished updating my machine.

BTW, I have an IBM Aptiva, 2.4 Ghz, 1 Gig Ram, 533 bus......

Hope this helps, however, I have one sneaking suspision - I have my system on a KVM because I share the monitor, keyboard and mouse with my work laptop and that might have an impact on the screen refresh rate.

If these fixes don't alleviate my issues, I will try removing the KVM.

Thanks again guys!

[bobc1]

Hi Von_Eutin,

Your computer is plenty powerful enough to sim CFS3 with the exception of your video card. If you would just upgrade your video card to at least an ATI  Radeon 9700 Pro or better you would have a very good gaming machine. Without a doubt the bottleneck of your system is your NVIDIA GeForce4 MX crappy video card.

Whatever KVM is I don't have a clue. But I know for a fact that you need a better video card to balance out your system. On a system like yours your monitor refresh rate should be set to at least 85hz. Not 60 or anything less than 85. You'll  go blind at 60hz!!!

Sharing your monitor, keyboard and mouse with your laptop shouldn't have any negative effect on your desktop's performance as it relates to playing CFS3. Just make sure that you know how to hook your laptop up to your desktop the right way.

Your monitor refresh rate has nothing to do with the performance of CFS3. In your case your bottleneck is your video card.

To set your monitor refresh rate to at least 85 do this:

Right click on a blank spot on your desktop and left click on "Properties".

Then left click on the "Settings" tab.

Then left click on the "Advanced" button.

Then left click on the "Monitor" tab if you have one and change it 85hz.

If you can't find the option to change your monitor hz in the monitor tab, then try the "Adapter" tab and look for it.

After you change your monitor refresh rate from 60 to 85hz or even more up to 100, you'll definitely notice the difference!

I gotta go, it's getting late here!

Good luck.





I wish I had 1 gig of RAM!

[Von_Eutin]

Bob,

Started poking around on my machine and low and behold, I only have 256 Mb RAM.  Going to have to fix that and get a gig - its only $112 a dimm.

I don't think the KVM is hurting anything.  Last night, I tried without it and it gave me same problem.  I also did all the upgrades on a previous night.  That last one, the different CFS3.exe seemed to help a little bit but I think the problem is memory and probably the video card.

So, I have a crappy graphics card.  Guess I will have to get another one.  I am going to try the memory upgrade first.  If I put another graphics card in machine, will I be able to have 2 screen?  I know with XP you can stretch across screens - that would be awesome.  Although probably not feasible for CFS3.

Thanks for the help.

Mark

[bobc1]

Hi Von_Eutin,

Having only 256MBs of RAM will definitely slow up CFS3. It'll be accessing your hard drive's virtual RAM all the time. Depending on how many processes and programs you have running in the background, Windows XP needs about 140 plus MBs just to run itself! You want at least 512MBs and up to 1GB. I only have 512 but I have RDRAM RIMMS (Rambus) and it needs to be installed in pairs. Since I have 4-128MB RIMMS installed I'd have to throw out or try to sell 2 or 4 of them in order to upgrade and 2-256MB modules cost around $190.00, 4-256MBs modules would be $380.00. As much as I'd like to have 768MBs or 1GB of RAM I don't think it's worth the money to upgrade this old Alienware anymore. Some people have measured the amount of RAM that LO:MAC runs on and it's been upwards to 800MBs. I wouldn't be surprised if CFS3 uses the same amount.

There's a pretty good "memory picker" program at Crucial that you can use to find out what type of DIMMS you need in your Aptiva. And what sizes, speeds and prices that you'll need. It's at:

http://www.crucial.com/

You may want to read up on installing memory at the Crucial website. Or at the Aptiva website. Every type of RAM has its own little quirks that you may want to be aware of. Like installing the larger modules in the 1st slot or even with some DDR RAM (like RDRAM) I think it likes being installed in matching pairs for the double sided feature of it to work. Just be informed before you make the purchase.

You'll want to check out the specs on whatever video card you get to make sure that it supports two monitors. My ATI Radeon 9700 Pro does and supports DVI (for LCD screens) and has S-video out too. The best video card on the market now is the ATI Radeon 9800XT but it's expensive. Between $450.00 and $500.00!!!

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.a ... value=4989

The 9700 Pro is between $220.00 and $240.00.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.a ... =3048,3668

I don't know if CFS3 supports dual screens or not.

To easily turn off the unnecessary processes and programs that are running in the background there's a cool little free program that I use called EndItAll2. It frees up your computer resources like memory and CPU cycles so you can use it all for CFS3. I also run EndItAll2 before I install any new programs because it turns off the antivirus software etc. that I have running.

http://www2.whidbey.com/djdenham/enditall2.htm

On the menu bar of EndItAll2 you just click on "Action" and then choose "Close All" and that's it. It's really simple to use. When you next restart your computer all the processes and programs will go back to how they were.

You can download the 125MB LO:MAC (Lock On:Modern Air Combat) demo at:

http://www.lo-mac.com/

if you want to try it. Not bad for a demo. Although it doesn't really like the NVIDIA GeForce4 MX video card very much because it's not a "true" DirectX_8.1 or better video card. It will play on it but just how well I can't really say.

Can you now play CFS3 without the CD in the tray? You just drag and drop that CFS3.exe (No_CD crack) file into the main folder of CFS3 and it will ask you if you want to replace the old one. Click "Yes" and it's done. But you may want to back up the original CFS3.exe file first. Lots of people try to click on the CFS3 file to get it to install but you just need to drag and drop it or cut/copy and paste it into the main CFS3 folder.

Dual monitors you say? Check out the Grand Canyon Display model. Between $7,500.00 and $17,000.00. They're quite impressive!

http://www.go-l.com/monitors/grand_cany ... /index.htm

The whole computer package is here:

http://www.go-l.com/desktops/index.htm

Maybe Santa will ..... nah, not a chance!

Good luck with your upgrades.

[Von_Eutin]

Bob,

Thanks for the good feedback.  Actually, I work for IBM and can get the 512 Dimm for $112.  Also, I realized, I don't have an Aptiva (that was my old box), rather a NetVista.

I went back to my old invoice and saw that I did in fact order a 256 machine - what was I thinking?

Have to call IBM and check and see whether I can just add a 512 or do I have to go in pairs.

In the meantime, I going to set my virtural memory max size back to 768 (or what ever XP recommends as the max), and fine tune the graphics card.

Thanks again.

Mark

[Smoke2much]

XP recommends that you set it at your RAM *1.5 or something. Apparently it is best to set both minimum and maximum at 1024.

I haven't got a clue why tho'

Good luck

Will

[bobc1]

Hi Mark,

It's good to hear that IBM still keeps a few employees on staff. They always seem to be downsizing and laying off workers.

[Von_Eutin]

Bob,

Thanks again for the info.  Well, I ended up getting 2 512 Dimms from Crucial (www.crucial.com) at $69 each.  Should have those by Monday.

I will look into the partioning - I think prior to doing that I might want to do a back up just to be safe.

Mark

[bobc1]

Hi Mark,

That's cool. With two matching DIMMS you can't go wrong. It's always a b*tch to have to give away, throw away or try to sell that 256MB DIMM but it is kinda inexpensive for DDR SDRAM now. I wish RDRAM was as reasonably priced.

I was only recommending that you partition your hard drive the next time you format it and clean install your OS. I wouldn't bother doing it just for the sake of a separate partition for your paging file and or games. I definitely wouldn't recommend using a third party partitioning software program like Partition Magic so that you can partition while keeping your OS installed. That's just asking for trouble! When you're ready just back up everything onto CDRs, bite the bullet and get it done. With added partitions, in the future you'll be able to store all the stuff that you want to onto them and not have to bother with CDRs. And by putting your mp3s and mpgs etc. onto their own partition you don't have to mess with them whenever you format and clean install.

I format my hard drive and clean install XP every six months to a year to keep everything running smoothly. It gives me an opportunity to get rid of all the stuff that I've installed in the past that I no longer use anymore.
Nothing fixes and speeds up an OS like a clean installation of it!

You'll definitely notice a performance increase with the added RAM. And when you can afford it upgrade your video card and you'll have a good gaming machine there. Good for you.

Have a safe flight.

[Von_Eutin]

Bob,

Got a great surprise the day after Xmas - my Gig showed up so I popped in the dimms and WOW!!!  Does that make a difference.  

One think I noticed - after playing the V1 mission the graphics start to flicker.  E.g. after the pilot dismounts and walks away from the plane, he only has a body - no head or hands.  The images on the screen then flicker on and off.  

Have you seen this problem?  Short of rebooting, I don't know what else to do.

Mark

[bobc1]

Hi Mark,

I want a gig o' RAM too but I'm not gonna spend $400.00 to get it. The $400.00 will be better spent on a new computer when I take the big plunge. Like I said before I wish RDRAM was as reasonably priced as DDR SDRAM. Grrr...

Your problem sounds like some video card specific anomaly. I think the nVidia GeForce4 MX video card is probably the most common video card around so hopefully someone here who has one can comment if they're experiencing the same graphic corruption as you. And if they are or did, just what they did to fix the problem. MS recommends using the version 30.82 drivers for CFS3 that you can get here:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-2k_30.82.html

Maybe the newer ones will work but try the v.30.82 and see what happens. Always uninstall the older drivers before installing the new ones.

"Driver Installation Hints from nVidia

1- "Download Accelerator" utilities should be disabled when downloading any drivers.

2- Do not run virus protection software in the background while installing the drivers. This prevents the driver from configuring itself properly.

3- Before installing new drivers make sure you uninstall all NVIDIA display drivers from the Windows Control Panel. Browse to the Start Menu > Windows Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs and search for "NVIDIA Windows Display Drivers" or "NVIDIA Display Drivers" and select remove."

Lots of computer manufacturers (assemblers) used nVidia GeForce4 MX video cards in their computers because of the name recognition given to nVidia's line of the well performing Geforce4 video cards. They failed to mention that the MX version wasn't a "true" GeForce4 card but just a hopped up GeForce2. You can buy an nVidia GeForce4 MX video card for around $35.00 now.

Like that article from Anandtech SAID:

"The entire line of MX cards falls below the $199 mark making it a product for the masses, the GPU is noticably less complex than the GeForce4 and thus boasts a smaller die size making it cheaper to manufacture, lower memory clocks give NVIDIA the ability to offer ample supply to the market and it carries the GeForce4 brand which is associated with the very highest performance graphics cards around."

Check out the MS Game Insider webpage about Troubleshooting your video card here:

http://microsoftgamesinsider.com/CFSIns ... ooting.htm

Earlier I think that I recommended that you try the below tweak from MS. I have my CFS3 set up this way for my Radeon 9700 Pro video card and I get better performance with it. It won't hurt to try it.

Go to Start/All Programs/Microsoft Games/Combat Flight Simulator 3/Run CFS3 Config/

1. Open up the CFS3 Configuration application.