Tweaking the computer for a better performance?? | Forums

[richard101]

I've read from here and there about people 'tweaking' their computer so as to have maximum performance while playing LOMAC.

Could someone please explain how to do this.

I am sure others would appreciate the input.

Thanks

[richard101]

I've read from here and there about people 'tweaking' their computer so as to have maximum performance while playing LOMAC.

Could someone please explain how to do this.

I am sure others would appreciate the input.

Thanks

[opjose]

This is a bit of a misnomer.

Basically unless you purposely modify the hardware (or how the hardware operates such as with the relatively dangerous overclocking) you cannot get "more" speed out of your computer than it normally produces.

However what you CAN do is eliminate bottlenecks and items which can act to slow things down, giving you poor performance in Lomac and other programs.

There are various types of things you can do.

1) Eliminate background "services".

When Windows runs, it executes a whole slew of programs which eat up memory and sit in RAM taking up precious CPU cycles.

Some of these are superfluous or not used in some circumstances.

These can be disabled or set not to run at startup... via the service manager in XP's Administrative Control Panel.

2) Eliminate STARTUP tasks.

As you surf the net or install additional software, programs install themselves into the "SYSTEM TRAY" (SYSTRAY) these are the icons next to the time on the lower right.

Each icon you see, represents at least one program which is ALWAYS running when your computer is on.

Programs such as Qucktime, Realplayer, etc. love to do you the "favor" of adding yet another "task" for your computer. These have a rather adverse cumulative effect.

In essense all but the most essential SYSTRAY objects should be eliminated.

3) Windows Memory and Cache settings

This has a BIG impact on game loading, etc.

Windows should be set to allocate the largest amount of RAM for SYSTEM CACHE.

This speeds up hard drive access. You loose nothing by this as the cache will relinquish memory as needed.

4) Video display drivers

Updating your video display driver has a large impact.

Programs such as DirectX updates may "upset" your video driver DLL chain and insert something which may not be fully compatible, with what you have installed.

Re-installing or installing a later update may rectify this.

5) Chipset drivers

Your motherboard features a "chipset" (basic "core" logic IC's) made by a particular manufacturer, not necessarily the motherboard's manufacturer!!!

The company that makes the "chipset" will frequently issue NEW low level core logic drivers which fix hardware/software issues and improve performance.

If you've never searched for chipset drivers, this should be the first thing you do.

They have a MAJOR impact on performance and stability on your system. I can't stress this enough.

Updates will frequently fix USB, BLUE SCREEN, etc problems which people report here as problems with LoMac...

6) AGP drivers

With the chipset drivers you usually get an AGP driver update as part of it.

The AGP driver controls how fast the processor can send data to the video card. The implications of this is obvious.

7) Sound, USB & Joystick drivers

These also affect performance and should be updated as possible.

8) Other "registry tweaks".

There are a few other MINOR registry optimizations, which can SOMETIMES eeck out a relatively minor improvement. Usually dealing with hard drive data fetches, etc. but on occasion also involving memory.

This is dangerous turf, and "there be dragons here" so you should avoid hard registry tweaks unless you know what you are doing and WHY!

9) Disk defragging.

This one is touted as the "catch all" especially by those who BELIEVE themselve's "in the know".

Recent version of Windows and newer drives use fairly large caches which greatly improve drive performance on already fast hard drives.

SOMETIMES there is a slight performance gain which may warrant a disk defrag, but more often then not it's just a waste of time if your drive is not almost full.

Still it doesn't hurt to do, although XP does it's own file system reorganization no matter what you do... (assuming you are using NTFS).


10) Finally the biggest and best "tweak"...

A "CLEAN" installation of XP.

Due to the way program installers work, they tend to clutter up your computer with program vestiges, called "DLL files". These are libraries of routines used by software that you have installed.

Unfortunately a very large percentage of these DLL's are "registered" with the operating system so that they are preloaded or kept in memory when the computer runs.

This means that over time, as you install more software, performance degrades due to memory being "starved" by these DLL's and other programs.

You would be well advised to perform a "PARALLEL" install of XP.

This means that you install XP again into another folder.

The result of this, is that the newly installed version is fairly "clean".

When the system boots you are given a choice between your old and new version via a menu that will appear.

Thus you can keep a cleaned up, streamlined version of XP on your system just for Lock-on.

The amount of memory you'll "recover" for Lock-on, just in the font cache alone is quite large!

This will have a dramatic impact on how Lock-on operates and help it optimally perform.

Of course you'll need either an OEM or retail XP CD to do this, but it's well worth the effort...

You also need to have all the latest and greatest drivers available too... see the other points above.


Hope this helps.

[richard101]

I greatly appreciate your input.

[169th_Maximus]

here is better one.

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums?a=t...606&m=51210099




169th_Maximus
US Navy Virtual Blue Angels
Backup Pilot #7

169th Panther's Squadron
Pilot Officer

[Deez71]

If your tweaking your Computer for better performance just for Lomac, Dont Bother!

You will get nowhere, trust me.

[DayGlow]

over cast mod and some .ini tweaking got me 10-15fps more. I'd say it's worth looking at.


I am not an employee of Eagle Dynamics nor Ubisoft and I do not speak for them.
All my comments are IMHO

[Cali_169th]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Deez71:
If your tweaking your Computer for better performance just for Lomac, Dont Bother!

You will get nowhere, trust me.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It has helped a lot of people! maybe your system is just to old for tweaking to help.


Play Hard - Play Fair
Flying Officer "Cali"
169th Panthers

AMD Athlon 64-bit 3200+ 1600mhz HyperTransport Tech
1 Gig DDR 3200 | ATI 9600Pro AIW cats 4.4
X45 | DX9.0b | 22 inch dell monitor
TrackIR2 | Logitech Z-640 5.1 speakers

[Deez71]

To old huh! I dont think so. This has been proven, maybe your new to the pc world or Lomac but i have a Geforce ti 4400 and can hang with a Ati 9800 with almost same frame per second. No matter what you have its all close.

[opjose]

Not true at all.

Configuration changes, changes to Lock-on's settings, AGP settings, etc.

All have MAJOR changes to lock-on's rendering speed.

If for nothing else, turning OFF AA improves performance by a substantial amount when you compare EXACTLY the same situation.

Most people here however confuse instantaneous frame rates in an overall manner to frame rates with HIGHLY controlled parameters.

E.G. 45% view looking left sitting at xxx,yyy,zzz percise co-ordinates.

The former will always be quite variable due to the way Lockon works, and is probably what you are citing. The latter changes greatly depending upon your computer and lockon's configuration.