[.806]What can I do to help performance?

While I know there's going to be performance limits due to debug data collection and it being a beta and all, I just wonder if there's some settings I'm missing, either in my nVidia control panel or within Elemental itself.

I've already turned off AA and Adv. Lighting. I'm running in Windowed mode (which seems to have cleaned up the graphics corruptions a LOT - granted I haven't tried 3D maps in Windowed mode). I've tried running in 1024 in fullscreen. Perhaps I should try 1024 in windowed mode? Right now I'm playing on the Cloth map.

After reading about someone disabling sound to get better performance, I tried that - no luck. Tried turning down audio acceleration - no luck, in fact it got worse. I tried turning down hardware acceleration in my graphics card (via windows xp) - no luck (at one setting, Elemental wouldn't even start)

I'm trying the limit frame rate setting, turned it down to the minimum, seems to help some in-game (no effect on the main menu) but the sound stutters seemingly randomly even with the game just sitting there (which is frustrating because I LOVE the music in this game so far), and the map still scrolls jumpy/slowly and units move slowly.

So I'm out of ideas that seem relevant to me. Any other ideas I could try?

And I still don't understand why my laptop has (well had, haven't put .806 on it yet) next to no problems at all. I would imagine a GTS 250 is better than whatever is in my non-gaming laptop and my desktop has 2 GB RAM as well as my laptop.

952 views 2 replies
Reply #1 Top

We're investigating an issue with excessive CPU usage on some setups. If you're seeing poor performance on a high end machine, that's probably it (if you watch the perf tab in taskman while playing, you'll probably see you're running around 100% CPU). The top part of your debug.err with your hardware/driver info may be helpful in this.

Reply #2 Top

Yeah, that's it - I'm constantly around 97-99% CPU usage.

Here's the top of my debug.err for my PC. I'll have to remember to make one or pull the data from my laptop.

 

DebugMessage:  Version 0.806 last updated on: Fri Jul  9 13:50:11 2010
DebugMessage:  Entering WinMain
DebugMessage:  ******* Starting Game Shell *******
DebugMessage:  *********DXDiag info follows.*********
System Info
Time: 7/13/2010, 18:49:40
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Machine Name: LENNETH
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp.051011-1528)
Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: HP Pavilion 061
System Model: ER890AA-ABA a1410n
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3800+,  MMX,  3DNow, ~2.4GHz
Physical Memory: 2046MB RAM
Page File: 1095MB used, 5917MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS


Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce GTS 250
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0615&SUBSYS_0D7619F1&REV_A2
Display Memory: 1024.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (70Hz)
Monitor Name: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Resolution: 1600,1200
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0012.5721
Driver Date: 6/7/2010 19:57:00
DirectX Acceleration Enabled: Yes
 


Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: SB Live! 24-bit External
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: USB\Vid_041e&Pid_3040&Rev_0100&MI_00
Manufacturer ID: 65535
Product ID: 65535
Driver Name: usbaudio.sys
Provider: Microsoft
Driver Version: 5.01.2600.2180
Driver Date: 8/3/2004 19:07:56
Type: WDM
Other Drivers:
Acceleration Level: 3
Cap Flags: 0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0