Major performance problem

from Sins Forums
Ok, I've played quite a few games, but now I've run into a performance problem that I can't seem to fix. I am playing a medium-size map. Two stars with 4 planet groups each against 4 hard AIs. Two of the AIs are already wiped out. The AI that killed the second one has a pretty large fleet that I have cornered. When he finally attacks, my approximately 100 ships and his approx. 150 ships are in the same system and after a minute or so, everything turns into a slideshow, and after another minute the screen is only updating about every 30 to 60 seconds. I've even turned all the detail levels down to low and turned off dust and elevators. Anyone have any idea what the problem could be? System specs below.


SoaSE v1.3

WinXP Pro 32 (SP2)
Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale
EVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR (T1 rev) Motherboard
2GB Buffalo Firestix PC2-6400 RAM
Radeon X1950PRO 256MB GDDR3 (Catalyst 8.3 drivers (driver version is 8.471.0.0))
500GB WD5000KS SATA II
300GB Maxtor Diamondmax 10 SATA
LiteOn SH-16A7S-05 SATA DVD Burner
Antec 900 case w/ Antec TruePower Trio 650W PSU
technical
8,878 views 16 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Is there someplace else I should submit my problem? Would a savegame file help? I could really use some help here please... This is the first time the game has become unplayable for me.
Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Check your dxdiag settings. Are you using the debug or retail version of the d3d driver? Are all your other drivers up to date? Is bloom on? Multisampling off? Are you running any other heavy background software?

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Vid drivers are the latest available from AMD/ATI.
Are you talking about the Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3D.dll version? That one is 9.05.0132.0000. Bloom is off. Not sure where to find the Multisampling setting. Is that the Anti-aliasing one? If so, it's set at 2 samples. No background software aside from Spybot and Comodo firewall. They don't take up much in the way of resources though.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
hmm i had problems before with spybot try turning it off might help not sure though
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Check your dxdiag settings. Are you using the debug or retail version of the d3d driver?
End of quote


Could you elaborate this a bit? I've these freezes too, alongside general performance issues, but they just take a second or two and only happens when huge fleets engage each other. DxDiag tells me that I'm using the debug version of the d3d9d.dll but the retail of the d3d9.dll. Might this cause the problem? How can I change which file is being used or get rid off the debug one?? Uninstalling the Dx SDK maybe?


cheers
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
I don't know why, but for me the game is almost unplayable in windowed mode, while I have not the slighest issues in fullscreen mode.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
Well, the X1950PRO isn't exactly the most up-to-date card..
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
I have a 8800GTX and performance issues too. :P
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
Well, the X1950PRO isn't exactly the most up-to-date card..
End of quote


I don't think this is an issue especially when he has turned all settings to low.

Just asking out of curiousity is the system overclocked? I don't think this is the issue since it only happens in the encounter with the last AI but I mention this because my motherboard kept on reverting the PCI-E speed to 1x instead of 16x which resulted in a huge fps drop on certain areas of a game. I was running this with a 8800 GTS 512 mb.

When you were playing with the other AIs, did you encounter any kind of slowdown?
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
Well, the X1950PRO isn't exactly the most up-to-date card..
End of quote

Runs Crysis and other games just fine, albeit not on the highest settings. Should be fine for Sins too.

Just asking out of curiousity is the system overclocked?
End of quote

Nope.

When you were playing with the other AIs, did you encounter any kind of slowdown?
End of quote

None that I noticed. I'm running fullscreen as well. Tried turning off Spybot. That didn't help either.

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
Ok, I've played quite a few games, but now I've run into a performance problem that I can't seem to fix. I am playing a medium-size map. Two stars with 4 planet groups each against 4 hard AIs. Two of the AIs are already wiped out. The AI that killed the second one has a pretty large fleet that I have cornered. When he finally attacks, my approximately 100 ships and his approx. 150 ships are in the same system and after a minute or so, everything turns into a slideshow, and after another minute the screen is only updating about every 30 to 60 seconds. I've even turned all the detail levels down to low and turned off dust and elevators. Anyone have any idea what the problem could be? System specs below.SoaSE v1.3WinXP Pro 32 (SP2)Core 2 Duo E8400 WolfdaleEVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR (T1 rev) Motherboard2GB Buffalo Firestix PC2-6400 RAMRadeon X1950PRO 256MB GDDR3 (Catalyst 8.3 drivers (driver version is 8.471.0.0))500GB WD5000KS SATA II300GB Maxtor Diamondmax 10 SATALiteOn SH-16A7S-05 SATA DVD BurnerAntec 900 case w/ Antec TruePower Trio 650W PSU
End of quote


2.4 core duo and 8600mt and almost the same exact issues here. two 100+ ship Advents fleets going at it, and massive slowdown. trying turning all of the graphic settings to low, doesnt seem to be doing anything, which makes me think its something to do with AoE/AI calculations.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
if its any help im working on a low end comp mod for comp that have thesse problems..i have this problem everything up to date so meh.....
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
Interesting that others have encountered this problem. Not sure how rare it is, but at least it's not just me. Haven't seen any real mention of this particular problem in the threads I've checked. Is there some way to submit an issue report, savegame file, etc? Of course this was 1.03. Now that I've updated to 1.04 I'll have to see if I run into it again.
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top
Is there some way to submit an issue report, savegame file, etc?
End of quote


Yep, email to support@ironcladgames.com. Include as much information as you can about your issue and they should follow up with you if there's anything to follow up on :P

But yes, they do ask that you submit issues present in the current build only (so, 1.04 stuff now that it's out).
Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top
It looks I have similar problem. Earlier I posted here about chat messages slowing game down, but stil it was more or less playable.

Today I tried large map (for the first time) and after about 2 hours, game began to slowing down. When I had pretty large fleet (60-100 ships) game was running at about 5 FPS. Then I just gave up.

And no, that has nothing to do with my PC or software on it. Because I play games like Bioshock(DX9) and Call of Duty4 on max settings.

Also this slowdown has nothing to do with graphics settings, or number of polygons in current scene. For example if I turn game to minimum visual settings, and do maximum zoom to a planet (so basicaly the only thing that in the scene is a planet with a foggy texture) I dont get *any* perfomance changes (same ~5 fps).