Author Topic: Voodoo 5 Blues (Read 819 times)

Pepe · « **on:** March 16, 2001, 04:16:00 AM »

I have recently bought a V5 from a friend. Nice price, nice card. But I have a weird (and very annoying) problem:

When I fly online, even with a decent framerate, my graphics go like a slideshow. This is most evident when I use Antialiasing. When I tried that, the game became unplayable, making looking at the screen a good recipe for a headache. This don't seem to be a framerate problem, since it is consistently over 20fps (1280x1024 - 32 bpp) but I still have a slideshow effect.

The weird part (to my little computer knowledge) is that trying to tweak the thing (touching graph aperture size and mode in the MoBo settings) I realized that flying offline was smooth and crisp clear, even with 4-sampling Anti-Alias.

No perceivable effect when switching between 1.200x1.024 and lower resolutions, either for good or bad, on or off-line.

So now I have to fly without antialiasing with a slideshow machine instead of a monitor, my gunnery went down the sink, It costed me already 50 perkies (Ta-152) and I am clueless about any possible solution.

Can anyone help, please?

Thks in advance,

Pepe.

My PC specs are:

Asus P2B MoBo
PIII450
128 Mb RAM
Voodoo 5 5500 64 Mb
DirectX 8.0
Latest Voodoo 5 drivers available (but tried earlier ones as well, the ones in the installation disk, with same results)

[This message has been edited by Pepe (edited 03-16-2001).]

straffo · « **Reply #1 on:** March 16, 2001, 04:47:00 AM »

Sounds like an IRQ conflict ... did you see the board working on you friends computer ?
It can slow think like hell ...

Download Sandra http://www.sisoftware.demon.co.uk/sandra/ and check for conflict

Pepe · « **Reply #2 on:** March 16, 2001, 05:12:00 AM »

Thks for quick answer.

Will try Sandra (hope my wife don't read this) and tell results.

Cheers,

Pepe

Lephturn · « **Reply #3 on:** March 16, 2001, 06:47:00 AM »

I run a V5 5500 on an Athlon 700 system.

Yes, Anti Aliasing is VERY hard on the framerate. You will not be able to use 4x FSAA... you don't have nearly enough video ram to pull that off. I can't run that at 1024x768 32 bit, but I do run 2x FSAA with 1024x768 32 bit just fine. Give that resolution and color depth a try. In flight I get smooth framerate and stay around 30-50 FPS with farthest (shift-F1) view setting.

Still, your CPU may be holding you back here.

Now, the fact that you only see this problem when online seems to point to another problem. To start with, right click on a blank part of your task bar, choose properties, and set it to "auto hide". This should keep any of the system tray icons from causing you problems. If that doesn't fix it, you may have a resource conflict between your network adapter/modem and something else like your video card.

Lephturn

[This message has been edited by Lephturn (edited 03-16-2001).]

Pepe · « **Reply #4 on:** March 22, 2001, 09:45:00 AM »

Took the straight line and went for an upgrade. Bought an T-Bird 900, 256 Mb Ram and Soltek 75-KV MoBo....reinstalled Windoze from scratch....all ran ok, no problems....reinstalled AH.....went off-line....aprox 70% improvement in framerate...looks good.....went online.....and again that ugly bumping.

I'm gonna give it another try this afternoon, and try some PCI slot switching, just in case it is an IRQ conflict (would be very bad luck to have it on both MoBo's, but can happen). If I don't manage to solve it, given my tendecy to the least resistant path, you can bet there will be a really cheap Voodoo5 in the spanish market (wich, btw, will be stratospherically priced by U.S. standards

).

Thanks for your help.

Pepe

TheWobble · « **Reply #5 on:** March 22, 2001, 09:55:00 AM »

do you use a modem?? (analog 56k)
if so im 99.9% sure that i know what yer problem is. ya know the little activity lights that show in the bottom right corner of your screen next to the clock....the ones that blink the send and recieve..they look like 2 little monitors with a wire attached...anywho GET RID OF THEM, there are the problem. I think you can turn the off in dialup networking...or network..or somewhere, but lose them and yer problem will be fixed.

EDIT: simply hiding the Taskbar (autohide) will NOT fix it.

[This message has been edited by TheWobble (edited 03-22-2001).]

Pepe · « **Reply #6 on:** March 22, 2001, 10:11:00 AM »

Wobble....That are the things that look most likely when talking about win... If only I can put my hands on AH for Linux....

Yes, I use a Creative Blaster 56k, and definitely I will give it a try. Thanks a lot for the suggestion!

Btw, if it works....heck how can a couple of 1m.m. colour dots working on the back can affect a 64Mb. dual processor Vid card?

Cheers,

Pepe

TheWobble · « **Reply #7 on:** March 22, 2001, 11:41:00 AM »

Quote

Btw, if it works....heck how can a couple of 1m.m. colour dots working on the back can affect a 64Mb. dual processor Vid card

<sigh>... THE MAGIC OF WINDOWS

kbman · « **Reply #8 on:** March 22, 2001, 07:40:00 PM »

Hi pepe,
Its almost definitely the modem icon.
Go to Dial-Up Networking/Connections/ Settings and uncheck the Show Modem Icon in Taskbar button...problem solved.

kbman

bloom25 · « **Reply #9 on:** March 22, 2001, 11:30:00 PM »

Definately the connection icon. Either auto-hide the task bar or better yet remove the icon.

I'd say 90% of video cards show some stuttering if that icon is present.

If I'm not mistaken here's how to turn it off: My computer -> dial up networking -> settings menu -> uncheck "show icon on taskbar when connected."

------------------
bloom25
(Formerly of the)
THUNDERBIRDS

Pepe · « **Reply #10 on:** March 23, 2001, 02:27:00 AM »

Thanks for the help, fellow virtual pilots. Unfortunately, the f<insert what you consider appropiate here> thing refuses to go... I removed the connection icon, and still no go. I am giving a last try tonite. I just finished 3:00 AM yesterday with just another complete windoze reinstall from scratch (hard disk format included), downloaded 25Mb. of Dx8.0A with my trusty 56.6 modem

, reinstall 3dfx drivers, removed the Icon thingy from the taskbar and relocated my ethernet card to another PCI slot. Now the POST shows the video controller at IRQ 10, and no other device there.

Today, before I left home for work I reinstalled AH, with no time enough to try it, so dunno if the thing is working.

I'm imagining my PC at home, waiting for me with an evil grin.

With my system's specs:

T-Bird 900Mhz.
256 Mb Pc-133 RAM
Voodoo5 5500 (ouch!)
HD: Seagate Cheetah 8Mb

What do you think would be the best resolution@framerate to use in AH?

Cheers,

Pepe

Lephturn · « **Reply #11 on:** March 23, 2001, 07:35:00 AM »

You are running Win98?

Ok, you need to go to the Start menu, select Run, and type "msconfig" in the box. (without the quotes) From the right hand tab called Startup, be sure to disable all the things that run at startup that you don't need.

None of this rules out a resource conflict btw. What mainboard are you running? What slots are all your expansion boards in? Assuming this is a VIA based board, do you have the latest 4-in-1 drivers installed? The latest BIOS update? How about the MS patches for VIA?

BTW, to check your resource allocation, go Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tooks | System Information. Now from the tree view click the + beside Hardware Resources, and then choose Conflicts/Sharing and see if any of that is taking place. Just to be sure, check the IRQ section and see what all of your devices are running on.

------------------
Sean "Lephturn" Conrad - Aces High Chief Trainer

A proud member of the mighty Flying Pigs
http://www.flyingpigs.com

Check out Lephturn's Aerodrome for AH articles and training info!

Pepe · « **Reply #12 on:** April 17, 2001, 03:00:00 AM »

After loads of problems, The issue seems almost solved. Changed the power source, upgrading from 250W to 300W. Now AH is playable. Altho still some tweak needed (I'm getting 20fps in 1280x1024, 2x Antialiasing), image is basically stable.

Bad news, my gunnery is poor as usual

Cheers,

Pepe

snafu · « **Reply #13 on:** April 17, 2001, 04:25:00 AM »

Hi Pepe,
Glad to hear you seem to have solved it but just thought I would throw another possibility into the pot

Do you run ZoneAlarm? (Pernonel Firewall Software)? I have found that sometimes (Not everytime) I get a FPS of around 60 (According to the display info) but what I actually see looks more like 9-10FPS. Now if I find I get the "slideshow effect" I switch ZA off while playing AH and it always fixes the problem. I am not happy about leaving my system open when playing AH but my gunnery needs all the help it can get.

Just a thought

TTFN
snafu

Pepe · « **Reply #14 on:** April 17, 2001, 06:10:00 AM »

Hi snafu,

I always shut down ZA when playing AH. If not, my system freezes at the login.

Tried to remove and reinstall ZA, to no avail. Since I have no important stuff in my PC, no big deal if anybody sniff in

On the gunnery side, I do not expect any improvement till sidewinders are modelled

Cheers,

Pepe.