System Requirements are WAY to low now!

[SkViper]

These are the listed minimum hardware requirements:
D3D compatible video card, 8 MB memory minimum
PII 233 or Pentium MMX or better
Sound card and speakers

I have a 12 MB Video card, a 400Mhz Processor and 64M of PC100 RAM and I am here to tell you that I CAN NOT play around a carrier with Ack firing.
My frame rates drop as low as 2, and my system even stands still for 2-4 seconds if there are PT's smoke, or explosions near by.
This makes any form of flying in that area impossible.

The requirement need to be updated to something higher than what I have!

SkViper

[Vati66]

SKy Viper,

   You system is better then most my squads ( except for your vid card: Voodoo 2 by chance?)   And they are all in the low 20's while flying in the mess around a carrier.  I would suggest 2 things to you in order to make this game run better for you.  Upgrade Vid card  and upgrade system RAM, 64 megs is a little lite I think.   Also, make sure you have the latest drivers for your Vid card.  BTW,  IS your CPU a AMD K6-2 400 mhz or Intel ?    I relise that system specs say that your machine is up to the task, and it should be, maybe all you need to do is tweak a few things.   I hate to see anyone spend extra money on hardware to play a game so maybe we can tweak it before you spend money on anything.  I'll help you as much as I can as will many other here.  
Cheers
Vati
 
                   

[SkViper]

K6-2 400
Voodoo 3 2000 PCI Latest Drivers
Direct X 8
1024x768 @ 75Hz 32Bit (I know its not true 32bit)

I made a mistake...Video Mem. is 16M.

I considered going to 128 Sys RAM, but don't want to by something I can't use when I move to a Duron in the next few months.

At any rate, what I said still holds true: The posted requirements are too low for game play.

SkViper

[J_A_B]

He has a point there.   I can't imagine the game being truly playable for anyone using an average 233 mhz system.

J_A_B

[Vati66]

Yep   you have a point.  

haveing a K6 chip does not help matters here, I'm afraid.   I have read that the K6 has a floating point computation limitation that may cause trouble.   I'm not sure but I think this may be part of the problem.  I may be wrong.   I'm sure someone will be along to either confirm or denie this.  I also hear that HTC is working on a patch to help with the frame rate issue.  Hold on SKviper,  things will get better shortly

Vati
 

[Tac]

I have a P2 300 with 96 of ram, Voodoo 3 2000 16 meg AGP and I get BEAUTIFUL slide shows when ack fires.. I mean, its like looking at your family album as you get shot to pieces by the ungodly amount of AAA fire in the fleets.

HTC should also post the following requirement to play AH:

NOT FOR COLOR BLIND PEOPLE.

Before it was red icons in green background.. a bane for us. Now its sea-blue with red icons and blue airplanes. I'm thinking on putting in my old, tint-damaged monitor so just I can see a fricken plane when its below the horizon.


/squeaking off

[SkViper]

Wow, I could not imagine playing color blind!

Anyhow, here is a question regarding system perf. and how it may be related to this problem.
I watched my system using the WIN98 built in System Monitor (programs> accessories> system tools> system monitor).
Watching the Swap in use, Physical Free, and Kernel in use, I was amazed to see that the Kernel in use averages 50% when DUN is in use.
In my Network settings I have DUN, TCP/IP, and Microsoft Family.

Anyone have any ideas...no worries if you only help me mess it up worse. I asked for the help.  

Viper

[Robert]

VATTI
could you please tell me why I get the same performance as viper. And give me any info on how to get better performance out of this machine other than over clocking. I've tried every thing I could find anywhere else as to changing virtual memory,closing all programs,not using joystick software, just about every thing.


sys spec:
boot up I get 93% resources
win98 se
PIII 500
16meg Nvidia tnt
128meg ram
13 gig scsi
1024x res 16bit (I've tried low res but no performance change at all in 800x600)

When I get near the ships I get screen shuttering like my computer is hitting swap file or something like that. Fps drop to 5 and never get over 40. My monitor can run at 85hz in 1600x1200 so I know it isn't this unless what I've read is wrong. I guess im looking for something I've over looked.

Thanks RWY out !

[Lephturn]

Have you guys tried this since patch 3?  It's faster and no freezes now for me.

SKViper, what are you using to connect to the net.  A "winmodem" I bet.  Utter crap those... they use your CPU to do the work of a "real" modem, hence loading your CPU when you are online.  Not good for online gamers.  Get your hands on a real modem if you can.  Even an old 28.8 external would work fine for playing AH on the net and wouldn't load your CPU like that.

------------------
Lephturn - Chief Trainer
A member of The Flying Pigs  http://www.flyingpigs.com
 
"A pig is a jolly companion, Boar, sow, barrow, or gilt --
A pig is a pal, who'll boost your morale, Though mountains may topple and tilt.
When they've blackballed, bamboozled, and burned you, When they've turned on you, Tory and Whig,
Though you may be thrown over by Tabby and Rover, You'll never go wrong with a pig, a pig,
You'll never go wrong with a pig!" -- Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"

[SKurj]

RWY... a TNT card... a first generation TNT card would be considered barely adequate IMO fer aces.

Go spend $100 on a V3 and you'll be pleasantly surprised, or even a GF MX

AKskurj

[Ghosth]

Viper,
Running a P2 266 MMX/64mb ram, 8mb AGP video.

I get a solid 10 to 12 fps in PT boat or plane by CV with ack fireing.

I get up to 30 fps at 10k away from fleet.

Yes I'd love to upgrade but food on the table is more important at this time.

At this point I really think which video card you have is effecting FPS more than which system its running on.

[SkViper]

OK...update
I added 64M of RAM.
FR went up 2...doah!
However, I did get some relief from Swap File hits which has stopped the freezing I was getting.

Winmodems...Man, I dunno!
It used to be that all winmodems were identified as such.
The modem I have is a Creative Labs PCI 56K Modem Blaster.
Some guy at the local PC shop tried to tell me that all PCI modems are winmodems, but I find that hard to believe.

Anyone know how to identify a winmodem?

Thanks,
Viper

[Westy]

Most PCI modems are Winmodems. They suck CPU cycles, badly. The Modem Blaster is a winmodem. The dead giveaway on the Creative homepage is  that your modem " is designed to work with Windows® 95." It's even listed on several sites that talk about Winmodems.     IMO even a 28.8 external would run better than a 56k internal winmodem. Best bet is to dump that asap and get a better external modem. Your cpu will like you...and your connection wil improve ALOT.

  -Westy

[SkViper]

Thanks

Interesting tidbit...I had and still have a Motorola Voice Surfer 56K.
It was designed with Flex Firmware and upgraded to V.90.
It's an ISA card and a Hardware modem according to Motorola.
Upon changing to the SB modem, my download speeds increased from ~4.1 to ~5.0
Game play in AH and others didn't seem to change at all.

With both modems I have tried slowing the speed to as much as 14.4.  Warps seem to increase if I set them lower than 38.4.

For now, I am going to stick with what I have since I want to save my $ for a Duron system and will need to buy Mobo, Case, and Processor.
After that, processor hits probably wont hurt as much.

Thanks to all for the help!

Viper