Preloading textures

[WOZ30BAT]

In my video settings for AH the box that enables preloading of textures is not highlighted for me to be able to check the box. Is this important?

[The Fugitive]

it may be that your computer doesn't have enough resources to allow that option. You may run into trouble in the game if you try to run too much eye candy.

[WOZ30BAT]

I have a Toshiba Qosmio with T7350 dual core processor 4 gig DDR3 Ram & Nvidia 9700 GTS with 512mb Ram. I would think I would have enough in my system to be able to preload the textures

[Getback]

That's a lap top where the video card shares memory with other applications. I will never understand why people try to use laptops for gaming. This also means that your sound is onboard so your cpu has to give up resources for that. So no, this computer does not have enough power to do the job. That's my humble opinion though maybe some others can give you better guidance. I hope so. 

[WOZ30BAT]

My son's laptop is a Compaq presario with a Nvidia 8200M GPU & 2 gigs of DDR2 Ram & his cpu & his cpu can preload the textures. I was just wondering why mine isn't showing the option. the game loads quickly & runs smoothly. I got a laptop to play game while @ work. It's more of a desktop replacement.

[Denholm]

It could be a difference in the Operating Systems or simply some benchmark that Toshiba has set.

 By the way, it's not your processor that determines if you can pre-load textures.

[The Fugitive]

you might also try lowering your texture size. At 512 the game doesn't think you have the resources, but at 256 it might. I'm not sure how it works, just trying to use some logic.

[Anaxogoras]

What system resources does preloading textures use?  Memory?  Vmemory?  I have it checked but don't really know what it does.

[Anodizer]

That's a lap top where the video card shares memory with other applications. I will never understand why people try to use laptops for gaming. This also means that your sound is onboard so your cpu has to give up resources for that. So no, this computer does not have enough power to do the job. That's my humble opinion though maybe some others can give you better guidance. I hope so. 

That's actually quite incorrect..  There are many laptop video cards that run independent of system memory and have their own memory..  This version is on par with 9800GTS..
And as far as sound is concerned, CPU's are fast enough now-a-days to be able to handle an onboard soundcard without much(if any) difficulty..

[Anodizer]

What system resources does preloading textures use?  Memory?  Vmemory?  I have it checked but don't really know what it does.

They pre-loads all textures used in a particular map in system memory..

[Anodizer]

I have a Toshiba Qosmio with T7350 dual core processor 4 gig DDR3 Ram & Nvidia 9700 GTS with 512mb Ram. I would think I would have enough in my system to be able to preload the textures

You might want to ask Skuzzy about that one..  The only reason I know why it wouldn't be an option is if you didn't have enough memory...
Do you have the latest drivers installed?

[WOZ30BAT]

Yes, I installed the latest drivers from Nvidia (179.28 I believe)

[Denholm]

I really don't think video card drivers will change your ability to preload textures.

[VonMessa]

I always though that pre-loading uses more memory, but....

Doesn't it ultimately help with lag, stutter, when flying over terrain?

I have a decent vid card and 4 Gb Ram (yes, XP only recognizes 3 or so)

If this(preloading) is only for eye-candy, I'll turn it the hell off.

[Denholm]

Yes, preloading-as I understand it-will consume more memory as instead of stream-loading the game's textures they are all loaded into your memory at once.