Author Topic: stuttering video (Read 441 times)

Modas · « **on:** June 05, 2003, 10:56:13 PM »

Yeah, I know, this has been address a BILLION freaking times and I have done a search and have tried all the things that have been suggested. Heres my situation.

EPOX 8RDA+ Nforce
Athlon XP2500+ Barton
SB Live!
ATI 9500
WIN98 SE

Ok, now if I leave all the video setting alone and keep all the AA and AF setting to application preference, I have no problems as long as I stay in 1024 x 768. I run at 130+ FPS with 100 Hz refresh.

As soon as I start messing with AA, AF or the resolution, I start getting stuttering. However, I'm still running very hi FPS. The stutter is only apparent when I'm rolling or turning. And the stutter is very quick. It gets worse (more noticable) as I increase the resolution. The other things that I notice is that I have a little, gray vertical line next to my mouse and the text is "fuzzy" or blurry. (Its not my eyes either )

My video card and sound card are sharing an IRQ. Yes, I know that's bad. I moved the sound card to a different slot and it made no difference. I even took the card out and ran the onboard sound, with the same problem. I tried turning down my sound acceleration. Nothing

It also does not seem to be AH limited. IL2 also exhibits this stuttering. The stuttering shows up when I film a flight as well.

I've got fast AGP writes in the BIOS diabled 8x AGP enabled. and the AGP apature set to 256 (I have 512 total mem)

I am at my wits end here. Any help is appreciated. thanks

214thCavalier · « **Reply #1 on:** June 06, 2003, 08:03:17 AM »

Yep i got it as well

Just changed vid card to a 9700 pro, win98se, xp2000 and 512 meg ram.
Catalyst 3.4 vid drivers.
Now my motherboard only suppoprts X4 agp dunno if this is a problem.

Same symptoms, text buffer and aircraft icons are blurry and difficult to read (any bright green text virtually impossible) and there is a small grey vertical line just to the right of the mouse cursor, however game gauges etc look great.

After much fiddling last night i found the problem seems to be the AF setting in the vid drivers.
I set the 3D tab to custom settings, then AA to max at X6.
Set AF to performance and minimum X2.

Textures and Mipmap i set to max.

Using these settings i can run at 1600 x 1200 resolution and its smooth and playable.

Fps range from 55 to approx 110 and not a jaggy in sight anywhere.

However if i alter the AF settings jerky video reappears.

straffo · « **Reply #2 on:** June 06, 2003, 08:27:17 AM »

I've the same symptoms on a GF3

what AF mean btw ?

Modas · « **Reply #3 on:** June 06, 2003, 08:33:15 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by 214thCavalier
Yep i got it as well

Just changed vid card to a 9700 pro, win98se, xp2000 and 512 meg ram.
Catalyst 3.4 vid drivers.
Now my motherboard only suppoprts X4 agp dunno if this is a problem.

Same symptoms, text buffer and aircraft icons are blurry and difficult to read (any bright green text virtually impossible) and there is a small grey vertical line just to the right of the mouse cursor, however game gauges etc look great.

After much fiddling last night i found the problem seems to be the AF setting in the vid drivers.
I set the 3D tab to custom settings, then AA to max at X6.
Set AF to performance and minimum X2.

Textures and Mipmap i set to max.

Using these settings i can run at 1600 x 1200 resolution and its smooth and playable.

Fps range from 55 to approx 110 and not a jaggy in sight anywhere.

However if i alter the AF settings jerky video reappears.

What is your setting for desktop resolution? Do you match resolutions between AH and desktop.? My motherboard supports 8x which I have enabled.

I concur that the AF settings seem to play a bigger part in this issue. The funny thing is, when I FIRST had my machine up and running the other night I didn't have this problem at all, even when I messed with the AF settings.

I'm going to format tonight, start from scratch and see if I can reproduce the problem. I hate computers

Straffo - AF is ansiotropic Filtering (or something like that going from memory). Not sure what it does tho

straffo · « **Reply #4 on:** June 06, 2003, 08:39:18 AM »

thank I'll search a bit

Skuzzy · « **Reply #5 on:** June 06, 2003, 09:07:09 AM »

AF = Anistrophic Filtering

It is a technique that allows textures to be correctly displayed when they are at extreme angles from the camera/viewer. That's the simple explanation.

Do not use AF in Aces High, or set to minimum. It currently does distort the text badly.

AKIron · « **Reply #6 on:** June 06, 2003, 11:29:13 AM »

I've noticed the stuttering from time to time with 3 different video cards going back to when the voodoo 5 first came out. Have had it with that card, geforce3, and ati 9700 pro. Also many different sound cards, processors and motherboards in the same period.

Seems to come and go without any changes made on my end. Seems worse on some maps than others, though I couldn't tell you which just now.

214thCavalier · « **Reply #7 on:** June 06, 2003, 02:48:28 PM »

Well to make things even worse for me, after thinking i had the stuttering sorted last night, today i fire AH up and go into the CT again.

Major stuttering again, you do not even need to fly the effect is easily seen just by zooming the map in and out.

And to really piss me off i just tested online and offline.

Offline AH is smooth as silk.

Online it stutters and jerks so badly it is unplayable.

So is this me or a problem at your end ?

Modas · « **Reply #8 on:** June 06, 2003, 02:57:48 PM »

damn, that doesn't sound good at all...

Acutally, I'm seeing the same thing. I do get some stuttering offline, but it is SIGNIFICANTLY more pronounced online. Try filming a quick flight and see if it shows up on film. It did for me.

Got this site off of another bulletin board. Got a lot of good setup information in there. I haven't had time to digest it yet.

Also got the suggestion from the same board to go down a driver version from 3.4 to 3.2 as there have been many people reporting problems with the 3.4 drivers.

Gonna format and try again tonight....

setup information - go to the bios optimization guide 7.7

Another person on the other board had the same issue with the ati 9500. Fixed it by going to a Nvida Ti-4200 and put the 9500 in a different machine. Same issue on the alternate machine.

214thCavalier · « **Reply #9 on:** June 06, 2003, 03:42:28 PM »

Well i just swapped out a GF4 Ti4200 128mb which had none of these problems.

Wish i had never thought of trying this Radeon.

Works great offline but thats as much use as a paper cup to me.

Modas · « **Reply #10 on:** June 07, 2003, 12:29:19 AM »

No luck here -

formated, redid windows, put my SB audigy mp3 in. Its better, I can run with 2x AA going with nice and smooth for a while, then "poof" I start getting minor stutters, then is quits, then I get some pretty good ones. Its not consistant.

Was unable to get the different ATI drivers to work. Still got one more set to try, but not tonight.

I think this card is going back to newegg and I'm getting a ti4200...

214thCavalier · « **Reply #11 on:** June 07, 2003, 07:44:36 AM »

Ok i think i fixed the stuttering.

At 1am last night at last all seemed ok, just checked it again 13 hours later and map still zooms in and out smoothly.

Will check it again when i get in from work tonight if its ok will post the possible causes and cures.

Btw i still have Catalyst 3.4 and running at 1600 res and all seems ok so far.

214thCavalier · « **Reply #12 on:** June 07, 2003, 04:06:49 PM »

Well i tried everything.

Uninstalled Zone alarm Pro, spent hours changing IRQ's to get sound and network cards on own IRQ's.

And it works ok !

Only problem is i reinstalled ZA Pro and bad stuttering is back

I do run through a router but even so i feel nekkid without a firewall.

Next question is does the Rad 9700 Pro really dislike ZA pro so badly ?

Or is it just a coincidence and some network problems are causing this ?

Tried uninstalling ZA again and problem disappears.

Modas · « **Reply #13 on:** June 08, 2003, 10:10:11 PM »

Well, I'm giving up on my ATI 9500. Put my old Geforce 1 32 MB card back in and it runs smooth as silk. Just cant do and AA as my FPS goes into the negative numbers

Didn't have ZA running in background so that won't help me there. Nice to hear that someone got lucky and fixed it...