Start up frame rate

[PuppetZ]

here's my situation, When I log into an arena, I get very low FPS for about 10-15sec. The game disable some advanced graphics setting. After waiting a few seconds, it stabilize at around 60 FPS. I go set them back and can play the game fine with frame rate varying between 60 and 45 FPS.

Questions : What is the cause of this low frame rate condition? Is there a way to stop/reduce it? Or can I stop the game from fiddling with my settings as it's just the first 10seconds or so?

Thanks.

[The Fugitive]

Your computer is not strong enough to run full graphics . As the game loads it sees that it takes longer to long to load and turns off the extra stuff. I don't think there is any way around it other than beefing up your computer.

You could try stream lining your computer. Get the processes down to the least amount as you can. That way it loads quicker.

[ImADot]

Before loading the game, do you disable any bloatware anti-virus/spyware/etc programs? They slow things down as the scan the data as it comes off the hard drive and into memory (or whatever they do to make your life safer).

[PuppetZ]

My rig is a intel core i5-2300 quad@2.8GHz socket 1155, MOBO ASUS P8H67-M, 4Gb DDR3 1333MHz, Zotact Geforce GTX560 1Gb DDR5, running winXP home on a 7200RPM sata drive(dont remember the brand). I would think I have pretty solid hardware for any modern game. I dont have problem with any game but AH. As I said, it runs fine maxed out but for these fatal 10-15 seconds when I get in an arena(does the same thing if I change arena). The graphics settings that are disabled, I set back to max as soon as my frame rate get stable. I average 50FPS all the time (even in FSO). I just dont get why it get so low when I log in an arena. And why the game have to fiddle with the setting as I set them where I want them.

I'll try what ImADot suggested with disabling anti-virus. Still I dont think it'll help alot as I only run micrsoft security essentials.

[Skuzzy]

Your computer is taking too long to load all the resources needed to run the game.  The long delay is from the background loading of everything needed to get it all up and running.

There could be a huge number of reasons for this, but you should start looking at system memory usage as well as Windows swap usage.  It could also be related to the CPU being too busy to load up everything.  Look at CPU usage, when the system is supposed to be idle (Task Manager->Processes should be at 0% 99% of the time).

[PuppetZ]

Would A SSD help?

[Skuzzy]

Not really.  All it might do is masked the problem.  You really do not want to run Aces High from an SSD as Aces High constantly updates its configuration files.  Over the long haul this would eventually kill an SSD.

Masking this type of problem is not a good idea.  Your computer could have a virus, or some really aggressive malware, possibly a worm.  Do not think your anti-xxx software is actually going to stop everything that can infect your computer.  It will not.

[morfiend]

Would A SSD help?

  Maybe upgrading to a 64 bit OS would help,you have 4 gigs of ram plus a 1 gig VC but XP is only using 3.5 gigs total,or there abouts.

 That and streamlining your processes would likely improve things.


  Of course,I could just be full of BS,I'm not a tech guy.



   

[Skuzzy]

Actually, with a 1GB video card, the OS woul dnot be able to grab more than 3GB of system RAM, and with all the other hardware buffer mappings, it is probably closer to 2.7GB of RAM.

IF the video card is mapping all of the RAM at one time.  Some of the vidoe cards with a large amount of system RAM have takne to page swapping it so it would not eat up too much system RAM at any given time.

[morfiend]

 So Roy,other than me say 3.5 gigs would I be right?  would the OP be better served with a 64bit OS given his computer specs??



   

[PuppetZ]

Just wanted to let you know. I migrated to Win7 x64 ultimate. Still some low frame rate when logging in but much much less troublesome. In fact not enough for AH to alter graphics setting at all. Low frame rate condition last for 3-5 seconds@20-30FPS where it would last for a solid 10-15 seconds@5-10FPS with the exact same rig running winXP home.

On a side note, When I first logged in, AH gave me an error message reading "device not recognized" or something along the line. Along with that, it seems that the game no longer reporte the right amount of vidMemory/used vidMemory.

 

Anyway no biggy since AH works just fine 

 

[1701E]

  The Memory thing is a Windows 7 "issue".  Has something to do with the way Windows 7 handles all the RAM.  Uses the right amount but the way DirectX reports it is wrong.

[PuppetZ]

  The Memory thing is a Windows 7 "issue".  Has something to do with the way Windows 7 handles all the RAM.  Uses the right amount but the way DirectX reports it is wrong.

Ha! Thanks for clearing that out. It does indeed report the wrong number...

 

[Dragon Tamer]

No, this is something that I have happen to my computer as well and I run Win XP.  I have this issue every time I get on and I can't see it being the graphics card because only 1/4 of the memory is used, I'm less sure about the RAM usage.  That may get maxed out on game start up (I have about 2GB of ram to give).

Is there any way to compress the graphics data untill everything else has loaded or maybe keep them from coming on untill the game has finished loading?

Also about the self shadow, this is a huge load on my computer but it looks great in film veiwer, any way to have my computer run smoother with self shadow enabled?

[68ZooM]

i get the same FPS drop/stutter right as soon as it puts me in tower from signing in, just for a few seconds then my FPS are back into the 200's   3.2 quad core, triple XFX285 GTX's sli'd,  16Gig memory, 2 terabyte 32MB transfer rate HD on XP pro 64bit, it's the only game that ever does that for some reason, i run full max settings and 2048 textures ( texture options goes up to 8096 in my video options window) the game looks fantastic at these settings and never have FPS issues once I'm playing , its just that first time i enter the arena.