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How fast is your game?


Grau

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After playing all the demo games I have come to realize that this game requires substantially greater hardware requirements than CMBO. I based this on the amount of time the computer needs to 'think' before play begins.

I was playing Yelia Stare as the Axis and I found that found that on average for the first few turns the computer took approximately 26 seconds to think before play began. This is from when you press the GO button until the turn starts. My system is a P4 - 1.7 GHz machine with 256 MB of ram. I have a buddy who has a P2 - 400 MHz machine and he told me that his times averages from 1m-45s to 2m-15 sec. He was very disappointed and probably wil not buy the program until he upgrades his machine.

Now this scenario is only a medium battle. What happens when you start to get in the large scale scenarios? Is it possible that the real program will have performance enhancements that make it run faster than the demo?

25 seconds is an eternity of computing with these processors. I have a Blackjack simulator that can run 2 million hands in that time. Do the 50 odd russian units need to make that many calculations to take their turn?

I was wondering what times other users were experiencing. It would be interesting to know what times the people with the fast P4's and AMD chips get. How do the Mac times compare with these?

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I was wondering if the 8 k. , L l cache on the

p-4 prosseser would be a problem with this game. looks like it might........... :confused:

I have a AMD 1.4 mghz with 256 of ram and thinking time on any of the demos for CMBB in about 10 sec. which seems fast enough for me. :cool:

anybody else want to check this out , I used the yelina stare mission to test the time.

bnickb

(WC Fields) once put it:

"I cook with wine, sometimes I add it to the food"

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Why don't you buy a real computer instead of that pocket calculator you call a PC and quit whining...? :D

Besides, I have serious doubts that you can complete your turns in 26 seconds, so think about how your poor PC feels while it's waiting for you.

[ September 19, 2002, 12:37 AM: Message edited by: StellarRat ]

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Originally posted by Captain Wacky:

My computer is so fast that time actually slows down when I hit go. It's like a black hole contained right on my desk, where the laws of nature and physics as we know them cease to exist :D

I noticed my desk chronometer runs backwards while I read your posts too. Hey, does that mean you actually know how the game will end before you start? Or that you can't really play a game because they actually never start? Hmm...

[ September 19, 2002, 12:41 AM: Message edited by: StellarRat ]

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Well, in that case, I'll just follow the crowd rather than making an independent decision. :rolleyes:

FWIW, my machine completes the processing in about the same time.

AMD Athlon 850Mhz, 512MB RAM

Alot of factors will affect the speed of processing, not just RAM and CPU. Critical things such as hard disk speed and model, number of other processes running, and other factors such as chipset or CPU temperature.

I find a significant speed difference with this model of hard disk (IBM Deskstar 7200RPM with 2MB RAM) over standard models, and they make a huge difference to performance when loading or running programs.

Hope that helps.

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Is there a hotkey that will show the framerate? I seem to remember that one of the early screenshots they released said "Frame Rate OFF" at the top, as if just before they took the shot, they turned off a frame rate counter (I think it was the shot of the new "view 5"). Maybe BTS would be so kind as to tell us if there is such a thing...?

~Sam

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Bah, either get a new comp or get some patience (cheaper ! ;) )..

Myself I have an Athlon 500, proc times are 1'30"-2'30" in the demo, but it doesn't bother me much. Anyway this did'nt seem to be substantially more than in CMBO for similar-sized scenarios. Perhaps only the larger map get the comp to think a little more time !

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A Pentium-4 is a very complex beast when it comes to performance evaluation. The reasons go much bejond any simple cache issues. The same applies to the Celerons based on the P4.

Intel made a drastic step to make a subset of code much faster, where this subset is supposed to be complete enough so that all common applications can be implemented in it. Every other piece of code has been made slower for the same clockspeed, and by a wide margin.

For applications heavily optimized for older Intel processors I have seen the performance of a 2.4 GHz P4-Xeon be exactly equal to a 1.0 GHz Pentium-3.

Basically, unless you are lucky, you have to change your coding style to satisfy the requirements for a Pentium-4 to run fast. Lucky would be who already accidentially coded in P4-friendly ways or who can usethe Intel C/C++ compiler and didn't write code which prevents it from optimizing well. Basically, if you did what people consider elegant C (not C++) coding style, you are screwed. If you are doing Pascal-Style programming in C++, you are better off :(

Here is the relavant intel manual:

ftp://download.intel.com/design/Pentium4/manuals/24896606.pdf

Here are some AARs from game tuning for the P4:

http://cedar.intel.com/cgi-bin/ids.dll/topic.jsp?catCode=CUY

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Originally posted by Grau:

[snips]

I was playing Yelia Stare as the Axis and I found that found that on average for the first few turns the computer took approximately 26 seconds to think before play began. This is from when you press the GO button until the turn starts. My system is a P4 - 1.7 GHz machine with 256 MB of ram.

Are you sure you're not suffering from the Radeon slowdown buglet, or something similar?

A machine with the CPU oof you mention really shouldn't take that length of time.

All the best,

John.

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Does anyone remember these things called board wargames? Back when we used to play them, we would be thrilled if we could play a few turns per week. Stop your whining, and learn some patience or stop drinking so much Coke. Take a valium or several. Better yet, why don't you imagine when you could only dream of a game such as this? (and then you can play it as fast as you want to in your mind; although this is really nothing more than mental masturbation).

5m

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Originally posted by Soddball:

Alot of factors will affect the speed of processing, not just RAM and CPU. Critical things such as hard disk speed and model, number of other processes running, and other factors such as chipset or CPU temperature.

I find a significant speed difference with this model of hard disk (IBM Deskstar 7200RPM with 2MB RAM) over standard models, and they make a huge difference to performance when loading or running programs.

Hope that helps.

Other factors that should be considered are speed and direction of the wind, barametric pressure, ambient air temperature, how much moisture is in the air as well as how hot your barrell is....No wait, this isnt the sniper thread. Ooops.

:D

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This one got me curious, so I gave it a shot as well. Machine is an AMD XP 1600+ with 512 MB DDR RAM and an Epox EP8KHA+ motherboard. OS is Win2K server.

I don't think graphics card or hard drive will affect matters any here, although OS might...

At any rate, I got 2 12 secs, and one 15 sec for the first three turns as Germans...

ianc

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I figure the BTS crew tested this over and over & came up with the below specs:

System Requirements RECOMMENDED (PC/Mac):

Processor: Pentium 800MHz or faster (PC), G4 (Mac)

Operating System: Windows 95/98/ME/XP/2000 (PC)

Mac OS 8.6 to 9.xx (Mac)

Video Card: 32Mb Video card capable of running in 800x600 resolution or higher

System Memory: 128MB of RAM

Hard Drive Space: 1.2 Gigabytes of Hard Drive space required (160Mb required for Demo)

Other Requirements: CD-ROM Drive

DirectX 8.0 compatible sound and video cards (PC)

28.8 modem or Network/Internet access for multiplayer

With my super respect for thier views, I'd figure you have this & your in business. If anything above these specs are not working, well....

Someone will have to do SOMEFINK!!! especially if you're running a 1.8 GHZ processor. I'd use a ball-peen hammer :D

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I can repeat it as often as you want: the clockspeed has never been a sole indicator of processor speed, and in the days of the Pentium-4 it is even less so.

I don't understand why the original poster has a problem with the 30 seconds, but I guess it a matter of taste. In any case, he invested his money into the wrong kind of computer if he is that impatient.

There is nothing about the graphics card or the harddisk that would cause any speedup or slowdown for what he posted the time for, which is the programmed opponent thinking and the combat resolution. He does not speak about any loading time nor does he speak about any interactive or 3D part of the game.

[ September 19, 2002, 04:26 PM: Message edited by: redwolf ]

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Originally posted by StellarRat:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Captain Wacky:

My computer is so fast that time actually slows down when I hit go. It's like a black hole contained right on my desk, where the laws of nature and physics as we know them cease to exist :D

I noticed my desk chronometer runs backwards while I read your posts too. Hey, does that mean you actually know how the game will end before you start? Or that you can't really play a game because they actually never start? Hmm...</font>
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