Poor performance because of 100% cpu utilization.

[OverVolts]

First of all this is just a hunch but I don't think this game supports 3D rendering on the graphics card?? I have a GTX 470 and believe me this is one of the few games my graphics cards DON'T heat up at all so this game doesn't even use graphics cards. Its only using like 256-512mb of ram at the very most and doesn't support multi-core!?!? Maybe this game has some coding errors that's running infinity loops and sucking up all the CPU cycles?

Oh and my system specs:

CPU: Phenom II X6 1055T 2.8Ghz

RAM: 4Gb 1600Mhz DDR3

GFX: GTX 470

[LuckyDog]

OverVolts - did you know which processes are using the CPU cycles? I have had this problem with Vista and found it was the windows indexer. I have also had issues with the prefetch cache and "Superfetch". If you look in task manager and then right click on the offending process, you can see which of the associated services are contributing to the problem. I hope this helps!

[Battlefront.com]

For sure the game is using your video card. There's just no way the CPU can handle 3D rendered graphics like this on its own. Just isn't possible. Well, unless you're getting less than 1fps with very blurry textures and low res models. If you're seeing that you probably have some sort of driver problem.

RAM usage depends on the size and complexity of the battle being played. The game was programmed for efficiency so it doesn't surprise me that it isn't gobbling RAM up like the big game company's products. IIRC when we made the core engine 500MB was the target hardware platform.

No coding errors, that's for sure. After 3 years of public use we would have found those if they existed about 3 years ago

And no, CMx2 is not coded to support multi-core processors. Won't be for a long time to come. The speed boost won't be that significant but the work to have multi-processor support is very significant.

Steve

[OverVolts]

Okay, I take the GPU not being utilized back. I ran eVGA percision and the games only utilizing 20-40% GPU max! It picks a random core at 100%. I have reinstalled all my drivers for motherboard and graphics card to the latest. I'm on the game version of 1.20 since later patchs are not supported by paradox any more. I'm getting 5-15 fps max unless im looking completely away from the battle and I get 25fps. There is no way this old game would ever come close to ultilizing 4Ghz of CPU clock cycles. It doesn't matter if I run stock 2.8 or overclock to 4 it still sucks away 100% of one random core. What else can I do about fixing this problem???

Oh by the way I love the ToW series as a side positive note. I don't mean to sound all negative.

[Battlefront.com]

Again, CMx2 is coded to work with a single core and not multiple cores. There is no way to get the game to utilize more than one core. More cores does mean that there is less possibility of something else crowding out CM.

You can, and should, be using v1.21. We made a special patch that basically converts a Paradox or Gamer's Gate version into a Battlefront version. You can get the patch here

As for your slow framerate problems, FPS varies based on the size and complexity of the scenario. However, based on your specs you should definitely not routinely see 5-15fps. You should probably be in the 20fps range worst case.

I've moved this thread to the Tech Support area for better assistance on troubleshooting the problem.

Steve

[Redwolf]

In other games the GPU heats up more because there is more to do, namely more shaders. By comparison, CM is more of a polygon pusher. Only a part of a modern graphics card is dedicated to basic polygon placement. Of course the actual rendering still happens on the graphics card.

CM (x1 and x2) are both games that will always use up all (read: 100%) of one CPU (or CPU core) at any time. This doesn't allow any conclusions as to whether your performance is limited by CPU or GPU.

How exactly do you know how many FPS you get? It all sounds a little unlikely given the system.

[OverVolts]

Okay full system specs if this helps:

PSU: BFG HS-1000 1k Watt

CPU: AMD Phenom II 1055T 2.8Ghz

MOBO: MSI 980a-G65

GFX: Evga GTX 470 (X2 for SLI)

RAM: Corsair 4Gb Kit 1600Mhz DDR3 9-9-9-24

HDD: WD 320Gb (x2 AHCI)

OS: Windows 7 x64Bit

GFX: v258.96 Driver

MOBO: v15.49 Driver

DXDIAG: http://www.vvvbattalion.com/uploads/CMSF/DxDiag.txt

And here is Fraps with the FPS in the screenshots:

http://www.vvvbattalion.com/uploads/CMSF/CMSF-1.jpg

http://www.vvvbattalion.com/uploads/CMSF/CMSF-2.jpg

http://www.vvvbattalion.com/uploads/CMSF/CMSF-3.jpg

CPU-Z info: http://www.vvvbattalion.com/uploads/CMSF/cpuz.htm

[Redwolf]

Well, candidates are fraps not getting it right. Does it actually *feel* like low fps?

And SLI. Who knows what CMx2 does that might put SLI at a disadvantage?

It would have been better to mention SLI right away. It's a major candidate for the breakage. If there's any.

[phil stanbridge]

My game is running reasonably slow too - but I believe it has always been like this. Also, the higher the AA or AF the slower it becomes. The more detailed the map the slower it will scroll around. You compare an urban map to an open map. If you have a lot of wheeled/tracked vehicles in one area, (as in your screenies) then try scrolling, it will also be slow.

What are your game settings out of interest?

For what its worth, I swear that my Intel i5 at stock was a faster perfomer in Shock Force than my AMD X4 955 @ 3.5ghz is now.

[SlapHappy]

I have a relatively modest system by today's standards: e7400 intel @ 2.8 GHZ w/ Nvidia 8800 gt AND 2 gb ram. It's disconcerting to see people with CPU and GPU that are 2 generations removed from mine who are still complaining about poor game performance.

So the question to me is not "why does my uber-system give me relatively poor frame rates?".....It's "what the hell does it take to really goose up this game engine and give real performance gains?"

And we still don't have a solid answer as to what those factors are. The only thing I've noticed is that raw MHZ increases in CPU tend to bump up FPS, but are those gains linear or no? And if they're not linear, why not?

I think a good benchmarking standard would be useful, but how would that system best be implemented? So many questions. I have considered upgrading my system solely for the purposes of improving playability of CMSF (which is one of only a couple of games I even play). But I certainly am not interested in tossing out $400 or so just for a 4-5 FPS gain.

[c3k]

Tangentially related, there've been several threads regarding multi-core vs. higher clocks and they seem to always come down on the side of higher Mhz (exceptions for certain games written for multi-cores, but NOT for ALL games so coded).

Higher clock=better gaming (usually, IMHO, YMMV, etc.)

Ken

[SlapHappy]

That's been my experience with this game engine. No one would argue that IN MOST CASES a 3.0 GHZ Dual Core I7 is faster than a Pentium 4 @ 3.0 GHZ even when only one core is considered. Other factors besides raw clock speed make that the case.

However this code was released 3 years ago and is even older than that from it's inception. We all know from BFC that the game does not utilize multiple cores. But there may be other factors that the game engine might be insensitive to as well. Signs indicate that we are not likely to see single-core CPU's that run at 5 GHZ+. It may well be that there is some improvement in FPS between an i7 and a P4 running at the same clock speed, but is that increase significant?

Recently Intel reintroduce hyper-threading to it's CPU current models. Will that be useful with the game engine performance? If so, to what extent?

[OverVolts]

But I still think it's rubbish that an up to date 2.8Ghz CPU is maxing out a core no matter what. This is the only game I have ever come across that runs so terrible and runs maxed out CPU utilization. Usually when your CPU is 100% is insufficient CPU requirements. I noticed that my FPS is low no matter what settings I use highest or lowest settings don't increase my frame rate.

Oh and by the way, when I tried applying 1.21 patch it now asks me for an elicense cd key. My paradox version never came with a cd key and was never required to run the game, just the disc had to be in the drive. Does this mean I have to re buy this game to get latest patch's from now on???

[phil stanbridge]

OverVolts, don't worry, BFC are very helpful when it comes to sorting out installation issues like that. Just be patient I'm sure they will resolve it. As for the game itself, it struggles to some extent on my system too, but I sit back and think to myself, hang on, exactly what is this game trying to do here. All those ballistics calculations, LOS etc etc. There is so much more going on here than meets the eye, it must really stress the cpu.

I've started the British campaign, and the first couple of missions sail through, but as the maps get larger and the units increase, things start to slow down. I'm not saying it's perfect, and perhaps the code does need to be optimized further, but these guys aren't your everyday developers either.

[Guest]

Huh. I have a pretty crappy system - 8800 GTS, 2.2 Ghz dual-core with a couple gigs of RAM - and CMSF seems to run okay for me, usually well above 30 FPS. Sometimes when things get hairy it notches down a bit.

As for CPU utilization - phil stanbridge is right. There's a lot going on behind the scenes. Your average FPS does about a tenth of the math that CMSF does. Less.

OverVolts - what scenarios are you playing where this happens? What other stuff do you have running in the background? I've had problems with AV and firewalls both being grabby jerks about the CPU.

[Jonny(FGM)]

I noticed that my FPS is low no matter what settings I use highest or lowest settings don't increase my frame rate.

That is definitely your PC if changing the settings does not help. I tend to max out all the settings and then change the 3d model quality in game using the shift and [ / ] keys till i get the desired quality/smoothness tradeoff. Sounds like a problem I had with an earlier version, changing the settings didn't seem to affect the visual quality at all, and in fact the higher the settings the smoother it would run :s

I noticed that my FPS is low no matter what settings I use highest or lowest settings don't increase my frame rate.

Oh and by the way, when I tried applying 1.21 patch it now asks me for an elicense cd key. My paradox version never came with a cd key and was never required to run the game, just the disc had to be in the drive. Does this mean I have to re buy this game to get latest patch's from now on???

I believe paradox stopped supporting CMSF after 1.20 and as such you have to purchase the 1.21 patch for something small like $1. You definitely shouldn't have to rebuy the game.

[Jonny(FGM)]

What other stuff do you have running in the background? I've had problems with AV and firewalls both being grabby jerks about the CPU.

Before I play CMSF i tend to shut everything else down that I can, I too have a pretty weak system so every last CPU cycle I can squeeze out of it helps immensely. Even if you have a good system it could be helpful to see if it helps, and if it does you can then run a process of deduction to find out if it is one bit of software that is conflicting with CMSF.