Performance issues

[ricroma]

Hi,

just bought the game, and it looks like a cool one... the problem is that it plays really slow on my machine!

I seriously wouldn't expect it, I have a Interl i7, 4GB Ram, 1GB video card.

I'm not talking about AI thinking, those are fine. I'm talking about just scrolling the map, selecting the units and moving them. Everything is just... laggy.

I've looked for other post about this but found none. I don't know if:

a) this is normal;

there is an obvious solution to the issue that doesn't need to be discussed... and I missed it.

c) everyone here plays the game on pcs from 2020.

I don't know, it just seems like a really enjoyable game, if I could only play without staring at the monitor and yelling: "COME ON! SPEED UP!".

Thanks for all the help!

RIcroma

[wlape3]

Need a little more information to be helpful.

What's your OS? What kind of video card do you have?

Do you have hardware acceleration enabled? Have you tried reducing the resolution?

[Hubert Cater]

Hi Ricroma,

The info wlape3 suggests will be helpful and can you also try experimenting with the full screen or windowed mode settings to see if that helps?

This can be set in game via the SETTINGS dialog.

Hopefully one of these options does the trick for you and updating your Video Card driver (if applicable) won't hurt either.

Hubert

[ricroma]

Hi, thanks for the answers!

Well, my graphic card is an ATI HD5700. Drivers are updated. I'm playing under Windows 7 Home. I've tried both windowed and full screen mode, no changes.

Didn't try yet other resolutions beside the native for my monitor. I'll give it a try tonight when I get home.

How do I enable "hardware acceleration"? I'm not an expert, but the name sound cool, maybe it can do the trick!

Thanks again

[Glabro]

I gather it's just a very slow engine for some reason, and leave it at that. One would think simple movements and selectins like this would go in a zip, but something's just lagging the game up.

[ricroma]

Update. Tried also different resolutions, but no, nothing different...

@glabro: what you mean is that I'm not experiencing something new?

Thanks,

Ricroma

[Glabro]

That's my understanding, unless you're experiencing severely painful lag. I'm just talking about an all-around slowness to the unit selection, movement etc - sluggishness, but not anything painful that I'd have to wait seconds for stuff to happen.

[patrat618]

i must have one of the 2020 computers, because the game plays pretty dam fast on my machine.

[ricroma]

Update 2. The problem seems to be due or somehow connected with the quantity of units in the screen. The lag increases according to the density of units in the screen. When moving in empty zones (like see ones), the lag disappears. In other zones (mostly the french/german border) the lag reaches tops of almost a second (click -> actual selection of unit; mouse movement -> actual map scrolling).

While I'll be fine playing a slow game, this is kind of annoying, I reapeat, it is more than slow.

Thanks again for the answers.

Ricroma

[Bill101]

It certainly isn't normal to have that be slow. On my machine, and even on my last and much older computer, things like the scrolling and selecting were very quick indeed.

There must be something else and hopefully the technically savant can help.

[patrat618]

make sure your not running alot of background programs. ive seen people running so many dam programs at startup that their computer was slowed to a crawl.

[Wolfe 1759]

The scrolling lag seems to have been a problem from the initial release onwards, this thread http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=95378 has a few more details.

From email communications with Hubert at that point one suggestion was that using a wireless mouse may have caused some of the problem, however not having a non-wireless mouse I haven't been able to test if this is the case or not.

[Hubert Cater]

As Bill mentioned the game runs rather quickly on most machines but there has been a report of some laginess on a small subset of machines and since it is not a universal issue it is very difficult for me to track down and diagnose as a simple fix.

I would try all the suggestions which is to disable any unnecessary background programs, switch to a non wireless mouse (if applicable) to see if that makes a difference, disable multiple monitors (if applicable) to see if that helps and to even try updating your DirectX , video and sound card drivers to see if any of that helps as well.

Hopefully one of these will help to resolve the problem for you!

[rjh1971]

Update 2. The problem seems to be due or somehow connected with the quantity of units in the screen. The lag increases according to the density of units in the screen. When moving in empty zones (like see ones), the lag disappears. In other zones (mostly the french/german border) the lag reaches tops of almost a second (click -> actual selection of unit; mouse movement -> actual map scrolling).

While I'll be fine playing a slow game, this is kind of annoying, I reapeat, it is more than slow.

Thanks again for the answers.

Ricroma

I have noticed this issue, and believe it or not when I play under win7 (64 bits) it is worser than under Win Xp, even when under Xp it is not taking advantage of the full memory (6gb) that win 7 recognizes.

It's the same pc with two HD, the one with XP I'd say it's 45 % full and the other for Win 7 is almost empty.

With Xp the map scrolls quite fast, kind of sluggish under Win 7 in high density unit areas, basicly the west front.

Anyway I have been playing it almost everyday since release, (using Xp )

[wlape3]

How do I enable "hardware acceleration"? I'm not an expert, but the name sound cool, maybe it can do the trick!

Thanks again

It's usually a configuation option under the video settings. I have Win 7 Ultimate and will see where it can be found there.

I have the same issue regarding unit density and game speed. As the AI has to handle more and more units the speed noticably declines. Try overclocking your cpu a bit.

[ss002d6252@blueyonder.co.]

I have the same problems. I'm starting to suspect its a windows 7 issue.

[xwormwood]

I use Win7 64bit too, and my copmuter don't suffers under the described lag.

Do you have hardware acceleration already enabled?

[Hubert Cater]

For reference I'm also using Win7 64-bit.

[ricroma]

Hi,

sorry to answer so late, but I've been kind of busy at work.

Anyway, first of all thanks to everyone who took some of their time to answer my problems. Still, I've tried everything that was suggested (wireless mouse, resolutions, ecc.) and nothing solved the lag. The only thing I cannot do is to test the game under a different OS (on a side note, I did try the "run in XP compatibility mode").

I see that other people seems to experience similar conditions, so maybe this can be an issue that is going to be looked up and eventually solved in future patches. Call me lazy, but right now I really don't feel like playing the game (that, by the way, looks fantastic). I don't have much time to play in general, and I prefer to avoid the frustration of playing under such conditions.

Thanks again to everyone.

Ricroma

PS. Ehi, this doesn't mean that I won't accept other suggestions/solution to the problem! Keep them coming! :-)

[xwormwood]

ricroma, did you enable the hardware acceleration option or not?

As far as i remember you get the option to activate when you install(ed) the game during the first start of the game (when you chose the resolution).

This is a very important option so you should really check it.

[ricroma]

About hardware acceleration. I don't recall to have been asked to enable this option when I first started the game (I remember something similar for old strategic command titles). Since many were pointing to this feature, I started looking around a little bit and found out that in the SCWWI folder there is a file named sc2.ini . Once opened in notepad there's a bunch of configuration options, the first ones concerning video output:

#ORIGINAL_SCREEN_WIDTH= 1680

#ORIGINAL_SCREEN_HEIGHT= 1050

#WINDOW_WIDTH= 1680

#WINDOW_HEIGHT= 1050

#FULL_SCREEN= 0

#BIT_DEPTH= 32

#VIDEO_ACCELERATION= 1

I've tried to change video_acceleration parameter to 0, but it only did worst: completely unplayable. I assume that 1 means video acceleration on.

Thanks again!

Ricroma

[Hubert Cater]

That #VIDEO_ACCELERATION option you found in the SC2.ini file was an option we introduced in earlier releases of the game but it is no longer selectable in game since as far as we could tell it always ran faster with it enabled.

The feature is still a part of the engine though so when you changed it in the INI file it still works if you go that way but as you found out it slows to a crawl without it enabled.

[Hubert Cater]

For those that are finding the lagginess in map scrolling are you playing at normal zoom or at a zoomed out level?

[Davek555]

I only have the demo version, but I am experiencing the same thing that ricroma and some others are. Slow, jerky scrolling and a slight delay when clicking on units. It only happens when unit density is high, in the Central Europe part of the map. Other parts of the map are smooth. This is in the main campaign part of the demo, the other smaller mini-campaign seems to run smoothly. I've tried lowering the display resolution and it does help a little, but the game only covers part of the screen then.

My computer specs are similar to ricroma's...Intel I5 proc, 4 mb ram, Radeon HD 5770 vid card, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. I am enjoying the demo and am tempted to purchase the game but am a little worried that as more and more units are on the map the sluggishness will get worse.

[ricroma]

Hi, sorry again to be so slow to answer.

For those that are finding the lagginess in map scrolling are you playing at normal zoom or at a zoomed out level?

Well, I don't have too much game experience to give a sure answer, but I would say that I play mostly at normal zoom. For the little bit I've played I found zoomed out view useful for moving naval forces.

Since you all are so kind, I would ask another question. I have purchased the game last week and installed on my home computer. I was thinking to try the game on my other computer, the one at work... :-) Maybe I will be luckier. So, will it be possible to install the game on another computer with the same license key? What a second installation would exactly mean? Will I be able to re-install the game on my home computer in case I will format my hard drive? (I actually perform a fresh os installation every 6 months or so).

Thanks,

Ricroma