A strange effect?

Old Possum · #1 December 12th, 2000, 03:52 AM

Hello all

I have noticed a strange effect on my computer with respect to SE-IV and SPWAW
If I start up Steel panthers - world at war
and then shut it down, and then start SE-IV
, SE-IV loads & runs a LOT faster.
The ships just zip acros the map, it takes mer seconds for it to process computer turns.
and the whole game takes about 10 seconds to start from cliking on the .EXE icon as opposed to about 45 seconds if SPWAW was not run first.
My system is a PII-300 running on a 100 MHz board, with 128 M of memory, a 3D- 32M Voodoo 3 vidio card and a SB-AWE16 sound card
The operating system is Windows 95-4.00 with DOS6.22 also present. All settings are set on default except for the CD-ROM which is on maxium read ahead, and the vidio card which is on maxium acceleration setting.
I am also currently playing Baulder's gate 2, Cleopatra, and also use microsoft office 98, none of these programs has the effect that SPWAW has.
Any ideas as to why this dramatic increase in performance occurs?

Jubala · #2 December 12th, 2000, 04:21 AM

Well, no not really. Unless for some really weird reason I'd rather not think about SPWAW somehow leaves something in memory that turns off SE4's animation of ship movement. Can be done from system menu. Do you have that on or off normally? Doesn't explain the faster loadtimes though.

Maybe SPWAW has some built in performance enhancer that stays active after the game is shut down?

I don't know, but be thankfull.

Baron Munchausen · #3 December 12th, 2000, 04:53 AM

The programmers of SPWAW probably have some specific information about the video card/drivers you are using, like some special mode or hardware toggle that makes it run at best performance. MM is only one programmer, remember. He's certainly not got time to go through specs for hundreds of video cards and make special checks or adjustments. Larger companies can afford to do things like this, though. Maybe you need to read your manual again and see if there isn't some driver setting that you could use to get this improved performance all the time.

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 12 December 2000).]

Mephisto · #4 December 12th, 2000, 11:15 AM

I would say that SPWaW and SE4 are both using a number of the same DLLs. As you first load SPWaW the OS puts some of the DLLs into your disc Cache and leave them there (the Cache is cleared after some time but noch instantly). When you now load up SE4 the OS uses the pre-Cached DLLs and does not have to load them from hard driver (loading time in ns instead of ms!).

By the way, does anyone know in which language SE4 is programmed? Delphi?

Kloug · #5 December 12th, 2000, 01:23 PM

[quote]Originally posted by Old Possum:

The ships just zip acros the map, it takes mer seconds for it to process computer turns.

FWIW: I too had the same problem, but tracked the cause of it to ICQ!
Similar system w/PII 333 & win95.
Like you, a quick reboot restored normality. Besides its not a bad thing to reboot WIN95 every now & then.

KLOUG

wbutler · #6 December 12th, 2000, 06:00 PM

I experienced this also. It is different from turning off ship animation. You do actually see the ships moving. It is just that they are very fast. I had it happen in a game after running it for several hours. I had played for a while, left it going for most of a day, and when I returned, the movement was fast. I played for a while longer, quit the game and shut down the computer. The next day the movement was slow again. I would very much like to know how to get the fast movement. I like to see the animation, but the normal speed is too slow for my liking.

Courageous · #7 December 12th, 2000, 09:47 PM

I'm pretty sure there is an option for
this. My animations are always very fast.
If I *blink* I'll miss them. For example,
I have my transport minister turned on,
and I see like 7 screens of transport ships
flying around in less than a second.
Literally. FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
**OVER**

Next turn...

C//

Instar · #8 December 13th, 2000, 12:05 AM

So fast as to give you epilipsy? (LAWSUIT! hahaha J/K its not that fast, Ive seen it before. Its really odd. I dont have a clue as to what could cause it)

Tomgs · #9 December 13th, 2000, 06:01 AM

Whenever I use my modem if I don't restart my computer the ships move very slowly. I don't have a clue why my modem has anything to do with this but it has been happening since the first Version I tried demo .56. So everytime I check the messageBoards I reboot and there is no problem.

DirectorTsaarx · #10 December 13th, 2000, 05:42 PM

I thought the ship animations were moving faster because I'd loaded the patch (I only started seeing this after loading 1.11). Although I also recently saw the ship animations slow down again.

I haven't bothered testing to see what causes either condition, nor have I tried to figure out which condition is "normal".

Long live the Moebius Consortium!