Game runs perfect - without other Players

[Urmel]

Hi there,

I'm nerved by following problem:

When I'm alone on a server, the whole game runs perfectly, my system comes on 120 - 230 fps. Then other players come, and my framerate begins to sink. Specially in maps like Basement (nexdm01) or Downer (nexdm05), where it happens to have many players in sight, framerate is going down to f***in' 6fps.

When my enemies use the Nexgun, I got no chance. I'm dead before I see a shot. Other weapons cause me not that big problem, but they also do.

Sometimes the whole game seems to have a lower speed, just like running on chewing gum!

My System is an Athlon XP2600+, RAM is 1024MB, VGA Controller is a GeForce 6600 (128MB DDR), and it runs on XP Pro. I tested several other PCs and Notebooks, and they all don't seem to have problems like this.

Does anybody know how to solve my problem?

[esteel]

When I'm alone on a server, the whole game runs perfectly, my system comes on 120 - 230 fps. Then other players come, and my framerate begins to sink. Specially in maps like Basement (nexdm01) or Downer (nexdm05), where it happens to have many players in sight, framerate is going down to f***in' 6fps.
I tested several other PCs and Notebooks, and they all don't seem to have problems like this.

Well if it does not happen on other computers the first thing to check are the drivers..
Then do you have vsync active (or forced or something..)?
You can also try the nexuiz.exe vs nexuiz-sdl.exe..
And as last restort you can try this low-detail config here.. http://www.forums.alientrap.local/viewtopic.php?p=90#90

Sounds very strange though

[Urmel]

'mkay, drivers are checked.

VSYNC is 0 (should it be something else?).

I tried the sdl as I saw the other posts, it was even worse then. The whole game seemed to vibrate when the others came in sight, and it was slower than with the regular nexuiz.exe.

I changed the config with the help on Green's Planet Nexuiz (the best german Nex Forum ever, but I think me and Green are the only active members ), great efforts, but still it's not the way it should be. Dunnow, maybe Green doesn't know every single point in the config, how could he?

PS: I just can't believe the game runs better on a 2.9GHz P4 with an ATI Radeon X300 than on my system, or a 2.0GHz P4 Notebook witha Radeon 7500, using the same config

[tZork]

Hmm this seems strange indeed.

Have you tried other opengl based games? If so, do thise work ok?

Are your powersuply capable of driving all you hardware under high loads?

Is it possible that your computer need better cooling and/or cleaning? Dust can realy screw up cooling preformance with time.

Are there apps running in the backgound, antivirus programs, instant mesengers etc etc. some of this can do evil stuff to games.

Does it fo the same if you start a local game and add some bots?

[Urmel]

Ye You mentioned some things I already thought about.

I'm not so sure if my power supply is still doing its job as well as it should. Maybe I'm using too many cooling units but I don't know how to test this actually.

I don't think it's a thermal problem. I took a look at the monitors, it wasn't that exciting.

I stopped all background apps as far as I could, no difference.

But Imma gonna start a local game, maybe I'm wiser then. Too bad I have to leave home in a few minutes for the whole weekend.

Thank You so far!

EDIT: I Tested w local game, same problems as with human enemies

[tZork]

Im guessing a psu of 350-400W should be able to power you system flawlewssly, but this depends alot on what other hardware is in there too.

Good to know the same thing happens with bots, this leaves out all network related posibilities.

Does your gfx card have a thermal monitor? sometimes havling alot of fans in a box can create unwanted "air pockets" where no mutch air is moved (this is not very likely tho)

Do you have eny possibility to try with an alternative gfx card? this may a bit far fetched tho, but im not sure what else it could be..

Im running outa ideas..

Oh and one thing to try: delete / move the config.cfg in the nexuiz/data folder. This will reset everything to default, just to be sure its not somekinda config issue.

[Chozabu]

bit of a longshot, but do you know if older versions of nex run ok?
on my windows, 1.2 ran quite nice, but 1.5 was silly low fps
though, a while later, that windows installation did totaly die, which could have been the real cause of the fps drop

might you try downloading the darkplaces source and re-compiling yourself(older or newer ver)?

[tChr]

Or provide him with an 1.2.1 install so he can test that...

[Chozabu]

i dont have one a 1.2 archive or anything on me...

tbh, id say, check out swiching to linux - the main reasion i can think of not to is if you really wanna run half life 2 (or of course, cant be arsed to swich, or plain dont want to) but the whole vista and trusted computing stuff is worrying me a little...

still, compiling darkplaces for athlon-xp(k7?) prob wont help, but the problem is still unknown - and theres a chance itll work nicer somehow

i tihnk both windows and linux are a little dodgy and unstable, but windows is moreso

i also find on either os, tweaking random things can help

[tChr]

Windows is simply not a decent OS. it is overall a crappy design and it is enforced so because microsoft wont let go of their customers just to make it a better platform. I do however use windows, reluctantly.

Not that this helps our frind here.. I'll see if I can dig up a 1.2.1 install when i get home.