I am also having video performance problems since the big updates. :(

antd00d

It's not FPS though. The game pauses a lot ever (going to new areas, getting new weapons, shooting, etc.) since I upgraded a few days ago for the big update. This is in Explore map (not online) with medium graphics and most of the other settings at their highest. I noticed the game took a LONG time (several/a few minutes) to compile, precache, etc.

http://i.imgur.com/WtOGIMq.jpg for a screen capture/shot of r_stat running and doesn't seem to max out my 512 MB of VRAM on my 4.2 years old ATI Radeon 4870 video card. I didn't have much problems before the big update. I read that video stuff were changed in NS2 update? http://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/computers.txt for my detailed primary Windows XP computer specifications.

What's up? Is the update asking for faster hardware? Thank you in advance.

IronHorse

There has been some changes to how texture streaming works (namely it is somewhat enabled in various ways, intentionally ) so there could definitely be some hiccups related to this. That is why you see less vram usage.
We are aware of the "black scoreboard" or "black infestation" as well as "missing HUD"

Also many more things are now precached to prevent hitches during gameplay, so something tells me that all this points to your hard drive not dealing with these changes correctly.
Have you checked it's health lately? Those specs are hard to read, would you mind providing a DXDIAG?
You shouldnt take more than a minute really to load a map that you have loaded at least once before.
And of course you shouldn't be experiencing any pauses

So yea, really sounds like a hard drive access issue.
Let me know what you discover.

antd00d

IronHorse: The map loading doesn't take that long after the first long compilation and precaches after updating with Gorgeous patch. The new problem is just in the game. I need to go home and retry it. I will get you DirectX 9.0c dxdiag.exe later. HDD seems fine for other stuff. I might need to defrag my I: drive where the game is.

IronHorse

ok and dont forget you can defrag through steam as well.
Have you considered trying NS2 on a dualboot windows 8 install? You can try it out for free for 90 days. Would be worth trying to rule out XP as the culprit, only after you have tested the health of the drive /defragged etc.
Goodluck!

antd00d

IronHorse wrote: »

ok and dont forget you can defrag through steam as well.
Have you considered trying NS2 on a dualboot windows 8 install? You can try it out for free for 90 days. Would be worth trying to rule out XP as the culprit, only after you have tested the health of the drive /defragged etc.
Goodluck!

Oooh, I didn't know Steam had a defrag. Uhh, where is it exactly though? As for dual boot. Not at this time. I am planning to get 64-bit W7 (eww for W8) at the end of the year. My old XP is fine for what I do. I rarely play games too.

antd00d

http://i.imgur.com/RbSJZdC.jpg for another screen capture of the pause in action. Weird that my FPS falls when FPS can be up to 39 FPS. I was exploring new areas. I attached my dxdiag.txt file. I did not see a defrag option in Steam. GSmartControl v0.8.7 says no problems with my two Seagate SATA HDDs. Chkdsking I: show no problems as well. Also, validating the files for this game showed "All files successfully validated."

antd00d

IronHorse wrote: »

ok and dont forget you can defrag through steam as well.
Have you considered trying NS2 on a dualboot windows 8 install? You can try it out for free for 90 days. Would be worth trying to rule out XP as the culprit, only after you have tested the health of the drive /defragged etc.
Goodluck!

OK, I defragged my I: drive with Auslogics Disk Defrag Pro (still can't find that option in Steam) and retested the game. Same problem. I also took a screen capture/shot of the console in action up to the pausing/lagging in Explore map: http://i.imgur.com/ngmtgpd.jpg ...

antd00d

With more free time today, I was able to experiment. It looks like my system can't no longer handle medium texture quality like in the past before this big update. I even tried turning off other graphic options to keep medium texture quality.

I also noticed my RAM usage:

ns2.exe = over 1 GB + 1 GB of VM
Overall's commit charge was over 2 GB, and I have 2.5 GB of RAM!

Is that normal? It seems high? For now, I have to use low quality (eww!) if I want to play NS2.

Also, I noticed alt-tabbing from desktop back to NS2, the game is smooth for a little bit and then start pausing. r_stats seems to show VRAM data was dumped and readded?

SteveRock

Hmm a few things: Try turning Reflections off. Reflections use texture memory.

Also try turning Texture Streaming on and off.

antd00d

SteveRock wrote: »

Hmm a few things: Try turning Reflections off. Reflections use texture memory.

Also try turning Texture Streaming on and off.

Disalbing reflection made no differences. Only texture quality did. Obviously, High is the worse. Medium doesn't last long. Lowest is the best but ugly.