NS2 Unplayable w/ 2x requirements
TheHuntedPie
Join Date: 2011-09-18 Member: 121834Members
Join Date: 2011-09-18 Member: 121834Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Memory Leak and Graphics Flicker</div>Hi
When I start NS2 It uses 500mb of RAM. When I load a map it goes up to about 1.1GB RAM + 100MB for steam. Also all the graphics flicker really weirdly even at LOWEST graphics and at a resolution of 1024x768.
My specs are twice what is required. I have 3.2GHz P4 HT, 4GB RAM, ATI x600 graphics card, and Windows XP.
Anybody know what is causing these problems?
Thanks,
THP
When I start NS2 It uses 500mb of RAM. When I load a map it goes up to about 1.1GB RAM + 100MB for steam. Also all the graphics flicker really weirdly even at LOWEST graphics and at a resolution of 1024x768.
My specs are twice what is required. I have 3.2GHz P4 HT, 4GB RAM, ATI x600 graphics card, and Windows XP.
Anybody know what is causing these problems?
Thanks,
THP
Comments
The flicking is to do with your drivers. Update them, and disable Anti-aliasing and any other quality settings.
The flicking is to do with your drivers. Update them, and disable Anti-aliasing and any other quality settings.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I understand but don't you think 1.2gb of RAM is a bit steep? How do I disable Anti-aliasing? I didn't see such an option. Is there a config file I should edit? or a variable?
~THP
~THP<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Around ~1GB RAM is not unusual for modern games. The Anti-aliasing can be disabled in your ATI Catalyst Control Center/AMD VISION Engine Control Center. It depends on your driver version how that Control Center is designed, it shouldn't be hard to find that option somewhere under "Gaming" -> "3D Application". I could post your more detailed information but than I would need to know your current driver version.
Please note: Don't take that requirements serious at the moment, there are several bottlenecks in the engine that will hopefully fixed over the next months.
Please note: Don't take that requirements serious at the moment, there are several bottlenecks in the engine that will hopefully fixed over the next months.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
First of all, thank you all for the extremely fast replies. I'm actually willing to put effort into this because there's such an active and caring community. Ok. So I did what you suggested and more. I put the game on lowest graphics. I set resolution to windowed 800x600. And I disabled all settings in the AA section so that my settings look like this:
Catalyst Control Center 2010.0210.2339.42455
SMOOTHVISION 2.1: Anti-Aliasing: 0
SMOOTHVISION 2.1: Anisotropic Filtering: 0
MipMap Detail Level: 0
Graphics card details:
Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series
Memory 256 MB DDR2
Core Clock 425 MHz
Memory Clock 277 MHz
I still have weird flickering issues from lights and the colors themselves look strange as you can witness in this photo.
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/AL51X.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
But I think 256 MB ram is not enough on you GPU (and maybe even you P4) on this stage of beta.
Even Highend PC have trouble with 185.
Good Luck with the commands.
Spelling...
get a better computer
get a better computer<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
coz cpu has everything to do with flickering. so very helpful.
Don't mind the trolls OP
Don't mind the trolls OP<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The CPU isn't causing the flickering, but if you only change out the video card the problems aren't solved.
Don't mind the troll trolls OP
Don't mind the troll trolls OP<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thanks to everyone who replied. I think elodea was being sarcastic. It does not make sense that CPU issues would cause flickering, but just the same I understand that even the most powerful P4 is not enough. Even though I've been able to run with 64% CPU usage, I get the impression that lack of CPU features is causing a bottleneck somewhere. I do plan on buying a new rig this coming season. But until then, I'd like to give NS2 a shot with what I have. I'll try the commands given by Floodinator and report back.
What are realistic minimum requirements for NS2 beta?
~THP
<!--quoteo(post=1875378:date=Sep 18 2011, 04:56 PM:name=konata)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (konata @ Sep 18 2011, 04:56 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1875378"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I'd say a dual core processor at a minimum. I think almost all modern games have been that for around 2/3 years now.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Ok. What about the graphics card and RAM? By the way the P4 HT (HyperThreaded) simulates a dual core.
Intel C2D E6420 @ 2.4Ghz, HD4850 PCIE 512Mb and 2Gb DDR2 running on WinXP pro
Every game you practically play, Nvidia is the recommended company that is in partner with the company that created the game. I wish I could use ATI cards, but it just seems like they're becoming a dying breed.
Thanks for the tips guys. So does anyone know why I'm getting flickering black boxes around the models? It's really intriguing to me what could cause such a thing.
~THP
Minimum requirements:
CPU: Duel Core Intel at 2.5GHz, a pentium duel core (e5200, e5300 for example) will run the game, I know, I used to run the game on such a setup.
RAM: 4GB 667mhz minimum. Any lower and the game will be unplayable.
Graphics Card: anything built within the last 2 years with at least 512mb of ram and a price of $100+ a 4850 for example, will run the game on medium okay.
Recommended Requirements
CPU: Core i5/i7 3.0GHZ + or AMD 1055T and up
RAM: 8GB ddr3 1333mhz
Graphics: anything costing $200+ that you can get today should run the game on max at 1080p okay. I recommend $270+ such as the gtx 260 ti, hd 6950, or gtx 270.
Graphics Issues:
In your control panel of your graphics card, you need to set pretty much all settigns (especially anti aliasing) to "use application settings" or "let application decide".
If you force settings on or off, then graphics problems WILL occur, it happenned to me, it happens to most people when they first get the game.
Now, you are running a pentium 4... that's an old cpu, the ram that works with it probably doesn't run much faster than 400mhz, I'd assume 333mhz is that it is running at. You will have problems with ns2, as it requires a lot of ram for the heavy use of lua and scripting(I assume). Also, slow RAM can affect your graphics speed, because textures like to be loaded into ram before being pushed into the Graphics card RAM, that can affect performance and possibly cause the flickering.
If none of this fixes the flickering, your card is too old. Theres probably a lighting issue, like hardware transform and lighting or something of the like that is being used in the game engine, and isn't supported, or isn't supported propoerly by your card. The only solution to a hardware issue(the card physically doesn't have the chips required to perform those actions(why you need a direct x 10 card to use direct x 10 features)) is to replace the hardware with newer parts, or use software rendering(which is mainly an opengl thing) and that really really really is not recommended, software rendering is 10-100 times slower than hardware.
hope this information is useful, if you need any help in the future regarding choosing bits for your new computer, post a message up on these forums and send me a pm so I see it and I'll help out there too.
Maybe you can try to look how your vram is doing with gpuz :
<a href="http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/" target="_blank">http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/</a>
Anybody know what is causing these problems?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Not trying to be offensive, but that is one old rig. The GPU alone is 4 generations old, the CPU the same. Does Tetris / Space Invaders run on it?
Seriously tho, get a new Rig!
Yeah true, seems like on high end systems the RAM is the biggest bottleneck. After realizing that my graphic card is nearly idling (AMD 5850 ~25% @ 1080p high settings) I played around with overclocking of different components to find the bottlenecks and besides the CPU my RAM overclocking significantly increased the FPS for the game. NS2 is allocating and deallocating memory like crazy but I'am sure they will get rid of it in the next months with proper object recycling strategies in the Lua VM.
Out of curiosity, is that a compaq presario sa4000t?
Seriously tho, get a new Rig!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm with this guy. I'm not trying to be offensive and I know this isn't helping your immediate question, but you can build a system for $500 that will spank your current rig. I have a 2500k/560gt/8 gb 1600 ram and an intel ssd and I find my performance somewhat annoying. I cannot even imagine playing on your machine!
I have not looked at the min system spec since my P90 13 years ago.
Shell out some cash dude/dudette
Even the i7 is from 2008/2010, where's our i8 (4-32 core 64bits) and i9 (64 cores? 128bits) CPU's "and all the lovely compatibility issues it will spawn?"
[edit]
The Intel Pentium 4 is kinda out of it's league though when compared to let's say the PS3, I guess. Hell he should have gone with AMD back then in any case...
Seriously tho, get a new Rig!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This. Although I want people to make as much noise as possible about the performance so it doesn't get swept under the rug, you can't expect any modern game to play with those specs?
Comparison;
i7 950 @ 3.5GHz
1.28Gb 570GT
8GB RAM
Win7 64bit
= ~25fps.
i7 920 @ 4.4Ghz
SLi GTX 470
12GB 2000Mhz DDR3
3xDell 22" Screens running 5040*1050
All under custom water.
If you buy extreme high end, then it will last longer than 2years, however saying that I swapped Tri-SLI 260 for SLi 470.
Even this feels slightly sluggish in about 1% of titles, all joking aside. I will be upgrading before the years out.
If you upgrade often enough the loss of money when selling old components on eBay is not that bad (assuming you both buy and sell smart)
But while I'm here, Cygone I'm sure that rig can run Crysis OK, but will it play Doom?