Display Lags At Intervals

[Kanegasi]

I've purchased Darwinia from Steam a long time ago. I've never had a problem with display, either on my old computer or my current one. Then I bought Multiwinia (from Steam again). I originally thought it only happened on heavy games where there's 10,000+ of those guys running around, but then I noticed it happening at the beginning of some games. I played Darwinia for a little bit and noticed the game lagging at intervals (every 30 seconds it seems) IN THE GARDEN. There's no way any decent computer lags in the Garden on Darwinia. I'm not at all sure what the problem is. Here's a link to my computer specs: http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func ... =1227#menu (processor is Intel Core Duo 2, I have 4gb of RAM, and I'm running XP Pro). Also, to try and alleviate all the "retard checks", I'm not running anything else memory/CPU intensive, I have a 15mb/5mb internet connection, and all drivers are up to date (including DirectX 9.0c). I can run anything Steam sells at max graphics, and Multiwinia still lags with everything minimum.

[RabidZombie]

Tried running it on a single core?

Set the process's affinity in Task Manager.

[Kanegasi]

Didn't work. Still lagged every minute or something. Both multi and single. I've also tried turning off threading support on my video card, then setting affinity. Still not better. My problem seems similar to the problems people have with multi-core systems, but mine is somehow different.

[BloodShed]

I've have been having this problem on my system too, as noted on the steam forums
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/s ... p?t=727642

Try setting your sound settings to low and 8 channels

[Kanegasi]

It got better, but eventually the same thing happens. So far: threading support turned off on video card, affinity set to one cpu, sound settings to 11hz/8 channels, and all graphic settings to low. None of these made any difference. The sound thing did make it better, but it still came back.

[frenchfrog]

(Recheck for a updated sound driver?)

Care to post a dxdiag?

1)'Start' windows button
2)'Run ...' or the search bar in Vista
3)Type 'dxdiag.exe' in the 'Open' textbox and press the 'Ok' button
4)Once the 'dxdiag.exe' dialog is up, click the 'Save All Information ...' button.
5)Choose a destination for the file (ie: your desktop) and a name for the file (ie: 'dxdiag_info.txt')
6)Post the content of the file here.

[Kanegasi]

Sound driver should be fine, but I'll check it out. Here's my DxDiag.

[Kanegasi]

I've noticed that my video and audio drivers were out of date. I updated my audio driver (Realtek HD from their site since my manufacturer is out of date) and video (nVidia... again, laptop manufacturer out of date). Both of these updates did nothing. Setting single CPU did nothing. Turning off every extra process and setting Multiwinia on High in Task Manager... did nothing. Turning down all the video settings, and even messing with the hidden settings in the preferences.txt file did nothing. It's gotta be some issue with the game engine itself. I als have an XFire video of this problem: http://www.xfire.com/video/2f6c2/

[allen]

you don't have any anti-virus in the background do ya? This used to happen to me while I had Avast installed on my system.

[frenchfrog]

In Windows Task Manager (check the 'Show processes from all users') does any process other then Multiwinia eat up the CPU?

[Kanegasi]

I have System Mechanic running a firewall and antivirus, but they don't affect any other game, or process for that matter. As for eating up CPU, no. I keep a tight ship with my processes and I've already tried putting Multiwinia on Realtime, both with one core and two, and it makes no difference. The game does run smoother, but it's only noticeable inbetween the lag jumps. I have a suspicion that it may be my sound card. The hardware acceleration has been acting up lately and it's affecting other programs I have, like it makes Winamp take 2 minutes to start up and it won't play certain video sounds unless I turn down the hardware acceleration, but if I turn it down, Multiwinia crashes. The only other thing I can think of is my video driver is from laptop2go, so it's not signed, but I'm sure that makes no difference since they're widely trusted drivers.

[frenchfrog]

I turn down the hardware acceleration, but if I turn it down, Multiwinia crashes.

blackbox.txt file? post your preferences.txt file?

[Kanegasi]

Blackbox
Preferences
Debug

To comment on the preferences, there's two "hidden" settings, SoundHW3D and SoundDSP. When I enable those with a 1 instead of a 0, it tends to help. It makes the first 5-10 minutes of a game "jumpy lag free", but as the game becomes intensive, the jumpy lag returns and gets exponentially worse. I also disable waitverticalretrace by choice. The jumpy lag is there whether or not the game syncs to the refresh rate, so that's not it.

[frenchfrog]

=========================
= BLACK BOX REPORT =
=========================

Multiwinia steam.1.0.6 built Sep 27 2008
Date 18:9, 13/10/2008

ERROR : 'DirectSound ERROR
..\..\code\sound\sound_library_3d_dsound.cpp line 1089

Direct sound couldn't set fx
Error Code : E_OUTOFMEMORY
Ran out of memory'

This is the kind of crash you get with Hardware 3d sound and dsp effect thus the reason it was remove from release.

[Kanegasi]

Ok. I won't use those settings anymore. Anyways, the problem is still there. I've messed with nVidia's settings to the point where I can be lag free at the beginning of games, but as the game gets more intense (more MWs, virii, etc.) the jumpy lag shows itself and gets worse, but the game seems just as smooth inbetween lags as it was from the start.