If you encounter a problem when playing NSR
Odd in-game lagspikes

Odd in-game lagspikes

Postby Mac on Wed Jul 30, 2008 18:16

Hi.

I came across this site earlier today and have downloaded and installed NSR - and the game looks a lot of fun. ^^

However I have an odd problem which is stopping me from being able to seriously play the game. I hope someone here can help me out.

In-game, I experience repeated, constant lagspikes - once every second, which is freezing the game for about 0.2 - 0.3 seconds and it's making it impossible for me to play. I don't have a bad frame rate (it seems to be about 30, even on my bad laptop) but I just keep getting this constant 'jumping'.

I've already read about on this site and I remember someone saying that in the menus the game runs on Low priority and in-game it runs on Normal priority... however in-game the game seems to be running on Low priority even after I force it to Normal or Above Normal using Taskmon.

Can someone help me here to try and solve this? I've been looking forward to playing this game and it looks a lot of fun.

My technical specs... if they help.

Processor: 1.6 Ghz dual core Intel T5500
RAM - 1GB DDR-2
Graphics - ATI Radeon x200 mobility, 128MB dedicated video memory plus 220MB shared memory (not the greatest graphics card ever but hey, 30 fps on that? come on)
OS - Vista Home Premium.

I've tried running the game on both the default settings, and the very lowest game settings, and the lagspikes persist.

Please help!

edit.

If this is some help: I've discovered the game runs a lot better with the pixel shader set to None instead of 1.3, but at some points during the maps (such as the first corner of Looping, the corners after the double loop of the same track) the game starts lagspiking until I've gone through the corners.
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Re: Odd in-game lagspikes

Postby jbalat on Thu Jul 31, 2008 11:35

Assuming you have no issues with other 3D games...

this worked for me in COD4 not sure if it applies here

try in this order and play to see if it fixes the problem

1.Update sound drivers

2. Select Software for sound

3. type Dxdiag
click sound Tab
Set slider to Basic Acceleration

Good luck
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Re: Odd in-game lagspikes

Postby Etienne on Thu Jul 31, 2008 13:40

I think X200 graphic card is a bit weak for NSR, as well as the 1.6 Ghz CPU. Even if you reach 30 fps when not a lot of things are displayed, big lags when you see all the cars and the whole circuit is a sign that your configuration is a bit weak. The only advice I can give is to put all the options down, no shaders, texture size to 512 or 1024, no lens flare, etc. And you should also check that in your catalyst control center, anti-aliasing and other gpu consuming options are Off or left to application choice (i.e. not forced to On).
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Re: Odd in-game lagspikes

Postby Mac on Thu Jul 31, 2008 18:43

Hey :p

The comp is 1.6 Ghz but it's dual-core, and I was quite able to play the game last night in Championship mode with all 16 cars on display with relatively little lag as such.

Also at most points through the courses the game runs absolutely perfect; it's only when I come to a corner that the game jumps like it does, and as soon as I've actually gone through the corner it stops jumping. The game runs a lot better with the pixel shader turned off (obviously) and I've experimented with the 3D and texture settings but they don't really affect the amount of spiking I get. The textures around these corners are also garbled.... maybe there's a reason behind that? o_O

That's why I think it's odd, and I decided to ask for help.

In ATI CCC, I have the global option set on 'optimum performance', so all AA, AF, etc is set to application controlled, so it's not that. >< Like I said, I was checking Task Manager whilst the game was running and it was constantly being set in Low Priority for some reason. Is that normal?


@ jbalat - My laptop has generic Realtek audio so the only option I have is generic software for audio. however I haven't really thought about changing sound acceleration... I've never particularly had any problems besides the usual Vista BSOD's... I'll have a look at that and see if that remedies the lag.

[b]edit - I just checked DXDiag - Sound drivers are up to date, and I have no option to adjust the sound acceleration. Damn Vista.


Is there any keyboard shortcut or option to toggle an in-game frame-rate counter / graph? I play Trackmania a lot (which has an in-game fps counter / graph) so maybe if there is one I can get screenshots of the (what I consider) odd jumping and send you them.
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Re: Odd in-game lagspikes

Postby jbalat on Fri Aug 01, 2008 0:48

Google 'FRAPS'
You can get a free version...
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Re: Odd in-game lagspikes

Postby Mac on Mon Aug 04, 2008 11:16

Sorry for the late reply; No Internet over the weekend.

I haven't had the chance to download Fraps either (curse network policies O_o) but I will do a.s.a.p.

I just find it weird because without the lagspikes the frame rate is pretty good. But I'll try and get a readout with Fraps as soon as I can and see if it can record the lagspiking so you can see what my laptop's doing.

Worryingly though, I've noticed my mouse jumps at the same time... so it's beginning to appear to me more of an issue my laptop seems to be not keeping up with the game or something. My other games just get an incredibly low frame rate when my laptop can't keep up but because they use DirectX 9 and not DirectX 8 I can't really say much... maybe it's just DirectX 8's way of saying "Get a better laptop, you fool." instead of just lagging me out at 10 fps like Trackmania does.
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Re: Odd in-game lagspikes

Postby Mac on Wed Aug 06, 2008 18:39

Jbalot, I dunno if you're still here, but I downloaded and installed Fraps and have gone about testing.

Fraps says that I get about 25 - 35 fps, on both shader settings (no shader and SM 1.3) and it doesn't seem to be picking up the lagging at all.

When I start recording a movie clip the frame rate drops to something like 15 fps but for some reason it becomes something of a "stable" frame rate.. whatever fraps is doing stops my laptop making the odd lags although it does drop my fps in the process... and as soon as it stops recording the lags come back.

I guess that's expected.

I've tried making a few movies / video clips using Fraps and the only lag it registers is when my laptop freezes from not being able to cope with both things at once (xD) so... test = inconclusive and I'm going to have to assume it's a direct issue with my laptop's hardware not keeping up / coping with the game rather than a game issue itself.

I'm just going to have to pray that Elienne decides to keep the 'no shader' option in the launcher. The game is completely unplayable otherwise. ><
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Re: Odd in-game lagspikes

Postby droidenlmur on Wed Aug 20, 2008 15:27

in the french forum someone was encountering kind of lags but unconstantly , il was induced by an overheating of the GC , one of the solution for verifying this is to place your laptop on four wedges in order to not have the bottom of the laptop directly in contact of the table or wherever it is placed. However i don't think that will be enough in your case, just try maybe you will regain some fps :oops:
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Re: Odd in-game lagspikes

Postby Mac on Thu Aug 21, 2008 19:27

My laptop has rubber 'feet' on its base so it's never directly in contact with the table anyway, but thanks for the suggestion O_o

The lags persist regardless of temperature. The game lags even when I've just turned the laptop on and booted the game. ><

I need some sort of high-speed camera or something I can point at the laptop monitor and just film the lag off of that. Fraps doesn't pick up a damn thing. =/
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