speeding up City of Heroes

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.games (More info?)

My kids are playing this game on a new computer with a label that states
"stunning 3D graphics with PCI Express ATI Radeon Express 200 graphics
supporting DirectX9." Everything displays fine except the people move in
slow motion. I checked Windows XP Game Advisor and my computer is rated 7
bars above the recommended for this game. Is there anything I can do to
speed up the play? Is my graphics card adequate? Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.games (More info?)

"Iamthequeen" <Iamthequeen@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A9DF017F-D08A-44C9-8561-99CC25CA8401@microsoft.com...
> My kids are playing this game on a new computer with a label that states
> "stunning 3D graphics with PCI Express ATI Radeon Express 200 graphics
> supporting DirectX9." Everything displays fine except the people move in
> slow motion. I checked Windows XP Game Advisor and my computer is rated 7
> bars above the recommended for this game. Is there anything I can do to
> speed up the play? Is my graphics card adequate? Thanks.

Hello.

If you look around for example, does this movement feel fluid and smooth?
If it does then it points pretty much to it being a problem with internet
latency, if the packets of data are taking too long to reach your machine
other people will seem to jump around a bit. What sort of internet
connection do you have?

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
http://www.dasmirnov.net/
http://windows.dasmirnov.net/ Windows XP Resource Site.

*Replace nospam with smirnov to reply by e-mail*

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.games (More info?)

I have a DSL connection. I just set up my 2 computers on a network. This is
the secondary computer (not the one connected directly to the modem). Could
the problem be with the security I set up? I am using WPA. Thanks for your
help.

"Paul Smith" wrote:

> "Iamthequeen" <Iamthequeen@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:A9DF017F-D08A-44C9-8561-99CC25CA8401@microsoft.com...
> > My kids are playing this game on a new computer with a label that states
> > "stunning 3D graphics with PCI Express ATI Radeon Express 200 graphics
> > supporting DirectX9." Everything displays fine except the people move in
> > slow motion. I checked Windows XP Game Advisor and my computer is rated 7
> > bars above the recommended for this game. Is there anything I can do to
> > speed up the play? Is my graphics card adequate? Thanks.
>
> Hello.
>
> If you look around for example, does this movement feel fluid and smooth?
> If it does then it points pretty much to it being a problem with internet
> latency, if the packets of data are taking too long to reach your machine
> other people will seem to jump around a bit. What sort of internet
> connection do you have?
>
> --
> Paul Smith,
> Yeovil, UK.
> http://www.dasmirnov.net/
> http://windows.dasmirnov.net/ Windows XP Resource Site.
>
> *Replace nospam with smirnov to reply by e-mail*
>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.games (More info?)

"Iamthequeen" <Iamthequeen@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news424A62F-B23A-443F-9F96-00D380C17A7B@microsoft.com...
>I have a DSL connection. I just set up my 2 computers on a network. This
>is
> the secondary computer (not the one connected directly to the modem).
> Could
> the problem be with the security I set up? I am using WPA. Thanks for
> your
> help.

May be not with the security. But if the wireless connection was dropping
data it could cause this. Is there anyway you can wire the machine straight
up, at least then it would rule out the wireless networking being an issue.

Is anybody downloading or using the internet on the other machine while
trying to play the game?

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
http://www.dasmirnov.net/
http://windows.dasmirnov.net/ Windows XP Resource Site.

*Replace nospam with smirnov to reply by e-mail*

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.games (More info?)

My son just said that the movements are choppy when he plays.


Setting up the computer on its own sounds logical. however, I had some
trouble getting everything set up right in the first place that I feel I
wouldn't be able to get it right again. My knowledge of computer hardware is
limited.

While he is playing the game, no one is using the other computer.

Also, when playing Sims 2, he has noticed gameplay is not as fast.

"Paul Smith" wrote:

> "Iamthequeen" <Iamthequeen@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news424A62F-B23A-443F-9F96-00D380C17A7B@microsoft.com...
> >I have a DSL connection. I just set up my 2 computers on a network. This
> >is
> > the secondary computer (not the one connected directly to the modem).
> > Could
> > the problem be with the security I set up? I am using WPA. Thanks for
> > your
> > help.
>
> May be not with the security. But if the wireless connection was dropping
> data it could cause this. Is there anyway you can wire the machine straight
> up, at least then it would rule out the wireless networking being an issue.
>
> Is anybody downloading or using the internet on the other machine while
> trying to play the game?
>
> --
> Paul Smith,
> Yeovil, UK.
> http://www.dasmirnov.net/
> http://windows.dasmirnov.net/ Windows XP Resource Site.
>
> *Replace nospam with smirnov to reply by e-mail*
>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.games (More info?)

"Iamthequeen" <Iamthequeen@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:687170DD-DAB0-4CA7-89C7-2AC30A917DAE@microsoft.com...
> My son just said that the movements are choppy when he plays.

From other games I've played looking around itself should be smooth (as
looking around doesn't require the internet connection to do much).

It does sound more like the internet connection being a problem there. This
has always been an issue with online gaming. Not a very scientific way to
check would be to ping another machine. This will check how long the
packets take to reach the machine and come back, if packets take too long
things get choppy.

If you go to the command prompt. Start -> All Programs -> Accessories ->
Command Prompt

Then type in ping yahoo.com for example and press return, as it's doing that
it will show up something like:

Reply from such&such bytes=32 time=100ms TTL=55

Time is the important one, if you're on broadband and in North America, this
should really be under 100ms. It would be better to actually ping their
servers, I've tried cityofheroes.com and it doesn't reply to ping, however
if the game shows the something.com bit you're connecting to you could try
the same with that.

Doing this on both machines a few times will also largely rule out the local
network being a problem, it's certainly not conclusive but it may help.

> Setting up the computer on its own sounds logical. however, I had some
> trouble getting everything set up right in the first place that I feel I
> wouldn't be able to get it right again. My knowledge of computer hardware
> is
> limited.

As long as System Restore is enabled on the machine, you'll be able to
restore it back if you can't get the settings right. You can check to see
if it's enabled by right-clicking My Computer on the Start Menu, going to
Properties and then clicking the System Restore tag at the top of the new
Window.

> While he is playing the game, no one is using the other computer.
>
> Also, when playing Sims 2, he has noticed gameplay is not as fast.

The Sims 2 is quite heavy on system, more so then City of Heroes I think.
However the graphics card you previously mentioned isn't really up to the
task of running the latest games at high-detail. So try lowering the
resolution and detail levels in the game (usually found under options) to
see if that can improve frame rate.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*