Slow ships

[Slick]

I recently installed SE4G on a new computer (P4) and the ship movement in the sectors is SLOW! How do I speed this up back to the way it was on my old computer?

Thanks.

[Krsqk]

First, go to Game Menu--Options--Animate ship movement in system window. Make sure it's off (unchecked).

Second, look for the following entry in Settings.txt:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">System Ship Movement Delay Milliseconds := 0</pre><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Make sure it's set to 0.

[ August 21, 2002, 01:36: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[Slick]

Verified that:

System Ship Movement Delay Milliseconds := 0

However, I used to have ships animated in sectors on my old (slower) computer and they zipped along quickly. Now they are way too slow. Any other suggestions?

[Ed Marshall]

In the tactical screen select fast tactical combat. Don't ask me why, but I think this will work.

[Slick]

tried fast tactical combat. no good. I remember this topic being covered a long time ago and I seem to remember something about it being linked to CD music. Ring a bell?

[oleg]

Yes, turn off all music and sound effects. On some systems sound effects are real killer.

[Slick]

all sound and music off. no improvement.

[vonManstein]

What progs are running in the background?

Try to delete all background programms! I have the same problem as you, when connected to the Internet! If i will shut down my connection and remouve all background programm (systray and explorer should still remain) everything runs well!

How to shutdown those progs?

Use STRG+ALT+DELETE only one time - a window appears, where you can see all background programms running.

Greetings from Stuttgart/Germany
vonManstein

[dogscoff]

Ah yes, this is a wierd one. You have to put one foot on the floor and keep the other one in the air while playing. Make sure any fleets with the letters "B", "D" or "E" in their name have between 7 and 13 ships in them, and it often helps if you are cooking popcorn in an adjoining room.

[javaslinger]

WAIT!!!!!

Jesus Dogscoff! What the hell are you trying to do to this guy???

The popcorn has to be in the next room TO THE RIGHT! It will crash your hard drive if it's in the left room....

That was close!

Ken

[Q]

Originally posted by javaslinger:
WAIT!!!!!

Jesus Dogscoff! What the hell are you trying to do to this guy???

The popcorn has to be in the next room TO THE RIGHT! It will crash your hard drive if it's in the left room....

That was close!

Ken<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Only if he uses Windows XP http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif .

[dumbluck]

Now don't go scaring me like that, my new computer has WinXP... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[Fyron]

XP... eww...

[dumbluck]

What's wrong with XP? Tell me, so I know what can be exploited on my machine, and take steps to correct it! Please, please, please!!!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[Slick]

Unfortunately I still have the problem. I run the dreaded XP.

[Q]

Originally posted by dumbluck:
What's wrong with XP? Tell me, so I know what can be exploited on my machine, and take steps to correct it! Please, please, please!!!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">There is nothing wrong with Windows XP except, as the name said, you need eXtra Popcorn.

But has the slow ship problem of Slick been fixed?
If I buy a new computer and my old programs run slower than before, I would really be ........ disappointed.

[ August 22, 2002, 12:39: Message edited by: Q ]

[dumbluck]

I don't have any problems like his slow ships. Unfortunately, I have never encountered that problem so I can't offer any useful bits of advice, either. (well, unfortunate that I can't help, not that I haven't had the problem..... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif )

Edit:
Q: Ha ha. "Xtra Popcorn", indeed. Well, at least it wasn't "XXXtra Porn". NO! Never mind, I didn't say that! Ignore it! (I hope I didn't give anyone any ideas.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif )

[ August 22, 2002, 12:49: Message edited by: dumbluck ]

[Slick]

Has anyone else heard of this problem? I had this problem for a short time when I first installed this game on my old computer (win 98) and I did something to fix it. but I can't remember what I did.

[Andrés]

I don't know the reason or if can be aplicable to solve your problem, but I found that I had the opposite problem (animations showing super-fast) if I'm playing midi music in the background.
Sometimes it even happens if I had runned a game with midi music before.

[Q]

I am not a computer expert, but I think more experienced people could help you if you give them more details about your computer and its software.
Is only the ship moving slow or all SE IV? The ship moves in general or only in combat? Any other programs than SE IV running slow?

[oleg]

Originally posted by Andr&eacutes Lescano:
I don't know the reason or if can be aplicable to solve your problem, but I found that I had the opposite problem (animations showing super-fast) if I'm playing midi music in the background.
Sometimes it even happens if I had runned a game with midi music before.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes, it happened to me too. Have to restart computer every time I listed music or watch any video prior to loading SE. Even some games like Age of Wonders trigger super-fast animations.

[Slick]

Here are my specs:
win xp. keep smiling.
P4 2.4something
512 mb ram
geforce 4 ti 4600 w/128 mb
se4 gold, no mods, updated to v1.78 (or whatever latest is)

as expected, everything runs smoking fast except ships in the system window. Much slower than previous computer. fast combat is fast. everything is fast except ships moving in the system window. when i turn off fast combat, the speed of ships in the combat window is the same slow speed.

I have tried:
complete reinstall
killing off all other programs except systray and explorer(with task manager)
lowering video resolution
turning off all sound and cd music
editing settings.txt to make cd music false
having the original se4g cd in and out of drive

all these have had no effect on the problem or anything else.

everything else in the game really runs fine but i really hate turning off the ship animation since it helps me keep track of what is going on, but waiting for all the ships to move is making me want to quit playing.

is the game sensitive to installing using a specifically designated cd rom designation? mine is E:\ vice D:\ as is more common.

I remember having this problem on old computer (P2, win98) and somehow fixing it soon after initial install. and I somehow remember it had something to do with sound/music but for the life of me, I can't remember or reproduce the fix.

[Arkcon]

Try this slick, I dunno if it has been suggested yet in this thread, so bear with me.

If you had Windows' Media Player 7.0 on the other computer, get it and install it on this one. Play a media file with it. Start SE4. Sometimes playing media player causes ships to zip around in SE4. Maybe you were used it it, and didn't notice the cause before.

Just a stab in the dark really.

[Slick]

bump

[Elowan]

I'm basically having the same problem with an XP, P4 machine running at 1.8 GHZ and a TNT 64 video card.

My laptop runs at 1 GHZ, uses a GeForce 2 and the ships zip around as if they're on Geritol.

Go figure.

[dumbluck]

Heh. Is it a Dell? There have been some capatability issues with dell laptops in the past (although I think it was RCEs, not slow ships...)

[Ragnarok]

Originally posted by dumbluck:
Heh. Is it a Dell? There have been some capatability issues with dell laptops in the past (although I think it was RCEs, not slow ships...)<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hmm, I haven't heard of this. My main computer is a Dell laptop. It's a Inspiron 8100 running XP. But I haven't had a bit of problem running SE4. No slow ships. Only get RCE's when I mess around with data files in my own little mod. Other then that it's fine.

[dumbluck]

HERE (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=004168) is a thread I found about it. All I did was a quick search for "Dell Hardware".

[ August 26, 2002, 08:02: Message edited by: dumbluck ]

[DirectorTsaarx]

I've noticed the same problems as everyone else; when I played SE4 on my old computer, the animation would move at hyper-speed if I'd been Online. I'm pretty sure the problem was the modem... The problem disappeared when I got a new computer.

Now, on my (new) work computer (Windows 2000), I have the super-slow ship movement animation issue. I turned off the animate ship movement option, and the problem went away; of course, now I can't watch my ships moving. Oddly, my Win2000 home system does NOT have the same problem, so I leave animate ship movement ON there... I figure it's a typical Micro$loth random bug, and deal with it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Slick]

I have found a viable workaround (for me). I turn off "animate ship movement in system window" and turned on "display ship movement lines"

still shows me what I want to see. and now it is smoking fast.

[dumbluck]

I sure am glad that I didn't have any problems with my computer upgrade... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif