Sim3d2 crashing

[schido]

Hello there, i'm new to the forum (and to the platinum license)

I got some major problems getting sim3d2 to run reliable, most of the time it will crash right after clicking the Start Poc button from the main menu, and sometimes after a couple of seconds in the simulation, forcing me to do a hard reboot.

I played with lots of settings, fullscreen/window, desktop/game resolution. FSAA settings etc. but to no avail.
Any help?

http://www.xs4all.nl/~schido/DxDiag.txt

[corne_mo]

Can you please list your PC config too? Processor speed and graphic card and which Windows version you run?
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Freight Containers In The Port Of Antwerp

[schido]

What? Is the dxdiag.txt i posted at the bottom not detailed enough?

Here's a quick summary: AMD x64 3200+, Ati X800xt 256mb, 2Gb, XP Pro

[rdklein]

I havent checked the version numbers in the diag, but I recommend loadning the newest ati driver in first place. ALso you can load the latest direct x version (they are all called direct x 9.0c), we have used the okt 2006 edition, but you can go up to the 2008 versions.

The ati x800 is not a fast card but this is not the problem I think as I have used a X600 for testing already (except frame rates are low)

Also try to switch of the antialiasing feature (in the admin menue), then much less memeory is used

[schido]

I updated ati drivers to 8.3 version, was version 8.2
Directx was allready latest version, but reinstalled it anyways

Actually managed to finish one seperate mission (tugboat, cast off from bremerhaven, Like the bells in the lock by the way)
But it still locked up when i pressed enter at the "press next" message.
Used fullscreen, at 1024x768, aa none (should i try the next option? nonmaskable?)
I noticed the aa settings aren't stored when i press save to ini, how do i force xxl to use these settings?

[rdklein]

yes we will change the behavior to save the settings in the future (which is a little bit tricky at the moment),
currently its not done so xxl uses the defaults, but you can set an override in the direct driver dialog to be used with specific games (like ours), so which antialias off for this case.

[schido]

What do you mean by "direct driver dialog"? The ATI driver settings screen?
That only gives me the options: Application controled, 2x, 4x and 6x
No option for forcing it off there.

[rdklein]

yes set it to 2x,
also set mipmap to performance and
a try to set all other options also to 2x or to high performance, that might help.

(I havent tested with X800...).


what also helps is to reduce the screen resolution go to 1024x768 as this saves also memory in the GPU.


I think we will have an option soon to solve the problem for xxl, that is setting the perfomance in pocxxl and transfer the parameter to pocsim3dii that might be the easiest way to handle this. SOme kind of minimum switch or so.

[schido]

I was already switching to 1024 before starting poc.
After setting every driver option i could find to high performance, aa to 2x and af to application controlled, xxl sometimes manages to start pocsim3d2.
But after about 10 secs of normal framerate, it drops to a frame rate that ranges between about 1 frame every 10 secs to totally no refresh, and becomes totally unresponsive, even to ctrl-alt-del.

[schido]

The switch in the new 1.59 version works. And i can play and finish a mission when started separate from xxl, with aa set to application, and the "none" saved in sim3d2 ini and all driver settings set to high performance (that makes textures look so ugly by the way)
But when started from xxl, i still get the lockup after about 10 seconds in the mission after choosing the play mode.

[rdklein]

usually in the catalys center (ATI cards) you have the options use application setting or override, but maybe this depends on the grafic card.

I will continue to check where the bottleneck is, maybe I can proivde some options to help the with older cards.

[rdklein]

I checked some details the 800xt ia about in the range of the geforce 6800,

currently I test with the 5800 a slower card,


lets do some tests

1. switch of RADAR display and SPEED display for a test, so see if this helps (it multiplies the performance) you can still use F3 to see the MAP

2. check you card using 3DMark06( from futuremarkn ) I just want to see if there is another problem with the card

(I have 1 X1950 which since time switches to 2 fps when using the primary display, this happend with the new catalyst drivers, I can switch back using the secondary display -- looks like a defective card but can be a driver problem, as full screen works --- this happens on this card to all 3d directx applications !!! I also search for the cause on this)

[schido]

I'll try those things when i get home from work. But yes, the x800xt is still quite a decent performer for agp.
I can run most games at a good resolution and framerate, even with aa at 4.
Some recent examples: Call of duty 4, Oblivion, "that other ship simulator 2008"
And i even got Bioshock to run, but that needed an unofficial shader patch.

[rdklein]

the 3dmark06 outputs an interesting listing about the features of the x800, this could be interest for me to see where the limit comes from.

YOu talked about a shader patch, have you installed this permanently, maybe this can have an effect on the performance also.

[schido]

That just replaces some shader files in the bioshock game folder, so shouldn't have any impact on other games:

http://www.paolofranchini.com/shshock/index.php