More Basrah Lag

[Ymir]

OK, here's what I have:

(450w PSU)
CPU: P4 HT(Prescott) 3ghz
RAM: 2GB DDR333 Pc-2700
VGA: BFG AGP 8x 7800GS 256MB
Sound Card: Creative Xtreme Gamer

(I basically run everything on the highest settings)

But, here's the thing, when I load up an empty map of Basrah, I get no stuttering whatsoever, but the more people are on the server, the more the game will sputter when in the city, with audio clipping and stuttering during the sputters. A similarly big map like Kashan Desert with not a whole lot of geometry/textures does fine on a crowded server, however.

I've fiddled with my pagefile, defragged, and noticed some marginal improvements, but what else can I do to help? It seems like a memory problem, but my 2GBs shouldn't have THIS much trouble. Would faster memory help? On my old mobo though, the fastest I can run is only 400mhz, and the latency difference between D333 and D400 is only 1 nanosecond. So what could be bottle-necking me, if anything?

Another strange problem which may or may not be related. I've been having ever since 0.7 (or was it 0.75?) is I get some weird sounds on most maps. On Battle for Qinling I often get sounds of rushing water in places where I shouldn't, and in just about all maps my feet emit the sound of clutching (like when driving a vehicle) when turning around, strafing, or otherwise walking/running around on foot. And then of course there's that annoying helicopter-sound glitch which apparently many people get.

Any clues?

[SnipingCoward]

water sound = bug
helicoper noise = bug

footstep sound should depend on the surface (running on metal should sound different than running on grass or concrete) if not, you should look into that a little further, try reducing the sound quality from very high to high or so or update sound drivers

2GB is minimum for this mod - so thats probably where you run into trouble - maybe your AGP gfx card has trouble too - all in all i think you pc is hitting the limit with all its components

when in game alt-tab out and open the taskmanager to check how much ram is used

if you haven't already read this sticky: http://www.realitymod.com/forum/f27-...ed-memory.html

[thepalerider]

It's been a while since I had a AGP card but I remember you could adjust the size of the flow through the card in bios.
I think the default was med or low. Setting it higher should get more through the card. 256mb is ok on the LOW end.
Pr and the large maps with lots of detail pushes your hardware to the max. Lower some settings on your video card. I have a PCIe ATI 1950xt 512 and I don't run it full- everything on high.
Some settings you really can't tell the difference between high and med.Even if you could, I would rather have Smooth 'less than razor sharp' play, than razor sharp lagging/shudder play any day. Drop your light maps to med, no AA, run at the same res. as your desktop. Its all about getting the right balance for your setup.

Check out the BF2 tweak guide for more ideas

Good luck

[Proff3ssorXman]

Also what server were you playing on? Did you have an unusually large ping? Sometimes if the Net where I live is particularly busy then I get more laggy and stuttery with no noticeable ping difference.

Mind you the internet at home fairly sucks at the best of times.

[badmojo420]

What resolution are you running? I used to run 1920x1200 and it would run most maps great, all high settings. Then i tried Al Basrah, now i run at 1280x768 with stuff like shadows and light set to medium. You'll find a lot of systems run fine at lower resolutions, but when you start getting into the higher ones you really need a top of the line system to run smooth all the time.

[Ymir]

I have an LCD and run at my native 1680x1050 or 1400x1050 depending.

Thanks for your tips, I checked the Performance Manager and it says it uses a little over 2GB of physical RAM when on that map, so that could definitely be it. It's strange though, Jabal Alburj is a big, complex map that runs beautifully on the same system, but I guess it's mostly rock. Looks like I'll lower my settings since I don't really want to invest in more old DDR RAM at this point.