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darkmoment Certificates/Ratings/Crew Stations: "Unexpected pauses in FS2000" 07-23-01, 07:54z  Hello gang. It's quiet. All been away for the weekend? I've recently fitted (finally, as well documented elsewhere in this great forum) a GeForce 2 MX400 to my Compaq Presario Pentium III 600MHZ 128MB RAM Windows 98SE Direct 7.0a nVidia 12.41 drivers 17GB free hard disk space and it's running 99% OK. It hung the system once but that probably would have happened anyway. It's giving me better framerates, for sure ... probably on average 10FPS more than my factory-installed Intel 810e chipset .... but one problem I had before has not gone away. My FS2000 often pauses unexpectedly ... whatever sound WAV is playing at the time continues throughout, but the video hangs and the mouse is unusable .... for up to 30 seconds or more. Then the whole caboodle just continues again as though nothing happened. By that time, however, my hand/eye coordination is shot and I end up driving my F-18 into a mountain like an elephant on roller skates. Whasshappenin'? Is this a video problem specifically or a memory use issue? Perhaps a related issue is how much memory I should allocate for "textures in PCI mode" in the nVidia DISPLAY settings under CONTROL PANEL (inapplicable to AGP cards, but mine is a PCI) and also how much cache should be reserved for scenery under FS2000's SCENERY LIBRARY. Any ideas, anyone? Is this relevant, or important? I have a full install of FS2000. Mark "I'm frozen up here. Turn on the pitot heat, Pilot Pete" Top

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Subject      Author      Message Date     ID      RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000 Madape 07-23-01 1    RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000 darkmoment 07-23-01 2         RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000 darkmoment 07-23-01 4              RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000 Ben Chiu 07-24-01 7   RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000 Ben Chiu 07-23-01 3    RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000 Madape 07-23-01 6   RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000 Simon 07-23-01 5    RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000 darkmoment 07-24-01 8         RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000 Madape 07-24-01 9              RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000 darkmoment 07-24-01 10              RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000 Ben Chiu 07-24-01 11                   RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000 Madape 07-24-01 12         RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000 craiggresham 07-24-01 13              RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000 darkmoment [Passenger] 07-24-01 14                   RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000 Ben Chiu 07-24-01 15

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Madape Certificates/Ratings/Crew Stations: 1. "RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000" 07-23-01, 09:28z  ____________________ Hi Mark, I apologise for any typos in Advance, but I have just got back from Italy (on a noisy MD-80!) and I am VERY tired! From experience in the past this is usually when people dont have enough RAM, or Virtual Memory (or your HDD space is low, and file swapping slows down). Now I can see you have 128Mb of RAM which is ample for FS2K. Firstly check to make sure you are not running anything in the background, i.e. Virus Scanners, Memory Managers etc etc. I have noticed that you are only running DX 7.0a I would upgrade to DirectX 8 available from www.microsoft.com/directx Also make sure you have the latest Detenator drivers from nVidia, (www.nVidia.com). If I were you I would encourage myself to mess around with the settings for the Video Card and see if you can find some optimal settings that FS2K will work under...also try increasing the scenery cache to the Maximum limit possible. Please let us know how you get on! Sam Top

darkmoment Certificates/Ratings/Crew Stations: 2. "RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000" 07-23-01, 11:34z  Thanks Sam. Hope they had Paul Golding's panel in your MD-80 although it seems you may need to update your sounds ... RAM ... thought so. 128MB though, as you say, and loads of room on my (defragged) HD. No, virus checker always off for FS2000, EnditAll run, memory managers binned. I uninstalled Direct8.0a and went back to 7.0a during my recent video card nightmare, but might go the other way again now things are working again. Not 8.0, though, but 8.0a, am I not right? Yes, I have the latest (official drivers). Noted to increase the scenery cache to max ... I've been running at 9999MB. So it can't be that. I also ran your BGL utility the other day, and so I'm running out of options. With memory so cheap right now, perhaps I should just spend a few bucks on another 128MB and see if that makes any difference. Funny thing is, my frame rates are fine when things freeze ... the video paused for about 15 seconds last night at 48FPS over Nepal ... Ah well, all part of the learning curve. Mark "Mind Everest, did you say, co-pilot? No, it's called Mount Everest ..." Top

darkmoment Certificates/Ratings/Crew Stations: 4. "RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000" 07-23-01, 11:51z  A discovery, which may or may not be relevant ... 1. I originally did a typical install of FS20000 and used Disk 2 for scenery as usual. I have since installed all that scenery onto the hard disk under FS2000/SCENEDB. 2. Some time ago I noticed that my SCENERY.CFG file still referenced FS2KCD2\SCENEDB\ for all default sceneries ... so I changed relevant entries to read SCENEDB\ ... in other words, to read straight off my HD. 3. I now notice that under FS2000\CACHE\ all the entries start with FS2KCD2. Is this the cache referenced by FS2000 Scenery Library? Can I delete it all, therefore, and let it rebuild itself? Or is this cache for something else? Note I never use the FS2000 disks for start-up or play as I have a hack FS2000.EXE file. Just a thought. Maybe my FS2000 hasn't a clue where to start looking for scenery as I fly! Sorry to be so useless once more, but man, am I learning ... Mark "Where's the runway, co-pilot?" "Yes sir, it does. Harder on your tires, though" Top

Ben Chiu Certificates/Ratings/Crew Stations: 7. "RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000" 07-24-01, 00:32z  ____________________ Hi Mark: Regarding point 1 and 2, how did you install the extra/missing scenery files? If FS didn't install it, it's very odd that your scenery config would reflect the wrong information. If you didn't use the "factory" install, I have my doubts that PRP actually did anything for you. Regarding point 3, I don't know if the cfg file will rebuild itself. I wouldn't think so. But the safe way to find out is to copy your original file someplace safe before messing with it. It shouldn't matter anyway since the cache is for reading files off your CD-ROM. You might try not using the hack file too. There are several floating around and some are of the patched version, and some are for previous versions. That might make a difference. Ben Top

Ben Chiu Certificates/Ratings/Crew Stations: 3. "RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000" 07-23-01, 11:39z  ____________________ Greetings Mark: Actually, it sounds like an soundcard problem. If I recall correctly you have an onboard sounddevice. Try this: Turn off your sound (press the q key to toggle) and fly around and let us know if you still have the pauses. 256Megs of RAM does seem to be optimum for FS2K in my experience. I've noted that above 256M, I'd start picking up pauses. I don't know if this is a "feature" of my motherboard (not enough onboard cache) or the OS. Good to see you back in the air again. Ben Top

Madape Certificates/Ratings/Crew Stations: 6. "RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000" 07-23-01, 15:37z  ____________________ Ben has come up with a good point there... you could also try disabling your sound card from the Device Manager, and see if you still get pauses. Sam Top

Simon Certificates/Ratings/Crew Stations: 5. "RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000" 07-23-01, 14:43z  I have the same thing. My thinking is, im waiting till 2002! Simon Top

darkmoment Certificates/Ratings/Crew Stations: 8. "RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000" 07-24-01, 06:06z  Let's just hope all we hear about FS2002 is true. Anyone know whether the auto-generating scenery will make today's scenery/airport add-ons obsolete? Checked out my onboard sound card last night - disabling doesn't seem to help much, but then I wasn't getting any real pauses ... things never go wrong when you want them to (wot? -Ed.). I did run a DirectXdiag test on it, however, and it announced that all sound was run from software buffers as my soundcard does not support hardware buffering. There is a sound hardware acceleration slider on the same page, which by default is maxed. Would it make a difference to zero this if I have no hardware acceleration anyway? And is this lack of hardware acceleration making my card sleepy in conjunction with a fast video card? My soundcard is an ESS Allegro PCI Audio (WDM). Don't tell me ... I need to buy something else. Mark Try this site for 3D card issues if you don't know it: http://www.guru3d.com The forum is mostly full of people completely wrecking their perfectly good systems by trying to tweak them, but there's some interesting stuff there. Top

Madape Certificates/Ratings/Crew Stations: 9. "RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000" 07-24-01, 06:13z  ____________________ Hi Mark, I dont think its to do with your soundcard not having Hardware Accelration... according to DXDiag my SB 1024 Player does not have Hardware Accelration, and I have a GeForce 2Mx, and FS2K rarely pauses Sam Top

darkmoment Certificates/Ratings/Crew Stations: 10. "RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000" 07-24-01, 07:47z  Interesting, Sam. Is sound hardware buffering the same as sound hardware acceleration, or does one affect the other? The HELP menus always tell you how to turn stuff on or off or up and down, but they never say what it does. Can anyone answer my CACHE questions, above? Where DOES FS2000 store the scenery cache if it's not emptied after every gameplay? I've noticed that my GeForce does seem to do much nicer things with 3D than my onboard video ... all landscape now looks like terrain mesh. Although there's a fair bit of shimmer in the distance (like FS4/5!) despite having image smoothing etc. enabled. Mark Top

Ben Chiu Certificates/Ratings/Crew Stations: 11. "RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000" 07-24-01, 10:51z  ____________________ Greetings Guys: Most non-hardware enabled soundcards are DSP soundcards. DSP soundcards use software and your main CPU to process sounds. The drawback is they steal CPU cycles. If you have a fast enough CPU and enough RAM, you may not notice the loss of cycles. The only way to tell how much of an impact DSP sound devices affect your game/sim/application is to try watching frames with the sound enabled and disabled. Since most onboard soudcards I've seen are DSP versions, I'd be willing to bet Mark's is a DSP too. Just FYI, PCI soundcards generally require the least CPU cycles. Ben Top

Madape Certificates/Ratings/Crew Stations: 12. "RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000" 07-24-01, 13:08z  ____________________ Ahh thanks Ben, that probably explains why I dont get much slow down with my PCI soundcard! Sam Top

craiggresham Certificates/Ratings/Crew Stations: 13. "RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000" 07-24-01, 17:56z  ____________________ About that ESS Allegro PCI Audio card I wouldn’t rule that thing out for not causing issues. HP notebooks using the ESS modem/audio combo card had a huge issue with modem/sound card starting Feb. 20 2001. I know it is not related with this issue but what happened is the drivers they supplied to HP the modem wouldn’t dial out if the date exceeded Feb 20 2001. The issue has been resolved with HP by a driver update download on HP’s web site but to throw my 2 cents in I will never own a ESS product. Now that’s just my personal opinion probably because I deal with this issue every single workday. Anyway check out www.esstech.com their might just be something about the issues you are having. Craig G Top

darkmoment [Passenger] Certificates/Ratings/Crew Stations: 14. "RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000" 07-24-01, 19:35z  Interesting, Craig, and thanks. The real frustation is that I saw a '7' in front of my frame rates for the first time ever last night ... but I still get these weird pauses for seemingly no reason. Toggling 'Q' makes no difference, but then if Ben is right I probably need to disable the device at system level. What's more worrying is that I don't think I used to get pauses when I first installed FS2000, running on the standard Compaq idiot system. But I note from posts above that I'm not alone. Hmmmmm ... Mark P.S. Anyone checked out the new FS2002 site yet? http://www.microsoft.com/games/fs2002/ The video will disappoint you all. 747s doing barrel rolls, Cessna Caravan floatplanes doing ballet-style rotations .. it's a worry. But still, I can't wait ... Top

Ben Chiu Certificates/Ratings/Crew Stations: 15. "RE: Unexpected pauses in FS2000" 07-24-01, 21:25z  ____________________ Greetings Mark: You probably weren't seeing the pauses because your graphics card was the bottleneck. Now that you've got that problem solved, the next bottleneck has shown itself. In otherwords, it may have been there all along, but your frame rates were too slow for it to be seen. Barrel rolls and rotations... hmmm... You'll have to excuse me while I'll reserve judgement until I see what actually ships. I can remember too many times waiting for the latest and greatest only to be disappointed by features that didn't make it and show-stopper bugs. Me a pessimist? Nah, my memory is just getting better about these things. Ben Top

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