11.4 What can I do to eliminate stuttering and hesitation?
From FlightSim
Q:
WHAT CAN I DO TO ELIMINATE STUTTERING AND HESITATION?
A:
As a few of you recall I was one with lots of gripes on stuttering and hesitation. Well, with this setup things have improved so much that I rate the sim in the low 9's now over the 7's before. Here is what I find with this P200mmx/64meg ram/Millenium II/Monster3D (haven't' changed any hardware for this comparison):
- I found out how to run the Monster at the higher clock speed. Formerly whenever I moved the slider on the Monster settings panel to "max perf" (ie, clock speed is operating at the max that Diamond allows) I would get lockups in all apps using 3Dfx either via Direct3D or Glide drivers. After playing with adjusting the Monster's default memory range up a few notches I found my lock ups disappeared and I can now run the Monster at full warp speed. It DOES make a difference in FS98 AND other apps. I guess that would be expected. As I recall you go form something like 43 mHz to 56 MHz by moving that slider to the max. It definitely shows up as improvement in my new favorite military combat sim: F22-ADF. Just a great sim! Gold star recommendation!
- Another thing I have been doing is turning the screen saver OFF, AND turning off the taskbar tray clock. Not sure about the clock, but I am somewhat sure about the screen saver being turned off. I guess every little bit helps!!
- All background wallpapers and textures are off.
Now, with all this configured, I made a flight a minute ago from Fresno to LAX. I had pretty much max scenery (except for ground shadows I think) and MAX dynamic scenery. 767 was the aircraft. On this flight you go directly over LA with lotsa texture almost as far as the eye can see. I had a 5/8 cloud layer. I ALSO had GPWS running with speed calls as I made my decent, and ATC chatter active. The good news is during this very high demand scenario I had almost flawless performance. Virtually no hiccups. I do get the occasional "flash" where a section with flash almost white for an instant as new scenery loaded, but NO hangs of the motion of the outside view.
Just thought I'd pass this on in case it helps someone.
Noel II
Just a note: Please remember that overclocking the 3D card, also
makes it run even hotter! The card runs pretty hot as it is. Maybe
you should think about adding another fan, If your case can support
it. I'm glad you got the sim to work for you though...
Ken
FS98 supports and revels in the qualities of the Monster 3D card.
Go to the Options-Preferences-Display-Display Options-Hardware Accelerator menu. If the Monster is installed right it will show as one of the options on the screen. Select it and check all of the options except 8 Bit Mip Mapping, whatever that is. Now return to the program and press Alt-Enter. There will be a slight pause and a change to a full screen picture with 3D enabled. If you had previously pressed Shift-z twice to show the frame rate, you will now see that it has doubled. If you haven't already, download and install the latest drivers for the Monster from the Diamond web site. The ones provided with the card are inadequate.
Bob Fiedler
