Game running issues

[Ben Tusting]

Hello,,

I'm getting random game slow downs(the game runs really slow for a couple of secs, a lot lower fps)

It's not happening all the time and it doesn't happen at the same corner.

Is any1 else having problems like this? or has any1 else had problems like this and solved it?

I turned my replay settings to off, but that didn't solve the issue.

my graphics settings are on low to Medium and my AA is on level 2.

CPU = Q6600
GPU = ATI 6870


Thx for the replies, if i recieve any

 

[Nigel Atkins]

Assuming you are running vista/7 :

• Plug your USB Stick in
• Go to "My computer"
• Right-click the USB Drive
• Go to the Readyboost tab
• Set how much space you want to allocate to Readyboost
• Done

Hope this helps

once setup does the usb drive have to be on all the time? or can you just turn on the drive when your running games?

thx

 

[Jim Cole]

The drive doesn't have to be in all the time, but leaving it in and running should help speed up everything in windows, not just games.

 

[Nigel Atkins]

thx Jim

 

[Ben Tusting]

Btw you have Triple Buffering on Ben?

Nope

you think that would help?(i run with vsync off at the moment)

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Now the lagspikes occur everytime i go on track in new session, usually around T3 or at the end of sector 1. I have to try to disable replay, it would make sense that it creates the replay file around that time. Do anyone know how to do a trace? It works on GTR2 but trying the same command line argument creates the trace log folder but no files.

 

[Jim Cole]

If the lag spike is happening only on the first lap, it could be your system is taking a bit of time to load the textures. Some tracks take longer than others, especially some of the mod tracks which have a lot more graphics to load.

 

[Dave Flower]

Maybe of help maybe not :-
1) As already mentioned in task manager find the Race07 process and set priority to HIGH (not realtime as this will cause problems).
2) Try setting processor affinity to just one processor.
Both of the above will need to be set each time you run the game.
3) Try setting pre rendered frames to 0 - this is a setting in Nvidia Control Panel and needs additional software on ATI cards (thanks to Rob Casey for this suggestion) in ATi its called Flip Que. This stops the graphics card rendering frames in advance and although some claim a slight reduction in Graphics quality my eyes are not able to see it! I have read elsewhere regarding other games that this can help with Input lag from your controller as well as smoother graphics.
4) Disable the recording of Hot Laps - I have done the above three with some success and this is included based on posts above and also on a similar thread in the GT Legends Forum where its been found to help.

Hope this helps someone as those lags are an irritation on a straight but can be race ending when they happen on the limit mid bend or in the braking zone...!

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Lol, i installed the RaceRoom - The Game 2 and first time entering control menu, game crashed.. Started again, crashed (actually, it wonät start at all now, minidumps at the beginning everytime..). So it's definitely SimBin issue, it doesn't crash in any other than GTR - R07 - RR2 and everything in between. Everytime i start the game fresh, go to control menu, it dumps. If i don't go to control menu, at first outing the car moves about 5m and shuts ffb down (it comes back up with default windows FFB, wheel is not centered..), which i have to reset thru control menu so in every case, i have to visit that blasted menu.

I've been monitoring lagspikes and it occurs almost everytime on lap three.. Cannot be graphics loading that late, HDD is busy. Next i'll disable everything but XD, the game is writing/reading something. No word on how to do a trace?

EDIT: started to disable things in R07, got to control menu = minidump..

 

[Hiroshi Awazu]

Mine DL wouldn't even install! Press RUN and gives me a error message.

 

[Dave Flower]

Kennett - could it be something attached to your pc that the game reads as a controller input when you enter control settings? Ok so it reads a wheel and keyboard but do you have anything else attached that the game could be detecting an input from? You'd expect say an box controller to be detected but maybe something else not so obvious? Do you get the same crash if you start the game without your wheel connected? Could it be an IRQ conflict that's causing a problem? I'm no genius but these are just ideas of things you could maybe check/look into to trace the problem.

 

[Bob Miley]

Start the game, go into task manager and write a batch file to disable all non essential processes, print spooler, windows updates, background intelligence, java, etc. Then run the batch file before starting the game, it works for me.

 

[Carl Gianetti]

If your still having problems and you haven’t tried this yet
Try this.
When Race 07 is running, go to the Task manager ( CTRL / ALT / DEL )
Go to Race 07 , right click , Set Affinity and change the processor to a single processor.
This fixed my problem.

Good Luck

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Only got a single core. I've disabled everything else but data aquisition, can't survive with out it. Ive lost all hope allready. If i didn't have a certain SW that requires a hardware id , i would do a fresh install..

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Breakthrough! I finally caught the elusive lagspike.. The method: two monitors, one running the game windowed, other running task manager. Everything unnecessary turned off, the last but not certainly NOT the least: explorer.exe.. more of that later.. So, everything off, task manager on 2nd screen showing processes tab sort order by CPU% used.

Culprit: STEAM!!!

Steam did something that took 1½ seconds, required all the CPU power and all bandwidth (or focus) from HD..It was impossible to catch otherwise, the bug lasts only 1½ seconds, longer if it's caught during that time, then windows just waits until it's fnisehed = high prioirity task.. but anyway impossible to analyze without having a working trace.

I'll report if the obvious remedy works: i turned all Steam update, friends, all notifications and steam community. I'll rarely use the anyway. I also turned cloud off, that is probably the reason... latest addition.

I noticed that when running a non-steam FPS (gametype), that steam did something then too. I shut down steam and explorer.exe and my FPS (GFX) improved little, stability otherhand.. smooth as silk. Worth to try, you don't need explorer.xe to run basic windows tasks: starting/switchingg/closing programs, using programs, save/load inside programs, everything is inside windows kernel.. Explorer.exe is just the system tray, start bar and desktop. Not needed when gaming..Task manager will do all that is needed while fullscreen game is played.. That's with XP, don't know if the behaviour is the same with the latest iterations..

 

[April Dillon]

I'd have normally been surprised by that, but with some of the Steam revisions over the last few years, I don't trust it not to be bloated as hell by this point. Out of curiosity, has Steam caused the same problems in other Steam-based games aswell? Although I find performance in Race 07 fine, along with various other games on it, I do have issues with F1 2011 which could be caused by Steam I suppose.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Update: got the same lagspike, steam again. No updates or anything should be on anymore.. Worrying....I can't think of any remedy and tonight th LagSpike of Doom or LSoD like i call it, it robbed me a win

EDIT: ööh, edit turned out to be longer than post.. Reposted..

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Here's the replay: http://Cream.Galleria.fi/Temp/LINKED/Poznan_111201_2238_Race1.Vcr Luckily, it is propaby my best race ever in RD... The lagspike happens at 1065.00 of replay time. The reason for posting this is that i expected to see that the replay will skip too but all that is happening, is my car freezing and other's continue on.. So my PC is slowing ME down, literally. It doesn't freeze completely, car slides forward like in super slowmo but i think it is the prediction algorithm, doing it's job.

For those that have wondered how that works, this show when pretty beautiful example how the prediction system works.. Prediction system is the one we see about 50% of the time from other drivers around us.. The car sims have one peculiar thing, they mostly move forward, about 99,99999999% of the time the car is going forward plus YAW angle, that pretty much sums up the prediction: speed+yaw angle is so close to what ever happens in the next ½ second, that's why this game seems to run so smoothly online. Mostly what you see is the games prediction of where those other cars are, not the actual location.. That is updated as often than it is possible but you can see that jitter when not all packages have been received for that frame. In case of lagspike, my system runs atm very smoothly, FPS are between 50-60, 60 being the maximum with 90% cpu load while racing, funny, i got no vertical sync on, the game seem to plateau to refresh freq anyway.. It some times goes to 70 and then 2000+ in the main menu so definitely no vertical sync.

Now i have to disable the game replay and all related, had it turned off but RDGTC forced me to turn it on again. But i don't expect the replay to be the culprit, it is Steam and it's alarming increase of features that try to cover everything from chat, VOIP, screenshots, community, friends etc.... There was a lot of stuff that i haven't realised that was turned on, like steam cloud.. One trick is still left, something that helped our dedicated server to run more smoothly. If you have Steam minimized, it has much more activity and memory usage than if you maximize it, then minimize it again.. Memory usage goes from 65k to 1.4k (haven't checked that in 1 year..) and steam acitivity is none.. If it's minimized for a long time, it gathers a lot of junk.. That is a DEEP issue.then. With maximized it's the same thing,

Let Steam sit by it's ass and it starts to gather weight.. True gamer software, eh?

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Did you try all the suggestions made in the big Freeze thread Kennett?
http://www.racedepartment.com/forum/threads/the-big-race-freeze-thread.1282/

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Did you try all the suggestions made in the big Freeze thread Kennett?
http://www.racedepartment.com/forum/threads/the-big-race-freeze-thread.1282/

I think i did, it's a long thread and mine is the last post on that so most likely i've browsed that one before... The problem is different from the "big freeze", it's a steam issue... I had exactly the same problem with non-steam games and the culprit was steam, once again.. Shutting steam solved that problem, haven't seen a lagspike there anymore. There is some kind of periodical scheck that steam uses that cannot be shut down. No i test if i can put Steam on offline mode, since i don't need to have steam online, i need only the game online..

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Hmm but if its a steam issue we all would have this lag spike right? I must say i suffered from it as well but the last few times ive tried race its okay