rec.autos.simulators

Pentium III 850mhz
Riva TNT 2 Pro
128mb of ram

Thanks,

Brian Bowles

The "causes" are too numerous to list.  Read and follow the directions in
the N4 "readme.txt" file....that will probably cover 90% of the
causes/issues.

Below...is a list of settings that will help, maybe fix the crash issue.

Tom Pabst

***GeForce 2 (MX, GTS, ULTRA) and GeForce 3***
                    "Tweaks and Settings" for N4

****************
General Settings
****************
**Desktop Color:  Set to 16-bit color.
**DirectX: Use a DX 8.0 compatible driver(NvRef drivers 7.0 or higher, 12.0
and up for GF3 cards).
**OpenGL or D3D?:  Run OpenGL for N4 in "XXXX"x16 (use a res compatible with
your CPU speed and ram).
**Monitor:  Obtain the latest drivers for your monitor...DO NOT USE Windows
"Plug and Play" monitor drivers!  Set your refresh rate at the highest
setting you are allowed for your monitor at the specific screen res you run
N4 at.

********************************
Advanced Settings Tab For OpenGL
********************************
In The Scroll Down Box:
   [*]Enable Buffer Region Extension. (Checked)
   [*]Allow the dual planes extension to us local video memory. (Checked)
   [*]Use fast linear-mipmap-linear filtering. (Checked)
   [ ]Enable anistropic filtering. (Unchecked)

Individual Scroll Down Boxes:
   Default Color Depth for Textures: [Always Use 16 bpp]
   Buffer Flipping Mode:             [Use page flip]
   Vertical sync:                    [Always off]
   Full Scene Antialiasing Method:   [Always off]
   (note: this is not here on a GF3 card which has its own antialiasing
screen)

   Use up to [62] MB of system memory for textures in PCI mode.

**************************
Mother Board BIOS Settings
**************************
   Video BIOS Shadow............[Disabled]
   Video BIOS Cache.............[Disabled]
   Palette Snoop................[Disabled]
   AGP Turbo (or Fast Write)....[Enabled]*
   AGP Aperture Size (MB).......[128]*
   AGP ISA Aliasing.............[Disabled]*
   AGP Secondary Lat Timer......[20h]*
   AGP Data Transfer Mode.......[4x]*
   K7 Clk_Cntrl Select..........[Optimal]*
   PnP Aware OS.................[Yes]
   Resources Controlled by......[Auto]
   Assign IRQ to VGA............[Yes]

Note: (*) Items above will appear only on mobos with 2x compliant AGP bus.
If you don't have one of these mobos now, DO NOT waste your time and money
to purchase a fast Nvidia card....its a complete waste!

DO NOT FLASH or upgrade your system BIOS UNLESS YOU ARE HAVING PROBLEMS WITH
YOUR MOBO....that are **specifically addressed** in the BIOS upgrade (see
the Readme.txt file for your BIOS flash upgrade).  Flashing your system BIOS
is risky business....and you can render your mobo completely inoperable if
you***even the slightest thing up in following the steps.  You've been
warned!  Ask Dave Henrie!

********************
Mobo Chipset Drivers
********************
Your mobo contains two "chips" similar to your CPU chip (but smaller) that
control all the functions of your mobo (system bus, AGP bus, IDE
controllers, etc.).  The one located closest to the CPU is called the
"northbridge" chip, and the one furthest away is called the "southbridge"
chip.  The northbrigde chip is very important for video graphics since it
controls the system bus and AGP bus (among others).  THE SINGLE MOST
IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR GRAPHIC'S CARD SPEED AND STABLE
OPERATION IS INSTALL AND MAINTAIN THE CHIPSET DRIVERS IN THE LATEST **DRIVER
VERSION**.  This applies to Intel and AMD platforms, but is critical in all
AMD platforms!

There are several "chipset" manufacturers and you must determine which one
you have on your mobo.  I can tell you that VIA is the most popular, but ALI
and AMD also make chipsets.  Once you've determined which you have, go to
that manufacturer's website (bookmark it...you will need to check for
version updates at least monthly).  Download and very carefully install the
latest chipset drivers for your mobo.  This is an area where I have seen the
most improvement in frame rates and graphic quality.  DO NOT DO THIS
CASUALLY.....READ AND FULLY UNDERSTAND WHAT AND HOW YOU ARE TO INSTALL THESE
CHIPSET DRIVERS!

Chipset drivers can easily get corrupted with normal
operations....especially running a lot of pc games.  I install mine every
week.....whether needed or not.  You can "over-write" install them....its
very simple to do once you have the routine down.

*******************************
Windows Virtual Memory Settings
*******************************
Many sim racers have had problems with "screen stutter"....usually occurring
as the car is entering a turn.  This happens at this point because the FPS
slows....just as the requirements for a faster FPS are greater (when
turning...the screen is rapidly changing the scenery and background).  If
your system is at the same time accessing the Windows Swap file (located on
your hard-drive)....you can get this screen stutter (a brief, usually less
than a second "freeze" of the screen).  This can occur independently of the
type of video card you use....and the amount of system RAM (although that
doesn't totally make sense to me....but I get this screen stutter on both my
systems, one has 512 MB of ram, the other has 738 MB of ram...so go
figure?).

One way to reduce or eliminate this problem is to remove Windows from
control of your Virtual Memory (that's the swap file).  Windows will
increase and decrease it as needed (on your hard drive)....and as that area
of your hard drive becomes fragmented, Windows doesn't clean it up for you
(nor does defragmenting your hard drive....that only defragments the area of
the hard drive outside of this swap file)...it will just keep taking more
and more drive space to satisfy its (often incorrect) evaluation of how much
"virtual memory" it needs for the ops you are running.

The **Quick Fix**.....is to take control of your Swap File hard drive space
allocation.  To do this, follow these directions:
  1. Go to the "Windows Virtual Memory" settings box (right click "My
Computer" -select- "Properties" - select- "Performance Tab" -select-
"Virtual Memory" [button] on lower right side of box.
  2. Select "Let me specify my own Virtual Memory settings." bullet.
  3. Set the Minimum and Maximum **to the same value**....this is very
important! [This will keep the swap file from being re-sized all the time.]
  4. Set the value at something between 2x to 4x your physical RAM memory
(remember the Value is entered in KB, not MB).  Example: With 128 MB ram, at
2.5xRAM = 320 MB (entered as: 3200 KB in the box).
  5. Restart your computer as Windows requests.
  6.  Go back and make sure the settings you made are still there....and
check this regularly.  Windows has a *** habit of deleting this stuff all
the time....and taking back over the management of VM.  I've never been able
to figure out a "pattern" for when Windows does this....I just know that
half the time....when I check this.....Windows has taken back control of VM
and I have to reset it to the above settings.

***DOING THIS WILL SOLVE THE N4 FRAME STUTTER......assuming you have no
other "issues" with IRQ sharing and so forth.  I also found this solves the
same problem in GPL...when using the high-res***pits and race tracks.

The **Long-Term Fix**.....is to purchase software that will allow you to
defragment the area of your hard-drive that is allocated for the swap file.
These programs can also allow you to partition your HD so you can locate the
swap file in this partition, which will reduce resizing and fragmentation
even further.  There are several programs to do this, ask around.  I don't
use them, because I just "fdisk" and "format C" my HD regularly....having a
"clone" of my "race box" system and programs on a CD.  Its much easier, and
completely refreshes my system (I usually do this monthly).