rec.autos.simulators

Sometimes when I go to a track, especially the Ring, the graphics will
have "hiccups" during the first few seconds of driving. The framerate
counter tells me there is no problem (stable 36fps in training mode),
but the same picture will be displayed for a longer fraction of a
second while the car moves on. I believe there are hard disk accesses
at the same time, but I don't know for sure. (I don't have time to
look at the HDD LED and I can't hear the drive - I drive the Ferrari,
y'understand? :)

Usually, this goes away after some seconds. Sometimes, there are
traces of this behavior for a whole lap (at the Ring, mind).
Sometimes, the phenomenon doesn't occur at all.

What could be causing this effect? Lack of memory? Wrong size of swap
file? I don't run any background tasks. Is there a workaround?

Here are my relevant system specs:

iP250 (i.e. iP166MMX running at 2.5x100)
32 MB of PC 100 SDRAM
Diamond Monster Voodoo1
Win95 with service pack 1

--
Wolfgang Preiss   \ E-mail copies of replies to this posting are welcome.

I could be that the textures are getting loaded into memomory on the
first few turns / first lap. This used to happen with F1RS, I believe,
but then would stop immediately; with that game it made sense to do one
practice lap before racing at a new circuit to allow for these textures
to get loaded.

In Warbirds I used to have a swap file of 3 times my memory size to cut
down any possible stutters.  Now with 128Mb SDRAM that isn't practical
and I let Win95 manage the virtual memory.  Make absolutely sure that
you have at least 100Mb + free HD space on your drive... it has been my
experience that if I have less than that huge disk swapping/HD access
takes place and graphics keep jittering every few minutes.

Hope that helps... wasn't really advice - just recounting some of my
experiences.

Cheers!
Gian Vitzthum.
(by the way - did you know you have the same name of a German actor who
was in the film A Bridge Too Far?  :)  He was born around the turn of
the century, however, and I don't know too many novegenarians who have
3dfx cards :).

I could be that the textures are getting loaded into memomory on the
first few turns / first lap. This used to happen with F1RS, I believe,
but then would stop immediately; with that game it made sense to do one
practice lap before racing at a new circuit to allow for these textures
to get loaded.

In Warbirds I used to have a swap file of 3 times my memory size to cut
down any possible stutters.  Now with 128Mb SDRAM that isn't practical
and I let Win95 manage the virtual memory.  Make absolutely sure that
you have at least 100Mb + free HD space on your drive... it has been my
experience that if I have less than that huge disk swapping/HD access
takes place and graphics keep jittering every few minutes.

Hope that helps... wasn't really advice - just recounting some of my
experiences.

Cheers!
Gian Vitzthum.
(by the way - did you know you have the same name of a German actor who
was in the film A Bridge Too Far?  :)  He was born around the turn of
the century, however, and I don't know too many novegenarians who have
3dfx cards :).

Free disk space is not a problem. Actually that's the only thing I
have plenty of (more than 5 GB in total, more than 3 GB free.) I'll
try the "fixed swap file size" approach, I think, and see what it
does.

Everything one can hope for. Thanks!

I'm old, but not *that* old. And I don't run around in a Wehrmacht
uniform all the time. :) My nephew's first name is Vincent (and
"Preiss" is pronounced just like "Price".) I wonder what associations
his name will evoke. :)

--
Wolfgang Preiss   \ E-mail copies of replies to this posting are welcome.

--
Wolfgang Preiss   \ E-mail copies of replies to this posting are welcome.