rec.autos.simulators

by **itazur** » Fri, 17 Dec 1999 04:00:00

I recall seeing a number of threads in the past concerning unexpectedly poor
performance in Midtown Madness. I went back and read all the posts I could
find but could not seem to locate a "fix".

My problem: MM stutters like crazy (accessing the hard drive) during the
first minute or two of play in all race modes. In Cruise mode things are
not so bad, but in a circuit race the first minute or so is unplayable,
which makes for a very disappointing game overall. I do not think this is a
straight framerate issue or a matter of the CPU or videocard being maxed
out. After the first minute or two of choppy performance, things eventually
become silky smooth even with all the graphics settings maxed out and
1024x768+ screen resolution. Furthermore, dropping screen resolution way
down to 640x480 with low settings does NOT eliminate the stuttering/choppy
start of races. This seems to be some sort of virtual memory access
problem, but the important question is this: short of buying more RAM (I'd
hate to do it as I've never had a single problem running any other piece of
software) does anyone know of a fix?

XGamer soundcard with a Thrustmaster X-Fighter Joystick running through the
game/midi port.

Thanks in advance for your help...

itazura

by **Daxe Rexfor** » Fri, 17 Dec 1999 04:00:00

> short of buying more RAM (I'd
>hate to do it as I've never had a single problem running any other piece of
>software) does anyone know of a fix?

I believe in was determined by general consensus that MM runs best with
larger amounts of RAM. I have 256MEG and it runs smooth as silk at all
times. People with 128 reported similar experiences, but lots of people
with 64MEG complained of the stuttering problem you mention. It seems like
getting some more RAM is probably the solution in this case. You might as
well get more anyway, it's not like the need for RAM is going to decrease
anytime soon in games or any other type program.

P2/450
256 RAM
V3/3K AGP
SBLive!
MSFF

~daxe

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by **Don Chapma** » Fri, 17 Dec 1999 04:00:00

Yes, I have consitently had the exact same problem with MM and my setup is a
PIII 500mhz, 128mb Ram, 2 Canoups Voodoo 2's in SLI with all the latest
drivers, patches, etc., etc.
I originally had 64mb of ram in this machine and upgraded to 128mb just to
see if that would help solve the problem. It did not! The stuttering at the
beginning of the game still makes it unplayable and it does not matter what
resolution or how low or high the detail settings are, it still does the
same thing. How ridiculous! I have had others tell me I may want to upgrade
to 256mb of memory, but I have a hard time justifying that for one game when
every other game I have runs suberp at 1024x768. Too bad none of the games
magaiznes and websites mentioned the poor performance of this game(and/or
STEEP memory requirements) when all the rave reviews came out.

The Microsoft recommended specs for this game are:

"16MB of RAM for Windows 95 or Windows 98, 32MB recommended; 32MB of RAM for
Windows 2000 "

And I am supposed to upgrade to 256mb of RAM to get it to work properly?!?
I'm sure this would be a pretty cool game if it would run half-way decent.

Check out the system requirements here:
http://www.microsoft.com/games/midtown/technical.htm

Check out the rave reviews with no mention of the stuttering problems here:
http://www.microsoft.com/games/midtown/reviews.htm

Sorry I could not be of anymore help, but I have tried EVERYTHING to get
this game working smoothly and nothing has been successful, so unless you
are willing to shell out the money for the 256mb of ram, I would not spend
anymore time on it. Also, I am not 100% convinced that the extra memory
would solve my problem, as increasing from 64mb to 128mb showed little
improvement.

P.S. Monster Truck Madness 2 and Motocross Madness both run fine on my setup
at highest detail and 1024x768

Don Chapman

> I recall seeing a number of threads in the past concerning unexpectedly
poor
> performance in Midtown Madness. I went back and read all the posts I
could
> find but could not seem to locate a "fix".

> My problem: MM stutters like crazy (accessing the hard drive) during the
> first minute or two of play in all race modes. In Cruise mode things are
> not so bad, but in a circuit race the first minute or so is unplayable,
> which makes for a very disappointing game overall. I do not think this is
a
> straight framerate issue or a matter of the CPU or videocard being maxed
> out. After the first minute or two of choppy performance, things
eventually
> become silky smooth even with all the graphics settings maxed out and
> 1024x768+ screen resolution. Furthermore, dropping screen resolution way
> down to 640x480 with low settings does NOT eliminate the stuttering/choppy
> start of races. This seems to be some sort of virtual memory access
> problem, but the important question is this: short of buying more RAM
(I'd
> hate to do it as I've never had a single problem running any other piece
of
> software) does anyone know of a fix?

Live
> XGamer soundcard with a Thrustmaster X-Fighter Joystick running through
the
> game/midi port.

> Thanks in advance for your help...

> itazura

by **GTX_SlotCa** » Fri, 17 Dec 1999 04:00:00

Check to make sure the Fast Load option is not checked. That will cause the
problem. I also had to use the Detonator 2.08 TNT2 drivers. For some reason
the 3.53 drivers were slower on a lot of games and less stable.

Slot

by **glen** » Fri, 17 Dec 1999 04:00:00

>"16MB of RAM for Windows 95 or Windows 98, 32MB recommended; 32MB of RAM for
>Windows 2000 "

That's a joke! You need more ram than that just to run those operating
systems.

Here's something from their tech specs page regarding Windows 2000...

"64 megabytes (MB) of RAM recommended minimum; more memory generally improves
responsiveness. "

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/guide/professional/sysreq/defaul...

by **Moderna Verktyg A** » Sat, 18 Dec 1999 04:00:00

Had same problem with my PII 450 192MB Win98 Matrox G200.
Think I "solved" it by removing the file VIDEO.CFG (can't remember the exact
filename, but it's VIDEO something),
and restarted MM. MM then re-autodetects your graphics card and continues.
Check your AGP settings too, if applicable...
Check your disk's DMA settings too, if applicable...
/Krister

> I recall seeing a number of threads in the past concerning unexpectedly
poor
> performance in Midtown Madness. I went back and read all the posts I
could
> find but could not seem to locate a "fix".

> My problem: MM stutters like crazy (accessing the hard drive) during the
> first minute or two of play in all race modes. In Cruise mode things are
> not so bad, but in a circuit race the first minute or so is unplayable,
> which makes for a very disappointing game overall. I do not think this is
a
> straight framerate issue or a matter of the CPU or videocard being maxed
> out. After the first minute or two of choppy performance, things
eventually
> become silky smooth even with all the graphics settings maxed out and
> 1024x768+ screen resolution. Furthermore, dropping screen resolution way
> down to 640x480 with low settings does NOT eliminate the stuttering/choppy
> start of races. This seems to be some sort of virtual memory access
> problem, but the important question is this: short of buying more RAM
(I'd
> hate to do it as I've never had a single problem running any other piece
of
> software) does anyone know of a fix?

Live
> XGamer soundcard with a Thrustmaster X-Fighter Joystick running through
the
> game/midi port.

> Thanks in advance for your help...

> itazura

by **Bill Jone** » Sat, 18 Dec 1999 04:00:00

> > short of buying more RAM (I'd
> >hate to do it as I've never had a single problem running any other piece
of
> >software) does anyone know of a fix?

> I believe in was determined by general consensus that MM runs best with
> larger amounts of RAM. I have 256MEG and it runs smooth as silk at all
> times. People with 128 reported similar experiences, but lots of people
> with 64MEG complained of the stuttering problem you mention. It seems
like
> getting some more RAM is probably the solution in this case. You might as
> well get more anyway, it's not like the need for RAM is going to decrease
> anytime soon in games or any other type program.

> P2/450
> 256 RAM
> V3/3K AGP
> SBLive!
> MSFF

I wonder if the original poster's problem is his video card? Maybe the game
is not optimized for TNT? I have a Pentium 233MMX, 64MB RAM, SoundBlaster
PCI 512, and 4MB Voodoo1 accelerator, and have NO problems running Midtown
Madness. Surely if my system can run it, most of the systems owned by
readers of this newsgroup should be able to run it too.

--
Bill Jones e-mail addresses:

(860) 701-1201 WWW: http://pages.cthome.net/billj

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