What upgrading did for GPL

Just after my last post about getting a Voodoo3 2000 PCI and having trouble with it (turns out Voodoo3 cards will not work if a system previously has had only a Voodoo1 card; they want a clean system or one that had Voodoo2 previously), I got the opportunity to purchase a Pentium III 450MHz chip and Intel BX-2 motherboard. The person who had it (a co-worker who won it at the Intel Pentium III training) wanted $500. I offered $400. He offered $450. I offered cash. He offered $430. It's mine! So on Saturday, after getting a new case, a 64MB PC100 DIMM, and exchanging the Voodoo3 2000 PCI for a Voodoo3 3000 AGP, I built my new computer. Once it was stable, the first thing I tried was, of course, Grand Prix Legends. Alas, one still has to limit texture memory to 2MB to get it to look properly, but wow. Driving a car I'm entirely unaccustomed to -- the Eagle -- I set my best-ever time at Zandvoort on my third lap. I don't think it's just the jump from 20 fps to 36 fps. I think it also has to do with how much more frequently the game port is polled. I unchecked the "poll with interrupts enabled" box, so the port is being polled at ridiculous speeds, and it makes the calibration arrows remarkably smooth, even on my overused, four- year-old T2 wheel. The result of perhaps both this and the better frame rate is that I can throw the car around a lot more, and keep control where previously I was doomed to spin out. I never expected that an upgrade of this nature would do so much for my ability to control the car. I always figured 20 fps (or higher at times) was plenty, and never considered the game port polling frequency as having any impact. My previous system was an AMD K6 300MHz chip on a 75MHz bus, with Diamond Stealth II S220 (4MB Rendition V2100) video card (and, briefly, the Voodoo3 2000 PCI (16MB 3Fdx)) and 40MB of fastpage RAM. Still pretty speedy, but the difference between that and the new setup was well worth the approximately $600. Now I wonder what kind of difference getting a wheel unit with dual-axis pedals would make. Being able to brake while still rolling out of the throttle must make for much less drastic weight distribution, thus making the car more stable entering turns. I'd have to train myself to trail brake like that, though, after having learned to drive on the T2. (In Real Life, I have never driven a four-wheeled vehicle larger than a go-kart.) As for the Voodoo3, there still is the driver bug whereby the gamma correction slider for Glide only makes the 3Dfx splash screen darker or brighter, leaving the games unaffected. So, for now, I only can race on a few tracks in GPL if I don't mind not being able to see the flaggers or any cars in the distance. The rest of the tracks might as well be at night. My monitor just doesn't have the kind of brightness output the video card expects by default. I'm also still unable to get Viper Racing to recognize the Voodoo3 as a 3Dfx card. It runs only in Direct3D mode. But with the benchmark now at 48 fps, and with Direct3D gamma correction sliders operational, I'm not complaining, though it does concern me, and I wonder if other games I couldn't get to work in Glide mode with the 2000 might still not work in Glide with this new card. The BX-2 motherboard has an onboard sound chip. I don't like it because its wavetable is horrible compared to my Montego sound card. However I worry that if I disable the onboard audio, it might disable the onboard game port as well, and the Montego port might not be as accurate as the onboard one. Does anyone have familiarity with this kind of situation? Now I just wanna go out there and buy racing games! Been looking at Powerslide. Heard that people liked the demo, and saw in a review that it has a regular ol' dirt oval in it. How's it handle? But, 3Dfx, PLEASE fix the drivers! I want to be able to SEE when running Glide applications!! Oh yeah, I haven't tried OpenGL with the new setup, but on the old setup with the Voodoo3 2000 PCI, GPL ran at about one frame every four seconds. It looked beautiful though! I guess the beta OpenGL drivers for GPL don't agree with the Voodoo3, or maybe it's just the old PCI bus card or something... Guess I should try it on the new setup and see what happens. But anyway, the point to writing this was just to let people who've been pondering an upgrade in order to improve their experiences with sim racing know: Faster computer, faster car. It's that simple. -- http://www2.cruzio.com/~keeper/toons.html - Animaniacs, P&TB, F!, etc. files http://www.armory.com/~keeper/midi.html - My own MIDI files - Updated 5 Dec.

Sounds like you were running in software OpenGL, not using hardware acceleration at all. FWIW, you'll likely not have much better luck with 3dfx's perpetually in beta OpenGL ICD, so I'd suggest you stick to Glide. Eric

Ouch, thats a little steep when you could have bought a Celeron 300A guaranteed to overclock to 450 and an Abit BX motherboard for under $200. Research, research, research. Thats really what the web is for.

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> Just after my last post about getting a Voodoo3 2000 PCI and having > trouble with it (turns out Voodoo3 cards will not work if a system > previously has had only a Voodoo1 card; they want a clean system or > one that had Voodoo2 previously), I got the opportunity to purchase > a Pentium III 450MHz chip and Intel BX-2 motherboard. The person > who had it (a co-worker who won it at the Intel Pentium III training) > wanted $500. I offered $400. He offered $450. I offered cash. > He offered $430. It's mine! > So on Saturday, after getting a new case, a 64MB PC100 DIMM, and > exchanging the Voodoo3 2000 PCI for a Voodoo3 3000 AGP, I built > my new computer. Once it was stable, the first thing I tried was, > of course, Grand Prix Legends. > Alas, one still has to limit texture memory to 2MB to get it to > look properly, but wow. Driving a car I'm entirely unaccustomed > to -- the Eagle -- I set my best-ever time at Zandvoort on my > third lap. > I don't think it's just the jump from 20 fps to 36 fps. I think > it also has to do with how much more frequently the game port is > polled. I unchecked the "poll with interrupts enabled" box, so > the port is being polled at ridiculous speeds, and it makes the > calibration arrows remarkably smooth, even on my overused, four- > year-old T2 wheel. The result of perhaps both this and the better > frame rate is that I can throw the car around a lot more, and keep > control where previously I was doomed to spin out. I never expected > that an upgrade of this nature would do so much for my ability to > control the car. I always figured 20 fps (or higher at times) was > plenty, and never considered the game port polling frequency as > having any impact. > My previous system was an AMD K6 300MHz chip on a 75MHz bus, with > Diamond Stealth II S220 (4MB Rendition V2100) video card (and, > briefly, the Voodoo3 2000 PCI (16MB 3Fdx)) and 40MB of fastpage > RAM. Still pretty speedy, but the difference between that and > the new setup was well worth the approximately $600. > Now I wonder what kind of difference getting a wheel unit with > dual-axis pedals would make. Being able to brake while still > rolling out of the throttle must make for much less drastic > weight distribution, thus making the car more stable entering > turns. I'd have to train myself to trail brake like that, > though, after having learned to drive on the T2. (In Real > Life, I have never driven a four-wheeled vehicle larger than > a go-kart.) > As for the Voodoo3, there still is the driver bug whereby the > gamma correction slider for Glide only makes the 3Dfx splash > screen darker or brighter, leaving the games unaffected. So, > for now, I only can race on a few tracks in GPL if I don't mind > not being able to see the flaggers or any cars in the distance. > The rest of the tracks might as well be at night. My monitor > just doesn't have the kind of brightness output the video card > expects by default. > I'm also still unable to get Viper Racing to recognize the > Voodoo3 as a 3Dfx card. It runs only in Direct3D mode. But > with the benchmark now at 48 fps, and with Direct3D gamma > correction sliders operational, I'm not complaining, though it > does concern me, and I wonder if other games I couldn't get > to work in Glide mode with the 2000 might still not work > in Glide with this new card. > The BX-2 motherboard has an onboard sound chip. I don't like it > because its wavetable is horrible compared to my Montego sound card. > However I worry that if I disable the onboard audio, it might > disable the onboard game port as well, and the Montego port might > not be as accurate as the onboard one. Does anyone have familiarity > with this kind of situation? > Now I just wanna go out there and buy racing games! Been looking > at Powerslide. Heard that people liked the demo, and saw in a review > that it has a regular ol' dirt oval in it. How's it handle? > But, 3Dfx, PLEASE fix the drivers! I want to be able to SEE when > running Glide applications!! > Oh yeah, I haven't tried OpenGL with the new setup, but on the old > setup with the Voodoo3 2000 PCI, GPL ran at about one frame every > four seconds. It looked beautiful though! I guess the beta OpenGL > drivers for GPL don't agree with the Voodoo3, or maybe it's just > the old PCI bus card or something... Guess I should try it on the > new setup and see what happens. > But anyway, the point to writing this was just to let people who've > been pondering an upgrade in order to improve their experiences with > sim racing know: Faster computer, faster car. It's that simple. > --

#2159831 > http://www2.cruzio.com/~keeper/toons.html - Animaniacs, P&TB, F!, etc. files > http://www.armory.com/~keeper/midi.html - My own MIDI files - Updated 5 Dec.

Not true! Just start GPL with this small Batch File: [ Section: 1/1 File: GPL_for_voodoo3.bat UUencoded by: Turnpike Version 4.01 ] begin 644 GPL_for_voodoo3.bat ` end sum -r/size 45467/90 section (from "begin" to "end") sum -r/size 63568/37 entire input file It allows you to run with 8Mb of texture memory. I can't remember who it was who wrote this file but thanks! (In advance, since I haven't got my V3 yet!) -- Cheers! Graeme Nash http://www.karisma1.demon.co.uk ICQ# 11257824 ________________________________________________________________________________ "Sorry, my eyes were on screensaver" (Calvin & Hobbes)

> Alas, one still has to limit texture memory to 2MB to get it to > look properly, but wow. For whatever it's worth, I'm running GPL on the Voodoo3 3000 AGP, and I've never had to check the "limit texture memory to 2 MB" to make it work properly. Trips

Are you running at any resolution other than 640x480? Eric

Mine's been running 24/7 since last year. Where did you see them that cheap? JM

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> Ouch, thats a little steep when you could have bought a Celeron 300A > guaranteed to overclock to 450 and an Abit BX motherboard for under $200. > Research, research, research. Thats really what the web is for. > > Just after my last post about getting a Voodoo3 2000 PCI and having > > trouble with it (turns out Voodoo3 cards will not work if a system > > previously has had only a Voodoo1 card; they want a clean system or > > one that had Voodoo2 previously), I got the opportunity to purchase > > a Pentium III 450MHz chip and Intel BX-2 motherboard. The person > > who had it (a co-worker who won it at the Intel Pentium III training) > > wanted $500. I offered $400. He offered $450. I offered cash. > > He offered $430. It's mine! > > So on Saturday, after getting a new case, a 64MB PC100 DIMM, and > > exchanging the Voodoo3 2000 PCI for a Voodoo3 3000 AGP, I built > > my new computer. Once it was stable, the first thing I tried was, > > of course, Grand Prix Legends. > > Alas, one still has to limit texture memory to 2MB to get it to > > look properly, but wow. Driving a car I'm entirely unaccustomed > > to -- the Eagle -- I set my best-ever time at Zandvoort on my > > third lap. > > I don't think it's just the jump from 20 fps to 36 fps. I think > > it also has to do with how much more frequently the game port is > > polled. I unchecked the "poll with interrupts enabled" box, so > > the port is being polled at ridiculous speeds, and it makes the > > calibration arrows remarkably smooth, even on my overused, four- > > year-old T2 wheel. The result of perhaps both this and the better > > frame rate is that I can throw the car around a lot more, and keep > > control where previously I was doomed to spin out. I never expected > > that an upgrade of this nature would do so much for my ability to > > control the car. I always figured 20 fps (or higher at times) was > > plenty, and never considered the game port polling frequency as > > having any impact. > > My previous system was an AMD K6 300MHz chip on a 75MHz bus, with > > Diamond Stealth II S220 (4MB Rendition V2100) video card (and, > > briefly, the Voodoo3 2000 PCI (16MB 3Fdx)) and 40MB of fastpage > > RAM. Still pretty speedy, but the difference between that and > > the new setup was well worth the approximately $600. > > Now I wonder what kind of difference getting a wheel unit with > > dual-axis pedals would make. Being able to brake while still > > rolling out of the throttle must make for much less drastic > > weight distribution, thus making the car more stable entering > > turns. I'd have to train myself to trail brake like that, > > though, after having learned to drive on the T2. (In Real > > Life, I have never driven a four-wheeled vehicle larger than > > a go-kart.) > > As for the Voodoo3, there still is the driver bug whereby the > > gamma correction slider for Glide only makes the 3Dfx splash > > screen darker or brighter, leaving the games unaffected. So, > > for now, I only can race on a few tracks in GPL if I don't mind > > not being able to see the flaggers or any cars in the distance. > > The rest of the tracks might as well be at night. My monitor > > just doesn't have the kind of brightness output the video card > > expects by default. > > I'm also still unable to get Viper Racing to recognize the > > Voodoo3 as a 3Dfx card. It runs only in Direct3D mode. But > > with the benchmark now at 48 fps, and with Direct3D gamma > > correction sliders operational, I'm not complaining, though it > > does concern me, and I wonder if other games I couldn't get > > to work in Glide mode with the 2000 might still not work > > in Glide with this new card. > > The BX-2 motherboard has an onboard sound chip. I don't like it > > because its wavetable is horrible compared to my Montego sound card. > > However I worry that if I disable the onboard audio, it might > > disable the onboard game port as well, and the Montego port might > > not be as accurate as the onboard one. Does anyone have familiarity > > with this kind of situation? > > Now I just wanna go out there and buy racing games! Been looking > > at Powerslide. Heard that people liked the demo, and saw in a review > > that it has a regular ol' dirt oval in it. How's it handle? > > But, 3Dfx, PLEASE fix the drivers! I want to be able to SEE when > > running Glide applications!! > > Oh yeah, I haven't tried OpenGL with the new setup, but on the old > > setup with the Voodoo3 2000 PCI, GPL ran at about one frame every > > four seconds. It looked beautiful though! I guess the beta OpenGL > > drivers for GPL don't agree with the Voodoo3, or maybe it's just > > the old PCI bus card or something... Guess I should try it on the > > new setup and see what happens. > > But anyway, the point to writing this was just to let people who've > > been pondering an upgrade in order to improve their experiences with > > sim racing know: Faster computer, faster car. It's that simple. > > -- > #2159831 > > http://www2.cruzio.com/~keeper/toons.html - Animaniacs, P&TB, F!, etc. > files > > http://www.armory.com/~keeper/midi.html - My own MIDI files - Updated 5 > Dec.

GPL polls the game port at the same frequency regardless of the setting of the "poll with interrupts enabled" box. See my recent post about this curious little checkbox for an explanation of why things are now smooth. Randy

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> >Alas, one still has to limit texture memory to 2MB to get it to > >look properly, > Not true! Just start GPL with this small Batch File: > [ Section: 1/1 File: GPL_for_voodoo3.bat UUencoded by: Turnpike Version 4.01 ] > begin 644 GPL_for_voodoo3.bat > ` > end > sum -r/size 45467/90 section (from "begin" to "end") > sum -r/size 63568/37 entire input file

Could you please cut'n'paste that batch file for those of us who are using lame news readers that don't have a clue how to deal with uuencoded stuff? :) Thanks, Grant.

Can't seem to find it Randy... can you do a cut-and-paste from your previous one (possibly in your *sent* box)?? --Dave

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> > ... I think > > it also has to do with how much more frequently the game port is > > polled. I unchecked the "poll with interrupts enabled" box, so > > the port is being polled at ridiculous speeds, and it makes the > > calibration arrows remarkably smooth, > GPL polls the game port at the same frequency regardless of the setting > of the "poll with interrupts enabled" box. See my recent post about > this curious little checkbox for an explanation of why things are now > smooth. > Randy

-- Dave Schwabe The Aussie Toad -- Grand Prix Legends & Brabham site http://users.wi.net/~schwabe

w.r.t. "Poll with interrupts enabled" I believe that this setting will only have an effect on the computer while you're running a program that is using DirectInput to read the joystick. So you don't need to worry about it messing up Quicken or Excel or whatever. While running games, having this box unchecked can cause a couple of anomalies... (1) It's possible that your system clock may run a little slowly while running the game. (2) If the game uses any devices that require frequent and/or timely attention by the CPU (the serial ports are most notorious for this), these devices may not operate very well while the box is unchecked. So if you find you're now having more disconnects, or jumpy on-line game performance, you may need to adjust your serial port settings. Now, some background... The computer reads a standard PC gameport joystick by timing how long it takes to charge a capacitor on each axis. When you move the joystick, you alter the resistance on the axis, and thus how long it takes for the capacitor to charge to a certain level. A compliant joystick will use variable resistors (potentiometers - a.k.a. "pots") that yield a maximum charge time of about one millisecond. This may seem to be almost instantaneous, but on a 400MHz machine, it's an eternity! To read the joystick, the CPU will tell the gameport "Discharge your capacitors now, and start recharging them." The CPU will then sit in a loop that tests each capacitor, noting when each one has recharged. The "when" here may be "how many times have I tested the capacitors so far?", or "How many clock cycles have passed since I told the capacitors to discharge?", or some such. While the CPU is sitting in its loop waiting for the capacitors to recharge, some other device in the computer may generate an interrupt. For example, the serial port might say "Hey! You need to feed me more characters to transmit!", or "Hey! I've received a bunch of characters, and my buffer is getting full! You better read them out of my buffer soon, or I'm not going to have anyplace to put new characters as I receive them!", etc. If this happens, and if the joystick reader hasn't turned off interrupts, the computer will go off and service the interrupt. So, the joystick reader won't necessarily have an accurate idea of when each capacitor has recharged, giving you "jumpy" joystick reads. They will be particularly jumpy if the reader is using the "how many times have I tested the capacitors so far?" method of timing. In this case, its timing will be thrown off if the interrupt came in any time after it discharged the capacitors. If it's using the "How many machine cycles have passed..." method, then it will only be thrown off if the interrupt comes in just as a capacitor is about to become recharged. Either way, by disallowing interrupts while reading the joystick, you give the joystick reader a better chance of coming up with an accurate read. Randy

I run 640*480 almost all the time, but i'm pretty sure I've tried it on the Voodoo3 at 800 and 1024 as well with no problems. I'll try it again tonight to be sure and let you know... Trips

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> Are you running at any resolution other than 640x480? > Eric > > For whatever it's worth, I'm running GPL on the Voodoo3 3000 AGP, > and > > I've never had to check the "limit texture memory to 2 MB" to make > it > > work properly.

> The BX-2 motherboard has an onboard sound chip. I don't like it > because its wavetable is horrible compared to my Montego sound card. > However I worry that if I disable the onboard audio, it might > disable the onboard game port as well, and the Montego port might > not be as accurate as the onboard one. Does anyone have familiarity > with this kind of situation? The Turtle Beach Montego has a digital gameport that I would bet is much nicer than the one on your onboard audio chip. Dave Ewing

SET FX_GLIDE_TMU_MEMSIZE=8 GPL.exe -- Cheers! Graeme Nash http://www.karisma1.demon.co.uk ICQ# 11257824 ________________________________________________________________________________ "Sorry, my eyes were on screensaver" (Calvin & Hobbes)

Super, Randy... thanks for grabbing it again. -_Dave

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> > Can't seem to find it Randy... can you do a cut-and-paste from your > > previous one (possibly in your *sent* box)?? > w.r.t. "Poll with interrupts enabled" > I believe that this setting will only have an effect on the computer > while you're running a program that is using DirectInput to read the > joystick. So you don't need to worry about it messing up Quicken or > Excel or whatever. While running games, having this box unchecked can > cause a couple of anomalies... > (1) It's possible that your system clock may run a little slowly while > running the game. > (2) If the game uses any devices that require frequent and/or timely > attention by the CPU (the serial ports are most notorious for this), > these devices may not operate very well while the box is unchecked. So > if you find you're now having more disconnects, or jumpy on-line game > performance, you may need to adjust your serial port settings. > Now, some background... > The computer reads a standard PC gameport joystick by timing how long > it takes to charge a capacitor on each axis. When you move the > joystick, you alter the resistance on the axis, and thus how long it > takes for the capacitor to charge to a certain level. A compliant > joystick will use variable resistors (potentiometers - a.k.a. "pots") > that yield a maximum charge time of about one millisecond. This may > seem to be almost instantaneous, but on a 400MHz machine, it's an > eternity! > To read the joystick, the CPU will tell the gameport "Discharge your > capacitors now, and start recharging them." The CPU will then sit in a > loop that tests each capacitor, noting when each one has recharged. > The "when" here may be "how many times have I tested the capacitors so > far?", or "How many clock cycles have passed since I told the > capacitors to discharge?", or some such. > While the CPU is sitting in its loop waiting for the capacitors to > recharge, some other device in the computer may generate an interrupt. > For example, the serial port might say "Hey! You need to feed me more > characters to transmit!", or "Hey! I've received a bunch of characters, > and my buffer is getting full! You better read them out of my buffer > soon, or I'm not going to have anyplace to put new characters as I > receive them!", etc. > If this happens, and if the joystick reader hasn't turned off > interrupts, the computer will go off and service the interrupt. So, > the joystick reader won't necessarily have an accurate idea of when > each capacitor has recharged, giving you "jumpy" joystick reads. > They will be particularly jumpy if the reader is using the "how many > times have I tested the capacitors so far?" method of timing. In this > case, its timing will be thrown off if the interrupt came in any time > after it discharged the capacitors. If it's using the "How many > machine cycles have passed..." method, then it will only be thrown off > if the interrupt comes in just as a capacitor is about to become > recharged. Either way, by disallowing interrupts while reading the > joystick, you give the joystick reader a better chance of coming up > with an accurate read. > Randy

-- Dave Schwabe The Aussie Toad -- Grand Prix Legends & Brabham site http://users.wi.net/~schwabe

Works fine in 640 only... For 1024 or 800 I DO indeed have to limit texture memory to 2 MB. Trips

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> Are you running at any resolution other than 640x480? > Eric > > For whatever it's worth, I'm running GPL on the Voodoo3 3000 AGP, > and > > I've never had to check the "limit texture memory to 2 MB" to make > it > > work properly.

Here's a great site for reviews and reference > http://www.combatsim.com/ although I'm not into combat sims, I found this site when looking for information about PDPI L4 digital game card. You will have to look unders "hardware" "controller" for the L4 and under "sound cards" for the Montego. Tore Hanson

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>> The BX-2 motherboard has an onboard sound chip. I don't like it >> because its wavetable is horrible compared to my Montego sound card. >> However I worry that if I disable the onboard audio, it might >> disable the onboard game port as well, and the Montego port might >> not be as accurate as the onboard one. Does anyone have familiarity >> with this kind of situation? >The Turtle Beach Montego has a digital gameport that I would bet is much

nicer >than the one on your onboard audio chip. >Dave Ewing

This fixed the GPL texture problem with my new Voodoo 3 3000. Thank you Graeme and whoever discovered this I'm now enjoying 1027x768 with all detail on - mmm hmm !

Hi, Could you please, please, tell me what other hardware you are using and your framerate at the start with a full field, from the back row, all details, mirrors, 1027x768,***pit view, at Monaco? And with number of sounds set at 4? Thanks, Tom

thanks for the informative post, very interesting stuff. GPL is certainly reason enought to upgrade any system, IMO. But you piqued my curiosity with this: why's that? I will say this- I hate driving in general, and try not to much. people on the road drive me crazy. But I love racing sims, and particularly online GPL. strange contradiction, I think.

Will this do anything for a v2 SLI setup?

Hi ! I have the a jumpy online performance (Celeron at 450MHz, ABit BH-6 mb, 96MB RAM, Voodoo2, SB 16) and use PDPI L4 gamecard. This card's driver uses Poll with interrupts by default. Do you have any idea how to fix this or some workaround ? My online performance was ok, when I had the same spec, but PII 266 and Intel's LX motherboard with onboard Yamaha OPL-SA2 sound card. Thanks, Tadej Krevh

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> > Can't seem to find it Randy... can you do a cut-and-paste from your > > previous one (possibly in your *sent* box)?? > w.r.t. "Poll with interrupts enabled" > I believe that this setting will only have an effect on the computer > while you're running a program that is using DirectInput to read the > joystick. So you don't need to worry about it messing up Quicken or > Excel or whatever. While running games, having this box unchecked can > cause a couple of anomalies... > (1) It's possible that your system clock may run a little slowly while > running the game. > (2) If the game uses any devices that require frequent and/or timely > attention by the CPU (the serial ports are most notorious for this), > these devices may not operate very well while the box is unchecked. So > if you find you're now having more disconnects, or jumpy on-line game > performance, you may need to adjust your serial port settings.

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> Hi ! > I have the a jumpy online performance (Celeron at 450MHz, ABit BH-6 mb, > 96MB RAM, Voodoo2, SB 16) and use PDPI L4 gamecard. This card's driver uses > Poll with interrupts by default. Do you have any idea how to fix this or > some workaround ? My online performance was ok, when I had the same spec, > but PII 266 and Intel's LX motherboard with onboard Yamaha OPL-SA2 sound > card.

If you're using the L4 in DirectInput mode then this card uses an entirely different method of reading the joystick than how the normal gameport works. The card itself does all the capacitor reading, at a very high rate, and it does all kinds of fancy smoothing to the results to produce a very stable joystick position value. Then when software such as GPL wants to read the joystick position, the card transfers that info instantly. Thus freeing up the CPU from all that time just sitting around doing nothing while waiting for the joystick capacitors. There is thus no problem with other devices' interrupts. In fact, I don't even recall seeing the option for polling with interrupts in the Joystick control panel applet when I had my L4 installed. But if you use the generic joystick setting in GPL then the L4 automatically switches back to behaving like a standard joystick port. I don't know what might be causing your jumpy online performance, but the L4 shouldn't be the problem. You've changed enough other items between system upgrades that almost anything else could be the cause! :) Grant.

It can't hurt to try...! (well, maybe it can, but who knows) Seriously though, don't expect anything to work and if you've already got good performance don't bother. -- Cheers! Graeme Nash http://www.karisma1.demon.co.uk ICQ# 11257824 ________________________________________________________________________________ "Sorry, my eyes were on screensaver" (Calvin & Hobbes)

To avoid problems with the L4 make sure you do not use "mini drivers". Make sure you set your controller to use only the PDPI devices (prefixed with (L4)), especially in GPL. Make sure you have the contoller panel set to use the PDPI game port. I use a Nascar Pro wheel with split pedals and had to cutomize the Win98 registry settings to get the contol panel to recognize the right half of the steering wheel. (left turns only was a problem). I use a procedure that Greg Renner wrote up in the HMRC NG. Unfortunately the tech support at PDPI are not up on sim racing application or if they are they are reluctant to share this information. If you want these instructions please email me and let me know which format is best for you. Tore

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>Hi ! >I have the a jumpy online performance (Celeron at 450MHz, ABit BH-6 mb, >96MB RAM, Voodoo2, SB 16) and use PDPI L4 gamecard. This card's driver uses >Poll with interrupts by default. Do you have any idea how to fix this or >some workaround ? My online performance was ok, when I had the same spec, >but PII 266 and Intel's LX motherboard with onboard Yamaha OPL-SA2 sound >card. >Thanks, >Tadej Krevh