Sluggish or Laggy?

[Gizza]

Ive read quite a few ppl seem to have slugglish or laggy performance. I dont, so im just thinking maybe its their comps, or their settings.

If you have this, the first thing u may wanna try is turning of Vsync and bloom if they're on. These 2 things will probably have the biggest effect on performance for some people.

Another thing u may wanna try is check if you have triple buffering on in your driver settings. Ive noticed that having this on in some games even without vsync have caused them to lag for me, specifically mouse lag.

Anyways, i hope this helps some people.

[Pharo]

hum... i can play to HeroesV, full high graphic options, and i have no problem

now i play to Caesar IV demo, full minimum graphic options, and the grass, roads, trees, bridges are all white... the ground texture is strange... and i lag...

and if i want few shadow, the game lag so much ... during rain, i can t play, all is dark, all is black ...

can you give me a explication...

[alanis_fan91]

yeah, i find it weird too. i can play many recent games without this problem... but this Caesar IV demo.... rrrraaaaa!

[Gizza]

Did u installed the directX version it promted u for during the installation? And have u got the latest graphics drivers for ur card?

[Pharo]

yes, direct X 9.0c installed and i have installed the latest graphic drivers for my card ... "sigh"... i want to play too :(

[Gizza]

U havent overlocked ur computer at all have u? Specifically ur graphics card, this can cause textures to go like that.

[Gallifrey]

Sluggish and laggy performance here. I have every setting turned off, running at the lowest possible settings and triple buffering is turned off in my driver settings.
It's been suggested that it's a memory issue, as I "only" have 512mb, which has proven quite fine for all my other games, many of which are quite a bit more demanding than Caesar IV and all run smoothly.

This is what I posted in the problems thread regarding lag issues:

If I adjust the "scroll speed", the map zips around when I push the cursor to the edge if I'm close-in in view (if the camera is higher up, there's massive sluggishness), but the problems occur when a building is selected (the zoom is also incredibly non-responsive - I use the mouse wheel and nothing happens, then suddenly the camera is way down or way up). If a building is selected, the cursor/building image chug along, and it's near-impossible to accurately place the building. I select the spot and click, but the building doesn't place, and often edges off in a different direction. This sometimes results in the building being placed in the wrong spot, as there's a delay on the mouse-click response. What also happens very frequently is that the building rotates according to the mouse movements. So instead of the cursor moving, the building ghost rotates.

Basically, it's a lack of proper mouse-command response, which makes the demo unplayable.

[cookie12]

Yeah, another moaner here. Just like the others, I can run modern games (Heroes5) with massive 3D reqs very well no probs. Got C4 demo last night and nothing but issues - updated graphics drivers - checked settings - ran fix so finally working and Yada Yada Yada.
Even after all that, am in demo map (blank) and can only get reasonable frame rate at absolute min 'Best Performance' settings.

No-one else has said this yet that I've seen, so I gotta:

- Before even starting the game, when I see that a high-end 3D game was developed to run on the .NET framework, my heart sank. They might as well have put a banner in the installer saying 'we deliberately sacrificed optimisation and performance for a slightly quicker time-to-market, against much accepted wisdom'.

- And as perf above, whether for that reason or not, my misgivings were born out. Citybuilders by their nature we expect to get a bit sluggish when we've placed lots of buildings and people. So if I start to a small blank map on min settings and it's almost unplayable.......... I've still barely had the courage to go further.

But as you are interested, bless you for your interest in helping. I have;

AMD Athlon XP 3000, 2.10GHz
1.00Gb of RAM
ATI Radeon 9550 w. 256Mb
Windows XP
... More than the min reqs, but apparently not nearly enough......... sniff.
And I loved Caesar3.........

[Marc5]

My game freezes in February of first year. I can still build roads and buildings but the clock freezes on February and the plebs are like statues in the street?

I know it isn't my system because I can run Oblivion on "Ultra High" settings - 7900GT 512mb video card with 1 Gb of system RAM

[Arkimedes]

You can always try this tool (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Video-Tweak/GeForce-Overclocking-CoolBits-Reg.shtml) for Nvidia Drivers or this (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Video-Tweak/ATITool.shtml) for ATI Drivers. It's worth a try.

I overclocked my NVidia FX5200 (256MB) to optimal frequencies and I can feel a 20/25% better performance.


Arkimedes

[Keith]

The fact that you can run Oblivion really has no bearing on the problem. Every game is different. It could still very well be your system, or something on it, interferring with the demo. So don't rule out the possibility.

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the demo?

Disable your virus scanner and background applications before starting the demo and see if there is any change.

[Ion_Master]

I played the demo and found it painfully laggy. I installed the version of directX 9R that came with the demo, and I updated all my drivers. I will admit that my Dell Dimension is nearly 3 yrs old (still it is a 2.4 GHz chip), but I have a 256 MB GeForce 5500 and 1.5 GB of RAM. I further admit that my Soundblaster Live! card is again a little old and the newest drivers are dated 2 yrs ago, but I had no problem with sound. The problem I had was with the cursor lagging. Basically I moved the mouse or click on a task and then hoped the computer recognized the command. This was especially painful when trying to place buildings or roads. This was despite choosing the low quality options (16 bit color, no bloom, etc.). I will still buy the game because I played Caesar III for nearly 4 years (until I got the new Dell and WindowsXP and found it Caesar III didn't want to run). I just hope the programmers can resolve the resource issues (or can make the game compatible with NVidia 91.31). Is there anything I can do (short of running it in 800x600 mode) that can make the demo experience a little more enjoyable. I found it to play very much like CoTN, but I will have to play it some more to figure out the best way to place houses, industries, markets, etc.

[Gizza]

Seems, odd, I have a 7900GT 256mb, and athlon 4200+ dual core and on absolute best graphics runs fine even with a large city. Ive got scroll speed almost max. I dont even have the latest graphics drivers or anything.

Im thinking maybe it has something to do with the .NET framework. Im a .NET developer, meaning I have all the latest .NET frameworks and updates etc, so perhaps that is why mine is running fine while other people are obviously having a lot of problems.

Ive uploaded my dxdiag as a frame of reference.

[Gallifrey]

Seems, odd, I have a 7900GT 256mb, and athlon 4200+ dual core and on absolute best graphics runs fine even with a large city. Ive got scroll speed almost max. I dont even have the latest graphics drivers or anything.


If it really takes a computer of that magnitude to run a city builder strategy game, I've lost all hope in the gaming industry ;)

[Gizza]

If it really takes a computer of that magnitude to run a city builder strategy game, I've lost all hope in the gaming industry ;)
Well that is ony max graphics, im sure if u turning everything down and off it should run fine on systems quite a bit older.

[Gallifrey]

It doesn't though, that's the kicker. With everything turned down the absolute minimum, all features off, it still lags and interface commands fail to respond properly.
Sure, my computer isn't spectacular, but I can still play many fairly resource-intensive games with high to medium high settings with no performance hit at all. I realise all games are not made equal, but when I can play, for example, Call Of Duty 2 (a game with fairly hefty requirements) with nearly maximum settings and it runs flawlessly, I kind of wonder why I can't play Caesar IV properly with settings all bottomed-out.

I'm well aware I'm in need of an upgrade, but unfortunately that's just not in the budget at this time, or for the foreseeable future.

[Marc5]

My game freezes in February of first year. I can still build roads and buildings but the clock freezes on February and the plebs are like statues in the street?

[QUOTE=Erratus]If you pause using the 'p' key on the keyboard, the speed control buttons on the interface stop working, until you hit the 'p' key again.

I think this may be my problem...at least I hope. Now I want the work day to be over so I can try again.

[Keith]

The clicking problem has been around since CotN. You click on a button or item and nothing happens you double click or tripple click and it may or may not register. It can be annoying. I've gotten use to it though.

The game runs a much slower pace than I like on normal, so I've been running it with the speed set to the middle speed button on the control panel.

I used to play CotN with my ini file edited to 5x normal speed. It just like things a little quicker than they occur on normal speeds.

[candelarius]

This is my first post, so, don't hate me...

But, I'll also chime in here and say that the demo appears to be extraordinarily sluggish. I have a 3.0 gig processor, 1.5 gigs of RAM, and, an admittedly lower-end card, an ATI x300 I believe. But, this is the only game I have that requires me to run all the graphic settings at the lowest settings. I have Rome Total War, CivCity Rome, Dawn of War, and Sims2 all running at max or near max settings with no lag whatsoever. But, even on a blank map this demo runs really, really slow. It is hard just to click on the menu. The setting that seems to have the most impact is the shadow setting...maybe they can introduce a lower shadow setting without having to turn it off all the way?

And yes, I have all the latest drivers and most update to date version of DirectX.

I thought I would bring this to your attention. Otherwise, great game and I am looking forward to buying it (anyway!).

[Potatus]

I am experiencing very sluggish play also. I've read many posts and updated drivers but have had no luck. Help please.

[Keith]

I am experiencing very sluggish play also. I've read many posts and updated drivers but have had no luck. Help please.

You will probably have to reduce the video and sound settings in the game to get better performance from the demo. Use a lower screen resolution setting in the game like 1024x768 and try 16-bit instead of 32-bit color.

The SB Live! card and driver are old, but I know you cannot get newer drivers from SB.

Keep in mind the demo is not optimized code so you may not see a big difference.

[Nimlot]

Same here - extrem sluggish and laggy, unless I set the graphics to "best performance"

I never had any trouble with COTN on "best graphics"

[Markus44]

As Phill has said dial down your resolutions and refresh rates but remeber these are only GUIDELINES that may or may not work for you there is no one single setting that is going to Cure your display or performance issues you have to play with the settings to find what works on your machine. as an example the 1st 2 screenshots are at Phils suggested settings on My rig 1024x768 (32 bit) at 60 Hz the second two screenshots are at 1280x720 (32 bit) at 70 Hz Again remember the Demo is not optimized and part of the reason for the demo is to find out what works and what doesn't there is no way anyone can test the Millions of possable hardware/software combinations that exist!

[Gallifrey]

Sadly, adjusting my general resolution and frequency settings didn't have any effect whatsoever.
I can get decent performance if I'm zoomed right in to the closest possible vantage point, but that does not make for a playable game.

The most aggrivating thing for me is the lag in clicking to select a building area and in clicking to place the selected building. Between that and sluggish cursor response, actually placing a building is a monumentally frustrating experience. Makes my hand and wrist hurt just thinking about it! If the non-responsiveness in clicking can be fixed, that'd be great. I don't know if that's a problem related to my system configuration or is a problem in the game engine itself; I've seen people reference it who have no other problems, and have suggested it was present in CoTN as well (which I did not play).

[Manni]

Same here - extrem sluggish and laggy, unless I set the graphics to "best performance"
I never had any trouble with COTN on "best graphics"

Good machine there Nimlot!
Yours should really do the job!
Nice card with directX 9
The ATI-driver Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6626 you have installed is the ATI Catalyst 6.7 from last month, try the new Catalyst 6.8 (My Caesar-demo just runs perfect with it!)

I would recommend you giving a driver-cleaner a go before you install the new one.
For every driver-change I use driver-cleaner pro from http://www.drivercleaner.net/professional.php

Download the new driver
delete the old in software
reboot in safe mode
run Dri-Clea-Pro in safe mode
reboot and install new Catalyst.

Defragging C can`t do any harm either :)

[Nimlot]

Good machine there Nimlot!
Yours should really do the job!
Nice card with directX 9
The ATI-driver Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6626 you have installed is the ATI Catalyst 6.7 from last month, try the new Catalyst 6.8 (My Caesar-demo just runs perfect with it!)

I would recommend you giving a driver-cleaner a go before you install the new one.
For every driver-change I use driver-cleaner pro from http://www.drivercleaner.net/professional.php

Download the new driver
delete the old in software
reboot in safe mode
run Dri-Clea-Pro in safe mode
reboot and install new Catalyst.

Defragging C can`t do any harm either :)

You see, that is really kind of my point here.

I have fairly good hardware, the newest driver etc... and still the game cannot run perfectly :mad: I cannot belive how bad it must be for people with little older and smaller hardware.

This simply cannot be right - that I have to perform stunts like that to run a demo, d/l new software and perform stuff I don't feel safe doing.

It should be the responsibility of TM that the demo is playable - not the players really.

[Manni]

You see, that is really kind of my point here.
This simply cannot be right - that I have to perform stunts like that to run a demo
the newest driver newest but one!

These are no stunts Nimlot. Rather regular stuff what a pc-user should do.

If you take a read on ATI`s or Nvidia`s pages you will find instructions and rules of what you really should do while performing a driver-change, but most people don`t care or don`t read and smash the driver on top of the other.

As you know nowadays a driver has about 30 to 40 MB´s which is plenty.
"Just" uninstalling a driver does not get all the old stuff out and therfore could interfere with the new.
Regular defrag isn`t a stunt either, nor is the use of a registry-cleaner.

All this is "keeping pc in shape" as I see it, just the same you take care of your car or your house/flat.

[Nimlot]

newest but one!

These are no stunts Nimlot. Rather regular stuff what a pc-user should do.

If you take a read on ATI`s or Nvidia`s pages you will find instructions and rules of what you really should do while performing a driver-change, but most people don`t care or don`t read and smash the driver on top of the other.

As you know nowadays a driver has about 30 to 40 MB´s which is plenty.
"Just" uninstalling a driver does not get all the old stuff out and therfore could interfere with the new.
Regular defrag isn`t a stunt either, nor is the use of a registry-cleaner.

All this is "keeping pc in shape" as I see it, just the same you take care of your car or your house/flat.

Unfortunally consequences might be that I don't want to spend hard earned money on a game which cannot run on my computer - eventhough I have almost twice the power needed according to the min. system requirements.

So you see, it is not really MY loss, but the developers and the distributers loss eventually, if things are not running proberly.

[Manni]

I don't want to spend hard earned money on a game which cannot run on my computer

This demo and full game WILL run on your computer by the state of your hardware.

But it is your decision

In case you would feel safer in doing it step by step I am inviting you to write a PM to me and give your e-mail so I could lead you through the necessary things with screenshots a.s.o.

[Nimlot]

That's a very generous offer that I might take you up on ;)

[cookie12]

Whilst I am fascinated to read that the cognoscenti now run 'driver cleaners' in addition to registry cleaners and regular defrags & virus checks, we all know that those are things that we should do as 'good practice' to obtain optimum system performance.
Sadly, they are neither;

- Specific answers to the laggy performance problems of the demo
- Likely to result in a really significant increase in system performance, unless the user had already let their machine deteriorate into a really terrible state

Like others I suspect, I simply logged in here to make the point that I just don't see the demo as being up to the mark. Call me negative, but it just isn't. It has 'rushed to release' written all over it.:o
Worse, it suffers from that increasingly present problem of modern PC product, the 'let's release a beta/demo without a proper finish and let the public and the web do half the work for us' syndrome.

[candelarius]

Well, I don't care so much if their demo is a bit rushed...demos usually suck anyway, and, as far as demos go, I really think the Caesar IV demo is very good (except I can't turn shadows on without it chugging, but, 'meh').

But, my biggest concern is the "release FINISHED pc game to the public in a rushed state and then not provide any consumer support and tell them to upgrade their drivers if they have any problems syndrome". That's the biggest gripe I have with modern PC game manufacturing.

But, from what I have read here, the people at Tilted Mill seem to support their product, so, I'm hoping that the finished product will be better optimized for more card types and that, if there are any problems, they'll support their product with follow-up patches.