crap, not again...!

Goodbye2U · Post by **Goodbye2U** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 2:35 am

My computer does this with BZFlag and other 3D games.

When I boot up BZFlag, it goes fine for a few minutes.
Then it slows down to under 10FPS for about a minute or so.
Then it returns to normal, only to repeat the performance.

THIS IS DRIVING ME NUTS!!!
Ive tried clearing internet files, closing unneeded programs, but nothing seems
to work!
PLEASE HELP BEFORE THIS DRIVES ME AND EVERYONE ELSE IM PLAYING WITH CRAZY!!

Longhair · Post by **Longhair** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 2:41 am

Right then.

First, no caps.

Second, it always helps if you tell us what Operating System, video card, bzflag version, etc...

I'm going to take a wild guess that you need to install the accelerated drivers from the company who made your video card.

Goodbye2U · Post by **Goodbye2U** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 3:08 am

I should've known.

windows XP
ati radeon xpress200
BZFlag2.0.8

sorry about so much caps, but it's that annoying.

OFF TOPIC: no wonder people don't like Windows, just look at the XP as a smiley

EDIT: I can't find where or how to reinstall the drivers

Longhair · Post by **Longhair** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 4:25 pm

Heh, did a very quick google search for xpress200 3d driver, and came up with a whole bunch of Linux solutions... wish my old ati GPU was supported.

Usually, you would go to the ati website and download the appropriate driver for XP. You may want to check around a little bit, since the xpress 200 is an onboard GPU. There might be a different driver. (probably not, but paranoia can be a good thing)

One thing about onboard GPUs: they generally stink compared to separate PCIexpress or AGP cards, although things have gotten better in recent years. Anyway, you should be able to play bzflag on this card.

Good luck.

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 4:36 pm

see what else is running on the system. some other process is probably taking all of your CPU. if it starts fine, it's not the drivers. But it is not a bad idea to make sure you have current drivers from ATI ( www.ati.com ).

Goodbye2U · Post by **Goodbye2U** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 7:02 pm

JeffM2501 wrote: some other process is probably taking all of your CPU.

yes, there is, the "System Idle Process". Im sure I should leave it alone

Looking around, there has been no such problems related to the graphics card of
what I have been experiencing(or enduring).
Ill try fiddling with other questionable processes and see if it works.

Think_Different · Post by **Think_Different** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 8:31 pm

System Idle Process is how much of the CPU is NOT being used. Its idleing.

Goodbye2U · Post by **Goodbye2U** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 3:19 am

Think Different
I thought so.

turns out, I closed everything that I'm sure I don't need and it's still buggy.

mistake · Post by **mistake** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 3:10 pm

I had a very similar problem..the computer would heat up, and when it did, it would put the processor into half speed, giving me very low fps.

If it is a notebook, one thing that can help is to elevate it a bit to have more space between the table and the computer for more cooling. For any other computer, make sure the ventilators all work and that the ventilator openings are all clear.

If that still didn't work, try using the power save option in BZFlag options menu. This will result in your CPU getting a bit of rest every frame and it will not heat up that much.

If that works, try to increase the value fpsLimit in your config file and find a setting that gives you good FPS but doesn't heat up your CPU to much.