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Why is my sim speed so low?

By PonderousWu on September 24, 2009 7:05:24 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

PonderousWu

Join Date 09/2008
+1

I have a good graphics card, fast internet, 2 GB of RAM, ad service pack 3.

So why is it that when ever i play a game players always become mad at me for having a low sim speed?

How can i fix this?

Please help me, i would very much like to play this game without being badgered!

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Reply #1
Bolange
Join Date 09/2006
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September 24, 2009 8:05:57 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Oddly enough, try lowering some of your sound settings.

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Reply #2
PonderousWu
Join Date 09/2008
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September 24, 2009 8:55:45 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

OMG, it worked!

Thanks so much,

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Reply #3
tperge
Join Date 05/2009
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September 26, 2009 6:32:27 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Sim speed has more to do with the CPU than anything.  The sound setting for some reason also seem to cause issues as you have found. 

 

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Reply #4
Phirochu
Join Date 04/2009
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September 29, 2009 1:06:09 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Because the CPU deals with sound unless you have a discrete sound card - onboard sound goes through the CPU.

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Reply #5
Der_Donnervogel
Join Date 12/2008
+2
September 29, 2009 9:27:22 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

That with the onboard sound is true but that is no issue for a modern CPU. I never had a PC with a dedicated sound card and even the older ones hat enough CPU power for that. There must be a bug within Demigod that causes this problem at certain systems. AFAIR there were similar issiues also at Supreme Commander on certain systems.

I had the opportunity to test this problem with Demigod myself when I wanted to play Demigod at my laptop once. The frame rate was so low the game was unplayable. First I thought that the CPU was too slow (Core Duo with 1.66 GHz) but as I was able to play Supreme Commander with it I gave it a 2nd try. Finally I found out that the FPS roughly double (measured with FRAPS) when I turn off the sound. Only lowering the sound effects had no effect only swiching sound completely off worked. With no sound the game can be played at the laptop while with sound it is unplayable slow. I also could see this problem at a PC of a friend. His Athlon X2 4600+ computer had the same issues with the sound. Even if we assume that the sound eat up 25% of the CPU (which is problably too high) there would be enough CPU power remaining for the game. I think there is some bug in the game or the used sound system that leads in combination with the "right" sound drivers to that kind of behaviour.

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Reply #6
OMG_Jongalt26
Join Date 05/2009
+16
September 29, 2009 9:45:55 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

I'm not convinced that Demigod offloads the sound from the processor if you have a discreet sound card.  Before I upgraded my system I was running on a 4800 x2 with windows XP and a creative X-Fi Platinum card.  Please keep in mind that the former system ran everything but Crysis (and demigod) at high settings.  Demigod was crippled by the processor though.  I noticed a significant jump in frame rates when turning the sound settings down and/or using the /nosound switch.  This to me means that the sound was mostly proc based.  Please note that I may be mistaken and that this is just my experience.

Luckily, after my upgrades, i can run everything on high again with simspeeds not dropping below 6 in 5v5.

j

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Reply #7
mrlarone
Join Date 09/2007
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September 29, 2009 9:48:13 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

i've recently discovered i can't play zigarat as my sim drops out as soon as one team get's priests.

mentioning this as maybe the y're rendering sound for each individual unit that's on the map??

when i next play i'll try the audio tricks and let you know.

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Reply #8
Der_Donnervogel
Join Date 12/2008
+2
September 29, 2009 1:09:03 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

As this issue seems interesting I have made some quick tests. It seems that the sound has a notable impact on the performance of the game. I made all tests at Mandala and made all slots beside mine full with normal AI. First I have made some test with my old Athlon 3400+ with a 6600 GT and 2 GB of ram.  The screen resolution was 1024*768 and vsync was off. With everything at low details and nosound the games frame rates are somewhere between 18 and 25 FPS.  If I enable sound then they drop to about 8 FPS to 18 FPS. The sound is even worse than if I set the details (without sound) to medium where the frame rates not drop so low. The quality of the sound on the other hand seems not to matter that much. It gives a few extra FPS but not much. Even the sim speed was sometimes at -1 right from the beginning if sound was enabled. Therefore I also made a test with my current system (Core 2 Quad 2.33 GHz, 4 GB ram, 9600 GT) at 1440*900 everything at high and 2x Antialiasing but vscync off. With sound the FPS were somewhere between 30 FPS and 55 FPS. When I disabled sound the FPS were hardly below 50 FPS and never fell lower than 40 FPS but went up to 60 FPS sometimes. Although I switched off vsync there seemed to be some limit at 60 FPS otherwise the FPS would probably be even higher. This results are about the same I had at my laptop where nosound roughly doubled the FPS.

So I would say switching off the sound gives about 25% to 50% more performance for the game. I have no idea what GPG is doing but I have the strong feeling that they have messed up something with the sound. As Demigod does not use all of the 4 cores of my CPU the sound should not have that impact at the speed of the game. At least not at the Quad Core.

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Reply #9
mrlarone
Join Date 09/2007
+11
September 30, 2009 5:41:22 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

hmm, interesting results. hope they see this and re-render the soundtrack in glorious 8-bit

it's not about number of cores unfortunately.

cores only help if a program has beed designed to use multiple threads. this isn't typically done as there's only a few appliactions where it's obvious and easy to multi-thread the program (video encryption being one).

multi cores also help running multiple programs as each can be assigned it's own core (or in dual core, one can focus on the program in use and the other can keep the background processess running).

so it typically still comes down to speed.

you 've got 2.33ghz, mines 2.5ghz, a quick look at the spec the min is 2.4ghz and recomended is 3ghz.

will they optimise the sound? who knows. but i'd pester them as SD typically likes things to run on as low spec as possible and if sounds cocking things up like this hopefully it's a relatively minor fix. of courese this would be down to GPG to fix, so...

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