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RA2/YR hd resolution problem (lag)


Xcom

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when I play the game in HD (changed .ini game file ) he gets lag when moving the mouse over the map and also when many objects are moving on the screen. In other recent games this problem does not occur. Is there any fix for this problem? some patch?

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The higher resolution can cause the problem too. Also it increases load times to get an higher resolution,and i dont want to get an SSD to play red alert 2 in 1920x1080!

 

Also on recent nvidia cards and some other ones,you have to turn video back buffer off,it reduces frames and it makes the game less smooth. That contributes to the problem and also i have that problem...  :ranting:

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The higher resolution can cause the problem too.

Too? That's exactly what I said :huh:

 

i dont want to get an SSD to play red alert 2 in 1920x1080!

Um. Then, just don't play in 1920x1080 :dry:

 

Besides, an SSD won't change the game's internal limitations. That's not disk access slowing it down.

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Hell, people played on 640 x 480! In 2000. But it's 2015. I used to play on 1920 x 1200 back in 2009.  :]

 

If I was playing today, I'd probably be playing on 2560 x something.  :)

 

I don't quite see the problem, though. Every computer built since 2012 can handle the modest 1920 x 1080 at 59 FPS while recording to a H.263 stream at the same time.

 

 

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when I play the game in HD (changed .ini game file ) he gets lag when moving the mouse over the map and also when many objects are moving on the screen. In other recent games this problem does not occur. Is there any fix for this problem? some patch?

The 'lag' with moving the mouse over the map could genuinely be lag, but it could also be an illusion which happens when changing to a larger screen resolution; your mouse cursor basically has more screen to move around in. The same goes for scrolling/panning; in smaller resolutions, scrolling looks faster. Try adjusting your mouse speed settings in windows.

 

Things you can try to minimize lag:

-If your graphics card allows for 3D settings, turn them off for RA2/YR (whichever options you can anyway) and set whatever 3D options you can to 'performance'.

-Run RA2/YR in 16bit color

-Make sure that it's not the other players that are lagging

-Don't download anything while playing

-As mentioned above, lower your screen resolution

 

What are your computer's specifications?

 

NOTE: You still need a fairly decent graphics card to run RA2/YR in 1920x1080 when there are a lot of objects on the screen without lagging.

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when I play the game in HD (changed .ini game file ) he gets lag when moving the mouse over the map and also when many objects are moving on the screen. In other recent games this problem does not occur. Is there any fix for this problem? some patch?

Are you using some version of TS-DDRAW by any chance? It has a known issue of lagging when moving mouse.

Any other ddraw.dll overwrite could cause that too tho

 

You can also try enabling Video Backbuffer or disabling it if its enabled, iirc there was a option in the current clients settings window else open ra2md.ini set VideoBackBuffer=Yes or No if its already on.

 

You can also try AllowVRAMSidebar=Yes, it forces the game to load the sidebar in GPU memory, might change something if for some reason sidebar drawing is impacting the cursor drawing.

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What are your computer's specifications?

This, it all boils down to simple mathemagics. See the table I've attached, compare it to the year your computer was built and adjust your resolution accordingly.

 

The table holds true for your usual run-of-the-mill PC.

 

 

NOTE: You still need a fairly decent graphics card to run RA2/YR in 1920x1080 when there are a lot of objects on the screen without lagging.

That's wrong! You don't need a graphics card to play RA2, at all.

ra2_perf.png.996b7b0fb8868453917239ebe23ab571.png

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Well you know what I mean; a decent graphics processor / gpu :D

No! Because of DirectDraw, RA2/YR is completely CPU bound and has no business to do with your GPU, at all.

 

 

Is that table based on tests done on specific games or just rough estimates?

I just pulled it out of my ass, based on Moore's law. I also want a mention to my name wherever the table is used.

 

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Well you know what I mean; a decent graphics processor / gpu :D

No! Because of DirectDraw, RA2/YR is completely CPU bound and has no business to do with your GPU, at all.

 

Is that table based on tests done on specific games or just rough estimates?

I just pulled it out of my ass, based on Moore's law. I also want a mention to my name wherever the table is used.

Ah ok. Smart ass!

 

Did the XWIS version use DirectDraw? Because when I used to turn off my NVidia's 3D settings and set my desktop colors to 16bit, there was a noticeable difference, so I've just been doing the same with the CnCNet version.

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Well you know what I mean; a decent graphics processor / gpu :D

No! Because of DirectDraw, RA2/YR is completely CPU bound and has no business to do with your GPU, at all.

 

Is that table based on tests done on specific games or just rough estimates?

I just pulled it out of my ass, based on Moore's law. I also want a mention to my name wherever the table is used.

Ah ok. Smart ass!

 

Did the XWIS version use DirectDraw? Because when I used to turn off my NVidia's 3D settings and set my desktop colors to 16bit, there was a noticeable difference, so I've just been doing the same with the CnCNet version.

 

...

DirectDraw is the renderer used in the game it can't be just ''not used''....

 

DirectDraw isn't CPU bound, in fact DirectDraw runs by default in hardware accelerated mode, which use special features on the GPU itself, heck RA1 system requirements state that a "1MB Local BUS video card with MS DirectDraw compatibility." is required.

 

The whole reason why we are having issues with lag and all sorts of shit is cause the features are being disabled in drivers, to some extent removed by Microsoft from the OS, and, i guess, maybe even removed from actual GPUs by now, to make room for new tech, not that the GPU makers will tell you that.

 

DirectDraw today runs, i guess you can call it, in a sort of hybrid of hardware acceleration and software emulation mode, cause everyone keeps breaking it carelessly so they can get rid of it, even in software emulation the GPU is used to minimal some extent, if it wasn't and would run in a complete true emulation mode i doubt anything would be playable, well maybe on i5 it would today...

 

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Whilst I agree with tomsons26. Let's clarify for fir3w0rx what "software emulation mode" or "software mode" means: it means that the CPU takes care of it rather than any specialized hardware (sound, graphics, storage) accelerator.

 

It does in fact state "2 MB of Video RAM" and "16 bit color" to be required but "3D Hardware acceleration" is stated to be completely optional. That's because RA2 is, in fact, 2D, the buildings are somewhat pseudo-3D. For multiplayer (3 to 8 players), there's no changes in the required Video RAM but the CPU and RAM requirements are almost doubled!

 

I will not argue the fact that support for DirectDraw hardware acceleration has existed in the past and perhaps it still does. Though the whole idea of todays GPUs is to accelerate 3D rendering.

 

So, I think it's more than just safe to say, that RA2 (at least nowadays) is 100 % CPU bound, from my experience anyway.

 

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Whilst I agree with tomsons26. Let's clarify for fir3w0rx what "software emulation mode" or "software mode" means: it means that the CPU takes care of it rather than any specialized hardware (sound, graphics, storage) accelerator.

There are features the software mode can't do and since Microsoft has no intent to continue DirectDraw whatsoever heck in Windows NSA (10) DirectDraw and DirectInput are optional features that can only be installed if the user chooses to.

 

It does in fact state "2 MB of Video RAM" and "16 bit color" to be required but "3D Hardware acceleration" is stated to be completely optional. That's because RA2 is, in fact, 2D, the buildings are somewhat pseudo-3D.

Everything but voxels and terrain height maps(which info for is specified in the terrain sprite files) 2D sprites...

 

For multiplayer (3 to 8 players), there's no changes in the required Video RAM but the CPU and RAM requirements are almost doubled!

That has nothing to do with graphics, any single player map has more stuff on it to render then any MP map with a load of players, lets face it the MP maps are really plain and rather boring..

 

I will not argue the fact that support for DirectDraw hardware acceleration has existed in the past and perhaps it still does. Though the whole idea of todays GPUs is to accelerate 3D rendering.

 

So, I think it's more than just safe to say, that RA2 (at least nowadays) is 100 % CPU bound, from my experience anyway.

Well nope, if it was Rampastring wouldn't have to contact Nvidia every time a new driver completely breaks all games...

For now its still there, DDRAW likely will only go away completely once MS decides to do it.

 

heh for fun i just disabled DirectDraw acceleration, Red Alert doesn't start "Error -Unable to allocate primary video buffer - aborting" as for YR, it will run but won't display anything but a black screen

hmm what's so special used by RA... *goes to poke Hyper

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The 'lag' with moving the mouse over the map could genuinely be lag, but it could also be an illusion which happens when changing to a larger screen resolution; your mouse cursor basically has more screen to move around in. The same goes for scrolling/panning; in smaller resolutions, scrolling looks faster.

This. I've had someone complain on the EA tech support boards that his game was "choppy" and "slow", and to demonstrate this, he linked to two YT videos, one which he deemed as running normal, the other as running slow.

 

I came to the conclusion that the game ran equally fluid in both videos. The only difference was the game resolution. Because, obviously, if your resolution is higher, it'll take a tank longer to traverse the screen, thus creating an illusion of slowness.

 

There's a reason the game speed slider in C&C1 is in the middle by default, which is way too slow in C&C95; in DOS C&C, you only see 1/4th of that, which means that your reaction speed slows dramatically. You actually need that slower speed on 320x200.

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Well nope, if it was Rampastring wouldn't have to contact Nvidia every time a new driver completely breaks all games...

Don't forget us AMD users please :)

 

I wonder if any of this helped the op's (Xcom) lag problem :D It's only his first post ever, maybe he's not used to this forum and lost his page :D

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So, I think it's more than just safe to say, that RA2 (at least nowadays) is 100 % CPU bound, from my experience anyway.

Well nope, if it was Rampastring wouldn't have to contact Nvidia every time a new driver completely breaks all games...

While I know of Nvidia's driver issues when it comes to DirectDraw, I haven't contacted them once - I doubt they'd listen to me considering that I have a AMD Radeon HD 7850 :P

 

Aside from compatibility issues, RA2 indeed only utilizes your CPU. I don't exactly know why the game runs slowly on some graphics cards and operating systems (Windows 8 and 10, or 7 with Nvidia graphics), but when the graphics incompatibility issues are fixed (usually with a compatibility fix or TS-DDRAW), the speed the game runs at relies purely on your CPU speed. That's how it is in my experience.

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when I play the game in HD (changed .ini game file ) he gets lag when moving the mouse over the map and also when many objects are moving on the screen. In other recent games this problem does not occur. Is there any fix for this problem? some patch?

Are you using some version of TS-DDRAW by any chance? It has a known issue of lagging when moving mouse.

Any other ddraw.dll overwrite could cause that too tho

 

You can also try enabling Video Backbuffer or disabling it if its enabled, iirc there was a option in the current clients settings window else open ra2md.ini set VideoBackBuffer=Yes or No if its already on.

 

You can also try AllowVRAMSidebar=Yes, it forces the game to load the sidebar in GPU memory, might change something if for some reason sidebar drawing is impacting the cursor drawing.

AllowVRAMSidebar=Yes

Where is this documented and is there documentation of all INI switches available for C&C: RA2/YR? Thx!

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