baeuchlein on 15/5/2008 at 23:54

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It may be very difficult to tell you what you can do to play these new missions, for various reasons.

For example, you did not tell us which missions you cannot play, but it might give at least the mission authors some clue. They probably know whether their missions have some high hardware requirements or not. Sometimes, missions which are difficult to play on fairly modern computers should not bother these computers, but some bug interferes with gameplay. One somewhat older example is Right up there in the Mountains, which had some places where the frames per second (fps) count went very low. The appropriate forum threads suggested that this is a bug the author never found. And there are some newer FM's (e.g., Bad Debts) which suddenly and without any apparent reason become slide-shows (meaning: fps count drops dramatically, the game lags enormously) on two of my computers. These use older AMD processors with speeds of 850 and 900 MHz, and although these could be a bit low for some missions, I would not expect the missions to play smoothly at first and then bog down drastically, and
without any reason I can recognize.

Another problem is that if your computer is really too slow for a mission, it's not always the graphics card which causes this. In my above example, both processors have almost the same speed, but one of the computers has an ancient ATI graphics card from 2001, while the other is using a fairly recent Radeon 9250 card. Not exactly number one on the graphics cards hitparade, but should be a lot faster than the older card. Yet, both computers sometimes have problems with a mission, indicating it's not the graphics card which is too slow here.

Thus, you should tell us what processor you use. Maybe even telling us what operating system is used and which sound card or onboard sound chip you use could be important.

Your Radeon 9200LE is certainly not the fastest ATI card alive, but should be enough for a lot of missions. After all, the Dark Engine was programmed more than eight years ago, when even my ancient ATI Xpert 2000 pro had not been developed.

nickie on 16/5/2008 at 10:16

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Thanks baeuchlien - I understood every word of that. :) What I can and can't play seems arbitrary - but probably isn't. Rocksbourg 3 and a pre-beta test = choppy. Rocksbourg not really playable but the other one was. 7 Sisters fine. Lord Alan's Factory and the Chain Project = walking through glue. Totally unplayable. Other fms Garrett seems to be on speed. That's a recent innovation - last few months.

Biker - actually I think it's worse than that - it's an LE SEC which doesn't even seem to exist! Though I did read that an LE was a dumbed down version of the 9200. Mind you the person who put this together was very dodgy indeed. The other puzzle is that the report and hardware manager show 2 cards but I'm looking at it now and there's definitely only one. I've been wanting/going to get a new card for ages - but I don't have a lot of dosh and I don't understand the lingo so I've put it off. Just so disappointed I can't play Rocksbourg 3. Specs:

Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
Internet Explorer 6.0.2900.2180
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0)
Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Celeron 4A, 2633 MHz (26 x 101)
Motherboard Name Gigabyte GA-8S650GXM (3 PCI, 1 AGP, 2 DIMM, Audio, Video)
Motherboard Chipset SiS 650GX
System Memory 512 MB (DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award Modular (09/25/03)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM2)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter RADEON 9200 LE Family (Microsoft Corporation) (128 MB)
Video Adapter RADEON 9200 LE SEC Family (Microsoft Corporation) (128 MB)
3D Accelerator ATI Radeon 9200 (RV280)
Monitor Plug and Play Monitor [NoDB] (14081270)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter SiS 7012 Audio Device

Storage:
IDE Controller SiS PCI IDE Controller
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive Nikimi (19 GB, IDE)
Disk Drive ST360020A (60 GB, 5400 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Optical Drive LITE-ON DVDRW LDW-411S (DVD+RW:4x/4x, DVD-RW:4x/2x, DVD-ROM:12x, CD-RW:40x/24x/40x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)

SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions:
C: (FAT32) 19459 MB (3482 MB free)
E: (NTFS) 57231 MB (35308 MB free)

Think that's the main info. Really grateful if you can tell me exactly what I need to do.

nickie on 16/5/2008 at 14:16

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OK, I understand about the card. At the moment the budget is £0.00. :) Next week, possibly £40 - £60. With eveything else I probably couldn't justify more.

The 60gb died so was slaved to the Nikimi 19gb which came from bankrupt stock that somehow or other we were left having to get rid of. Some of it was useless some of it worked. But it didn't cost me anything which was a bonus and really was just using it so I could see the other drive. Any other suggestions on this side of things?

Appreciate the time biker - thank you.

nickie on 16/5/2008 at 17:06

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biker - thank you so much for your help - really appreciate the effort and time in giving me specifics - makes so much difference to me actually being able to have a 'name' rather than the usual meandering through sites wondering what on earth I'm looking at.

I assume I'll also be able to install Doom 3 properly so I can play Thief's Den?

PM on its way. You're a star.

nickie on 16/5/2008 at 21:19

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As I said - you're a star. :D

And thank you!

PS What the hell is Crysis? Is it something I ought to know about?

Do you remember what I said about understanding the lingo? Oh bum! 3 weeks of research before I even know what you're talking about with DDfix. :laff:

But you won't defeat me Sir - I'll get there eventually!! :D

Yes I know I know about DDFix - just hope when I get to download and do the business that I'll understand what it's all about - otherwise I'll be knocking on your door again. Just so you know. OK?