Tweaking for performance in Vista...

[mastermesh]

I'm needing to tweak my computer to try to squeeze more power in to Entropia Universe... Will the "Safe" column over at http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm allow EU to run ok? I've also read that turning off Aero and things like that can help too. Any other suggestions? Anyone tried the "safe" column over there? Shared Graphics Memory is a pain in the butt to mess with, but I'm hoping I can tweak it good enough to get at least half of the ram that the computer advertising says is in there going towards making the EU experience a little better. Any advice? Any suggestions on ways of testing things to see what you can tweak to get more performance? I sent a dx diag in a support ticket and MA is saying I've only got 75 mb dedicated ram going towards EU... but I don't know where they came up with that... is it in the dx diag text file somewhere? That thing looks like greek to me at first... but maybe there's something hidden in there that can help me figure all of this out?

The computer's got a lot more mb of shared graphics memory than that, or should... should actually have about 14 times that power if I'm reading the label on the computer right... ?

I suspect that other participants may be running in to these sort of issues too... CE2 uses a lot more power.. so what suggestions, tips, tricks do you know of to get more power without actually changing hardware?

I can play right now with medium settings on avatar and object quality, high setting on texture quality and with slider on texture quality all the way to the right... BUT... that only works around places that are lonely and desolate where few avatars are... If I try going somewhere where there's a lot of avatars, like swamp camp, or something, even in safe mode on everything I'm loosing connection to EU like every 15 seconds or so... Solo hunting, things seem ok in safe mode... but in a lot of places, I keep seeing that "This item is currently busy and can not be accessed" over and over and over and over again when I'm swapping between Faps and weapons...

so something ain't right...

and I know there's a lot more than 75 mb of memory here... I should have around 14 times that amount if I'm reading the labels right!... just got to figure out how to find it...

Also, I read something online today about some way to use a usb flash drive to give vista more power for this sort of thing, but don't know much about that?... does it work? How do you do it? Some new feature in Vista I think is what I read about, but I can't remember what it was called right now...

[mastermesh]

Tried it and the above helped... still kicked out at swamp camp but not as often... just when I got to the mission broker...

[Legion]

Black vipers site is very safe to use, i use it all the time when i set up a new comp But i dont think you will see that big of an impact though.

[mastermesh]

I finally figured out how to get in to bios to change the amount of shared graphics memory...

[Zane]

Originally Posted by mastermesh

I finally figured out how to get in to bios to change the amount of shared graphics memory...

Please please enlighten me... I am having god awful problems as of late. Getting kicked often in crowded areas.

[mastermesh]

you just need to figure out how to get in to bios. For different computers it's different... Usually f2 or esc key hit before the main logo for the computer comes up on rebooting... but sometimes it's f8 on some brands, and other numbers depending on the type of computer you have.

[Zane]

Originally Posted by mastermesh

you just need to figure out how to get in to bios. For different computers it's different... Usually f2 or esc key hit before the main logo for the computer comes up on rebooting... but sometimes it's f8 on some brands, and other numbers depending on the type of computer you have.

I'm familiar with how to get into the BIOS. Easy stuff, there. Where do you change that setting, though?

[mastermesh]

If the computer has shared graphics memory, there's probably some option in there somewhere that's a multiple choice question... usually it lets you switch between 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, etc. depending on how much ram there is available to dedicate.

Also... lose the fancy junk...

If you got vista, switch to Windows Classic Theme and Appearance. That alone will save you a lot of ram...

Then do the black viper thingy too... safe mode column works fine.

use windowed mode and task manager's performance tab to see how much cpu and ram is being blown by EU... if you are sitting at 100% cpu use all the time, you need to do something to fix the problem... either lower you graphics on everything else, upgrade hardware, or something... once you do your changes and things, another neat trick when you are in a crowded place is to have avatar go to fps mode and look at the ground. That lowers memory use a lot since render engine has a lot fewer pixels to put textures on.

[Zane]

Hmm good tips, thanks MM

[Legion]

Originally Posted by mastermesh

If the computer has shared graphics memory, there's probably some option in there somewhere that's a multiple choice question... usually it lets you switch between 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, etc. depending on how much ram there is available to dedicate.

Also... lose the fancy junk...

If you got vista, switch to Windows Classic Theme and Appearance. That alone will save you a lot of ram...

Then do the black viper thingy too... safe mode column works fine.

use windowed mode and task manager's performance tab to see how much cpu and ram is being blown by EU... if you are sitting at 100% cpu use all the time, you need to do something to fix the problem... either lower you graphics on everything else, upgrade hardware, or something... once you do your changes and things, another neat trick when you are in a crowded place is to have avatar go to fps mode and look at the ground. That lowers memory use a lot since render engine has a lot fewer pixels to put textures on.

actually swithcing to windows classic dont do much, in ram that is. Ofcourse it depends on how much ram you have but if you have 2 gigs it's like taking a piss in the ocean the amount it saves. And also if the cpu is at 100% it's not the gfx the gfx is on the gpu not the cpu. So if the cpu is at 100% almost all the time it's something else.