Bizarre speed problems
by Mark Green · in Torque Game Builder · 08/13/2005 (4:13 pm) · 12 replies
After trying T2D on a newer machine, I have found a strange problem: it alternates between running incredibly fast (such that the space shooter demo is unplayable) and brief patches of running at a fast-but-appropriate speed. I knew the newer box was using SLi - could this be screwing up the frame rate sync in the engine?
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#2
i bet it has to do with the runtime priority of T2D, so if the window is in-focus it runs at full speed. but if I seletect something else it chugs down.
what i'm saying isnt a 'solution' to the issue, just the reason why it seems to happen, in my case at least.
-J
08/13/2005 (7:16 pm)
I experience the same thing when running in a debugger, or when i dont have the window in-focus.i bet it has to do with the runtime priority of T2D, so if the window is in-focus it runs at full speed. but if I seletect something else it chugs down.
what i'm saying isnt a 'solution' to the issue, just the reason why it seems to happen, in my case at least.
-J
#3
However, I just tried it again and it worked ok...
08/14/2005 (4:22 pm)
Just to clarify - the problem is not that the game slows down when out of focus. The problem is that it's unplayably fast when IN focus.However, I just tried it again and it worked ok...
#4
www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=35725
Everything from the Demos, to the Particle Editor, to the Schedule() and setLinearVelocityx() functions will run crazy fast. I have found that if I reboot my machine then everything will function at normal speeds again for a time. Eventually the engine will somehow speed up to an incredible rate again, and the only thing I can seem to do to fix it is to reboot.
I have updated all of my drivers to the latest I could find, hoping it would help, but still no luck. It really doesn't prevent me from using the engine, because I can always reboot to fix it, but it is a bit of an annoyance, and I can't seem to figure out what is causing it. Maybe a hardware issue?
10/31/2005 (4:14 pm)
Hi Mark, are you still having this same problem? I'm having a very similar issue, and I reported it in another forum before I realized what it was that was going on. I am not running SLI however.www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=35725
Everything from the Demos, to the Particle Editor, to the Schedule() and setLinearVelocityx() functions will run crazy fast. I have found that if I reboot my machine then everything will function at normal speeds again for a time. Eventually the engine will somehow speed up to an incredible rate again, and the only thing I can seem to do to fix it is to reboot.
I have updated all of my drivers to the latest I could find, hoping it would help, but still no luck. It really doesn't prevent me from using the engine, because I can always reboot to fix it, but it is a bit of an annoyance, and I can't seem to figure out what is causing it. Maybe a hardware issue?
#5
I had a similar problem with Unreal Tournament a while ago on my Notebook.
It turned out that Windows' Energy Options somehow can screw up some timing functions. (Because the processor is throttled to save energy)
Try to set the "energy scheme" in "energy options" to "Desktop" or "Always On".
This fixed the problem for me.
11/01/2005 (11:45 am)
Hi,I had a similar problem with Unreal Tournament a while ago on my Notebook.
It turned out that Windows' Energy Options somehow can screw up some timing functions. (Because the processor is throttled to save energy)
Try to set the "energy scheme" in "energy options" to "Desktop" or "Always On".
This fixed the problem for me.
#6
I think that the issue may actually be with the Geforce 7800 GTX cards, because it seems like they don't run at a consistant clock speed. They speed up during 3D operations, and slow down during normal windows operations.
The default clock for 2D operations is 275 Mhz and the default clock for 3D operations is 430 Mhz. There is a utility that comes with the card called Winfox, that allows you to change the clock speed of the graphics card. I have never used this utility because I would prefer to use the stock card speeds and I am not interested in overclocking. I did however try this utility out to set it to the same clock speed for both 2D and 3D applications to see if that would have any effect, but again it did not help.
11/04/2005 (7:48 pm)
I tried changing the energy scheme to what you suggested Michael, even disabling power management, but still no luck. It will still eventually go out of control. I think that the issue may actually be with the Geforce 7800 GTX cards, because it seems like they don't run at a consistant clock speed. They speed up during 3D operations, and slow down during normal windows operations.
The default clock for 2D operations is 275 Mhz and the default clock for 3D operations is 430 Mhz. There is a utility that comes with the card called Winfox, that allows you to change the clock speed of the graphics card. I have never used this utility because I would prefer to use the stock card speeds and I am not interested in overclocking. I did however try this utility out to set it to the same clock speed for both 2D and 3D applications to see if that would have any effect, but again it did not help.
#7
Although I don't know the least reason why this should influence the physics because the GPU has nothing to do with it at all.
What kind of processor do you have? Possibly its some kind of P4 HT (there are some known HT issues, even Sims 2 suffers of them) or DualCore problem.
11/05/2005 (2:27 am)
To disable this speeding up/down, you could deactivate the D.O.T. ... (dynamic overclocking technology) which takes care of this energy settings.Although I don't know the least reason why this should influence the physics because the GPU has nothing to do with it at all.
What kind of processor do you have? Possibly its some kind of P4 HT (there are some known HT issues, even Sims 2 suffers of them) or DualCore problem.
#8
I bet that maybe it is related to the processor. I have an AMD Athlon 64 DualCore. Do you know any workarounds for this? Someone else also mentioned that it might be a timing issue with my system memory so I am checking in to that as well. I keep looking for solutions online and appreciate your help.
11/07/2005 (2:52 pm)
Thank you for your suggestions Marc. I bet that maybe it is related to the processor. I have an AMD Athlon 64 DualCore. Do you know any workarounds for this? Someone else also mentioned that it might be a timing issue with my system memory so I am checking in to that as well. I keep looking for solutions online and appreciate your help.
#9
If anyone else is running a Dualcore system and seeing a similar issue try the drivers here from AMD and see if that helps you. It helped me.
www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_13118,00.html
Here is another interesting page with Microsoft talking about a potential hotfix though you have to contact them to get it. I didn't end up using this, but thought that any with dual core systems or even Intel HT systems might be interested to read.
support.microsoft.com/?id=896256
11/07/2005 (8:45 pm)
I finally got the speed issues taken care of. When you suggested that it might be the processor Marc, I did some research on that and found out that AMD has a Dual Core processor driver for Windows XP. As soon as I downloaded and installed that it fixed all the issues I was seeing.If anyone else is running a Dualcore system and seeing a similar issue try the drivers here from AMD and see if that helps you. It helped me.
www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_13118,00.html
Here is another interesting page with Microsoft talking about a potential hotfix though you have to contact them to get it. I didn't end up using this, but thought that any with dual core systems or even Intel HT systems might be interested to read.
support.microsoft.com/?id=896256
#10
04/06/2006 (12:16 pm)
I have a dual core amd64 as well, the fix posted by Faron doesnt work for me.
#11
04/06/2006 (5:07 pm)
Did you do the Microsoft hotfix as well? I never needed to do that, but if the AMD fix didn't help you, you might want to try the one from MS.
#12
The problem with dualcore is caused by not correct working speed stepping issues (or better notification of the actual value) that results in wrong calculations (I don't know the full inner reason. Just know it as I'm a gamer and when AMD X2 came up it was a common problem). The AMD drivers should fix that for AMD, the MS hotfix for Intel HT and dualcore processors ...
If it isn't that, then I have idea what might causing it unless you have some stepping settings that might interfer with it (or bios settings that have similar results)
04/07/2006 (11:34 am)
John: Did you switch from Single core to multicore in your system? Perhaps without reinstalling WinXP? If so this might be a reason as well, as it does not handle that correctly. In such cases a Windows reinstallation would be needed.The problem with dualcore is caused by not correct working speed stepping issues (or better notification of the actual value) that results in wrong calculations (I don't know the full inner reason. Just know it as I'm a gamer and when AMD X2 came up it was a common problem). The AMD drivers should fix that for AMD, the MS hotfix for Intel HT and dualcore processors ...
If it isn't that, then I have idea what might causing it unless you have some stepping settings that might interfer with it (or bios settings that have similar results)
Torque 3D Owner Mark Green
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