Game slows down

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MarcA
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Game slows down

Post by MarcA »

When I start up WitE it is quick and responsive. However, after about half an hour it has slowed down to a crawl and is almost unplayable. I then usually have to reboot to get the speed back up.

I have recently extended my memory to 2 GB which should be enough.

My system specs are

Windows XP Home
Directx 9.0c
AMD Athlon 3200+ 64 bit processor (2.01 GHz speed)
2 GB of RAM
A FX5200 Video card with 128 MB of RAM
16 bit sound card
I have the latest video and sound card drivers

Apart from my video card being light on RAM, though still meeting minimum requirements, the rest of my specs are recommended

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Gandalf
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RE: Game slows down

Post by Gandalf »

Next time it slows down, press <Ctrl><Alt><Delete>... a box should pop up... use the menu links to see your actual memory resource usage remaining as opposed to how much you start with "free". It could be that you don't have as much freed up unused memory as you might think...OR... WITE might have a memory leak issue requiring occasional save/exit to desktop/reload. In rare cases a reboot might even be necessary.
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Helpless
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RE: Game slows down

Post by Helpless »

I've seen it once on my PC, but it happened when my PC was running more than a week without reboot. I was not able to replicate it after reboot.

Does it slow down each time you run it over 0:30 min? What game version you are running?
Pavel Zagzin
WITE/WITW/WITE-2 Development
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MarcA
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RE: Game slows down

Post by MarcA »

Hi Helpless

I have had this problem in all versions; as released, 1.01 beta 1 and I am currently using v1.02 beta 1.

It happens every time

I have included some shots of my task manager. I am no expert but if I am reading it correctly it is showing I have 2 GB of RAM and 600 MB free.

Regards

Marc



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MarcA
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RE: Game slows down

Post by MarcA »

P.s. I think it slows down faster if I am playing a larger scenario. I haven't played anything larger than Road to Lenningrad so far
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NWT065
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RE: Game slows down

Post by NWT065 »

I've noticed a marked slowdown on my machine when I have "Attached Units" selected for my soft factors. No other soft factors seem to matter.
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Erik Rutins
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RE: Game slows down

Post by Erik Rutins »

Hi Mantill,

Please turn off all other background programs after a clean reboot and see if this continues to happen.

Regards,

- Erik
Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC


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For official support, please use our Help Desk: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/

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Helpless
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RE: Game slows down

Post by Helpless »

Hm.. you have huge amount of page faults. Page fault means that physical memory can not be accessed (no available) and virtual memory (disk) is used instead. No wonder it runs very slow.

Does it appear that high when you start the game? If not, can you track when the page faults start growing?

I have Windows XP laptop with 2G RAM, but never seen such memory anomalies.
Pavel Zagzin
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MarcA
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RE: Game slows down

Post by MarcA »

ORIGINAL: Helpless

Hm.. you have huge amount of page faults. Page fault means that physical memory can not be accessed (no available) and virtual memory (disk) is used instead. No wonder it runs very slow.

Does it appear that high when you start the game? If not, can you track when the page faults start growing?

I have Windows XP laptop with 2G RAM, but never seen such memory anomalies.

When I open the game it is on 520K used vs 275 Page faults

When I load Road to Leningrad, I am on turn 9, it jumps to 588K used vs 348 page faults

First time I scroll around it jumped to 605K used vs 450 Page faults

Then any time I do anything, even get a pop up on the map, the page faults relentlessly start to build up. If I don't move the mouse then nothing happens.

I tried ending the turn and running it, but no significant change in memory occurred, used or paged.

When I call up a screen, the production screen for example, paged memory rises, but once the screen is up and I move the mouse around paged memory is stable. It would seem that page faults increase whenever I interact with the GUI, nothing else affects it.

I recently increased memory from 512MB to 2GB. I am obviously accessing more than 512MB now, that can be seen from the task manager shots I posted. I wonder if there are any memory management settings that need adjusting?

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MarcA
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RE: Game slows down

Post by MarcA »

I have just noticed that when it is calculating movement costs for a unit the page faults rockets and they don't reduce after the unit is deselected
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MarcA
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RE: Game slows down

Post by MarcA »

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Hi Mantill,

Please turn off all other background programs after a clean reboot and see if this continues to happen.

Regards,

- Erik
Eric

I usually play with only WitE running, and my security software.

I have just done a check though and only having WitE has no affect, the problem persists

Regards

Marc
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Helpless
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RE: Game slows down

Post by Helpless »

One thing which look odd for me the amount of Commit Charge Limit, i.e. total amount of Physical and Virtual memory. It seem that page files ~700MB, which would be a bit too low for 2G RAM. There could be no space to page out inactive processes.

What it is the setting for your virtual memory? My Computer Properties -> Advanced Tab -> Performance settings -> Advance Tab -> Virtual Memory -> Change..
Pavel Zagzin
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Apollo11
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RE: Game slows down

Post by Apollo11 »

Hi all,

For SWAP file I would suggest:

#1
Make SWAP in its own partition (this is VERY VERY important) and leave enough room for it (2.5x times the RAM at the minimum as recommended my Microsoft)!

#2
If you have 2 HDDs I suggest beginning of 2nd HDD (the Operating System should be at the beginning of 1st HDD).


Leo "Apollo11"
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Prior Preparation & Planning Prevents Pathetically Poor Performance!

A & B: WitW, WitE, WbtS, GGWaW, GGWaW2-AWD, HttR, CotA, BftB, CF
P: UV, WitP, WitP-AE
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MarcA
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RE: Game slows down

Post by MarcA »

ORIGINAL: Helpless

One thing which look odd for me the amount of Commit Charge Limit, i.e. total amount of Physical and Virtual memory. It seem that page files ~700MB, which would be a bit too low for 2G RAM. There could be no space to page out inactive processes.

What it is the setting for your virtual memory? My Computer Properties -> Advanced Tab -> Performance settings -> Advance Tab -> Virtual Memory -> Change..

Pavel

My virtual memory is set to 768 MB. I have oodles of hard Disk space. Would you suggest increasing VM. For 2 Gb of RAM what would be a reasonable value?

Marc
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MarcA
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RE: Game slows down

Post by MarcA »

ORIGINAL: Apollo11

Hi all,

For SWAP file I would suggest:

#1
Make SWAP in its own partition (this is VERY VERY important) and leave enough room for it (2.5x times the RAM at the minimum as recommended my Microsoft)!

#2
If you have 2 HDDs I suggest beginning of 2nd HDD (the Operating System should be at the beginning of 1st HDD).

Leo "Apollo11"

Leo

I will need to look into this

Regards

Marc
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Helpless
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RE: Game slows down

Post by Helpless »

Pavel

My virtual memory is set to 768 MB. I have oodles of hard Disk space. Would you suggest increasing VM. For 2 Gb of RAM what would be a reasonable value?

Marc

Marc,

As I know (which is different from Leo statement) the minimum page size file should be 1.5xRAM (768 seems to be minimum for your previous memory size - 1.5x512MB). I'd say set it to 3-4G and see if there is any difference. Also, there is an option to let Windows vary the size of page file.

Advises by Leo sound more as a top level fine tuning for the huge SQL server [;)]
Pavel Zagzin
WITE/WITW/WITE-2 Development
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MarcA
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RE: Game slows down

Post by MarcA »

ORIGINAL: Helpless
Pavel

My virtual memory is set to 768 MB. I have oodles of hard Disk space. Would you suggest increasing VM. For 2 Gb of RAM what would be a reasonable value?

Marc

Marc,

As I know (which is different from Leo statement) the minimum page size file should be 1.5xRAM (768 seems to be minimum for your previous memory size - 1.5x512MB). I'd say set it to 3-4G and see if there is any difference. Also, there is an option to let Windows vary the size of page file.

Advises by Leo sound more as a top level fine tuning for the huge SQL server [;)]

Pavel

when I went to "Virtual Memory > Change" it recommended 3070 MB, which is what I specified, with 6000 MB max. However, it seem to have made no difference what so ever. Used and VM Size remain around 600 MB and Page Faults increases relentlessly. I have seen it reach 2,000,000.

Marc
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Helpless
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RE: Game slows down

Post by Helpless »

Marc, can you try to disable your security/AV for a while, just to make sure there is any difference?
Pavel Zagzin
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Apollo11
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RE: Game slows down

Post by Apollo11 »

Hi all,

One other thing... this is 32 bit WinXP!

There is limit of how much memory can be addressed here... thus the physical RAM + SWAP should not exceed the 4 GB (3.something to be exact)...

And yes - in old days x1.5 to x2.5 time the RAM was the nrm of SWAP file - now it is still the same with 64 bit OS (for example I have 12 GB RAM Vista 64 bit at work and I have 20 GB dedicated SWAP partition - the SWAP is automatically done by OS and it grows and shrinks - usually it is many many GBs big)...


Leo "Apolo11"
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Prior Preparation & Planning Prevents Pathetically Poor Performance!

A & B: WitW, WitE, WbtS, GGWaW, GGWaW2-AWD, HttR, CotA, BftB, CF
P: UV, WitP, WitP-AE
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MarcA
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RE: Game slows down

Post by MarcA »

ORIGINAL: Helpless

Marc, can you try to disable your security/AV for a while, just to make sure there is any difference?

Hi Pavel

I gave it a go but it makes no difference

Regards

Marc
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