Another problem, need advice

Jimwth · Post by **Jimwth** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 1:31 am

Ok, that's another problem.

I'm playing this game for about a week now and all goes great except for one thing: sometimes it runs not so very fast. My machine is pretty old but it should handle V:TM-B just fine. Here's the configuration:
Intel Core Solo 1,86 GHz, ATI Mobility Radeon X 1300 up to 256 Mb, 512 Mb RAM. I think it meets minimum system reqs at least.

The problem is, whenever I'm outside (on the street in Santa Monica) the game slows down for a minute or two. For example, I continue a game, load my last save (outside), when it loads the music and sounds begin to repeat for some time and the game screen is still. Then it stops and all becomes normal. After that I begin moving or I try to look around and the whole thing starts again. After some time playing this problem dissapears but when I enter some other area and then return - there it is again.

First time I thought it might be because of heightened video settings I used, so I lowered them all to nothing (no shadows, low details, 800x600) and restarted the game. And it became even WORSE! Now all this mess happens not only outside but in some other areas too, like Asylum and Hospital, though it lasts for not so long there.

Yeah, and the outside Santa Monica loads pretty slow too.

Any suggestions on what might help? Thanks in advance

dryhte · Post by **dryhte** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 2:21 am

Your RAM is pretty low to play any games at all... What OS are you running? XP? If it's an oldish install, that leaves you with about 256 MB to run this game in which is really too little.

RAM is very cheap to update at this moment, so I suggest you go out and buy a 1GB or 2GB stick and I'm pretty confident you'll find the game a whole lot more playable...

Jimwth · Post by **Jimwth** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 6:44 am

Yes, I run XPSP2 and I'm playing on laptop. I'm really not planning to buy any upgrades for a nearest year maybe - I'm a family guy, y'know, my wife is at home with my 6 months son and she doesn't work now, so I can't spare any funds on stupid computers (well, ok, not stupid, but I really can live without upgrades for now

).

Minalkali · Post by **Minalkali** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 9:17 am

If you only have the minimum system requirements for pretty much any game, it's not going to run as well as it should. The rain in SM is probably causing you a lot of problems, and considering the system you're running, you're not likely to see any improvements until you upgrade.

Just give it time, eventually your kid will stop costing you money and you'll be able to get a new computer. Usually once they start speaking they become pretty much self sufficient so just give it a few months and you'll be fine.

Sir Twist · Post by **Sir Twist** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:19 pm

Jimwth, try limiting or even turning off background applications before you play. Open Task Manager, and things like iTunes, Apple stuff, can be stopped totally, other things, can be put to low priority. The only thing that should be normal or even high, is your virus protection. Also, get rid of Norton anti-virus, as well. Go with either AVG or avast anti-virus. Limiting your background applications are good for when you play games. And I doubt you can really upgrade that laptop for cheap.

Jimwth · Post by **Jimwth** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:45 am

Minalkali wrote:
Just give it time, eventually your kid will stop costing you money and you'll be able to get a new computer. Usually once they start speaking they become pretty much self sufficient so just give it a few months and you'll be fine.

It's really not a problem for me, I love my son and I love to spend money for him

But I don't think he'll be so self sufficient in a few months as to not needing his dear parents' funds:laugh: Most likely I'll go up in carreer and earn more money so eventually I'll buy new PC

Jimwth · Post by **Jimwth** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:57 am

Sir Twist wrote:Jimwth, try limiting or even turning off background applications before you play. Open Task Manager, and things like iTunes, Apple stuff, can be stopped totally, other things, can be put to low priority. The only thing that should be normal or even high, is your virus protection. Also, get rid of Norton anti-virus, as well. Go with either AVG or avast anti-virus. Limiting your background applications are good for when you play games. And I doubt you can really upgrade that laptop for cheap.

Hey, thanks for the advice Sir Twist! I was making up my mind to remove Norton anti-virus for some time and now I've done it at last

I downloaded and installed avast and it seems to be very good, my notebook seems to work a little faster. I haven't run the game yet so I don't know if there are any improvements, I think I'll be able to play today.

As to background applications, I really don't know what I can and what I can't stop or put to low priority 'cause I'm so lame at these things

If you could be more specific somehow I'd appreciate that

Jimwth · Post by **Jimwth** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 1:18 am

Well, I played the game yesterday and I can say that it runs pretty smoothly now! Not without some slowdowns, but there's not much of them. Again, thanks a lot, Sir Twist!

Sir Twist · Post by **Sir Twist** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 12:20 pm

You're welcome. A few things to also try, are one, removing the background on your desktop, before you go to play. Second, take what I call mini-breaks. What I mean is pause the game a moment, or so, and stretch. Last thing to try is reducing your game's resolution. These may help, a little, but they aren't needed. But these may not be affecting the game, though. The slow downs in the game may come from the game itself. And depends on where you are coming from, where you are going, things like that.

Jimwth · Post by **Jimwth** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 1:00 am

Sir Twist wrote:You're welcome. A few things to also try, are one, removing the background on your desktop, before you go to play. Second, take what I call mini-breaks. What I mean is pause the game a moment, or so, and stretch. Last thing to try is reducing your game's resolution. These may help, a little, but they aren't needed. But these may not be affecting the game, though. The slow downs in the game may come from the game itself. And depends on where you are coming from, where you are going, things like that.

I've already set my resolution to 800x600. Yeah, I forgot about desktop's background, it may help a bit I think, I'll try this, thanks

Anyway, the slowdowns occur only in hub areas now and, as I said, they are not so lasting now, I really can tolerate them

. Thanks to all of you for replying

Sir Twist · Post by **Sir Twist** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 9:50 am

Hub areas have a lot of activity, and I notice my game slows down a little bit, as well, in them. You probably need a moment or two, at times, for things to catch up, on occasion. There is a mod out there that stops the rain, as well, that may improve performance a tiny bit, at least for Santa Monica.

Jimwth · Post by **Jimwth** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 4:03 am

Sir Twist wrote:You probably need a moment or two, at times, for things to catch up, on occasion.

Aye, that's exactly what I do

Jhereg · Post by **Jhereg** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 11:47 pm

Final Thoughts

It doesn't seem anybody has really mentioned this option yet, but it's a good one - I recall when I first got VTMB I had a borderline machine, which is why I sneak everywhere to this day - at the time, if I sneaked everywhere, the slowdowns led to fewer nasty surprises.

At any rate, go into your video card configuration options and see if there are adjustments for performance versus quality - most cards have them. Tune everything toward performance until things improve. For things like environmental effects (rain) that's the best option. It's been awhile, but I think in the game configuration options, there is also an option to modify some video settings, including turning off environmental effects, full shadows, and that kind of thing. Anything that makes the graphics engine work less or work faster will help.

I'd love to be able to quote settings line-by-line, but I don't have that specific card, and without it, I have no idea what options are available to you. You'll have to wing it. Sorry.

Jimwth · Post by **Jimwth** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 12:52 am

Jhereg wrote:It doesn't seem anybody has really mentioned this option yet, but it's a good one - I recall when I first got VTMB I had a borderline machine, which is why I sneak everywhere to this day - at the time, if I sneaked everywhere, the slowdowns led to fewer nasty surprises.

At any rate, go into your video card configuration options and see if there are adjustments for performance versus quality - most cards have them. Tune everything toward performance until things improve. For things like environmental effects (rain) that's the best option. It's been awhile, but I think in the game configuration options, there is also an option to modify some video settings, including turning off environmental effects, full shadows, and that kind of thing. Anything that makes the graphics engine work less or work faster will help.

I'd love to be able to quote settings line-by-line, but I don't have that specific card, and without it, I have no idea what options are available to you. You'll have to wing it. Sorry.

Hey, thanks, I haven't thought about such an option! I'll surely try this in my next playthrough