Windows 7 64 - MXS won't open

[Prologue]

Yeah, this laptop is touted as the best laptop for gaming under 15 inches, which is probably true, but they don't seem to support the graphics card well. I called and asked if there were different drivers yesterday, newer than the 188 (dec 2009) version and they said no. This laptop came out at the end of February 2010, so they even used old graphics then, and hasn't had a graphics update yet. The reason is probably that it has the hybrid configuration, one really good graphics card (dedicated, high clock, lots of shader lines, 1gb memory) and the Intel 4500mhd integrated chip. The reason they did this is so that you can have good battery life while not gaming, and then when you need to game it would still perform well by switching to the discrete graphics. In order to do this, I have heard that they need to hybridize the drivers and it seems that they are slacking on putting out new versions (there has only been one, the orginal, no updates). Maybe it would fix it, maybe it wouldn't, there is no way to tell except to install the *discrete only* drivers and see if it runs better. Then even if that fixes it, I'd have to just hope that they decide to hybridize the correct drivers in the future. So basically I'd have to gamble on them getting it to run correctly sometime in the future (not a good bet in my book), or return it then use the $940 to build a kick ass tower and forfeit gaming on the go. I bought this laptop for one reason, to play MXS on the go, so if it can't do it really well then I'll just drop it. I'll try to get it running smooth over the weekend but if it isn't purring along by then, I'll return it.

[jlv]

Well, thanks for getting it going, but I am disappointed with the performance. With all setting turned down as far as possible, and then getting as far away from the track as possible, you still get this warping going on. It is like I am dropping a couple frames every second or so. IF I crank the settings to 90, 9, 256, Off, On, On, 90, 10, I still get the same periodic warping, but with much better textures, haha. I tried checking to see if the cpu was doing something crazy by logging it and it does seem to have some periodic spikes but they dont get to 100%. So it doesn't seem to be hardware limitation per se, still I can't figure out what is causing it so it might go back if I can't smooth it out. I am only getting max 60fps though, no matter what setting I have. Even with the better settings it is still pegged at 60. Maybe I'm hitting some sort of rev limiter, haha.

The 60 fps limit is because vsync is enabled. The control panel for the graphics chip will usually have an option to disable it.

To fix the CPU spikes, try disabling the startup programs you don't need.

[Red619]

Hey jlv, Whenever I go to open up mxs on my desktop, it tries to open, then it minimizes the screen. Then only thing left to do is to end task with crl/alt/del. Then I try to open it up again then it still wont open. Then I restart my computer try to open it again, same thing with crl/alt/del, then I try it one last time an it works. I dont know whats going on. I got the lastest snapshot, I have 8gb of ram a 9800 gt and windows 7. hope you can understand my problem. Need some help.

[jlv]

Have you tried running it in a window instead of full screen?

[Red619]

Yea I forgot to mention that, I tried both ways and still have the same results( I was that somewhere on the forum and thought that may be the problem, but it wasnt). Do you think I should try and dl the snapshot and make a new shortcut, although this problem happens even when I select mxs from the start menu. I can still play, but it just does not always start up on the first kick. hahah.

[jlv]

There is a shortcut option to start minimized. If you accidentally selected it that would explain it. Does it work if you just double click mx.exe from c:\Program Files\MX Simulator?

[Red619]

Nope it does not work either. I'm going to be home in an hour so Ill be able to try somethings out. I made sure the shortcut is fullscreen i think is the name of the screen. Also if put new things in my personal folder i have to restart my comp. I would say its about a 60percent fail rate on my p.c. But even with all these steps to get it started, I still play every day. Do you have anyother suggestions.

[jlv]

Hard to say with something intermittent like that. Maybe try cleaning/reinstalling the graphics drivers. If that failed I'd try a complete OS reinstall.

[Red619]

Thanks gonna have to try that hopefully it will work. thanks again

[Prologue]

Hmmm, after looking at this 'warping' some more, it seems like it might be an artifact of loading the higher detailed textures. Isn't it true that the far away tiles are lower res and once you start to come closer to them, they pop into a higher res? Also, does the distance that they pop in at vary with angle? Meaning, if you stay in one spot and just rotate around, will it load higher res ground textures only for the ones that are, maybe, in the 180 degrees in front of the camera lens? The warping/dropped frames seem to only happen when you either change position, or change your viewing direction, not just sitting there. Is there some sort of way that I could test to see if this is what it is?

[jlv]

Yes. Turn ground texture levels all the way down. It will only use the lowest level textures and never generate new ones in that case. If the texture generation is falling off the fast path it would cause a stutter. I could easily see how the hybrid driver might have slow framebuffer access since it's shared between both GPU's.

[Prologue]

Thanks for the insight. You know, I just remembered a little while ago that setting the priority to higher than normal gave some people some luck as well. I did that, set it to high, and the warping is essentially gone. So, I bet it really is a cpu issue. I am sorting through the programs that are running, but most of them are essential. But, the weak link in this computer is the cpu anyway (it has 4gb of ddr3 ram and a beastly graphics card), and I think I've seen you say that this game relies more on the cpu than most games so that is more confirmation. It is only a dual core 1.3 ghz, although it can be overclocked to 1.7 (a factory feature). I'll overclock it and set the priority to high and I bet all issues will be gone.

Thanks again!