MX Simulator

This has gotten out of hand. Every time I fire up the game, I end up closing it in disgust at how poorly it runs. Here's what I mean. When my framerates are good, they're very good indeed. FRAPS claims that I'm pushing the limits of my monitor's capabilities with 40-60fps. But, it doesn't run well all the time. Every so often, in intervals ranging from 2-120 seconds, it "hiccups." That is, for whatever reason, the framerate drops to zero for a fraction of a second, then it comes back. In most games, this would be tolerable, but MXS requires such concentration and fluidity that even this small interruption has caused me to misjudge a turn and either overshoot, or just flat-out crash. When it happens in the air, the landing is fatal 100% of the time. Sometimes, the hiccups are quite bad. I had one that lasted a second and a half just today. I would blame my own computer for this, except it's the only game I've seen this happen on. Richard Burns Rally, Flight Simulator, Lock-On, they all work at a constant framerate that is altered only by what is going on in the game, what other programs I have running, and what my graphics settings for the game are. MXS is the only one which seems to fidget like a 6 year old. I don't know much about programming, but I gather the other games are doing something to smooth this out, so that when something distracts the computer for a quarter of a second, there's a cushion that lets the game run smoothly until the computer gets back to work. Flight Simulator has the option to choose a "target framerate" so the computer only dedicates as much processing power to the game as you want it to, leaving some extra resources to do other things that would otherwise intrude into your game experience.

I used to have a problem where the game would go down to 2fps for about ten seconds, then return to normal. I have since discovered that this problem is caused by having Google Chrome running, but the hiccups have continued unabated.

That hiccup is caused by too much texture memory being used. Try lowering your texture levels

I know that this isn't really the place to be asking, but if i were to get a new graphics card with 512mb memory. Is that good enough for mxs, or should i go with 1gb?

If you have the money, go the 1GB. Will allow you to run higher texture resolutions. I cant run mine on max

lower your settings NOOB. lol nah just joking jk jk jk, but thats weird. i dont get these hiccups and my comp isnt that good. if it lags it lags. if its running good it runs good. it doesnt skip around for me. good luck fixing it.

DJ wrote:If you have the money, go the 1GB. Will allow you to run higher texture resolutions. I cant run mine on max

I though texture resolution should be set as half card memory size ? Like for 1gb card = 512x512 max, and only 2 Gb cards could run 1024x1024 settings in MXS (max).
Personnally, i use a 2Gb card, and lower my setting to 512x512 because 1024 don't allow to play smooth on all tracks, on some tracks like Mantova (HD map) my fps are drasticaly reduced. When i run it i can read MXS log memory size is near 1850 MB.
But for example, Waterloo wich is 'laggin' for a lot of people (wich don't know to set right the ground texture resolution setting), is perfectly smooth at 85 fps at 1600x1200 AAx8 on ATI HD4870 with DualCore e8200 (3GHz).

I though texture resolution should be set as half card memory size ? Like for 1gb card = 512x512 max, and only 2 Gb cards could run 1024x1024 settings in MXS (max).

Nah, thats not how it goes. In saying that, that is probably a good recommendation

But for example, Waterloo wich is 'laggin' for a lot of people

Thats due to the large hills, it isnt a texture problem

im running pretty much max settings on a 512mb card. yes sometimes i get a little lag but nothing i cant deal with.. im sure i could turn down settings but what fun would that be.

i got real laggy for a while but did a clean up of my PC.. ran a antispyware, cleaned temp files, etc. and it really made an improvment.

I know this is still off topic, but if my screen resolution was 1440x900, and i had a 512mb card, how high of setting could i have without lag. And then if my settings were that high, how many riders could it hold without lag.

This would be really usefull, because im planning on buying a new graphics card in the next couple of days.

Turning down the texture settings might help. When the game says "X MB texture memory used", you want X to be a lower number than your video memory size.

If the glitches are from other programs running, it might help to run it at a higher priority. If that helps let me know.

Well, I changed the priority to "high" (when I set it to "real-time" it refused to acknowledge control inputs) and so far, it's been smooth as a tub of margarine. Good advice!

That's good to know. I think I'll make it elevate its priority by default from now on.

Actually, I just tried it again today, and the results were a bit different. I set it to "high" again and the game refused to acknowledge the existence of my clutch and gearshift commands. Weird. Then I tried "above normal" and it recognized those commands, but only five seconds after they were issued. I'm guessing that before, I actually didn't have it set as I said or something. I don't know. Whatever the case, the only setting that worked for me today was to leave it alone - and I had an occasional hiccup.

So... yeah.

Is this any better?

http://mxsimulator.com/snapshots/mx-2010-01-01.exe