Ironworks Gaming Forum - View Single Post

Silpion · 06-20-2002, 06:56 PM

Wizardry can not 'lag' [img]smile.gif[/img]
'Lag' can only appear in multiplayer games, it is an information delay between two or more computers.

Perhaps you mean standing in Arnika, turning around and that what you see doesn't seem to move smooth? Well, that has to do with three things: Graphic card, CPU and RAM. All information like the position of enemies, what they do, all information about your Party and the game you are playing are stored in the RAM (until you save, then it is written to the hard disk). Now it's time for the CPU. It calculates nearly everything and changes the information in the RAM, e.g. when an enemy has noticed you or if you simply walk a step in any direction. From all this, it gives some information to the graphic card. These are information like all coordinates of polygons, all graphics, lightsources etc. The graphic card uses these information to calculate what you should see and puts out a signal to the monitor.

When the game is now too slow, it could depend on the RAM, the CPU or the graphic card. If you have too less RAM, the CPU needs to store some information in the windows swap file on the hard disk which is slower than the RAM. You'll notice a lot of hard disk activity during gameplay if this happens. If your graphic card is too slow, it can't calculate fast enough what you should see and will skip frames, the game will run choppy. Same when you're CPU is too slow. Then the CPU can't give the needed information fast enough to the graphics card.

256 MB RAM should be enough, I wouldn't expect any improvents with more.
CPU and graphic card... it seems that both are too slow. But if you buy a faster CPU, your graphic card will slow out the whole system. And if you buy a new graphic card you won't be able use its full speed because your CPU wouldn't be able to give it the necessary information fast enough. If I were you I wouldn't upgrade parts of this computer. Better save the money and buy a complete new system one day. Wizardry isn't a game in which you have to react in 0.1 seconds. It is still playable. [img]smile.gif[/img]

PS1: I have nearly the same problem with my computer

PS2: Sorry for the bad english, I've never had any good marks in english in school

Hope you can imagine what I want to say [img]smile.gif[/img]

06-20-2002, 06:56 PM	#7
Silpion Dungeon Master Join Date: June 16, 2002 Location: . Posts: 62	Wizardry can not 'lag' [img]smile.gif[/img] 'Lag' can only appear in multiplayer games, it is an information delay between two or more computers. Perhaps you mean standing in Arnika, turning around and that what you see doesn't seem to move smooth? Well, that has to do with three things: Graphic card, CPU and RAM. All information like the position of enemies, what they do, all information about your Party and the game you are playing are stored in the RAM (until you save, then it is written to the hard disk). Now it's time for the CPU. It calculates nearly everything and changes the information in the RAM, e.g. when an enemy has noticed you or if you simply walk a step in any direction. From all this, it gives some information to the graphic card. These are information like all coordinates of polygons, all graphics, lightsources etc. The graphic card uses these information to calculate what you should see and puts out a signal to the monitor. When the game is now too slow, it could depend on the RAM, the CPU or the graphic card. If you have too less RAM, the CPU needs to store some information in the windows swap file on the hard disk which is slower than the RAM. You'll notice a lot of hard disk activity during gameplay if this happens. If your graphic card is too slow, it can't calculate fast enough what you should see and will skip frames, the game will run choppy. Same when you're CPU is too slow. Then the CPU can't give the needed information fast enough to the graphics card. 256 MB RAM should be enough, I wouldn't expect any improvents with more. CPU and graphic card... it seems that both are too slow. But if you buy a faster CPU, your graphic card will slow out the whole system. And if you buy a new graphic card you won't be able use its full speed because your CPU wouldn't be able to give it the necessary information fast enough. If I were you I wouldn't upgrade parts of this computer. Better save the money and buy a complete new system one day. Wizardry isn't a game in which you have to react in 0.1 seconds. It is still playable. [img]smile.gif[/img] PS1: I have nearly the same problem with my computer PS2: Sorry for the bad english, I've never had any good marks in english in school Hope you can imagine what I want to say [img]smile.gif[/img]