All kinds of problems
By
houtex,
Posted on: 2009-06-21 14:15 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
How long have you been gone and how much RAM do you have? Long load times are almost always a result of not enough RAM and I doubt crashing at the market has anything to do with your graphics card either.
The glitchy characters in AE are the only thing that sounds like your vid card or driver might be the cause.
Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
ok i added the relevent info to help you help me ^_^
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Memory: 768MB RAM
Page File: 330MB used, 3395MB available
And the Radeon 9800 Pro.
All these are the factors in your problems. Co* is a *big* program. And it's very detailed. You basically need a new computer.
1) The Pentium 4, while not a slouch, is a single core, and Co* definitely can use two cores. Hyperthreading helps, but is NOT a substitute for a core.
2) The low amount of main memory is a problem. The operating system and background programs will take up somewhere around 300-500MB (as a guess... y'all don't correct me, k?), leaving Co* with the remainder. As Co* itself can use up 1MB or more in stuff... you are woefully shy of required memory, and will require swappage to the disk...
3)... and while the 3395 available is nice, it's probably an expandable page file, not set in stone, and that can hurt performance in this case even more. You probably at this point need a full defrag. Ultimate defragger can do this.
4) and finally, that video card, while not terrible (and I mean terrible in the case that a new 2010 Mustang GT has really good performance, a 2010 Fusion is not terrible) it's probably time for a new video card. As Co* also has it's... quirks, it may be a better idea to look into a new NVidia x6xx or better card (meaning 9600, 9800, 260, that kind of thing).
Which, by the time you buy all these... maybe it's better off you put the money into a new computer.
Co* is a *hog*. I use it to kill computers. If the computers run Co* for 20 minutes, they pass.
Your machine would *pass*... but it would be horribly bad experience.
At the very least... you need a minimum of 2G of main memory. Perhaps that can get you by in the meantime.
August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012
So what changed? my set up ran the game fine as of dec. '08. the only thing i did was upgrade my vid card. what canged game side from Dec. '08 to now?
[ QUOTE ]
So what changed? my set up ran the game fine as of dec. '08. the only thing i did was upgrade my vid card. what canged game side from Dec. '08 to now?
[/ QUOTE ] Did you increase your graphics settings when you got the new card? Unfortunately, you might hav to lower them back down to get it to run reasonably.. which might have defeated the purpose of upgrading the card to begin with. Sorry.
by defult they might have jumped up. i can play around with them and see what i get.
Look im not saying that houtex is full of it or anything, i just dont see how they went from:
For Windows PCs:
Minimum System Requirements for City of Heroes:
* Microsoft® Windows® 2000/XP
* Intel® Pentium® III 800 MHz or AMD Athlon 800 MHz
* 512 MB RAM
* CD-ROM Drive *
* 4 GB Available HDD Space
* NVIDIA® GeForce 2 Series, ATI Radeon® 8500 or Intel® i865G Series Video Card
* 16-bit Sound Card
* 56k modem
* DirectX® 9.0c
Recommended System Specifications for City of Heroes:
* Microsoft Windows 2000/XP
* Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz or AMD® Athlon XP 2000+
* 1 GB RAM
* 16X CD-ROM Drive *
* 4 GB Available HDD Space
* NVIDIA GeForce 6200
* 16-bit Sound Card
* Broadband Internet Connection DirectX 9.0c
to doubling the required amount of RAM to play the game without saying anything. so like i was asking. What did they change since i was last playing. and did the make a post about needing to upgrade to continue playing?
The game itself can certainly use upwards of a gig of memory and more. On highest graphics, mine even hits about 1.5g after a couple hours.
Minimum System Requirements usually means minimum preferences too... and even that only means the application should run stable, not that you'd have a great time with it.
Having Recommended System Specifications usually takes care of load times and overall performance.
To reach maxed settings and performance, you increase your hardware as needed.
Anyway, the game has been updated several times over the years, but the Requirements have not changed (on paper). The software itself does require more resources than it did at launch. I agree that the page should have been updated a long time ago to reflect today's software. Today, most people consider the specs listed as Recommended to be barely enough for a minimum requirement, and recommendations would include pretty much what houtex said...
...more memory is needed to cut down on those load times.
You can run CoH okay on your computer.
I've run it on worse /:
But like as been said, adjust everything for performance. And look at the the post ATI Issues and Settings Recommendations ( http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...=0#Post8661590 ) for good tweaking.
The long zone load times would be related to ram. Once loaded thinsg tend to run smoother. Make sure plenty of free disk space and a defragged drive will help.
More ram is probably the cheapest and time effective boost to your performance you can get.
I don't suffer from altitis, I enjoy every minute of it.
Thank you Devs & Community people for a great game.
So sad to be ending ):
[ QUOTE ]
Look im not saying that houtex is full of it or anything, i just dont see how they went from:
For Windows PCs:
Minimum System Requirements for City of Heroes:
[/ QUOTE ]
You need to read that correctly. "Minimum System Requirements" means "It will run but it will suck and you will hate every minute." And to get it to run on what they list, you probably need to turn all settings to absolute minimum.
Frankly, their "Recommended System Specifications" are a cruel joke. Phrasing it like that suggests you'll be able to have some eye candy and get decent performance. You will NOT.
P.S. Your biggest issue is too little RAM.
Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
For comparison, I'll give you another example of Minimum Requirements.
From the Microsoft website, these are the Minimum Requirements to run Windows XP:
Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM (128 MB is recommended)
At least 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available space on the hard disk
CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
Keyboard and a Microsoft Mouse or some other compatible pointing device
Video adapter and monitor with Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution
Sound card
Speakers or headphones
At a class I was taking through the company I was working for at the time XP released we cobbled together enough memory out of 4 computers to have the 64 Mb that was the minimum, and proceeded to load up Windows XP.
It took half the day to get it to load the OS and come up to the login screen. Just the OS, nothing else.
It took 30 minutes for it to Start up, log in and finish rendering the desktop. We timed it since we were starting it up after lunch.
Did it run? Sure. Did it run in a manner that a normal person would expect it to run on the Minimum requirements? Heck no. Opening Wordpad took 10 minutes. Opening the Control Panel took 5 minutes, then another 8 minutes to render all of the icons when we switched it to Classic Control Panel. During lunch the "instructor" for the class had swung by a computer parts shop and borrowed enough RAM that we could put in the Recommended 128 Mb of RAM. The difference wasn't very noticeable in booting up or logging on, and only slightly faster launching Wordpad and Control Panel.
CoH luckily runs better than that on the Minimum Requirements, but I still wouldn't want to run it on even the Recommended Requirements.
Just remember, the OS will be using some of the memory etc. and then you have the game requirements on top of that.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
What's changed since December 08? Hm. Hard to really say... I didn't program it. 
On the gaming side of things we've got the Mission Architect that probably adds quite a bit to the overall program needs, as well as even more costumes... and who knows what all the background stuff that all was affected/added to get the MA in.
Whatever else the rest of the posters since my earlier post said is pretty much the issue(s). Basically, more ram, of course, will help a lot, but the game is always moving and changing. If Posi's last hint is any indication, I imagine that the memory needs are going to go up yet again to handle the various people's different power customizations.
Why, you ask? **Everything** that is in the map has to be known about in the client computer. That costs memory to know where a thing is, X-Y-Z in the map, and it's orientation (probably a vector?) relative to the ground position, and which skin(s) it's using. That was just the first few Issues.
Then they added the RagDoll stuff as of I6, and that adds the relative positioning of 9 different main body parts (2 arms, 2 legs, each with two segments, so that's 8, plust the torso) all in *relation* to the main position of the character (it's feet... anything else isn't correctly scalable for other reasons/needs in the game.) And multiply times every single entity in the game that has ragdoll.
And *every* issue inevitably winds up with some feature that has to be accounted for... Arena, PvP, Wentworths, and lately the MA. Some of which are dealt with immediately, some not, all of which will cost memory at some point, and some of it *relative* to your position in the map, even... Not to mention the various additions to skins and now varieties of weapons each Issue seems to get. And now colors on top of all that, and probably another few items of costuming.
**ALL** of which will require *your* computer to load and deal with in some way. All the time, and swapping in/out as needed...
And... well... that pretty much sums up about what I know about what's been added. I probably got some of it slightly (or grossly, depending) wrong. In no way do I know exactly everything in there... but as a former programmer, I certainly get all the possible variables that need to be dealt with locally. When you get down to it... it's amazingly complex, and amazing it runs at all.
I hope that helps in some way... Even one key item in a new Issue can screw up what used to be a perfectly working computer in Co*. Like I6 did to many.
August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012
Ok so what is the most compatible ATI driver to use with COH?
im experienceing LONG load times and by long i mean 3 and a half minutes. when using the AE to create arcs the character models are like all glitchy. and every time i try to go to the black market, my game hangs up so long that i get disconnected. this used to never be a problem but ever since i came back to the game these problems have started. im thinking it most likely is my catalyst driver witch is ver: 6.11.
(adding hijackthis and dxdiag to help)
Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2
Scan saved at 4:21:20 PM, on 6/21/2009
Platform: Windows XP SP3 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v8.00 (8.00.6001.18702)
Boot mode: Normal
Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\BCMSMMSG.exe
C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\GrooveMonitor.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe
C:\Program Files\DAEMON Tools Lite\daemon.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\WMPNSCFG.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Desktop Search\WindowsSearch.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\bin\AppleMobileDeviceService.exe
C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mDNSResponder.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\SearchIndexer.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wscntfy.exe
C:\Program Files\iPod\bin\iPodService.exe
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\SearchProtocolHost.exe
C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.stchas.edu/
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Int ernet Settings,ProxyOverride = *.local
O2 - BHO: AcroIEHelperStub - {18DF081C-E8AD-4283-A596-FA578C2EBDC3} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelperShim.dll
O2 - BHO: Groove GFS Browser Helper - {72853161-30C5-4D22-B7F9-0BBC1D38A37E} - C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\GrooveShellExtensions.dll
O2 - BHO: Windows Live Sign-in Helper - {9030D464-4C02-4ABF-8ECC-5164760863C6} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live\WindowsLiveLogin.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [BCMSMMSG] BCMSMMSG.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [iTunesHelper] "C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [GrooveMonitor] "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\GrooveMonitor.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Adobe Reader Speed Launcher] "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\Reader_sl.exe"
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [ctfmon.exe] C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [DAEMON Tools Lite] "C:\Program Files\DAEMON Tools Lite\daemon.exe" -autorun
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [WMPNSCFG] C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\WMPNSCFG.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Windows Search.lnk = C:\Program Files\Windows Desktop Search\WindowsSearch.exe
O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office12\EXCEL.EXE/3000
O9 - Extra button: Send to OneNote - {2670000A-7350-4f3c-8081-5663EE0C6C49} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office12\ONBttnIE.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: S&end to OneNote - {2670000A-7350-4f3c-8081-5663EE0C6C49} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office12\ONBttnIE.dll
O9 - Extra button: Research - {92780B25-18CC-41C8-B9BE-3C9C571A8263} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office12\REFIEBAR.DLL
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {e2e2dd38-d088-4134-82b7-f2ba38496583} - C:\WINDOWS\Network Diagnostic\xpnetdiag.exe
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: @xpsp3res.dll,-20001 - {e2e2dd38-d088-4134-82b7-f2ba38496583} - C:\WINDOWS\Network Diagnostic\xpnetdiag.exe
O9 - Extra button: Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Windows Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O16 - DPF: {6414512B-B978-451D-A0D8-FCFDF33E833C} (WUWebControl Class) - http://update.microsoft.com/windowsu...?1240527668855
O18 - Protocol: grooveLocalGWS - {88FED34C-F0CA-4636-A375-3CB6248B04CD} - C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\GrooveSystemServices.dll
O23 - Service: Apple Mobile Device - Apple Inc. - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\bin\AppleMobileDeviceService.exe
O23 - Service: Bonjour Service - Apple Inc. - C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mDNSResponder.exe
O23 - Service: iPod Service - Apple Inc. - C:\Program Files\iPod\bin\iPodService.exe
--
End of file - 4746 bytes
----------------------------------------------------------
------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 6/21/2009, 16:43:13
Machine name: LANCE
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090206-1234)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Computer Corporation
System Model: Dimension 8300
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A03
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Memory: 768MB RAM
Page File: 330MB used, 3395MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode
------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
DirectX Files Tab: No problems found.
Display Tab 1: No problems found. DirectDraw test results: All tests were successful. Direct3D 7 test results: All tests were successful. Direct3D 8 test results: All tests were successful. Direct3D 9 test results: All tests were successful.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Music Tab: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.
Network Tab: No problems found.
--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D: 0/4 (n/a)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)
---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: RADEON 9800 PRO
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: ATI Radeon Graphics Processor AGP (0x4E48)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4E48&SUBSYS_00021002 &REV_00
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (75Hz)
Monitor: Dell D1028L
Monitor Max Res: 1280,1024
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6925 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 2/25/2009 16:41:10, 325120 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD: n/a
Mini VDD: ati2mtag.sys
Mini VDD Date: 2/25/2009 17:58:57, 3565568 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-0D08-11CF-BF68-0820A1C2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x4E48
SubSys ID: 0x00021002
Revision ID: 0x0000
Revision ID: 0x0000
Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D ModeWMV8_B ModeWMV8_A ModeWMV9_B ModeWMV9_A
Deinterlace Caps: {6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
{3C5323C1-6FB7-44F5-9081-056BF2EE449D}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,2) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{552C0DAD-CCBC-420B-83C8-74943CF9F1A6}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,2) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled
DDraw Test Result: All tests were successful.
D3D7 Test Result: All tests were successful.
D3D8 Test Result: All tests were successful.
D3D9 Test Result: All tests were successful.