vista lag help - anyone?

[smokejizzle]

Ok, I have done all the steps as far as I know of to get lag out of Frets on Fire:

*FoF v. 1.2.415
*RF Mod
*Windows 2000 Compatability
*Only 1 out of 2 Processors on
*Set Priority High

Yet I still have lag issues. I run a Vista 32bit Home Edition, and I have a ATI 200m Series display driver. Is that good enough?

Pretty much, Is there anything else that can be done to stop lag issues after what I stated above? Anything done differently?

[arnham]

Have you tried MFH/alarian mod? I had similar issues with base FoF, although I have not tried RF mod.

Tried MFH mod on vista (64 bit) and all lag issues disappeared. The only thing I had to adjust was turning the A/V delay up just a hair as the song sync was just slightly off. I believe I went from 100 to 125.

Also I'm not using any fixes such as compatiblity mode, 1 processor, or high priority - it pretty much worked fine as is.

[R4nd0M]

Compatibility won't do anything helpful.

What is your CPU and RAM?

ATI 200 mobility radeons are very low spec, but Frets on Fire is more CPU and RAM bound than videocard (for instance, I've managed to get FOF Alarian running on an original ATI Mobility Radeon (the first editions).

As for video cards the general rule of thumb I've found is that provided you have the latest drivers installed, if you can run Vista on it, it's enough to play FOF. Your only limitation is memory and CPU.

If you're running Home Premium, try disabling Aero (although I don't think you can on a 200m.)

[smokejizzle]

Compatibility won't do anything helpful.

What is your CPU and RAM?

ATI 200 mobility radeons are very low spec, but Frets on Fire is more CPU and RAM bound than videocard (for instance, I've managed to get FOF Alarian running on an original ATI Mobility Radeon (the first editions).

As for video cards the general rule of thumb I've found is that provided you have the latest drivers installed, if you can run Vista on it, it's enough to play FOF. Your only limitation is memory and CPU.

If you're running Home Premium, try disabling Aero (although I don't think you can on a 200m.)

I have a Genuine Intel® CPU [email][email protected][/email] 1.20GHz and my RAM is 512MB(Low for Vista, I know right? ha).

I want to look into the FoF Alarian but there is all kinds of versions and am not sure which or where to get it. Can you point me to the right direction from here? Thanks.

[R4nd0M]

Compatibility won't do anything helpful.

What is your CPU and RAM?

ATI 200 mobility radeons are very low spec, but Frets on Fire is more CPU and RAM bound than videocard (for instance, I've managed to get FOF Alarian running on an original ATI Mobility Radeon (the first editions).

As for video cards the general rule of thumb I've found is that provided you have the latest drivers installed, if you can run Vista on it, it's enough to play FOF. Your only limitation is memory and CPU.

If you're running Home Premium, try disabling Aero (although I don't think you can on a 200m.)

I have a Genuine Intel® CPU [email][email protected][/email] 1.20GHz and my RAM is 512MB(Low for Vista, I know right? ha).

I want to look into the FoF Alarian but there is all kinds of versions and am not sure which or where to get it. Can you point me to the right direction from here? Thanks.

Yep, I'm pretty certain that amount of RAM will not cut it. Vista itself takes 400-500MB of RAM idle, FOF takes between 150 and 700MB of RAM depending on how long it's been running.

The lag is caused by Windows shoving parts of FOF into the Virtual memory page file on your hard drive which is much slower than physical memory.

To clarify, are you getting random pauses and jittering gameplay or simply low frames per second?

As for Alarian: 1) it probably won't help your problem, it does use quite a bit more memory than RF mod if I remember correctly however it cannot harm you to try it.

I'd recommend the MegaLight release.

That should cater for lower spec machines.

[smokejizzle]

Yep, I'm pretty certain that amount of RAM will not cut it. Vista itself takes 400-500MB of RAM idle, FOF takes between 150 and 700MB of RAM depending on how long it's been running.

The lag is caused by Windows shoving parts of FOF into the Virtual memory page file on your hard drive which is much slower than physical memory.

To clarify, are you getting random pauses and jittering gameplay or simply low frames per second?

As for Alarian: 1) it probably won't help your problem, it does use quite a bit more memory than RF mod if I remember correctly however it cannot harm you to try it.

I'd recommend the MegaLight release.

That should cater for lower spec machines.

I did actually get the Mega Light last night and it really ran alot smoother, but this is what it does.

*In menu, if you go down to select settings you hear the click in game but it takes 2 seconds to actually move to it.
*In actual gameplay, the countdown from 5 takes about 10 seconds with to long of pauses in between each.
*I have counted the freeze rate when the notes do start coming though. The song never freezes once but the notes go 1 second, freeze 1 second, go again for 1 second, freeze again for one second so they dont even match the music.

Does this help you figure out if anything can be done?

[kholdstare]

one thing you might want to try too is if you have windows vista aero mode on change the theme to a standard one. thats one thing about vista with aero mode the computer still has to share the workload with it

[smokejizzle]

one thing you might want to try too is if you have windows vista aero mode on change the theme to a standard one. thats one thing about vista with aero mode the computer still has to share the workload with it

Could you elaborate just a little more? I am not that familiar with the specs of computers. How do I know if it has Aero and if so how do you change it like you said?

[kholdstare]

the aero mode is found in almost all versions of windows vista. it gives all the windows a glass effect or transparency

[R4nd0M]

one thing you might want to try too is if you have windows vista aero mode on change the theme to a standard one. thats one thing about vista with aero mode the computer still has to share the workload with it

Could you elaborate just a little more? I am not that familiar with the specs of computers. How do I know if it has Aero and if so how do you change it like you said?

You'll notice that you have Aero enabled if your window borders have transparancy.

If you have it enabled follow these steps to disable it:

Right click on your desktop, click Personalize.

Click on Window Color and appearance.

If you have Aero enabled, a window with different color palletes and sliders will be displayed. Click "open classic appearance options".

Now select from the "color scheme" box: Windows Vista Basic and click OK to all windows.

From the symptoms you listed, I think this is a RAM deficiency.

EDIT: Another method I've found - you can disable Aero on per-application basis.

To disable aero on a per app basis: in Compatibility settings, choose Disable Desktop composition.

[smokejizzle]

one thing you might want to try too is if you have windows vista aero mode on change the theme to a standard one. thats one thing about vista with aero mode the computer still has to share the workload with it

Could you elaborate just a little more? I am not that familiar with the specs of computers. How do I know if it has Aero and if so how do you change it like you said?

You'll notice that you have Aero enabled if your window borders have transparancy.

If you have it enabled follow these steps to disable it:

Right click on your desktop, click Personalize.

Click on Window Color and appearance.

If you have Aero enabled, a window with different color palletes and sliders will be displayed. Click "open classic appearance options".

Now select from the "color scheme" box: Windows Vista Basic and click OK to all windows.

From the symptoms you listed, I think this is a RAM deficiency.

EDIT: Another method I've found - you can disable Aero on per-application basis.

To disable aero on a per app basis: in Compatibility settings, choose Disable Desktop composition.

Well thanks for all the help.
I've been needing to upgrade my RAM for about 6 months now so I guess ill try and figure it out sooner or later.