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Completely. And Utterly. Unplayable.

Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
edited September 2009 in PC & Technical Issues
If you read some of my other posts, you'll see about half of them are quite positive, or share ideas without being derisive, and half of them are in the threads that involve lag.

Since I was a wee nipper I've loved superheroes. Now, I'm a graphic designer, and admittedly, kind of a snob when it comes to graphics. I was SO excited to hear about Marvel Universe Online! Then it became Champions Online, and although disappointed, I followed every minute scrap of data I could salvage from the corners of the internet, because it was still a huge, gorgeous looking MMO based around superheroes.

I've mentioned all that because it's imperative that those who read this post realize that I'm not trying to open a can of worms; I just want to play this game that I've waited so long for.

The problem is this: even with a computer that is slightly short of Cryptic's "recommended" settings, I'm getting severe rubberbanding and between 0-30 fps with the video options on Minimum/half-resolution/800x600. This is the least taxing I could make the game on my system, and it still didn't work. I pinged San Jose on speedtest.net in 29 ms, and download speed is 24 mb/s.

Bottom line: I'm getting antsy, a little disappointed, and I feel a bit like a kid locked out of a candy store, but he looks through the glass and all his friends are inside.

Also, I've mentioned this in every relevant thread I've read, but my CPU hits 98-100% whenever the client is open. The GPU is barely touched... have any developers isolated the reason for this/mentioned anything about that specific problem yet?

Thanks for reading this.
Post edited by Archived Post on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited August 2009
    Strange. I'm playing below the minimum specs in almost all areas, but the only time I experienced intolerable lag was at the end of open beta where two mega-destroids were in the same area just off the respawn point. Mind you... I'm playing on bottom of the barrel graphics settings, but still.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited August 2009
    Out of interest luker, can you post your pc specifications?

    Aside from satisfying my nosey nature, it could offer some information to the Devs...
    Maybe some passing pc genius might have some suggestions too.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited August 2009
    Midarc wrote:
    Out of interest luker, can you post your pc specifications?

    Aside from satisfying my nosey nature, it could offer some information to the Devs...
    Maybe some passing pc genius might have some suggestions too.

    Sure :)

    It's an AMD 4400+ X2 CPU, 2 gigs of Corsair XMS2 DDR2 ram, and Nvidea 8600 GTS GPU. Pretty sure the Processor is bottlenecking it..
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited September 2009
    it's all beyond me, to be honest, bottlenecking.
    I understand the concept, but just don't understand how to identify what could be doing it.
    It seems like a fine set of specs though.
    Pretty much what I had infact, before I blew up my powersupply/computer while trying to install a new graphics card. (go ahead, point and laugh at the stubby fingered pc murderering freak)
    I'm pretty sure I had a bit better performance than that.

    While I remember.
    Someone mentioning in gamechat recently that turning off hardware occlusion bought them a framerate increase.
    They explained that it should have had the opposite effect given that it's meant to ease pressure on the graphics card.
    Thought I'd mention it.

    Anyway.
    Hope you get something sorted out.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited September 2009
    I have a stupid suggestion. I'm sure you've done it anyway, but have you tried defragging your hard drive? If you feel comfortable doing it, you might also try cleaning up your registry.

    I generally try to have one big game per drive, so if you can do that, give it a try.

    Also, firewalls and anti-virals can dampen your playing experience.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited September 2009
    What do you have running in the background?

    If you feel the cpu is the bottleneck, then you may need to adjust what programs you have running in the background.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited September 2009
    I'm running a 3.2 gig P4 processor 2 gigs of ram and an unsupported 256mb ATI radeon card. Last night the drivers were updated and on the lowest specs i'm doing pretty good in game. Sure things look a little clunky until I get up close, but it's better than not playable at all.

    I would keep trying and see what can be done. Maybe uninstall then reinstall your DirectX drivers then try downgrading your graphics card drivers to see if that helps out.

    If you are having HORRIBLE lag then I would test various settings like adjusting the draw distance + other various features.

    Dealing with the lag when do you experience the least and the most? One thing that you should test is just standing in a corner looking at the floor + 2 walls. If your lag doesn't go away then you may want to do a sweep of your computer. See what processes are running in the background. Don't know what laptop you are running, but i'm "guessing" anything over 40-48 processes maybe problematic.

    Do a ctrl+alt+delete to bring up the processes menu then write them all down. See what does what and try to see which ones you can eliminate. There maybe a program running in the background that makes it look like champions is taking up all of the cpu usage.
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