upgrades to the compy???

GoreLeech · Post by **GoreLeech** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 9:29 pm

I've got an eMac at home which is REALLY crappy, but runs Oolite smooth, unless i get really crowded out (i.e. like 100 ships)....but just recently my Old G3 has been updated to version 10.3.4 OSX......its running on a Rage AtI 128 card, like 450-500 Mhz processors, and 1 256 memory, and a standard 128 memory built in .......any suggestions within a roughly 600$ budget for upgrades to this honorable machine that needs some refining???(only reason I ask is because im using Oolite and NeverWinter Nights on it, and you can really tell the difference in FPS and speed bewteen the 2 machines ((plus i wanna shame my cranky dad with my awsome computing powers)))

Mango · Post by **Mango** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 6:37 am

Well I have one of the old iMacs (with the coloured shells). It is 600mhz with 640mb of RAM, and Oolite runs as well as anything else. It can go "jaggy" for a second, but then it sorts itself out.

GoreLeech · Post by **GoreLeech** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 4:39 pm

Dude...the old iMac's OWN the Blue/White G3 to peices......

Rxke · Post by **Rxke** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 5:24 pm

Hey! I'm still running Oolite on an unexpanded 350Mhurtz B&W

(Needless to say, some of the more recent OXPs are a bit too much for the old bugger

)

GoreLeech · Post by **GoreLeech** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 8:03 pm

*coughs*

you realize i power dl'ed every OXP on oosat1 and 2.....and theres more comin, cuz it got corrupted....i aint askin on how YOUR computers do, im asking on advice how to make MINE better!

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 8:16 pm

A trick to better performance is to remove a mission OXP once you have completed it. The mission OXPs are "script-hungry" so use a bit of processing time even when there not running. Idealy leave the OXP in, as you may lose some ships that the OXP added to the Ooniverse generally, but if your system is chugging, finished mission are the ones to take out!

My 4 year old PC with 750 Megs of Ram runs OK with all the OXPs in, but I do get a seconds hang launching and usually a 3 - 4 second hang on leaving witchspace. Once the old girls up and running though, the game runs along at a reasonable 30 to 40 FPS. I think adding more RAM (which is cheap!) probabley gives the best improvement to running Oolite for the least cost.

Turing off Virus softeware whilst playing is handy as well, as some of these chew up a lot of spare RAM.

GoreLeech · Post by **GoreLeech** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 8:25 pm

=p i see the same hang time, but it never gets 30-40 fps, unless im out in space, and maybe at most 3-4 ships around as a maximum....when i get to visible distance of the station though, it gets LAGGY and i do mean laggy........basically to manually dock, i have to just fly in the general direction, because when i try to go up or down, it goes like 2 inches on the screen up or down....no precision navigation

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 8:31 pm

Yep. You are definatley short on RAM. My system is elderly (too slow to even run Halo properly never mind Doom3) and came with 128 Megs. With 128 Megs Oolite was unplayable, behaving like you describe, as it was constantly using hard-disk (slow) memory. You're getting the juddering as Oolite is constantly swaping to disk. If you play with all the 90 odd OXPs in, then Oolite is having to load up an extra 150 Megs or so into RAM when the game loads. If you're short on memory, this doesn't leave much left to run the game with!

I Added 512 Megs for £30 ($50 ish!) and it runs well (but not perfectly). I reckon 1 Gig is probabley the optium memory to run comfortabley with all the OXPs in and leave a bit to spare. This was a really cheap way to upgade an existing system!

Post by **dajt** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 10:30 pm

To keep the OXP ships but stop the mission wasting processing time once it is done, you could just rename the OXP's Config/script.plist file to something else.

This way the script won't be found and executed but all the ships will still be there.

FlyingBlind · Post by **FlyingBlind** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 2:45 pm

To answer the original question, about all that you can do to improve the eMac's performance is boost the RAM. My son is running a 4 year old eMac,
(G-4, 700 MHz) and Oolite's performance is a bit jerky.

Dan

GoreLeech · Post by **GoreLeech** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 2:41 pm

=p didnt mean the eMac....THAT runs fine with anything i can throw at it...im talking bout the G3....and sadly we already have a Ram chip in it.....but i think mainly its processors, and grahpics card.....i cant be hauling to good with an ATI Rage 128 16 meg card......=p so since the card just slots right in and out, im thinking about getting new(er) processors and a new card.....i only say this beacuse i encounter the same problem with NeverWinter Nights, and cuz i cant play Halo, because its processors are too slow

Wiggy · Post by **Wiggy** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 1:57 pm

GoreLeech,

You definitely want more RAM in the G3.

PS: Without wishing to prove your point, I do find your sig block in rather poor taste. And the joke does backfire with the poor grammar and spelling.

Rxke · Post by **Rxke** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 8:48 am

My G3 also uses the RAGE 128, and that's pretty marginal, a better card would be nice, with more video memory, but I always postpone it, because where to find a secondhand better card, is it still worth it (computer really getting oldish...)

johnsmith · Post by **johnsmith** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 9:35 am

You think you have problems? I get between 3 and 12 FPS on my 10 year old SGI. Maybe I'll try a RAM upgrade.