Author Topic: Does the CPU normally affect gameplay? (Read 2017 times)

lapa321 · « **on:** February 25, 2010, 03:31:32 PM »

I've just upgraded from an e7200 to an i5-750 and i quickly noticed that the formerly perfect drivers suddenly forgetting how to drive. On the e7200, they would always obey the traffic rules (using blinkers to change lanes, stay on the right side of the road, avoid collisions, etc.). I do occasionally see swerving vehicles or other glitches, but they are extremely rare.

When i changed to an i5-750, the AI suddenly became erratic.

I have a video made from before i upgraded and watching it again reinforced that something in the AI broke. Cars are now swerving, stalling for no reason, spawning into incoming traffic, driving off the road, etc. I even ran into an invisible police car *twice* in one hitchhike mission. I now stay a good distance behind any traffic, coz when the car in front of me stalls (which now happens often) and i swerve to avoid it, there's also a good chance that the car in the other lane will also stall.

Thinking about what happened here, when you consider that enemy AI's can now go through their decision loops a lot more often, will it change the way they react to you?

EDIT: Forgot to specify the game. It's Test Drive Unlimited.

ant900 · « **Reply #1 on:** February 25, 2010, 03:58:35 PM »

Only thing that I can think of is if the AI is frame based instead of time based.

lapa321 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 06, 2010, 06:47:56 AM »

Looks like you're right.

I just tried recording a race to make some comparison videos. Fraps pretty much kept the frame rate below 60fps, and the glitches disappeared! Just to make sure, i re-tried the race without recording (fraps says i'm holding well above 100fps throughout the race) and the glitches came back!

Viseroid · « **Reply #3 on:** March 06, 2010, 09:06:41 AM »

Cool, your computer is so good it hacks for you

vuzedome · « **Reply #4 on:** March 06, 2010, 11:30:35 AM »

What game is that? Or did I miss out something?

Mag-X · « **Reply #5 on:** March 06, 2010, 11:40:19 AM »

This thread is completely useless without knowing what game you are playing.

psyren · « **Reply #6 on:** March 06, 2010, 12:12:20 PM »

Quote from: Mag-X on March 06, 2010, 11:40:19 AM

This thread is completely useless without knowing what game you are playing.

lapa321 · « **Reply #7 on:** March 06, 2010, 12:16:08 PM »

Whoops. It's Test Drive Unlimited.

This would be the best driving sim if it wasn't for the AI.

Stsin · « **Reply #8 on:** March 06, 2010, 12:18:07 PM »

Try turning on V-Sync in that game? May also want to turn on triple buffering when v-sync is enabled.

lapa321 · « **Reply #9 on:** March 06, 2010, 01:02:38 PM »

Quote from: Stsin on March 06, 2010, 12:18:07 PM

Try turning on V-Sync in that game? May also want to turn on triple buffering when v-sync is enabled.

I tried. There's no vsync in the graphics options, it's permanently at 60hz, and the "Wait for Vertical Refresh" set to Always On, still lets the game run at 100+fps. I hope they have TDU2 in the works that'll fix the problem.

Most of the other games out there are racing sims on a controlled track. If you guys know of a good street racing game, could you suggest some? I already have NFS:Undercover, and the ForceFeedback support kinda sucks. It's great on the Momo, but on the G25 it's nearly undriveable.

A while back i read an article on SiN that said a faster processor will make for harder enemies coz they'll be able to go through their decision cycles faster. I guess AI's were frame based back then. I've tried my hand at pathfinding AI's and that experience makes me simply amazed whenever i see thousands of the little units in Command & Conquer find their way across a map. I never thought a processor would be too fast for an AI until today.

Stsin · « **Reply #10 on:** March 06, 2010, 01:10:24 PM »

Odd that it ignores those settings. Also can try setting the wait for vertical refresh in you graphics driver settings. May be able to override the game settings.

nstgc · « **Reply #11 on:** March 06, 2010, 01:24:20 PM »

In both the ATi control panel/senter/thing and nVidia's there is an option to force V-sync on for all aplications. I have problems with older games not being faithful to their own settings so I just use nVidia's control panel to force the games to do what I want. Among these include vsync.

lapa321 · « **Reply #12 on:** March 06, 2010, 01:59:11 PM »

The "Wait for Vertical Refresh" was from the ATI control panel. I'm assuming it's their version of the V-Sync. You're just supposed to set that on the far right "Always On" and click ok right? TDU's seems to be overriding it

Mag-X · « **Reply #13 on:** March 06, 2010, 02:13:56 PM »

I'm sure there is a message board dedicated to Test Drive Unlimited. I would sign up there and ask. The people there would know much better than we would.

lapa321 · « **Reply #14 on:** March 06, 2010, 04:19:04 PM »

Quote from: Mag-X on March 06, 2010, 02:13:56 PM

I'm sure there is a message board dedicated to Test Drive Unlimited. I would sign up there and ask. The people there would know much better than we would.

Also went through there. It's been mostly inactive for the last 2 years. They're already aware of the AI glitches, but none seem have a rig fast enough to break the 100fps mark, so most don't know how worse it'll get when their frames go up. One guy did suggest that i modify the TDU folders to get rid of the traffic altogether, but it won't be a street racing anymore if you take them out.

I think there's a utility that supposed to override both driver and game settings and lock the vsync. I don't know what it's called tho.

ant900 · « **Reply #15 on:** March 07, 2010, 02:53:30 AM »

Quote from: lapa321 on March 06, 2010, 01:59:11 PM

The "Wait for Vertical Refresh" was from the ATI control panel. I'm assuming it's their version of the V-Sync. You're just supposed to set that on the far right "Always On" and click ok right? TDU's seems to be overriding it

'Wait for Vertical Refresh' is V-Sync (V==Vertical). And like previously mentioned, it is incredibly odd that the game ignores it.

Quote

A while back i read an article on SiN that said a faster processor will make for harder enemies coz they'll be able to go through their decision cycles faster. I guess AI's were frame based back then. I've tried my hand at pathfinding AI's and that experience makes me simply amazed whenever i see thousands of the little units in Command & Conquer find their way across a map. I never thought a processor would be too fast for an AI until today.

For some reason a lot of studios used to make games frame based instead of time based (might have been a bit easier on the processor). It makes a lot of games on today's computers impossible to run without an emulator like dosbox. I remember trying to boot up Descent a couple months back and everything moved so fast I couldn't tell what was happening. The up and down bobbing went so fast it made my head hurt

lapa321 · « **Reply #16 on:** March 07, 2010, 05:53:37 AM »

Quote from: ant900 on March 07, 2010, 02:53:30 AM

'Wait for Vertical Refresh' is V-Sync (V==Vertical). And like previously mentioned, it is incredibly odd that the game ignores it.

Maybe i'm just doing it wrong, but it really doesn't work. I've also tried running WarRock and Operation7 and both are still capped at 80fps (They are hardcoded not to go over 80fps it seems)

Quote

For some reason a lot of studios used to make games frame based instead of time based (might have been a bit easier on the processor). It makes a lot of games on today's computers impossible to run without an emulator like dosbox. I remember trying to boot up Descent a couple months back and everything moved so fast I couldn't tell what was happening. The up and down bobbing went so fast it made my head hurt

I'm looking at my game library right now and wondering how many of those i can still play.

Mag-X · « **Reply #17 on:** March 07, 2010, 01:06:12 PM »

Quote from: lapa321 on March 07, 2010, 05:53:37 AM

I'm looking at my game library right now and wondering how many of those i can still play.

Considering I have the exact same CPU, and I've never has a single problem, I think you're safe.

kyanwan · « **Reply #18 on:** March 07, 2010, 07:27:55 PM »

You can try a couple things -

1- Compatibility mode - from what I've heard, newer windows have a backwards compatibility mode. You can "emulate" an older version of windows for better performance. Try this?

2- CPU throttler - like fraps, but it's made just for the purpose of running old games. If you like old games - you need this.

But the puzzling thing ... is that game isn't all that old! I mean - I'm running on a system that's 8x more powerful than the system I ran Starcraft on - and I played starcraft on this current system ... and it runs perfectly fine. ( different engine and everything admitted - but I've done this with other games as well. Usually - they're on timers like said above. )

But - that's damn cool - lol! That a new cpu screwed up the game like that.

Say ... maybe you want to give Battlefield BC2 a try. ( IT KICKS FRICKIN' ASS! )

vuzedome · « **Reply #19 on:** March 08, 2010, 05:30:59 AM »

CPU throttle... I know what it does but... why would anybody want to do that?