About system performance

[Frozer]

Hi! everyone~

Haven't been here for long since last time ^^"

Recently, I got back to this game and started a new round of scenerio.
I've been suffering from system lagging everytime I play on my homemade map.
Now my system started to lag again, no matter I adjust the system.
(Every time the lagging happens, the FPS rate drops about 20 to 40.
Usually, when I view the whole map, the FPS rate is around 100~120,
and when I take a close view to trains and buildings, the FPS rate is about 50~80 initially.
These rate drops while the game proceeds and the scale of cities grows)
So is anyone have such experience and knowing how to fix the lagging problem?

Here's my system detail--

< Hardware spec >
ASUS F3SV (notebook)
CPU: Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo T7300 2GHz
RAM: 2GB
Graphic Card: nVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS
CPU temperature normal/during gameplay: 53~55 /60~63 (centigrade)
GPU temperature normal/during gameplay: 73~75 /91~96 (centigrade)

< In-game setting >
Model detail:
-Building: 5
-Train: 8
-Trees: 3
-Ground: 17*

*if under 16, the edge of coastline will suffer from severe "zigzag" problem after save & load, so I have to use this grade

Draw distance:
Buildings & trees: 4
Trees: 4
Trains: 4
Tree density: 40%
Distant fogging: OFF

Texture detail: NORMAL
Mipmapping: Tri-linear filtering
Enable +0.5 mipmapping bias: OFF
Enable anisotropic filter: OFF
Draw clouds: ON
Draw ground detail texture: ON

Particles: NORMAL
Shadows: DEFAULT QUALITY
Font shadows: ON
Ocean waves: ON
Water reflections: ON

Anti alias: OFF
Use safer refresh rate: ON

< Map detail >
Map size: 640*640
Total cities: 147**
Current connected cities: 61
Current trains : 41

** I used to have over 280 cities and the lagging problem is far more serious than now!
So I have no choice but to greatly reduce the number of cities.
When I connect around 50 cities and have more than 30 trains, the system begins to lag,
and getting worse when I purchase more trains or extend my network.
Also, the loading time and the time I end the game grows with these factors.

If anyone knows where the problems are, please let me know!
(In fact, I really don't want to create a smaller map.
After all, this current homemade map took me lots of time to finish and debug...)

[Hawk]

You didn't mention your Operating System, but if it's Win 7 or Vista you could probably use more RAM as WIN 7 uses almost 2 GB to function right, so I've read.

[Moggie]

Windows 7 runs quite fine on my computer with 2G. But I have a desktop so that may make the difference.

[Frozer]

Sorry that I didn't mension my OS.
I use Windows XP, and I've heard that the AI of RT3 can "eat all your resource alive!"
(I've searched the article on this forum few days ago.)

My track milage is 10,305 miles, and most of my trains have less than 15 stops.
Did I made the map too large (640*640 with 147 cities)?

[OilCan]

The settings and map conditions described in your post should not produce a lag. There are much larger maps with many more cities than 147 in the archive which do not produce a lag. It is something else.

If I understand your posts correctly, the lag only happens with your homemade map and not other maps?
If Yes, then....
How many AI do you have in the game? Open up SCBC 1898 game which has 15 AIs and see if a lag occurs. AIs do keep a CPU busy, but I've never noticed a lag with a high number of AIs.
Do you have several events which are set at a weekly or monthly frequency? Lots of these events can slow down a game. Faster computers have made this less of an issue.
Do you have several events which have 'temporary durations'? Like an event in which the effect lasts for 10 months? And do these events overlap in time? These kinds of events cause the CPU to write 'temporary' events to keep track of the durations which adds to CPU use.
Do you have lots of regions on your map, like over 20 regions? Are building rates in these regions set at about default or set much higher than default? Lots of regions with high growth rates keep the CPU busy, but again this is less of concern with faster computers.

If No, then I kind of think that it is a graphics issue. I have an older desktop with Windows Xp and the graphics are set at 'high' otherwise match your settings. Lagging is not an issue with my desktop. If you wish to share your homemade map (saved at about 50 cities connected), I will gladly see if it lags on my desktop.

[Frozer]

Good evening,OilCan

Thank you for your help, and now I just describe my situation according to your questions.

>How many AI do you have in the game? Open up SCBC 1898 game which has 15 AIs and see if a lag occurs. AIs do keep a CPU busy, but I've never noticed a lag with a high number of AIs.

I have no any AI, I just like to play with myself.
In fact, I always play this game on my on, setting the number of AIs to zero.
I have only played two maps -- Japan quakes and my own map.

>Do you have several events which are set at a weekly or monthly frequency? Lots of these events can slow down a game. Faster computers have made this less of an issue.

No, all my events are annual.
I just let events to set the economy status (the price and production of cargo) and the property of engines (reliability, fuel efficiency, etc.)
I do have some old events that when some regios are connected, then the game set some certain game variable to 1.
But they are meaningless in my game for now, since I have no event that uses game variables.

>Do you have several events which have 'temporary durations'? Like an event in which the effect lasts for 10 months? And do these events overlap in time? These kinds of events cause the CPU to write 'temporary' events to keep track of the durations which adds to CPU use.

No, I set all event to permenant effective.

>Do you have lots of regions on your map, like over 20 regions? Are building rates in these regions set at about default or set much higher than default? Lots of regions with high growth rates keep the CPU busy, but again this is less of concern with faster computers.

I have about 4~5 regions in my map only.

In fact, I just want to play the game carefreely, so I let events to double the price and production of the cargo.
I aso set some events to improve the performances of the train (the speed and reliability).
I appreciate your help, and if you want to try my map and my saving, please let me know what file I should send to you.
I will send them to your e-mail box you provide.

Thank you!

[OilCan]

Please send me the game map and I will play it from the beginning. Send it by Private Message on this forum (click on my username or oil can picture). You need to zip or rar the game map before you attach it to the private message.