Game got bad performance recently
So I downloaded and played Episode 5 yesterday evening, and everything was still fine. Got up this morning and started playing again right away, but for some reason the game started veeery slowly.
Now this is my problem. The game needs ages to start, ages to load new levels, and basically takes some time for everything I do (mouseover objects, selecting new dialogues, everything).
I study computer science so I am not unfamiliar with computer problems. I did not install any new software since yesterday, I checked around the forum and deleted the prefs.prop to try that. I even reinstalled the game and it didn't help. I got the newest version of my the ati graphics driver, which didn't help, so I reverted back to the old one without any result. I got the new April release of DirectX and reverted back to the February version, no change.
I installed the Lincoln episode again and the problem is now there aswell. Now this really indicates a problem with my computer, not with Sam and Max. So I started some other games, Oblivion and Serious Sam 2, and both seem to have bad performance in the game menus aswell, but when ingame they perform as usual and the loading times are normal aswell. I really don't know where this is coming from and am clueless.
Btw, my system is the following, there should be no problems with that.
Athlon XP 64 4000+ Single Core (running 32 bit)
Radeon X1900XTX
1.5 gb RAM
Win XP SP2 32bit
I noticed in the process viewer when I start Sam and Max, the process starts pretty fast, but it takes about one minute to actually go fullscreen into the game. In that time the RAM usage rises very very slowly, by about 100kb every second. This may be the main reason for the slowdowns, but I don't know where this is coming from, because, as already stated, I did not change anything (that I am aware of) and my windows performs as usual.
Now this is my problem. The game needs ages to start, ages to load new levels, and basically takes some time for everything I do (mouseover objects, selecting new dialogues, everything).
I study computer science so I am not unfamiliar with computer problems. I did not install any new software since yesterday, I checked around the forum and deleted the prefs.prop to try that. I even reinstalled the game and it didn't help. I got the newest version of my the ati graphics driver, which didn't help, so I reverted back to the old one without any result. I got the new April release of DirectX and reverted back to the February version, no change.
I installed the Lincoln episode again and the problem is now there aswell. Now this really indicates a problem with my computer, not with Sam and Max. So I started some other games, Oblivion and Serious Sam 2, and both seem to have bad performance in the game menus aswell, but when ingame they perform as usual and the loading times are normal aswell. I really don't know where this is coming from and am clueless.
Btw, my system is the following, there should be no problems with that.
Athlon XP 64 4000+ Single Core (running 32 bit)
Radeon X1900XTX
1.5 gb RAM
Win XP SP2 32bit
I noticed in the process viewer when I start Sam and Max, the process starts pretty fast, but it takes about one minute to actually go fullscreen into the game. In that time the RAM usage rises very very slowly, by about 100kb every second. This may be the main reason for the slowdowns, but I don't know where this is coming from, because, as already stated, I did not change anything (that I am aware of) and my windows performs as usual.
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Comments
* Running the game windowed instead of full screen, just to see if that helps...
(you can change this in the game's options screen, or by just hitting alt-enter at any time during the game)
* Disabling any firewall or antivirus software you might have installed or enabled lately?
Forgot to try the second option, but now I did and it also did not help.
I don't think this is Sam&Max specific, it just seems that Sam&Max is impacted the most. A game I play frequently (a nice fast tetris clone) also has really unresponsive controls now, even though it was fine yesterday. On the other hand huge games which require massive processing power and ram work perfectly fine (Oblivion).
Does S&M use any special graphics libraries so I can track this down?
My hardware has also the same temperatures as usual, and I don't get any hardware conflicts.
I even reinstalled DirectX now (took quite some work, there were special tools from the web needed) because there might have been something there - nothing.
I think I have to reformat, altough I really really hate doing that. Well if anyone still has an idea please let me know.
The strange thing is my computer performs as normal in windows. Games with really high requirements like Oblivion or Gothic3 still run fine on max details, loading times are normal and it feels just like always. So if my computer WAS virus/spyware/whatever infected, it wouldn't just be Sam&Max, some Tetris game and Diablo II. Oh yeah, Diablo II also got bad performance now (bad as in 50fps as opposed to the usual 160).
Now besides of removing your protection, it also removes the weird html launcher that I did not like anyways. Maybe this is somehow causing the strange lagging issues? Is it possible to somehow disable it with a command-line parameter?
The HTML launcher is built into the protection and not something we can remove.
Did you try the uncracked version again on your desktop to see if it still lags or not? It's possible that the activation software is causing the problem, but the fact that it worked fine at one point and then stopped working makes me think that's not the cause.
Until then I will just continue playing the Episodes on the laptop, thanks for your help
Actually, it depends on the local laws. Some local laws will allow you to change a computer program if your only intention is to get the program to work in ways which match with what the producer intended. Also, these laws may or may not also permit that one use help from others to get a program one has legal rights to use, to work(which is what one does when somebody else makes a crack and you use it to get a game to work). Of course, the keyword is that one has to own legal rights to use product before one makes changes to.
To sum up, it can be legal, if your only intention is to use the product you have bought a legitim copy of in ways which match with what the producer intended the program to be used for, but I would read the laws about it carefully before doing it.