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Lag issues with S&M 202

peoplespeoples
edited February 2008 in Game Support
Hi,

It is the first episode that I have encountered problems with.

Problem is that it lags and sounds are lagging as well, except for speech. It starts in the intro part, which is really annoying. 201 and previous episodes work perfectly.

processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 3,2GHz
mainboard: ASUS P5B Deluxe
memory: 2GB of DDR2-800
videocard: ATI Radeon 1950 Pro
soundcard: E-MU 0404 + newest drivers
OS: Windows XP Professional SP2

I first thought it might have something to with my soundcard, but it is not only the sounds that are lagging, it's the whole game. Resolution doesn't have change it better or worse. Gameplay and sounds still lag. I tried different priority modes and affinitys but it doesn't help.

I will try to update my GFX card drivers and see if that helps, but if someone has experienced similar problems and solved them, it would be great to hear.

Comments

  • peoplespeoples
    edited January 2008
    Updated the drivers, 8.1 the newest for the ATI. Didn't help, going to reinstall the game now and see if that helps.

    EDIT: That didn't help, I redownloaded the game and installed it again, but the problem persists.

    More specifically the problem is affecting the background music and trafficnoises, also some of the voiceovers are garbled and lag. Whole game feels jerky no matter what I do for the settings. In it's current state it is unplayable :(
  • GekkioGekkio
    edited January 2008
    Try using your motherboard's soundcard.

    I have similar problems with my EMU 1820, but it works perfectly with my mobo's own soundcard (P5B Deluxe integrated soundcard). I had this problem also with S&M 201 Gametap version, but not with the regular version once I got it.

    Here are my specs:

    - Intel Core 2 Duo 3,2GHz
    - ASUS P5B Deluxe
    - 2GB of DDR2-800
    - Nvidia 8800 Ultra
    - EMU 1820 with latest drivers (v2.0 beta)
    - Windows XP Professional SP2

    PS.
    I had similar lag problems with Prince of Persia - Warrior Within some time ago, but it worked the other way (using EMU instead of the builtin ADI soundcard).
    I guess there are some compatibility problems between some soundcards and some games.
  • WillWill Telltale Alumni
    edited January 2008
    The sound card could very well be hanging up the whole game if there is a conflict. I think there is some different code in this episode in terms of sound handling, but I'll have to ask Kevin to be sure.

    Make sure nothing is running in the background and it might be worth checking to see which processes are taking up the most RAM and processing power. Also, if you haven't already, updating DirectX can often fix these problems.
  • peoplespeoples
    edited January 2008
    I have not had any problems with other games before this, not even on other episodes. There is plenty processing power available for Sam & Max, so I doubt that to be a problem.
  • WillWill Telltale Alumni
    edited January 2008
    So several things have changed in the backend code since 201. As mentioned previously, the sound code has changed pretty significantly, so there is a possibility that there is a conflict with your sound card.

    Similarly, the security has been modified a fair bit. Its theoretically possible that your virus scanner or something could be fighting with the SecuRom checking. If that's the case, you would probably see a pretty heavy jump in processor usage as they fight for priority. That could easily slow down the system.

    And there is always the possibility that something has changed since you played the other games. That should be pretty easy to test by just loading up one of the older episodes and seeing if they have problems now where they didn't before.
  • peoplespeoples
    edited January 2008
    I don't have a virus-scanner or firewall(except NAT in my router). But I use DAEMON Tools, but it hasn't cause any problems with any of the games that use SecuRom(e.g BioShock).

    I tested the other episodes, they work fine. That's why this buggs me as much as it does :(
  • WillWill Telltale Alumni
    edited January 2008
    Based on what I know of the security settings, it would not surprise me in the least to find that daemon tools is the culprit. Try disabling it and rebooting to see if that fixes it.
  • SegSeg
    edited January 2008
    The next thing we'd like for you to try is disabling DAEMON tools. If it works, that's it! If not, then it's a further mystery to solve...
  • peoplespeoples
    edited January 2008
    Seg wrote: »
    The next thing we'd like for you to try is disabling DAEMON tools. If it works, that's it! If not, then it's a further mystery to solve...

    I uninstalled the whole thing, and didn't help. The problem is still the same.
  • WillWill Telltale Alumni
    edited January 2008
    Hmmm.... try disabling your sound card and then playing the game. If it is still stuttering then we can be pretty sure that that isn't the problem.
  • peoplespeoples
    edited January 2008
    Doesn't stutter after I disable the soundcard, it's mostly the sounds that stutter. So it's sound related issue.


    Still, the problem only occurs in S&M 202. I updated the newest drivers for soundcard as well, but no change. It sometimes skips certain words and so on. But, it changes time to time, in certain areas it is not that bad, and some areas it is really bad like whent he game begins and the "Telltale Games" text appears, the saxophones in the background stutter as does the traffic noises. Also, the first conversation between Sam & Max is really bad, it skips words and so on. It gets better in the island. But it doesn't dissappear totaly.
  • WillWill Telltale Alumni
    edited January 2008
    Hmmm..... Have you tried uninstalling your soundcard drivers and rolling back to an older version?
  • peoplespeoples
    edited January 2008
    No I haven't, the older drivers aren't any better :) But all other episodes work without hiccups.
  • peoplespeoples
    edited January 2008
    peoples wrote: »
    No I haven't, the older drivers aren't any better :) But all other episodes work without hiccups.

    Also, thing to mention, the ones that I had before the upgrade are 1.82, now I have 2.00. So there is no older ones of those that I had before the upgrade. And they would likely just introduce bunch of problems to other softwares, and likely not help at all on this issue either.
  • peoplespeoples
    edited February 2008
    I bought a new soundcard, and hopefully it will solve these issues. The new episode suffers from similar symptoms, although it doesn't lag at all, but the sounds are garbled, skipping and stuttering.
  • peoplespeoples
    edited February 2008
    All good now, but it needed some work :)

    Windows XP Professional was replaced by Vista 64-bit
    E-MU 0404 PCI was replaced by SoundBlaster X-Fi PCI card

    X-Fi driver version: 6.0.1.1304
  • WillWill Telltale Alumni
    edited February 2008
    Great to hear it worked!
This discussion has been closed.