Problem with Return to Castle Wolfenstein

[slickg]

I bought Return to Castle Wolfenstein today and I am trying to run it on my computer. I'm having some problems with the game jerking and the loading times are VERY long. Also for some reason the game locked up a couple times during loading. Here is a little info about my system. I am running a 900mhz Athlon Classic on an IWill KK266 motherboard with 196 mb of PC100 memory. My video card is a 32 MB DDR Geforce 2 GTS. Windows 98 SE. Western Digital 10 gb Hard drive 5400 RPMs. CD Roms are ACER 8x4x32 cd rw.

 

[Hendrik]

I suppose the easiest way to improve things would be to get a better OS, for example Windows 2000 or XP.

 

[eviltoon]

We have the same video card. I play RTCW at 1152x864 and it runs great. Our diffences are in the OS (windows 2000), memory 384rd ram and P4. Have you tried it at really low resolution to see how it plays....I'm responding only because we have the same video card and I think the card is wonderful, especially since it's so old. Not much help I'm afraid.

 

[GeSuN]

Do you have the latest patch installed? Maybe this can help... Also try reducing the resolution. Might help as well.

 

[sep]

Your system should run the Single Player and Multiplayer (depending on ISP) just fine a 1024x768x32. Where are you having the problem (Multi or Single)?

Make Sure to do the following:
*Get the latest Nvidia drivers.
*Get the latest Wolf patch, currently v1.31
*Disable everything on your desktop (Firewall, Software, Active Monitors, etc.)
*Clean out temp files in your temp directory
(Dos Prompt, type Set & Enter. This will display where your temp file is)
*Very important, Defrag your hard drive.

Set resolution to 640x480x32. Did the problems go away? If so, increase resolution until you run in to problems. If not, then it's something else.

Other things you might consider:
*Overclocking the card.
*Tweaking Win98
*Definitly increase Memory, Load times and reading from Mem vs Hard Drive will speed things ups.

 

[schmedy]

I run in 98se fine at that resolution with almost the same system, just more sdram. When I first installed had similar problem, went to Nvidia and got the latest drivers for the GeForce, works great now sp and mp.

 

[travler]

from my experience RTCW does load slower than other newer games I have played including FPS types. I do get some occasionaly jerking in shooters in general but its caused by my crappy radeon LE

 

[BFG10K]

Make sure you have the latest drivers for your video card and the latest chipset drivers and BIOS for your system. Also try reducing the game detail levels (try 800 x 600 x 32 or lower) and lower the texture detail levels. Also try enabling texture compression too. RTCW completely kills 32 MB cards and it even eats up 64 MB boards on higher detail/resolution levels because of its numerous large textures.

Also you might want to think about getting some more RAM as 196 MB is not really enough for games like RTCW. People with even 256 MB or 384 MB have noted marked improvements in the game when they upgraded to 512 MB RAM, especially in level load times.

 

[sep]

<< People with even 256 MB or 384 MB have noted marked improvements in the game when they upgraded to 512 MB RAM, especially in level load times. >>



A coworker whom I game with on Saturday Nights was running a P4 1.8, 256MB RDRAM and G2 MX400 on Cable. He was getting in the game before me when I only had 256MB (see rig below). When I upgraded to 512MB the load times increased substantial and I was loading a map before him...that is until he upgraded to 512MB. I don't think going higher than 512MB would make a noticeable difference, do you?

 

[Jedibus]

<< I suppose the easiest way to improve things would be to get a better OS, for example Windows 2000 or XP. >>

 

[sep]

Jedibus, I agree: