Simple solution to making Battlefield 2 run smoother?

[xtknight]

I don't understand this. I start up BF2 (retail) in XP32, and it takes so painfully long to load a level. At loading 'Collision', it takes probably another 2 minutes until it gets to loading 'Geometry'. In XP64, it takes about 5 seconds. In game play in XP32, the game stutters awfully, unbearably. In XP64, it's smooth as a baby's ass. I've defragmented, and the problem remains. I have no more background programs in XP32 except Azureus (and not all the time). Why is it so slow in XP32 compared to XP64? XP64 feels like Linux to me. Is this a sign of a rewriting of memory management for Windows? I sure hope it is.

BTW, XP64 is on another partition to prevent conflicting "Program Files" directories. Perhaps my XP32's page file needs defragmenting (which isn't normally done)? BF2 is on the same partition though. I installed BF2 on XP32, and I just run it as an EXE from Program Files in XP64.

Just a note to everyone in the same situation as me with two 512 sticks. Don't get shell out for another gig before I report back on defragging my page file! This may very well be the problem. It also explains why some people that have a gig run it just fine.

I also have another theory. I ran CacheMan the other day (set to Gaming setting and may have actually made this worse). Maybe people that have a gig and run BF2 fine have the correct cache adjustments versus other's?

I'm going to defrag my XP32's page file with the free Sysinternals utility and report back. If that doesn't help I'll screw with my cache settings and find out the best settings for BF2.

BTW, this problem is consistent. Rebooting XP32 didn't help. Also my settings for BF2 in XP32 and XP64 are identical.

My conclusion is either XP64's memory management is near as good as Linux now, cache settings can prevent you from buying another gig of RAM, or you just need to defrag your page file and you'll be fine. All good news... In any case, I'm determined to figure out why some people with one gig have no stutter and others have it bad.

 

[xtknight]

Update... I found a small part of the problem. I had lighting high in XP32 and medium in XP64. Lighting medium is somewhat smoother in XP32, but something just doesn't seem right. I turn lighting high in XP64, and the stuttering is not near as bad as it is in XP32. The hard disk seems to access 3x less in XP64 than XP32. Very odd. Anyone got any ideas?

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

Defragging doesn't REALLY help.

I have everything set to medium except Dynamic Lights and Dynamic Shadows (which are set to Off). Anti-Aliasing is set to Off. View distance is @ 100%. Resolution @ 1600x1200.

It hardly ever stutters /w an

[*] AXP @ 2.0GHz
[*] 1GB of ram
[*] 9800 Pro 128MB (5.6 drivers).

 

[xtknight]

Heck, even the dIce cinematic at the beginning of the game lags in XP32, even with medium lighting, while it does not in XP64. It never used to do this on XP32 with the BF2 demo. Very odd. By the way, anyone know how to remove those cinematics?

 

[luigi1]

Your saying your self that you see hard drive access. Thats your page file. With 2 gigs set everything to high except shadows and double check your sound options. On a good server it runs good and I mean good in the middle of an arty strike. Good during strike at karland on a 64 player server at the start of the game. I had 1 gig upgraded to 2 then found I had memory errors went back to 1 then after RMA back to 2. Its VERY noticable. With 1 gig youll get stutering during the first min or two every time. With 2 gig you will never see this.

 

[luigi1]

Oh, the intro movies? just change the ext to .bak.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: luigi1
Oh, the intro movies? just change the ext to .bak.

Ah, thanks, got it.

 

[luigi1]

I dont mean to nay say your observations about win 64 vs 32. I have no opinion about this. I'm speaking about XP 1 gig vs XP 2 gig only (32 bit both ways).

 

[xtknight]

Next thing I'll try is resetting my cache settings back that I had set with CacheMan.

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

Originally posted by: xtknight
Heck, even the dIce cinematic at the beginning of the game lags in XP32, even with medium lighting, while it does not in XP64. It never used to do this on XP32 with the BF2 demo. Very odd. By the way, anyone know how to remove those cinematics?

just delete everything in the Battlefield 2/mods/bf2/movies folder EXCEPT

[*]Menu
[*]Menu_loggedin

You CAN safely delete them, but you'll just get an orange screen for the background in the game.

 

[BW86]

Originally posted by: JustAnAverageGuy
You CAN safely delete them, but you'll just get an orange screen for the background in the game.

Thats wierd, I deleted them and I get the regular bg not an orange bg

 

[bustacaptx]

Delete your shader cache (everything in the folder 'My Documents\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2\cache'), defrag your drive then crank up BF2. It'll reoptimize the shaders for your current settings.

This is especially helpful if you'll changed your BF2 display options numerous times. Reduces the stuttering significantly for many people, even those with less than 1gb.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: bustacaptx
Delete your shader cache (everything in the folder 'My Documents\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2\cache'), defrag your drive then crank up BF2. It'll reoptimize the shaders for your current settings.

This is especially helpful if you'll changed your BF2 display options numerous times. Reduces the stuttering significantly for many people, even those with less than 1gb.

Thanks. Last time I tried that, the files wouldn't delete because the path was so long my file system didn't even support it. Makes me wonder if that cache is even possible to be read by BF2 in the first place?

 

[bustacaptx]

Originally posted by: xtknight

Originally posted by: bustacaptx
Delete your shader cache (everything in the folder 'My Documents\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2\cache'), defrag your drive then crank up BF2. It'll reoptimize the shaders for your current settings.

This is especially helpful if you'll changed your BF2 display options numerous times. Reduces the stuttering significantly for many people, even those with less than 1gb.

Thanks. Last time I tried that, the files wouldn't delete because the path was so long my file system didn't even support it. Makes me wonder if that cache is even possible to be read by BF2 in the first place?

Do you have your "My Documents" somewhere else other than the default location? Or use a reaaaalllllyyyy long username? Because my shader cache path is 'C:\Documents and Settings\gary\My Documents\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2\cache'. Something close to that shouldn't be too long for XP to recognize and delete.

 

[xtknight]

I have a feeling BF2 can't even use the cache because the Windows API it uses fails since the path is too long. There is only 3 files in there now! My username now is "unknown.UNKNOWN-055114F" (due to a reinstall). My old user name, just "unknown", had files in that cache directory, but they couldn't be deleted. This would explain why the demo was so much faster because I only had the demo on my old install, I think.

 

[KoolDrew]

I also have another theory. I ran CacheMan the other day (set to Gaming setting and may have actually made this worse). Maybe people that have a gig and run BF2 fine have the correct cache adjustments versus other's?

Just get rid of that crap. It is not helping you at all just like every other optimization program.

I'm going to defrag my XP32's page file with the free Sysinternals utility and report back. If that doesn't help I'll screw with my cache settings and find out the best settings for BF2.

A fragmented pagefile will make no difference in performance unless it is extremely fragmented.

I advise you stay away from those retarded optimizing programs and tweaking guides.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew
Just get rid of that crap. It is not helping you at all just like every other optimization program.

I downloaded it because it was free, but I would never have bought it. Uninstalled it a week ago when I realized it was probably just making my BF2 worse.

For some reason, BF2 also doesn't stutter when I'm under the Administrator account versus my normal account. Maybe just because the Admin account has no custom skins, and it's basically anorexic?