W2K: Games run great except for one...

[Olias]

All these games run great on Win2k Pro...
- Quake 3
- Need for Speed III
- Unreal
- Mysteries of the Sith
- Cabela Grand Slam Hunter

...but one of my favorite games is Descent 3 and it hiccups. I've tried so many things to figure this out...
- low res
- disabling all visual effects
- DirextX and OpenGL
- using only a mouse instead of a joystick
- updated video drivers
- DirectX 8.0
- VIA inf and agp drivers
- Win2k Pre SP2 Hotfix for VIA AGP
- Re-installing
- virtual memory tweaks

I've come to the conclusion that the game has a problem and not my system. It will be running smooth and all of a sudden it jumps way ahead, like I warped forward in time. But I didn't have this problem in Win9x/ME except I can't bring myself to going back to those crappy OS's. Anyway, if you have an idea why all other games run great except Descent3, I would sure appreciate your input. Here are my hardware specs... (sorry for the long post)

Asus P3V4X Motherboard, VIA 133a chipset (BIOS 1005)
P3-550E @ 733MHz SECC2 Coppermine Processor
Golden Orb Slot-1 CPU Cooler
Micron PC133, CAS2, 128MB DIMM
Asus V6800 Pure, GeForce 32MB DDR AGP Display Adapter
3Com EthierLink 10Mbps PCI TPO NIC
D-Link DFE-538TX 10/100Mbps NIC
SB Live Value Sound Card
Cambridge Digital SoundWorks Speakers
HP CD-Writer+ 8200
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus-40 30Gig DMA/66 HDD
Acer Aopen HX-45 ATX Case
Sunon Double Ball Bearing front Case Fan (3 Pin, 3500rpm, 36cfm)
Antec ATX PP303X 300W Power Supply
Microsoft SideWinder Precision Pro (USB) Joystick
Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite (PS/2)
Logitech Optical Wheel Mouse (PS/2)

Nvidia's 6.34 Detonator3 Drivers with VIA's 4.03 AGP driver.
4x AGP, fast writes, side band addressing - all enabled.

Idel Temp: 27C
Max Temp: 38C

 

[SaturnX]

You have to take into account that not all games will run as well on the NT kernel as they do on the 9x kernel. Not all games will run as well as they do on a 9x based system (what they were designed for). It's safe to say that it is a possibility that Decent doesn't run well on the NT kernel, so you don't have to think that it's your system. If you want more information about games/applications that compatible with NT check out the following site:

NT Compatible

--Mark

 

[Olias]

Thanks Tharyn, I did previously check the NT Compatible link and it looks like 100% compatibility.

 

[trots]

I had a similar experience with Blair Witch: Vol 1, and at first I just chalked it up to it being relatively inexpensive ($14.99) and figured "you get what you pay for." I have a similar video card (Asus V6600 Deluxe), and on a whim decided to try the NVIDIA GeForce Detonator 3 drivers instead of the Asus ones, and now that game (and everything else so far) works like a charm.

If you want to give it a whirl, they're here via HTML, or here via FTP.

 

[Olias]

Thanks trots, I did try the Det3 drivers... 6.31 and 6.47. I had the same problem. It?s really weird when it happens and it will happen randomly about 5 or 6 times a minute. Imagine yourself flying along with the scenery moving past you and in the blink of an eye, you're 100 feet in front of front of where you used to be. Sometimes it's smack straight into the wall. I also see enemies exhibiting the same behavior when they just vanish and appear the same instant somewhere else. This sounds like it might give you an advantage but it just disorients the heck out of you. I would to solve this one if there are any other ideas.

 

[juiio]

I don't know if this will help or not, but it can't hurt to try. There are a few games (Soldier of Fortune is one) that run incredibly poor on Win2k if the account that you are logged in as is an administrator (not neccessarily the default administrator, but rather any account that is set up as an administrator). On the flip side, some games work better when you're logged in as an administrator. Which ever you are currently doing, try the other. You never know.

 

[Olias]

Good piece of advice juiio. I made a "poweruser" account and tried Descent3 and it still skipps frames. I also tried some REG tweaks for Win2k and Det3 drivers. It must be something spacific to Desent3 and Win2k. ...but then again someone else with a Voodoo5 card told me he had no problems with this game in Win2k. Hmmm, is there some system service that could be causing this? TIA, Mitch