It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
avatar
AlabasterSlim: I found a good way to limit the framerate to 30 fps. Well, not a good way but it works.
If I use FRAPS and record at 30fps and lock the framerate to that then the game runs at 30fps. Of course, it also records everything I do and uses up a larger and larger amount of my disc space.
avatar
evilguy12: Ah, now that would explain how that video was running so smoothly.

I tried this and for some reason it didnt work as well as the other guy for me. The wheels just keep on wobbling, the sound stuttering, and the game unplayable :(
However, the dgvoodoo seems to be working nicely for me and I can see the graphic nicer. The only thing left is this stupid AI/framerate issue.
I tried playing with CPU grabber but I cant seem to find a sweet spot. I tried 70 and it just kills the framerate and the game (sound stuttering, wheels wobbling, and slowness). Any idea?
Thanks ekj7 and Manfromx, I'll try this once I got home. A few follow up questions I guess:
- Is there any command that I can put in my batch file so that i76.exe will start using only one cpu core or will that 'start /w /affinity 1 i76.exe -glide works?
-I have dgvoodoo downloaded. There's no instruction but thanks to you, I'll try put it on the same I76 folder. Is there anything that I should do to make sure the game uses this? Is it going to be -d3d or still -glide? My card is also Nvidia, not ATI. Will this work still?
I'll give this a try along with FRAPS if it is going to work better than CPUGrab...I still cant find the best setting for my CPU that wont cause the wheels not wobbling.

The game already locks itself to one core, something GOG likely configured. You can tell this by running the game, then trying to set affinity from task manager.
dgVoodoo works because it replaces glide2x.dll, which the game is already linked too. So it's just a substitution with more functionality. Just need to specify the "-glide" parameter to use it.
If you've got cpugrab set to 70% and you're getting stuttering, then it's set too high. Try a lower value.
avatar
ekj7:
Thanks ekj7 and Manfromx, I'll try this once I got home. A few follow up questions I guess:
- Is there any command that I can put in my batch file so that i76.exe will start using only one cpu core or will that 'start /w /affinity 1 i76.exe -glide works?
-I have dgvoodoo downloaded. There's no instruction but thanks to you, I'll try put it on the same I76 folder. Is there anything that I should do to make sure the game uses this? Is it going to be -d3d or still -glide? My card is also Nvidia, not ATI. Will this work still?
I'll give this a try along with FRAPS if it is going to work better than CPUGrab...I still cant find the best setting for my CPU that wont cause the wheels not wobbling.

The game already locks itself to one core, something GOG likely configured. You can tell this by running the game, then trying to set affinity from task manager.
dgVoodoo works because it replaces glide2x.dll, which the game is already linked too. So it's just a substitution with more functionality. Just need to specify the "-glide" parameter to use it.
If you've got cpugrab set to 70% and you're getting stuttering, then it's set too high. Try a lower value.

I tried it with CPU Grab and with the game locked to one core, didnt give me good result, unfortunately. Damnit they need to issue a patch :(
I tried setting the CPU Grab down to 10% and now it is no longer stuttering, but the wheels are incredibly wobbly. Plus all the menu and the main movie is now somehow rainbow colored.
EDIT: Apparently I made a little mistake by putting the main icon using -d3d while my batch file using -glide. I fixed it so that it wont use anything for the main icon, and my batch file will use -glide, plus I used the compatibility mode for Windows 95, plus all the options mentioned on page 1. Getting no more stuttering on the audio, and the wheels are less wobbly on 80%, HOWEVER the performance started to suffer. Stuttering framerate I'm not sure what else to do.
So far, my conclusion is either sacrifice performance to get non-wobbly wheels and Taurus drunk driving, or get those annoying wobbling driving, but very smooth performance. Honestly, both situations are not really win-win. Anyone here with Windows 7 64 bit, multicores, and Nvidia card managed to get it to run? Are the GOG teams investigating into this?
Post edited February 23, 2010 by indrasut
All I can really say is be absolutely sure you have I76.exe (or nitro.exe) set to use 1 core and then make sure cpugrab.exe is also set to use that same core.
That's why I suggest using the task manager to do this at the moment as it's easy to see what affinity each process is using.
After you've got things how you like them that's the time to start making your batch files.
I can't imagine what else could be wrong unless other processes are eating more of your cpu cycles on the core I76 and Cpugrab are on. Since wobbly wheels are caused by high framerates (reminds me of trying to play Wing Commander 2 on a Pentium, impossible to say the least )
As far as audio problems are concerned I can't comment. Sound + music has worked fine for me on both my USB headset and Dedicated audio card.
If both Fraps and FPS limiter are able to limit games to 30fps, then this implies it isn't hard to do. (heck, FPS limiter seems to have been written in Java!). The GOG guys really need to write a framerate limiting program, as it'd be very useful for many of their games.
I'm always a little wary of running CPU grab programs, as it seems to be a bad idea to stress my CPU that much intentionally.
avatar
Manfromx: All I can really say is be absolutely sure you have I76.exe (or nitro.exe) set to use 1 core and then make sure cpugrab.exe is also set to use that same core.
That's why I suggest using the task manager to do this at the moment as it's easy to see what affinity each process is using.
After you've got things how you like them that's the time to start making your batch files.
I can't imagine what else could be wrong unless other processes are eating more of your cpu cycles on the core I76 and Cpugrab are on. Since wobbly wheels are caused by high framerates (reminds me of trying to play Wing Commander 2 on a Pentium, impossible to say the least )
As far as audio problems are concerned I can't comment. Sound + music has worked fine for me on both my USB headset and Dedicated audio card.

Batch files was created last night with your help to use cpu 2 (for me) on both i76.exe and cpugrab.exe. Tried playing around with the slider until around 80% where I can get the audio working fine, but the framerate suffers, although the car wobbles maybe once every minute (which is acceptable). The game however, becomes unplayable as soon as I saw buildings which kills my framerate.
Do you know if anyone in the GoG team planning to release a patch that will fix this? I guess what soulgrindr said might be true. If most of the issues with the old games are framerates causing funny stuff, maybe framerate limiter is what they need to be working on.
If anyone is using zeckensack's glide wrapper, have they tried messing with the Refresh rate adn V-sync options? In particular the "By app, pedantic" v-sync setting sounds promising.
http://www.zeckensack.de/glide/readme.htm#games
also, i notice the dgvoodoo readme says something about a similar option,which was removed in the latest version. Maybe.
[The other old option, with which application-given freq could be emulated
at arbitrary effective refresh freq, has been removed, I didn't have a
good mind to deal with it while reimplementing the base of DX7 renderer.
I don't think anybody used it at all, it's only use perhaps was keeping
one's eyes in its sockets by using a high refresh freq while it could be
virtually capped to a lower value. :)]
Just incase anyone feels like messing with the options, or trying an older version of dgvoodoo (from a safer site)
Anyone have a complete list of openglid.ini options? There are quite a few more than the ones this release uses by default.
avatar
soulgrindr: If both Fraps and FPS limiter are able to limit games to 30fps, then this implies it isn't hard to do. (heck, FPS limiter seems to have been written in Java!). The GOG guys really need to write a framerate limiting program, as it'd be very useful for many of their games.
I'm always a little wary of running CPU grab programs, as it seems to be a bad idea to stress my CPU that much intentionally.

I have similar reservations about the CPU grab solution. Stressing your CPU that much in a constant manner is certainly ill-advised. When you're running i`76, it's probably trying to use ~50%, but that's too fast. That means you have to grab upwards of 60% or so to make it smoother, but now instead of having 50% overhead, you've got 0% since CPU grab is gobbling up cycles. The heat output from this and the asymmetric distribution, just sounds wonky to me.
Finding a good way to cap the game at 30 FPS sounds like a better solution, given that then, there won't be any issues with dynamic resource allocation (i.e. for those times when I'76 needs 40% CPU instead of 30% CPU to run at 30 FPS, it'll be fine, as opposed to constantly burning 70% CPU with CPU Grab and making that power unavailable). I just wish there were a better way to cap things than FRAPS, since that's going to flood your disk with unneeded/unwanted video.
Perhaps there is a way to trick Fraps into believing it's recording. Renaming the movies folder (unsurprisingly) didn't work. What we need is a digital equivalent to a bucket with holes in it.
Don't worry about stressing your CPU ;)
Chances are you have many games that can keep your CPU at 90% capacity
I have a system monitor on my keyboard and games like Mass Effect 2 can push both my cores over 80% for long periods of time.
avatar
Lamberghini: Perhaps there is a way to trick Fraps into believing it's recording. Renaming the movies folder (unsurprisingly) didn't work. What we need is a digital equivalent to a bucket with holes in it.

Not sure about you (who probably owns it) but I don't feel like shelling out $39 for FRAPS if that is the answer.
Actually, I don't, but the demo version lets you try the recording function for 30 seconds at a time.
With the dgvoodoo wrapper, explorer-killing batch file and Nvidia enforced eyecandy, the game looks fantastic. It's such a pity that the AI drives like a plastered grandmother on ice. How annoying that we can clearly see the solution, but are unable to reach it. Gog should provide an FPS limiter.
Using FRAPS to slow down I-76 is an incredibly drastic solution. Is CPUGrab not working for you guys? You may need to set its affinity to 'core 0' in the Task Manager.
avatar
Manfromx: Don't worry about stressing your CPU ;)
Chances are you have many games that can keep your CPU at 90% capacity
I have a system monitor on my keyboard and games like Mass Effect 2 can push both my cores over 80% for long periods of time.

Actually, my CPU temps never crack 60 - 70 degrees C when playing even the most intensive games. On more 'light' games it will stay at 50 C. When I run linpacker (100% usage) it easily soars to 80 C. Pegging the CPU at that temperature seems unhealthy, hence my reluctance to use CPUGrab. I realize it works, but it seems like such an overkill solution to the problem. Particularly since there should be some existing way to limit FPS through the Glide wrappers, if I'm assuming correctly. I just haven't been able to find, myself. The only limiters I've been able to see in the wrappers cap things at 60 FPS, which we've established already is too fast.
Post edited February 24, 2010 by Teflon.Djinn