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Freefly101
Freefly101
Join Date 03/2009
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GAME keeps slowing down then Freezing :S:S

February 23, 2010 4:43:44 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Hey all....

 

PLaying diplomacy...2v2v2...with AI....4 hours into the game...the game starts to stutter, slows down and freezes for a few minutes.A few minutes later it all comes back to life, everything starts to move again but at a very slow pace.But again a few minutes after that it freezes.A never ending cycle...no point in playing it since it keeps getting stuck for so long.

 

I thought the PC might not be be able to cope with it . So i put all video and graphics to low and effects switched of and the same thing happens. 

 

Any idear what to do ?

 

Pc specs:

ATI 4870x2

4gb ram

2.6 mhz

 

 

 

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Freefly101
Sinperium
Join Date 02/2010
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Reply #1 February 23, 2010 5:14:45 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Hmmm...I think it is primarily a factor of the map size--how many worlds, pirates, militia, construction, combat, etc.

As you play, more and more current actions have to be written and stored into memory...eventually it gets full and your cpu puts memory loading on hold while it tries to catch up.  Think of your memory like a chain of large dump trucks and your cpu as the excavator that unloads them.  When you are going slow/freezing, there are so many trucks your cpu gets mental trying to unload them in sync and in real time.

Reducing the settings will help but if you have huge fleets and lots of pirate bases you might just be facing the limits of your hardware.

The other thing that can cause this behavior is high cpu temperature spikes due to the intense workout it gets in the game and insuffecient cooling.  If you have an undersize fan this might be an issue (most likely this isn't your problem but it can be a possibility).

So far, the posts I have read states SINs doesn't support multi-core processors--it uses only one and XP only accomodates 3gig of your ram and some of that is set aside/reserved for the OS and all.

Last consideration is background programs--automatic updates, virus updates, downloads, videos and the like might be kicking in at bad times.  I can't recommend going to hardware settings to optimize performance as I don't know what works best for SINs--maybe someone who knows the game software and comp hardware could comment on that.

My only suggestion is save the game and restart it--at least it can finish loading some stuff before it starts to crunch numbers again.

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Freefly101
029er
Join Date 04/2008
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Reply #2 February 23, 2010 5:30:09 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Could you be more specific about your processor?  2.6 Mega Hertz couldn't even play starcraft.  Other than that, double check to make sure your not doing virus scan and what not in the backround.  Dual 4870's is more than enough to power through any graphics this game can throw at you, and your ram dosen't look too bad either.  Also, do you know if you have a 32-bit or a 64-bit operating system?  32-bits can only access 4 gigs of ram that is shared by both your ram AND your graphics card, so that could also cause a bit of a slowdown there as well.  Sins isn't a very demanding game, so if you have a decent system with a decent processor, you should be fine.

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Freefly101
Freefly101
Join Date 03/2009
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Reply #3 February 23, 2010 6:37:38 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Here are some more specs. Thought it might be from OC but even when i switch off OC same problem. Also saved and reloaded. Once loaded...stutter movements...followed by smooth for a few minutes then again stutters and freezes for a few minutes before continuing.Cycle keeps repeating...

50 planets , 4 stars

Virus scan is not scanning (AVG). Still on in the background.

 

Sure its not heatproblems

 

 

CPU:Quad Core Q6700 2.66 / Zalman CNPS9500 LED

Mother Board:GYGABYTE - GA-X48T-DQ6

GPU: 4780x2 / THERMALTAKE TMG SL1

RAM:Corsair 2 * 2gb DDR3 1600

HD's: Seagate 2 *160gb sata strip,1*500gb, EXT 1*1T

Thermaltake 1200w

Samsung 26" T260 TCO03 DVI Black 5ms 20000:

Cases:3D Aurora 570 / 4 * 120mm fan turbine LED

Vista 64 ultimate

 

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Freefly101
Sinperium
Join Date 02/2010
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Reply #4 February 23, 2010 6:47:41 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Mmmmmm...64bit...time for windows 7 methinks.

I was wondering if anyone had "optimal" windows  hardware acceleration settings and all for Sins?  Aliasing settings and the like for the graphics cards?

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Freefly101
Freefly101
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Reply #5 February 23, 2010 7:53:11 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Crap sorry its windows 7 64 ultimate..

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Freefly101
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Reply #6 February 23, 2010 7:54:08 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

sorry its windows 7 64 ultimate....

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Freefly101
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Reply #7 February 23, 2010 7:58:03 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

All my graphics settings are maxed...just dont get why later on it start to slow down...i got a feeling it just cant cope with all the unites...but that sort of sucks...if its all about multiplayer... then how can anyone get a big game running...if it kills the cpu later on in the game.... there might be something else going on ?

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Freefly101
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Reply #8 February 23, 2010 8:11:34 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

And if it is that...then whats the point of the bigger maps....it cant be... then there is no point playing the huge maps unless you got a system on steroids ...or you planning you hit the right star on the largest maps on your rush streak before your system crashes ...

 

CPU load and temp including GPU is minimal...so that cant be it....

 

any ideas anyone ?

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Freefly101
dedjal
Join Date 03/2009
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Reply #9 February 24, 2010 9:29:06 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

I got a much lousier pc then you, and I'm not experiencing it.

 

My specs are

 

Intel duo core 1.86 GHz

3 GB RAM

Vista home premium 32

ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 with 128 MB VRAM

 

It's an laptop ^^

 

So if the specs aren't the reason for your freeze time, then it must be somthing else.

Tried reinstalling?

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Freefly101
Freefly101
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Reply #10 February 24, 2010 10:30:51 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Just did that...reinstalled on my sata drives...maybe a little extra Torque might help but same thing....

Started the monitor again. Seams the game uses on one of my 4 cores !@$%!%!@$%!@^$%&@#$^!!!!!!!

Nearlly every planet i have has a trade and ref... got around 70 ships on my main tank force....thats not counting the Ai's..i guess i just reached the limit the cpu cant crunch all this on one core this sucks i cant believe its using one core iam in shock..

Crap game ....there is no large scale possible

back to minimeeeee

 

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Freefly101
-Ue_Carbon
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Reply #11 February 24, 2010 12:29:47 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Crap game ....there is no large scale possible


Speak for yourself. I can have close to 1000+ ships in one grav well and not have any negative side effect. And I play with a mod that addes graphic changes.


Im using an Intel 2 Core Duo 2.5 GHz

4 GB of Ram



Are you enabling show trade ship icons? Are you trimming your Empire Tree? Have you lower your graphics down to high? Disabled bloom? Have contacted support? Disabled show Owership Icon?

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Freefly101
dedjal
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Reply #12 February 25, 2010 4:24:35 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting Freefly101,
reply 10
Just did that...reinstalled on my sata drives...maybe a little extra Torque might help but same thing....

Started the monitor again. Seams the game uses on one of my 4 cores !@$%!%!@$%!@^$%&@#$^!!!!!!!

Nearlly every planet i have has a trade and ref... got around 70 ships on my main tank force....thats not counting the Ai's..i guess i just reached the limit the cpu cant crunch all this on one core this sucks i cant believe its using one core iam in shock..

Crap game ....there is no large scale possible

back to minimeeeee

 

 

Soase only uses 1 core. So dig up an old Pentium 4 with an 2GHz kernel should work wonders

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Freefly101
Freefly101
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Reply #13 February 25, 2010 7:08:23 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Dont have em anymore....through em out the window long time back.....this really sucks...not going to spend money for a old cpu just for this game....going back to SC...stop releasing crap load of expansions and work on making it use more cores.

Then maybe we can actually play massive maps with thousands of units.

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Freefly101
SwerydAss
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Reply #14 February 25, 2010 10:48:01 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Mmmmmm...64bit...time for windows 7 methinks.
i'm runnng that and having the same problems.  so what were saying here is since the game only uses 1 core that noone will be able to play with all the graphics turned up no matter what pc they have.  what a joke

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Freefly101
ReadyMan
Join Date 01/2009
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Reply #15 February 25, 2010 1:40:36 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

I have all the graphics turned up, all options on, no issues regardless of the size of the map or number of ships.

I'm using 32bit XP.

 

Take a look at what's running in the background, make sure your anti virus isnt scanning while you are playing.

Seems like the HD must be doing something, or it could be bad sound drivers for win 7...

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Freefly101
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Reply #16 February 25, 2010 2:02:50 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

i'm runnng that and having the same problems. so what were saying here is since the game only uses 1 core that noone will be able to play with all the graphics turned up no matter what pc they have. what a joke

 

I can play with all the graphics turned up on my Win7 64-bit. Like I said a few post up I can play 11 Star, ~200 planet maps with 1000's of units in the same grav well and only really experience a slow down then alot of them go boom. And that is b/c Im play with a mod that addes graphics to the game.


There are some work arounds on the fourms. Like setting SINS to run on core and the rest of your stuff on the others. There is another that allows you to change the .exe to allow up to 3GB for the game.


Also depending on what setting you have turned on in game can effect your FPS and such. Showing trade ship Icons will slow your game down. Not keeping your Empire tree trimmed( aka dont have it autopin every little thing.) Planet Elevators can slow down your game.Turning down your texture from highest to high(there not a whole lot different).

SINS is a CPU heavy game. Yes it only uses on Core but it can run amazing on just 1. IF you take the extra step and eliminate some of the more CPU hogging things in the game. Like the Empire Tree, the more stuff you have in your Empire Tree the more the CPU has to keep track of and update everytime something moves. Also Trade ship icons, mid-late game you can have 100's of these things flying around eating up your CPU. Kill the icon and its less the CPU has to keep track of when your zoomed out.

Again, it sounds like something in the background is messing up SINS. I dont know what you have installed, but Im gonna say thats an factor also. Lastly have you contacted support? They might even have more ideas on how to streamline your game for best performance.

 

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Freefly101
yslen
Join Date 01/2009
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Reply #17 February 25, 2010 2:07:46 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Personally I don't think hardware has much to do with it - I play sins on two different computers, and get almost the exact same issue on both - the game slows to a crawl as the maps get bigger.

One of these PCs is running Vista x64 with 4gb of ram, an HD4770 and a 2.8ghz Phenom II X3 720 BE. The other is my 4 year old laptop, running XP with 2gb of (slow) ram, integrated "ATI 200m" graphics and a 1.6ghz Sempron CPU. Both systems are fine at the start of a game (though graphics set a bit lower on the laptop, they're still mostly medium/high) but after 5 or 6 hours everything is damned slow on both systems.

I took some advice from this forum and turned trade ship icons off, which improved things by a similar amount on both systems.

Interestingly, not only is the game not using all my cores (on the desktop), it's not even using half of one core, yet it's crawling along like the hardware can't cope.

I'm fairly convinced this is an issue with the game, and nothing to do with hardware. If it was a hardware problem at least Core0 on my CPU would be at full load, and it never is. Neither of these machines are running any antivirus software, so that can't be interfering (and they're both free from viruses etc too, as they get scanned regularly, sit behind a firewall and don't actually go online other than for impulse updates etc).

If anyone has any suggestions i'd be very interested to hear them!

 

Yslen

 

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Freefly101
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Reply #18 February 26, 2010 7:55:53 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

I set all the video to low. And switch of bloom,planet elevators and all other things off. everything to prove my point. Buys me a few minutes before it slows to a crawl.Anti virues is switched of and no background programs are running just to also be sure not to read another thread trying to defend another point.

 

No matter how you look at it.... Still slows down and goes to shit.

And no, iam not going to spend my time moding the game or contact support to see if it might work.

You make a game might as well make it work stock.

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Freefly101
SwerydAss
Join Date 05/2008
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Reply #19 February 26, 2010 10:12:20 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

its sounds almost like a cache clearing problem especailly since when people restart multiplayer games and it desyncs makes me feel that something was left in the cache from the previous games as well.

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Freefly101
ReadyMan
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Reply #20 February 26, 2010 1:05:41 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Freefly, the problem is with your hardware dude.  That's why we're trying to help.

Contacting support is likely your best bet since they will probably have come across your particular problem before.

Sorry we havent hit on the exact problem yet...

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Freefly101
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Reply #21 February 26, 2010 1:40:42 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

And no, iam not going to spend my time moding the game or contact support to see if it might work.

You make a game might as well make it work stock.

 

The game works for 100's of people. But if your choice is to give and not contact the people who could best help you, ok. Dont let the door hit you too hard on the way out.

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Freefly101
CabbageRed
Join Date 06/2008
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Reply #22 April 6, 2010 10:50:10 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

(Perhaps not the best thread to post this in considered the way that the OP guided the thread, but oh well.)

 

I'm experiencing the same issue.  I've played Sins since about the time it launched so it is a new problem.  A caching issues was mentioned and that is certainly what appears to be happening.  Basically, the game runs fine for an hour or two, and then begins to stutter each time I move the camera enough to (I'm assuming here) change the LOD of whatever objects are on screen.  The stuttering gets worse as time passes and begins to interfere with third party music players (zune, usually).  Eventually I'll encounter a stutter that appears to last forever and I have to hard reboot.  If I save and exit before the system crashes, my system drive is full and remains that way until I reset.

 

Win7 64

5970  Is anyone else running a CrossfireX card using the same OS?  I ask because I note the OP has a multi-GPU card from ATI and I've bumped into problems with it before.

Q9550

4 gigs

Creative X-gamer

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Freefly101
SivCorp
Join Date 02/2009
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Reply #23 April 12, 2010 12:31:07 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Sins Optimization Project

 

Use this mod to solve the lag issues!  Sins is limited to 2GB of ram usage, and once it reaches it it will lag out and crash.  This mod optimizes the games textures, effects and models to a "taste great, less filling" setup. 

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Freefly101
JSW_Ballz
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Reply #24 April 12, 2010 11:23:00 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

It seems that there's a problem with Sins that mostly shows up in Win7 64-bit (see these threads). I've run into the problem myself, with very different specs from yours.  Most everyone else who's complained about this kind of problem seems to have the 64-bit Windows 7, so I really think it's the culprit.

The optimization project that SivCorp mentions may be a solution. 

Another suggestion is to allow Sins to break past the 2 gigs of RAM limit for all 32-bit processes (yes, it's still a 32-bit process, even on your 64-bit system).  This site has a suggestion on how to do this.  I'm unsure whether it'll work for multiplayer, but there are good responses for how it's been working so far.

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Freefly101
SwerydAss
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Reply #25 April 12, 2010 1:03:22 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

I actually had this problem on xp(my old pc) vista(my GF's laptop), and my current pc with win 7. Also if you look in that thread you will find that we came to the conclusion that it was not windows 7.  Also you still get the problem if you increas the memory usage to 3gb .. it just takes 50% longer to happen.  I will mention that it only seems to happen when playing multiplayer whether its ironclad online or lan.  it must have to do with the cache used to send the info over the network.

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