What OperatingSystem do you use to play Descent3?
Moderator: Do_Checkor
After doing some work for my dad's company:
TIPS FOR XP USERS TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF YOUR SYSTEMS:
Firstly, and most importantly, turn off ALL user friendly junk. This includes AOL, Dell, and any other pieces of software marketed as "features". Basically, if it comes with XP on a system, and it isn't XP, delete it. I improved a laptop's performance by an easy 50% just by deleting all the Dell junk that came pre-loaded on it.
Second: Get rid of standard features! Windows media player and internet exploder are two of your worst enemies. You can't delete IE, and I'd recommend keeping a version of WMP around just in case, but try replacing IE with firefox (or another version of mozilla) and WMP with WinAmp. WinAmp uses SIGNIFICANTLY less computer resources, to say nothing of being much more customizable than WinAmp.
Third: Get effective, efficient anti-virus and anti-malware software. My personal favorites are Spybot Search and Destroy 1.3 and Ad-Aware for anti-malware purposes, and some form of Norton (NOT the kind that comes pre-loaded on your system, GET A FULL PACKAGE!).
Fourthly: Update regularly! Get the latest virus definitions for all anti-virus and anti-malware programs you have on your system. If your system isn't updated, YOU ARE A SURFING VIRUS MAGNET. Download windows updates once a week. Get service pack 2.
Lastly: This may seem obvious to you, but keep yourself organized. Run virus scans at least once a month, malware scans at least once every 2 weeks. Defrag the hard drive regularly. Most importantly, SHUT DOWN YOUR COMPUTER EVERY NIGHT if at all possible. If it's a server I can understand that you want to keep it running. You should be running a version of windows suited to being a server, however. The point is, leaving your computer running XP 24/7 for a month on end is guaranteed to bork your system up royally. The time your computer spends off is like the time you take to sleep every night--your computer needs to go to sleep and wake up regularly in order to ensure optimal performance.
TIPS FOR XP USERS TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF YOUR SYSTEMS:
Firstly, and most importantly, turn off ALL user friendly junk. This includes AOL, Dell, and any other pieces of software marketed as "features". Basically, if it comes with XP on a system, and it isn't XP, delete it. I improved a laptop's performance by an easy 50% just by deleting all the Dell junk that came pre-loaded on it.
Second: Get rid of standard features! Windows media player and internet exploder are two of your worst enemies. You can't delete IE, and I'd recommend keeping a version of WMP around just in case, but try replacing IE with firefox (or another version of mozilla) and WMP with WinAmp. WinAmp uses SIGNIFICANTLY less computer resources, to say nothing of being much more customizable than WinAmp.
Third: Get effective, efficient anti-virus and anti-malware software. My personal favorites are Spybot Search and Destroy 1.3 and Ad-Aware for anti-malware purposes, and some form of Norton (NOT the kind that comes pre-loaded on your system, GET A FULL PACKAGE!).
Fourthly: Update regularly! Get the latest virus definitions for all anti-virus and anti-malware programs you have on your system. If your system isn't updated, YOU ARE A SURFING VIRUS MAGNET. Download windows updates once a week. Get service pack 2.
Lastly: This may seem obvious to you, but keep yourself organized. Run virus scans at least once a month, malware scans at least once every 2 weeks. Defrag the hard drive regularly. Most importantly, SHUT DOWN YOUR COMPUTER EVERY NIGHT if at all possible. If it's a server I can understand that you want to keep it running. You should be running a version of windows suited to being a server, however. The point is, leaving your computer running XP 24/7 for a month on end is guaranteed to bork your system up royally. The time your computer spends off is like the time you take to sleep every night--your computer needs to go to sleep and wake up regularly in order to ensure optimal performance.
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Krom
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Do you have any idea how completely stupid what you just said is? The only computer that gets messed up from running XP a long time without a reboot is a totally crappy computer that probably would need linux to be stable. I've had and work with computers running XP that go months without being shut down and have zero problems. Also, while largely insignificant hard drives do suffer more from start/stop cycles then they do from just staying on over time. Most everyone here with the best running computers will tell you, they don't shut down or reboot very often.Stryker wrote:Most importantly, SHUT DOWN YOUR COMPUTER EVERY NIGHT if at all possible. If it's a server I can understand that you want to keep it running. You should be running a version of windows suited to being a server, however. The point is, leaving your computer running XP 24/7 for a month on end is guaranteed to bork your system up royally. The time your computer spends off is like the time you take to sleep every night--your computer needs to go to sleep and wake up regularly in order to ensure optimal performance.
Yeah, I'll freely admit that if you know what you're doing you can leave a computer up for a year without a reboot (though windows updates require a reboot anyways). However, a large amount of users don't know what control-alt-delete does, or more importantly how to end a process and which processes to end without demolishing their computer in a fireball. 
Also, programs tend to leave processes running, so... The end result is that probably 80% of the bugs I've run into involve rebooting the computer once to fix. 
Also, programs tend to leave processes running, so... The end result is that probably 80% of the bugs I've run into involve rebooting the computer once to fix. 
XP pro SP1 on my 400mhz serverStryker wrote: Most importantly, SHUT DOWN YOUR COMPUTER EVERY NIGHT if at all possible. If it's a server I can understand that you want to keep it running. You should be running a version of windows suited to being a server, however. The point is, leaving your computer running XP 24/7 for a month on end is guaranteed to bork your system up royally. The time your computer spends off is like the time you take to sleep every night--your computer needs to go to sleep and wake up regularly in order to ensure optimal performance.
It past 100 days after this screen shot was taken, but the power went out one night. And it was running like it was boted up 10 min ago =)
Norton's virus definition subscription policies pissed me off so I trashed it. As much as you pay for Norton you should be able to keep updated and protected without having to pay them one single cent ever again. It's a hastle to reformat or dig through the registry just to re-install Norton and have a renewed subscription without paying for it.
Besides AVG does the trick just fine, for free.
Besides AVG does the trick just fine, for free.
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Krom
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The minimum I got on that system (P3/1000, Voodoo3 3000, 128 MB RAM, WinXP) was around 70 FPS, it ran in the 100-200 range for most outrage levels, the worst you could throw at it was in geodomes, you could bog it to 30-40 FPS outside.Delkian wrote:Minimum?Krom wrote:A voodoo3 and a pentium 3 @ 1 GHz would do 100-200 FPS.
I work for a lot of people that dont know anything about computers and half of that is screwed up. I can tell ya, if rebooting fixed as many problems as you think it does, I wouldnt be working for these people.Stryker wrote:Yeah, I'll freely admit that if you know what you're doing you can leave a computer up for a year without a reboot (though windows updates require a reboot anyways). However, a large amount of users don't know what control-alt-delete does, or more importantly how to end a process and which processes to end without demolishing their computer in a fireball.
I never had over 100 on a P4 1.3 with a 32MB GeForce 2. Even my P4 3.0 and 64MB Radeon X300 doesn't get above 200, as far as I know.Krom wrote:You can get a computer faster then that, or the parts to upgrade another one for less then $200 these days. A voodoo3 and a pentium 3 @ 1 GHz would do 100-200 FPS.
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Krom
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What res were you running? 1600x1200? o_O
I knew the limits of a voodoo3 so I played at 640x480 but got smooth framerates. 800x600 was also totally smooth on that card. My cousin on an Athlon @ 900 MHz and a Geforce 2 was breaking 150-200 FPS at 1024x768 easly. My current system is an Athlon XP at 2.4 GHz and a Geforce FX5900 ultra, it easly reaches 500 FPS at 1152x864 with 4x FSAA. Before I had a geforce3 and 1650 MHz Athlon XP, it got about 350 FPS average at 1024x768. The radeon x300 is probably not much better then that GF2 32MB card. If you never got over 100 on that, you have probably done something wrong.
I knew the limits of a voodoo3 so I played at 640x480 but got smooth framerates. 800x600 was also totally smooth on that card. My cousin on an Athlon @ 900 MHz and a Geforce 2 was breaking 150-200 FPS at 1024x768 easly. My current system is an Athlon XP at 2.4 GHz and a Geforce FX5900 ultra, it easly reaches 500 FPS at 1152x864 with 4x FSAA. Before I had a geforce3 and 1650 MHz Athlon XP, it got about 350 FPS average at 1024x768. The radeon x300 is probably not much better then that GF2 32MB card. If you never got over 100 on that, you have probably done something wrong.
Since antivirus software has to be updated heavily -- even more so than most other software -- after the initial release, antivirus business actually resembles a service more than a plain product. IMO it actually makes sense that updates cost something.Tyranny wrote:Norton's virus definition subscription policies pissed me off so I trashed it. As much as you pay for Norton you should be able to keep updated and protected without having to pay them one single cent ever again.
It would be a bit different for example in case of an operating system because in theory it could be 'perfect' from the release and all patches are corrections for the mistakes made by the developers (yes, they always happen, and no, they can't be avoided) whereas updates to antivirus software are part of its nature -- antivirus software can't possibly be perfect from the beginning, at least as long as it relies on virus definition databases (and any other approach isn't really feasible, as far as I can tell).
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Edits:
Typos, schmypos, etc.
