incredibly low fps for some reason...

[Tank Program]

Nonsense, Intel GPUs are the best currently available.

intel chipsets are good enough, their linux drivers simply sucks...

Yeah, the DRI can be painful. That sort of goes for linux + ATI too though...

[oO.k3nNy]

2020: maybe write down the graphics of the pc. e.g if he has got only an intel chip he wont reach very much more than that 20 fps...

i was talking about the on board intel chipset (shared memory). that doesnt particular suck on linux, i tried it on windows too, without succes (<10fps)

[p4]

i got similiar problem. i use:
Intel Celeron II 1004MHz + Radeon 9600 Pro AGP8x + 3x128MB SDRAM on EP3PTA motherboard by EPoX and WinNT OS.
fps are at 100-120 level on local game. when i join an empty server it's like 40-60 (depends on few things, like used map or hacked source). but when i join a server with many players (many is 6 or more in the most optimistic case) the FPS are getting really low, 7 is undefendable, 4 is unplayable. with 12 i can play well (but only with slow speed). i wish i have 20 fps all the time. ;\ i've noticed that FPS are getting low when:

• a) the round doesn't end within 5 minutes (maybe it's connected with tail trails; i'm not sure but even if walls_lenght <> 0 server seems to keep some knowlegde about old paths, otherwise walls makes the fps low), especially in chico styball.
  b) the server source is hacked (sometimes like crazy tronners wild server, i got 15 fps in 1v1 round there while i start with 40 fps in the same teams at CTcatfight or CTdogs)
  c) the number of players exceeds 6 (it's really weird in fortress cafe i got 7 fps at start when 4v4; i can't even spectate when it's 10v10)

guys, there's no better game for me since i found armagetron 0.2.7 during testing new livecd - elive. it was damn bugged but i was still playing. and now after few years of playing when i'm a bit more skilled player i cannot get so greate entertainment because of my old PC.

i was wondering why i can still play in quake 3 arena with 60-90 fps and over 10 players online but i can't play armagetron with 8 players online and have 30 fps ;(

i've upgraded my GPU because i thought it was geforce 2 mx issue (q3a got 60-90 fps too) but tron not. there's no difference. that's why i think it's ram issue, sdram is damn slow but i have to use it - no money not funny.

[Z-Man]

a) and b) are known bugs triggered by the hacked server source that will be fixed.
c) could hint at lack of video card memory; every cycle has its own texture and that sums up, although I don't see how it could grow beyond the limits on a 9600 Pro. Have you tried disabling object textures in the detail menu?

I would blame your OS and graphics card driver. NT is not really known as a gaming platform, and therefore, driver support for it may be poor. I've got worse system than yours here (on one, the GPU is a GF2Go with 32 Mb memory that has to render in 1600x1200, the other is an Athlon XP I just underclocked to 534 Mhz for testing) and only very rarely go below 30fps. /me uses this as an opportunity to promote Linux: you should try one of the live CDs out there, like Knoppix.

[Z-Man]

i was wondering why i can still play in quake 3 arena with 60-90 fps and over 10 players online but i can't play armagetron with 8 players online and have 30 fps ;(

Apart from the obvious reason that we don't have John C. available as a full time worker,
a) the game mechanics of AA are, even though only 2d, harder to code than those of a shooter. The fact that cycles are pointlike objects and the walls have no width makes collision detection extremely difficult if you don't want cycles to slip through corners (which all traditional collision detection algorithms would allow). The fact that the game world essentially is constructed as you play makes the precalculated visibility culling algorithms of shooters unapplicable.
b) AA really isn't hardcore optimized. Far too many things are in a state of flux, so the requirements change quite often, and all optimization would have to be redone later. There is lots of room for improvement in known areas, but it would be a longterm waste of time to do them now. Not to mention that the hardware capabilities change often, too; many things that are optimized a bit are optimized for very old school graphic cards like the Voodoo 2.
c) Q3 was long time standard benchmark for graphic cards. Lots of optimizations for Q3's usage patterns have entered all drivers that came after Q3's release. AA does not get this benefit.

[DDMJ]

1 fps

0 fps

I have so many screenshots of 0 & 1 fps. Most common on CTF & CTWF.

[p4]

oh, now i understand. i just need better PC = i need a job. thanks for comprehensive answer z-man.

[Dark Spartan]

Hey,

I'm having this same problem, but I can play local games just fine. But when I host a LAN game or play an Internet game, my FPS takes a nosedive, down to anywhere from 8-15 FPS.

I have a Dell XPS 400 desktop with 1 GB RAM, 2.8 GHz processor, Intel D processor (two cores), and an nVidia GeForce 6800 GPU, 256 MB onboard RAM. Normally I can get about 200-300 FPS with all settings maxed. I just noticed this last night, this did not happen when I first played it a week ago.

Is there something wrong here, like a new driver out or something? Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

[Z-Man]

That doesn't sound normal at all. A network game does take more power than a single player game, but not by a factor of 10. Have you installed a new software component recently? A virus scanner or personal firewall? I could imagine those getting in the way.

[Dark Spartan]

Nothing new, my network settings haven't changed recently, not within the past week. However, I played another network game today, and my framerate has improved. I'm not sure why, but I'm not complaining.