General Zot Posted August 4, 2004 Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 Found this one on GameFAQs, sounds like a good tweak. People report success with it, I'll have to try it tonight: ------------------- I tried this and Im now runnig at 1280x1024 compared to 800x600 at the same settings. "As all of you who allready have this game recognized the game is very slow even on new Computers. I found out the reason for this and the solution to fix this problem. As you already know after installation the game consits only of the doom3.exe and some .PK4 files. Those PK4 files includes the entire game (sounds, videos, textures etc.) in high compressed form. Normally those files were decompresse during the game. But this exactly is the problem. Even new CPUs are not able to decompress those files while running the game with good peformance and therfore the game runs very **** also on new computers. I don't know if the develpers of ID-Soft was just too stupid to think about this or if they have an agreement with some hardware manufacturing firms. How to get around this problem: It is very simple. Go to your Doom 3 installation directoy and get inside the folder "Base". There are some .PK4 files you have to open each of them with WinRAR 3.3 and extract their entire contents to the Base dir in you Doom 3 installation folder (replace all files if they are any duplicates). Now you have to delete all .PK4 files in the Base folder to prevent the game to use those compressed files agian. Now the game starts and runs mutch faster!!! Have fun playing Doom 3!!! " -karlmueller ------------------------ original thread: http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessag...&topic=15503352 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cancerbox Posted August 4, 2004 Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 thank you! this sounds like it will be really helpful. however, i think i am the only one that is not experiencing lag in this game. i am running on ultra high video settings at 800x600 with 2x anti-aliasing and vertical sync on. my system is a dell XPS : 3.2ghz HT 800mhz FSB, 1gb pc3200 DDR, ati radeon 9800xt, soundblaster audigy 2..... this is really no different than anyone else... this is strange. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whooter Posted August 4, 2004 Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 I see this being helpful only to someone running on a below-spec CPU. The assertion that it runs "very slow even on new Computers" is a complete load of shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyberwoo Posted August 4, 2004 Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 Agree with Whooter. I'd like to know what this person considers to be "new". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelley Posted August 4, 2004 Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 Just a warning, people have discovered that if you do this it breaks the multiplayer portion of the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted August 4, 2004 Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 I see this being helpful only to someone running on a below-spec CPU. The assertion that it runs "very slow even on new Computers" is a complete load of shit. Right on the money. In no way shape or form does Doom 3 run slow on new comps or even mid-level comps for that matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Zot Posted August 4, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 I think he's trying to say that you can improve performance on any level machine with this tweak, not just low end PCs. I'm sure you would notice more on slower PCs, but it can be applied across the boards. I do hear that not having the pak files there will break the multiplayer. A good suggestion would be to leave them in directory buy call them "xxx_filename" so you can easily reinstate them. Probably written by a 15 yr old gents, given the kid a break... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iainl Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 Originally posted by Snakefish@Aug 5 2004, 12:26 AM I think he's trying to say that you can improve performance on any level machine with this tweak, not just low end PCs. I'm sure you would notice more on slower PCs, but it can be applied across the boards. I'm not sure it would help much, necessarily. You'd have to weigh the decompress CPU requirements against the added disk times of reading the uncompressed files. Looking at the HardOCP benchmarks, you don't need a huge CPU to keep the graphics card busy on this game, so I'd not expect anyone up around the 3GHz mark to see much, if any, improvement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky G Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 My setup is as follows. P4 1.7 GHz (the bottleneck) Radeon 9800 Pro 1GB DDR Ram The game is playable at 800x600 and 1024x768, but the timedemo shows I'm running an average 20fps. I'd like to better that for sure. Anyone have a similar setup to mine and getting better results? What are your config settings? I've tried the seta imagecache change and it did nothing noticable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelley Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 Did you run the time demo twice back to back? To get a more acurate frame rate account run the demo first and the go back and run it again as soon as it finishes the first time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky G Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 Nope, didn't do it back to back, I'll try that tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Zot Posted August 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 ricky- I did a few things and saw great improvements. First I upgraded to the new 4.9 beta ATI drivers. Second changed the config file (seta ... stuff), and then uncompressed all the pak files as listed above. Saw a very nice improvement in gameplay, moved from a choppy 640x480 low quality to a smooth 1024x768 med quality. It really was night and day for my PC. My system: 2400 Athlon 512 MB Radeon 9600 AIW So I would try some more things and see where it takes you. I would say I get 40-50 fps normally, dipping to 30 or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky G Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 Ah yes, Snake, I forgot to mention that I have indeed upgraded to the new 4.9 beta ATI drivers. They made no big difference after one timedemo run. I still have to try running the demo twice back to back. I have not tried to unpack the files, I guess I can give that a shot too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky G Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 Well, I just broke down and ordered: Motherboard & CPU Combo w/ P4 2.8GHz (800 FSB) Prescott 1MB Cache ASRock P4 VT8+ (VIA PT800+8237 CHIPSET - Single Channel DDR) Foxconn - Intel Rated - Aluminum Fan Heatsink - 70mm / 3500RPM (Up to 2.8GHz Max) Standard White Thermal Compound Pre-Test Combo - Install CPU Fan - Set CPU FSB (Recommended) 30 Day Warranty That should help my fps rating a bit. Paid $240 shipped to my door. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Zot Posted August 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 Ricky, from what I've been reading most of the improvements don't show up in the demos, but in actual gameplay. So might want to fire it up and take it for a spin as well. The beginning when you arrive is a good part, look up at the ship and see what sorts of slow down you are getting. I never ran any timedemoes, just noticed improvements in the real thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky G Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 Ricky, from what I've been reading most of the improvements don't show up in the demos, but in actual gameplay. Agreed, the gameplay isnt bad, AFTER I clear an area just walking around empty hallways looks and feels great! It's when the action heats up, my framerate bottoms out near 10. :shock: Granted I'm running 1024x768, but 800x600 doesn't fare much better, and damned if I'm playing at 640x480! :wtf: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelley Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 I'd get a different motherboard if I was you. The P4 sees most of its performance benefit from having a dual channel memory subsystem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky G Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 I'd get a different motherboard if I was you. But wouldn't I then need new memory? I'd rather not, as I already own a GB of DDR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelley Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 Originally posted by Ricky Hustle@Aug 5 2004, 02:23 PM I'd get a different motherboard if I was you. But wouldn't I then need new memory? I'd rather not, as I already own a GB of DDR. What speed of DDR do you own? and is it in two sticks or one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky G Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 What speed of DDR do you own? and is it in two sticks or one? I have two sticks of 512MB DDR 266MHz PC2100. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky G Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 Well after some research, I have found out that they just might work, they must be exactly matched though. (Likely, but not guaranteed) I can always run the mobo in single channel mode if my current RAM won't run in dual channel mode, but at least i have left the door open to a future upgrade. Thanks, Gig, for your help and input. I apologize to everyone for hi-jacking this thread. I'm done now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Zot Posted August 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 Did you try that unpacking thing above? That gave me the most improvement of all the methods I tried. It takes a while and ganks multiplayer, but D3 is at least stable during 2-3 enemy firefights now and pretty much running top at any other time. If it messes up, you can always uninstall it, delete remaining files, and reinstall. Not much to lose if it chugging that badly on your setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky G Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 Nope, I have not been home yet. I will tonight. WinRAR is still free right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 I apologize to everyone for hi-jacking this thread No hi-jacking at all Ricky. Your inquiries are the exact point of the thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelley Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 On a P4 system can your RAM and CPU run out of sync? As in Ricky's RAM is DDR266, but his CPU will have a FSB of 800Mhz, thus requiring DDR400 to run at the 800Mhz FSB, as the P4's dual channel makes it 400x2. Now if you go off that logic running DDR266 will make it on Ricky's mobo just 266x1, which would just slaughter the P4's performance, I know what you are saying....what performance I know on an AMD Athlon 64 system you can run DDR400, DDR333, and I think DDR266 without it affecting the actual speed of the CPU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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