A loading time issue...

[SquirrelMan]

Planetside is a good game for me, but it takes FOREVER to load any of the continents.
Specs are:

2.55 GHz Pentium 4 Processor
512 MB DDR RAM
80 GB Hard Drive
64 MB NVIDIA GeForce 4200 Graphics Card


what should I improve to cut the loading time?

[Rbstr]

it takes a decent amount of time for everyone to load conts, they are huge files, if yout Harddrive is a 5,400 rpm that would make them go even slower, and your Vidcard probably takes some time with that too, ram helps sometimes. you have a decent comp.

i would add another 512 of ram if you can and overclock that 4200 of yours if it has decent cooling on it, those things can clock up to almost the speeds of the 4800's.

Make sure you have al the latest drivers* to, sometimes that helps alot.

* or exparament with various newer drivers www.guru3d.com has most all of them

[SquirrelMan]

well, I can add another 512 MB of RAM, but I don't know the least bit of overclocking or whether my graphics card has ample cooling for it. Where can I get information on how to do these things?

[Rbstr]

here go to www.guru3d.com, they have a guide, and ask any questions you have in there forum because they can explain it better, there is a tutorial stickied at the top of this forum too.

[NoSurrender]

there are a few other things besides get more memory. First your could defragmentize your hard drive regularly. i Defrag mine regularlary and i load up very fast. Second you could buy a 7,200 rpm 8mb cache HD. Third if your hard drive is full clean it up and defrag it.

[a pink punk]

do you have 56k?

[SquirrelMan]

no. I have DSL

[worldvengence]

How much space do you have for swap on ur HD (xtra space).....and in my experience 512 MB Ram = slow load time....especially if it isnt DDR ram

[Rbstr]

Yes that is one thing, set your pagefile to manual managment and make it a set size(make max and min the same) of a GB or a bit more, i got 5 fps at the lowend and 10 at the highend more by doing that.

[cloudj110589]

How do you edit the pagefile amount? Thanks

[Rbstr]

(for XP home, and most others) Go to the control planel --> system --> advanced --> performance settings --> advanced --> vitual memory change -- > custom size --> set the max and min the same to the same size, mine is 2gb, and there you go

also if you have multiple HD's put it on one that is on a seperate channel(mobo plug) thant the one with the PS directory on it, or if you have SATA drives put it one one of those

[SquirrelMan]

also, how do I defragment my hard drive? I'm guessing its really simple, but i'm sorta computer-illiterate :D

[I Hate Pants]

also, how do I defragment my hard drive? I'm guessing its really simple, but i'm sorta computer-illiterate :D

Go into "My Computer". Than right click on "Local Disk (C: )". Select properties, and than select the "tool" tap at the top left. You should see "Defragmentation" somewhere there.