Screen freeze

[kwackers]

Hi people, just bought this game and everything runs ok except the game graphics freeze about every 5 seconds, also I can't get the screen to scroll when touching the sides with a mouse pointer. I was hoping somebody here had the same probs and found a way to sort them.

[Silkius]

To me that sounds like extreme frame-rate drops (when the changing rate of your frames per second drops to something like 2-10fps looks like stuttering) in which case have you:
a) installed any patches/updates
b) tried lower graphics settings
c) updated your graphis and sound drivers
d) do you have a pretty basic system that only just meets the system requirements. i.e. low amount of free RAM, a low end 3d gfx card, basic CPU like a celeron.

Any of the above can slow the game right down, especially on higher settings or busy parks

[kwackers]

Hi Silkius, thanks for the reply. I have an athlon 2700 with a 128 Radeon 9700 card. I have so far updated DX to 9.11 and xp service pack 2, have also used the 1a patch, but the problem remains. I've messed with the graphics in game but nothing is working. I'm playing HL2 and Battle for middle earth with ease so I ca not understand why my system would suffer with this game. Its a shame because I love playing it. Also I have found a new problem with the sound which is it will not let me adjust the levels. I can hear every thing ok just can't turn them down or off, not sure if the two problems are related.

[Silkius]

Hmmm it could be sound card (or on board sound related) - have known games before to throw a real wobbly over it when every other one seems fine.

Might be worth checking your sound drivers are upto date and even running dxdiag and turning the sound/hardware toggle all the way down. (it has helped a couple) - I remember NWN could realy get bogged down if your drivers weren't upto scratch.

I just dumped my on-board cmedia for a sb live 24 - which didn't seem to make much difference untill i dug in and routed out every last cmedia reference.
Then (due to work reasons) I had to do a complete re-format and fresh install anyway. (boring but sometimes necessary) and since then my beastie is flying :D It was hell for a couple of days - but it sure seems worth it at the moment.

No other game (except maybe a full on FS) can probably compare to the amount of resources RCT hits at once - to the point a few are questioning whether it is just a little too ahead of its time.

BTW dx 9.11??? are you sure? thought we were all on 9.0c?
Latest ATI's are 4.12 (and seem to be better than 4.11) again - if you can a complete rout out an fresh install if these helps - as you are running sp2 you should have .net which means you can run the full catalyst as they should be. Others are repporting better results with the omega drivers - I wasn't too impressed but enough like them to maybe consider them....

lastly Frontier have mentioned update 2 will address a few sound and gfx probs, but which ones and to whose benefit is unkown as yet.

[kwackers]

Thanks for the info mate. Sorry I mixed my catalyst driver (4.11) with my DX (9.0c) and came up with 9.11. I will look at my soundcard drivers but more likely I will wait for the next upate and hope that does the job. If not I will dive into my system again. But thanks for your input mate, it is much appreciated.