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Massively excessive load
I'm running VO on a Core-2 Duo E4500 machine with 2 GB of RAM, Ubuntu Lucid Lynx, 32-bit client. According to my system readouts, the machine never uses all of that memory, but VO alone, by its self, fully utilises both CPU cores and routinely pushes the system up to load levels of 10 or more.
This is a relatively recent phenomena; VO used to be perfectly happy on this machine. What is going on and how do I fix it?
This is a relatively recent phenomena; VO used to be perfectly happy on this machine. What is going on and how do I fix it?
I'm no expert on VO, but I'm a developer and I'm familiar with how game engines work. I believe what you're seeing is normal.
The way 3D graphics engines tend to work (roughly) is: They paint a picture on the screen, then re-calculate the position of everything that moves for the next frame, then repeat. This process runs in a tight loop, i.e. it's painting a screenful and re-calculating as quickly as your system can. On a slow computer, you may get 20 screens per second, on a fast one, 400.
On the one or possibly 2 CPUs the game uses, it's using *all available CPU cycles* because it's constantly running at top speed. Some game designers let you cap the frame rate, but it's unusual.
This is not the problem it looks like, because the game is only running as quickly as available free CPU will allow. In other words, it picks up any and all slack, but it's not like it's taking that CPU power completely away from the rest of the system. I find that I can surf alongside a running VO, and even, with some lagging, watch videos. System is a bit less zippy but essentially works fine.
Or are you seeing problems above and beyond pegged CPU meters?
The way 3D graphics engines tend to work (roughly) is: They paint a picture on the screen, then re-calculate the position of everything that moves for the next frame, then repeat. This process runs in a tight loop, i.e. it's painting a screenful and re-calculating as quickly as your system can. On a slow computer, you may get 20 screens per second, on a fast one, 400.
On the one or possibly 2 CPUs the game uses, it's using *all available CPU cycles* because it's constantly running at top speed. Some game designers let you cap the frame rate, but it's unusual.
This is not the problem it looks like, because the game is only running as quickly as available free CPU will allow. In other words, it picks up any and all slack, but it's not like it's taking that CPU power completely away from the rest of the system. I find that I can surf alongside a running VO, and even, with some lagging, watch videos. System is a bit less zippy but essentially works fine.
Or are you seeing problems above and beyond pegged CPU meters?