Help With Diablo II

[Sirian]

Now I've got a new problem, after actually trying some D2 in XP. Performance is freakin awful.

Every time the game has to load a new sound (or possibly a new graphic) I'm getting graphical/framerate lag. LOTS of it. Unplayable almost. (Of course, what's unplayable to me might be fine to others.)

It's like the game (or the OS) is putting all frames on hold until it loads whatever it needs, and it ain't loading very quickly, thus a pause of a second, or two, or three, then a burst of frames. YUCK. (Insert raging rant about !@#$! Blizzard here: _____________________ _________ _____________ ________ _______________ ____________ ________________ _________ ___________ _____ _ _ ________________________ _____________ ! (Yeah, I like to complain about Blizz! :P )


Any suggestions?


- Sirian

[Doc]

Uh, don't take this the wrong way or anything and let's not get into any flamewars... But an easy solution to your problem... Buy a Mac. It just works.

Just to clarify, I am not anti peecee. I have nothing against peecees. Infact, I now OWN a peecee. (Who wouldathunkit) I just LOATHE Windows, and threads like this only prove what I firmly believe, that you can't polish a turd.

My ugly peecee box runs Linux. So does my Mac.

[Bam-Bam]

Sirian--

Is this in single player, or on the realms. If it is the realms, the servers have been abysmal lately (at least on west). You can insert your own rant here about blizz and their policing of cheaters/botters if you like.

I cannot think of a solution to your problem--I have not experienced any issues with single player D2 on XP.

edit: ah well, I cannot correct the typo in the title. My apologies.

[Sirian]

It's not Realms related. It's hard drive related, perhaps. In addition to upgrading to XP, I also moved to an 80G HDD from a 30G. Diablo "waits" on all graphics and sounds so it can "display them perfectly", and if the HDD is sluggish, you get lag in single player. (Heh! That is the GAME keeps going, but the display does not, then it rushes to catch up.

Bloody fricking awful way to design a game if you ask me. (Sorry, Doc. Not a PC/Mac issue here.)

I'll tinker with it to see what I can do to improve HDD performance and sound issues.


- Sirian

[T-hawk]

As you probably know, that's normal behavior for MP D2. The server-side game can't stop running when the client has to load graphics, so the client has to pause and then catch up.

Besides the usual advice (close all other programs), try checking the HD settings in Device Manager and make sure it's using an Ultra DMA transfer mode. Also, try lowering the hardware acceleration settings for sound and/or video by a notch or two, which often clears up problems with older games. You could also try the XP Compatibility Mode options for older Windowses if you haven't. Most of this you probably know.

I'll also suggest again to dig up a Voodoo card and try Glide. The game is so Glide-native that it even loads smoother on the same machine when running with Glide. That's likely due to texture and bitmap managing, I imagine.

[Occhidiangela]

And here I am, in a place where I can't join you and your cousin on East, my home Realm when DII started .(remember when West was the Worst insofar as lagsville?) Home also of the Friends of Sysiphus.

My what a funny world we all live in. Hope the tech gremlins work out and you can have fun on East with your Cousin.

Warm Regards

Occhi