Game Stutters

[Zelai Kol'iva]

Awhile back I used to get these game stutters in JKA, where the screen stuttered every 10 seconds. The stuttering would last approximately 5 seconds and during this time the screen would basically lag and go really low. It is obvious JKA is an old game and that most computers will struggle to run it due to them being to advanced or an unusual upgrade that JKA doesn't recognise and cannot run with.

Now, I managed to fix it really long back and it worked like a charm. However over the break I add, it seems it has returned and I have no idea on how I managed to fix it. Any thoughts?

[Mortael Toronous]

Could you post a few screenshots and then give a list of your specs? That might help a lot; I wish I could do something but I've never had this problem occur before. What I would advise however, is if nothing else works and your PC is powerful enough try and run your game through virtual windows or something?

[Elu Dako]

From your description I suspect it's just Low FPS (Frames per second) caused by the number of tasks your computer may be attempting to run while playing.

If so, it's completely natural.

[Oberon]

Does this happen when you play on any other server or single player, or just on ours?

[Zelai Kol'iva]

I believe it may be them all, however it has been awhile since I have joined another server in JKA. I will give it a shot later and see what results I get.

Also, unfortunately a screenshot won't do much as it is a screen stutter, basically the game just slows down for a couple of seconds then regains speed. So if I do take a screenshot it will just be like any usual screenshot that is seen. However it is unusual as other very advanced games seem to work like a charm on high graphics. So I have a worry it is down to the game being old and conflicting with my computer or the disk may be damaged. I will look further into it. Ofcourse any suggestions are hugely appreciated.

[Aslyn Denethorn]

Yeah, that's pure FPS, bud. Either your graphics card can't process JKA sufficiently (which, frankly, is surprising, but JKA can be a strain on some cards if your settings are too high), or if your system doesn't have enough memory.

Used to happen to me all the time on my laptop, to the extent that I physically couldn't use some maps because every movement took ages and lacked real-time precision. Got a new computer and that all went away, because my processor, memory and graphics card could all cope.

My suggestion is that you lower your graphics settings - it's not a game stutter, it's just your system's inability to handle higher settings.

[Isha Veixen]

If it's not anything graphical, it also may be that it's your CPU. And you will have to change JKA's priority(This is not recommended though!) If anything you should make sure you run nothing too taxing besides JK. Also have you swapped drivers lately(For your graphics card) or the card it self?

I know my Geforce 520gt (Low end card) has some problems at times. Because there's problems with OpenGL on Nvidia drivers. Which causes older games to stutter quite badly at times.

[Mortael Toronous]

I have noticed my game stutters when I use windows media player in the background (because that takes up a lot of my CPU; as I use an ASIO driver.) I also know that Google Chrome can be a CPU killer- try running nothing but JA and see if it makes a difference, if that is not the problem then it could be to due with conflicting Base files or something following that avenue.

[Amoné Fayden]

...or the disk may be damaged.

This wouldn't be the case as once you have loaded a multiplayer map in JKA, you can actually remove your CD from your Drive and play as normal.

The above suggestions are all pretty accurate I think.

It could be:

• Your Graphics Card or Processor is not optimized or compatible with JKA. I have similar experiences where I can play top-tier games on Ultra Graphics, yet some games like Fable 3 which, in my opinion are somewhat dated in comparison, will stutter and freeze periodically.
• You may be short on system resources. Web Browsers aren't light-weight these days. Neither is iTunes. Try pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL and go to the "Processes" tab. See if there are any applications taking up a lot of "Mem Usage". There might be something running that you are unaware of like a Virus Guard running an auto-check.
• Try narrow down why or how it happens once you are in-game. See if you can replicate it. For example, does the stuttering only happen when you face a certain direction? (Like facing the archives mirrored floor in the Alzoc map).
  See if there is something triggering the stuttering rather than it being random.

Isha mentioned changing the priority of JKA. I wouldn't rule it out simply to try it and see if it works. That will help narrow down if it's your system resources causing the problem. I wouldn't use it as a fix though, it's not recommended.
To do it, run JKA -> Press CTRL+ALT+DEL -> Go to Processes -> Find JKA on the list -> Right click and "Set Priority" to high. Then try run around for a few minutes.

Also, how many cores is your processor? There are some games and applications that require you to only designate 1-2 CPU's to it or else they go haywire! Not sure if JKA is one of these games though.

[Isha Veixen]

Also, how many cores is your processor? There are some games and applications that require you to only designate 1-2 CPU's to it or else they go haywire! Not sure if JKA is one of these games though.

Aye, such as Neverwinter nights, and games of that age need to be modified like so.

I reckon that as technology progresses, the older games have a harder and harder time running. It's kind of sad, that some machines with low end video cards and single core processors, 512 Ram. Can outperform An I7 processor, the newest cards and six to eight gig Ram...


Guess it's true, as they say.

"Sometimes, more is less".

Or is it...

"Sometimes, less is more".

Hmm.

[Zelai Kol'iva]

This may help but I went about testing it earlier and found out that it only does it when playing the JEDI modification. Any other modification such as JA+ work perfectly smooth. So possibly something to do with my files that are in the Jedi folder? Your thoughts?

All thoughts and opinions are appreciated, thank you for your help so far.

[Zelai Kol'iva]

Sorry for the double post. Just announcing that I have fixed this issue. The problem was down to the way I had my settings ingame. I had certain features de-activated and others activated that were conflicting with my performance. After several attempts of getting the correct settings the stutters finally stopped. Thank you for all your suggestions.

[Amoné Fayden]

Glad to hear it's sorted Zelai.

For every problem fixed, it helps the next person that may encounter the same issue.

[Oberon]

For the record dude, put down those settings because seems more often than not we get encore performances.

Was it dynamic glow etc?

[Zelai Kol'iva]

Not a problem. There is a toggle switch in ''Setup'' which is titled ''Video Sync''. Now for some reason I had it off, however once I toggled it to on, the stutters stopped. A simple fix that was my fault, I believe I turned it off awhile back when I was messing around with the setup for video recording.