Author:
Darkstone News
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: Sun, Sep 22 2002, 10:13pm
From a thread on the uo.com forums
Due to popular demand, I have included instructions for speeding up your broadband connection at the bottom of this post.
Ok peoples, here it is. All my wisdom contained in one message. Now some of the things in this post may be technically advanced to some of you folks, so enlist your kids to help. If you don’t understand something, then get on groups.google.com and do a search for your question. You will be surprised that you are probably not the only one with that question, but you can learn something on you own. With that being said, let’s get started. First off…
Internet Connection
A lot of people think since they have broadband (cable modem, DSL) they are fine and don’t need to read this. Wrong! All versions of Windows since Win95 have been configured out of the box for Local Area Networks (LANs). Well, unless you have a 10Mbit connection to your ISP, you need to read this. We use TCP/IP for our connection to the UO server from our client, so we need to tweak that to be compatible with our type of connection. You will be amazed, when properly tweaked, how fast your internet connection can be. Here is a simple form that will give you a general idea if your broadband connection is being used to it’s fullest (don’t worry dialup users, I’ll get to you in a sec). I have always used SpeedGuide.Net for all my connection tweaking needs. Excellent site. I suggest you broadband people read the guides and articles and make an attempt to squeeze every ounce out of your connection. For you dial-up users (poor souls), I suggest you download Accelerate 2K2 3.0 from Tucows.com. It is shareware and will expire in 15 days, but you only need it for one. =) It works on all windows versions (95/98, ME, NT, 2K, XP). As always, you don’t understand something, look it up. Learn people, learn!
Also, you need to shutdown those damn programs in your system tray (bottom right hand corner). Not only do those things chew up valuable memory (I’ll talk more about that in the next paragraph), they suck up bandwidth. Didn’t know that did you? MSN, AIM, ICQ, Winamp, Real Player, Quicktime, and most everything in that tray is designed to check every so often for updates to their parent applications. That takes bandwidth. When you are in a champ spawn, and one of those programs checks for an update, 50% of the time it will knock you out of sync with the UO server. This means, you have to download the whole screen’s information again, instead just updating what had changed on the screen. That is one part of lag. Do yourself a favor and close what you don’t readily need. On most systems, you can click the start button, select “Run” and type in “msconfig.exe”. This will bring up a great little Microsoft application that allows you to control your operation system boot information. Click on the “Startup” tab, and deselect what you do not need. You cannot crash your system or my it inoperable by deselecting items here, so don’t worry. Here is a quick article on using “msconfig”.
Memory Management
The UO client is a pig when it comes to memory. On my system, the client alone takes up 30MB of RAM and 40MB of Virtual Memory. The more it has access too, the faster it will run and refresh the screen. Did you know that most people’s lag comes from their system, and not their crappy internet connection. I hate reading the boards and hearing some one bitch about the UO server’s lag, when it is more than likely them. Don’t be like that. Shutdown Tray apps (see above), and anything else you do not need to run UO. If you have 128Mb or less, then I bet my paycheck that you suffer from the Virtual Memory Beast. When a system has applications open than need memory, it does it’s best to allocate memory to those applications. When it runs out of RAM, it turns to Virtual Memory for it storage requirements. Virtual Memory is a section of your harddrive that the OS has put a side to use when it runs out of RAM. It takes that section of space, emulates it to look like RAM, and starts sticking stuff in it. The problem is, you memory has an access time of 10 nanoseconds or faster. You can only access information off your hard drive at 10 milliseconds or better. That is 100x SLOWER than conventional RAM. That’s no good. Now if you do have less than 128Mb of RAM, go get an upgrade for god’s sake. A 128MB stick of PC-133 memory will set you back $15 (not joking, go here). Going from 128MB to 256MB is like getting a new PC. Seriously. And memory is one of the easiest upgrades to do. Only one place to put it on the motherboard, so you don’t have to worry about sticking it in the wrong place, and no configuration needed, the computer and the operating system will automatically handle that. There are some memory management applications that will also help with freeing up conventional memory.
Also WolfAtThrroat pointed out an excellent site for determining the type of RAM you may need. If you going to upgrade and are not sure what to get, click HERE. Thanks WolfAtThrroat
The OS
As always, update your drivers. Make sure they are current. Turn of Active Desktop and lame crap such as the dancing monkey in the background. Windows XP users, for the love of God, turn off that silly skinning that XP does and the visual candy. Right mouse click on “My Computer”, select “Properties”, click on the “Advanced” tab, Click on “Settings” under the Performance section and turn 90% of that crap off. Having your mouse drop a shadow is now worth dying in Deciet for. Make sure you turn off the very last check box titled “Use visual styles…”. And yes, XP will now look like NT 4, but if you want a pretty OS, get a Mac. We are talking performance here, not silly fru-fru crap that does you no good.
The Hard Drives
Defrag. Defrag. Defrag, I know you have heard this more often than anything else, but that is because it is very important. The anim.mul file is 190Mb for christ’s sake. If that ONE file is spread across you hard drive in 38 different places, if make is a bitch for the client to get the info it needs. Your system spends time trying to load a drake animation and not sending the data to the server that you just hid. OooOOo OOooOoo
Speeding up Broadband
For 98/SE/ME users, click here
For 2K/XP users, click here
These files are contain generic settings to speed up your broadband connection. Here is how to install them: Download the zipfie. Then unzip it to a temporary directory. For 98/SE/ME users, there will be a INF file in the temporary directory (filename.inf). Right mouse click on the INF file and select "Install". For 2k/XP users, there will be a Registry File (filename.reg) in the temporary directory, double click on the registry file. When prompted to add it to you registry, click OK. Then delete the temporary directory and reboot. Enjoy Everyone!
Speed up your Web Browsing if you have Broadband
Ok, this is for everyone with broadband and use Internet Explorer. Here's a little tweak that will speed up your web browser.
For Win95/98/ME users, click here
For Win2K/XP users, click here
Directions: Download the zipfie. Then unzip it to a temporary directory. Inside that directory will be a Registry File (filename.reg), double click on the registry file. When prompted to add it to you registry, click OK. Then delete the temporary directory and reboot. Enjoy!
What it does: Internet Explorer is set out of the box to only make a maxium of 4 connections to download a web page. That is fine if you have dial-up, but broadband users can handle 20 connections or more. This drastically speeds up web page downloads for people with broadband. It's a must have.
So, not only am I helping speed up UO, and I trying to speed the boards up as well. =) I outta start charging gold for my services. hehehe
Misc Performance Tweaks - Turn off the music if you have a crappy PC (Pentium 3 500Mhz and below). Playing MP3s, either with WinAmp or the LBR client takes a fair amount of CPU cycles away from the game. And turn the damn translation server off as well.
That’s it for now, PM me if you have an further questions.
Dyran (GL)Edited by fairridge on 08/17/02 06:42 PM (server time).
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
|
Feedback: 