Game Loading Speed - faster pussycat, kill, kill

[MA_Moby]

Does anyone have any tips on how I can get FB to load more quickly?

I have the CD crack, which seems to speed it a little. And I have plenty of RAM (768). Could it be my processor (how many s'ss in that word anyway?)? I have a pentium 4, but am not sure what type.

Anyway, any tips would be great. I hate being the last one into VEF games and having to fly Chaika's on suicide missions

[Skii]

If you are the last into an on-line game, it could be your internet connection especially if you are downloading a new map prior to a mission, are you on dial up or broad band ?

[Hat]

Using notepad, open the hlpro.ini file in your Hyperlobby folder and edit the line

[Forgotten Battles]
joinDelay=x

default is 20

Change it to the smallest number you can before you start getting timeouts on joining games. Mine is currently set at 10

I would also make it a habit to close down any unecessary processes that may be running in the background.

[MA_Moby]

I'm on broadband, though only a 150, but it's not really the speed of the mission download that I'm worried about. It's the time the game actually takes to load and start, before the mission download begins.

Would changing the joindelay=x line help with this?

I always shut down as much as possible before starting the game. Though I usually keep Norton anti virus auto-protect running.

[Skii]

Originally posted by Mobydick
I always shut down as much as possible before starting the game. Though I usually keep Norton anti virus auto-protect running.

Norton is a huge resource hog - turn it off.

[MA_Moby]

I just ran a test on this -

with everything running in the background - 57 seconds
with just norton and a few essentials - 46 seconds
with Norton disabled - 20 seconds

So thanks Skii, it looks like that's the answer . Being from a non technical/IT background it never would have occured to me.

No more suicide Chaika runs for me

[Dakaras]

Yep that would do it, I shut down everything but Teamspeak and Hyperlobby in FB online and Im often 1st or 2nd into a game

[Hat]

ok.. so now try joinDelay = 10 and see what happens...

It deffo made things quicker for me

[Nick]

Ok, I'll try turning off Norton too, as I'm getting ROTTEN pings! Question is though, how to I stop those annoying pop up screens appearing offering me sex and the like if I go to a certain webpage. I know it's got something to do with turning off one of XP's messenger functions or something, but I cant find the thread I read it in... any ideas?

Oh, and while you're on... what is the ACTUAL possibility of getting hacked if I turn off Norton while flying online? Minimal? Huge? I dunno.

[MA_Moby]

Originally posted by Deckard
Oh, and while you're on... what is the ACTUAL possibility of getting hacked if I turn off Norton while flying online? Minimal? Huge? I dunno.

That thought occured to me too. Mind you, I can't imagine who would want to hack my PC or why. There's nothing of much interest or value on it.

[Skii]

Originally posted by Deckard
Ok, I'll try turning off Norton too, as I'm getting ROTTEN pings! Question is though, how to I stop those annoying pop up screens appearing offering me sex and the like if I go to a certain webpage. I know it's got something to do with turning off one of XP's messenger functions or something, but I cant find the thread I read it in... any ideas?

Oh, and while you're on... what is the ACTUAL possibility of getting hacked if I turn off Norton while flying online? Minimal? Huge? I dunno.

I think people are confusing Firewalls with AntiVirus here. Norton will perform system scans and monitor your pc constantly, however, it won't stop worms et al coming in through your open ports. Therefore its pretty pointless running an Antivirus whilst running a game, unless you want your PC to perform a system scan whilst you are strafing German supply columns.

Deckard - you need to run a firewall like ZoneAlarm or Sygate (both downloadable free) which will block your ports and only allow traffic through with your knowledge - preventing you from being hacked. You can safely run FB with these firewalls on as they use a LOT less cpu/memory resources than Norton.

Pop ups are only prevented with special pop-up stopping programs which are also available free, however you need to disable the msn service in control panel / performance + maintenance / administrative tools / services / messenger - disabled. This will prevent annoying adverts popping up on screen via the msn messenger service.

So - shut down your Anti-virus, install a decent free firewall, job done.

[Enverex]

This is a great program, basically you can get it to close all unwanted programs with the press of a single button, plus you can tell it what to kill and what not to close too - http://atomnet.co.uk/?p=programs&search=end

Makes life easy to kill everything before playing a game.

[MA_Moby]

I didn't know there were free firewalls you could download - thanks. I've just downloaded zonealarm

[[GSV]Trig]

Deck, I'm guessing when you say popups offering you sex you mean ones that are appearing in a Windows style message box..

If so, right click on my computer, goto manage, services and applications, services, then disable the "Messenger" service..

Tada

[Enverex]

Moby: ZoneAlarm is crap compared to other decent (free) firewalls such as Kerio Personal Firewall, which I would easily recommend instead of Zone Alarm.

[Nick]

Yep, dose be de ones trig...

btw, ever tried any of them? They any good?

Right, so I can play using Norton Firewall, but kill the anti-virus? Okey dokey.... and no, before ANYONE says, I'm not putting ZA back on, I PAID for a copy of Norton and I'm damn well gonna use it!