1 frame every 5 seconds in Fly II

[Guest]

Hello everyone. Glad to see some of the testers still around. I've not run Fly II in several months due to family health problems and some nasty System problems that I finally worked out in OS 9.2.2 and 8.6. Except for Fly II it seems!I had to remove almost 40 extensions to get both Systems stable again. I have no idea what I did to cause Fly II to run literally one frame every 5 seconds. Even mouse clicks are that slow. Starting the engine takes almost a minute for it to catch. What gets me is that both Systems are doing the same thing with Fly II. I didn't touch a thing in the Fly II folder, so it can't be that. Anyone have any ideas where to start trying to figure this one out? I've never had problems like this.Barry Williams

[Guest]

Hi Barry,Since you've been playing with the system extensions create an extension set that requires the minimum for FLY! to operate. I've found that this helps a great deal with the framerates. Sometime if you select a higher resolution than your actual monitor set-up it seems to bring the program to a crawl.With us Mac users, you pretty much have to turm off most of the eyecandy and avoid heavily populated airports or large cities.Good luck,Peter

[Guest]

Barry,I certainly agree with Peter. Extensions unrelated to Fly! play a big role with frame rates by eating up system resources. Fly! needs everything it can get. Allocating a bit more memory to the app might help. I've had similar situations as you have with extremely slow response. Most of it was due to Fly! not recognizing my Radeon video card. Reinstalling the latest drivers was my solution.Good luck...Rich@KLEWBeige G3 233 MHz DT rev.1 G4 400 MHz NewerTech upgrade OS 9.2.2 384 MB RAM ATI Radeon Mac (PCI) Thrustmaster FCS/WCS

[Guest ftessler]

Hi, Barry.Are all your other applications running normally? If so, it's less likely that your hardware or system software (exclusive of extensions) are at fault. I agree that extensions are the likely culprit(s) and that running with a minimal extension set is a good idea. However, it can be tricky to decide what that set should inlcude.I suggest starting by booting without any third-party extensions (i.e. load just the ones that are installed with OS 9 - note that this will necessarily include some that weren't written by Apple, such as video drivers.) If Fly! II runs OK, you can then work backward from there, gradually deactivating ones that you know or suspect aren't necessary. Needless to say, this is much easier to do if you use Apple's Extensions Manager or Conflict Catcher.Hope this helps.-Franklin------------------------------Franklin TesslerDP 800Fly! for Mac Co-moderator

[Guest Allan Jones]

Barry,Replace the PRAM battery, particularly if that computer was off a long time. As I recall, you have a B&W, right? I know from painful personal experience that beige G3's are very sensitive to having good battery power--I suspect their younger sisters are too. Some boot info is stored in the lower bytes of PRAM. PRAM in a Mac is very similar to the BIOS in those "other" computers. If PRAM is flakey, all is flaky.Good to see you're still around--missed ya,

[Guest]

Allan,Good to talk to you again. Yes, a B&W overclocked to 400. And, thanks to everyone else for the advice. I don't even remember what caused all of the problems in the first place. Fly II is crap under both Systems, so I'm sure it isn't a 9.2.2 problem. It ran good under that for a while. I think my problem is taking out too many extensions from both System folders and I have no idea what Fly II needs now. It was probably close to 50 extensions that were removed. I've used several OpenGL versions with no success so far.I'll reset the PRAM about 10 times tonight and see. I replaced the battery not long ago. I use the computer every day. It is just Fly II that is having problems. I guess I'm just about using a minimum extension set now.Any idea when a new build will be finished for us to test out?Barry

[Guest Allan Jones]

Did you put CarbonLib back in? It must be there. V1.4 and higher don't seem to have the problems we experienced with 1.3.1 during the beta period.Rich H was going in for some follow-up surgery in Late July (I think) and said he souldn't get finished until after that.According to docs with TechTool, using the keyboard commands to zap the PRAM only clears the upper bits. Some info is also stored in the lower bits. Removing the battery clears those, but you can do the same thing with the freeware "TechTools Lite" at www.macromat.com. It has a deep PRAM reset function and even allows you to save and restore the date of manufacture and hours in use. Works with 9.2.2 but not X.

[Guest]

Allan,I tried 3 versions of CarbonLib...1.3.1, 1.4, and 1.6. Same thing each time. I'm thinking it must be something I'm missing since I took out over 40 extensions in both systems. I hope Rich is doing well. If you are reading this Rich, best wishes to you. You have a lot of people pulling for you.I usually zap the PRAM 10 times because of that lower level thing you mentioned. I read that a long time ago. I tried to get the Micromat Lite but the website was down. The last version I tried would lock up when it zapped the PRAM. I'll try to download it again.I found another game that has the exact same problem. It is Moon Lander by a German author. It is the demo version that was on Chezmarks about 6 months ago. The minimum documentation is in German, so not much help there. So, there is something in common with Fly II and Moon Lander that slows everything down to a crawl. If only I could figure out what it was. Not having Fly II is tough.Barry Williams

[Guest Allan Jones]

Barry, the finger gremlins attacked my previous message. The site for TechTools lite is:http://www.micromat.com/ (pasted from the browser to avoid other typos!)Remember back to last summer with Rob had us test with various Fly and Desktop settings? Could that effect have come back. Is Fly's res set to equal to or less that the Mac d/t.Is your vidcard properly displayed in the graphics startup window?How about you e-mail me your fly.ini file? I'll be glad to check it against mine, which works OK for now.Allan

[Guest]

Barry,If you want you can send me your minimum FLY! extension set and I'll check it with mine.Peter

[Guest]

Allan,Fly II is working again!I'm a bit embarrassed as to what broke it in the first place. I was thinking of relating the problem only by email, but I'll go ahead and say it here...I had removed almost 50 extensions and my original problems vanished. I was having mysterious crashes all the time and I got fed up with it. So, I started pulling extensions until everything ran smoothly again. What I didn't realize is that I had pulled out Quickdraw. It is going fine since I put that back in. I still have massive problems with all planes turning hard lefts on takeoff. I still get ghost inputs when flying straight and level, but Fly II works now.Thanks for all the suggestions and tips. It is running pretty good on this B&W G-3.Barry

[Guest ftessler]

5{ to hear it's working, and no need to be embarrassed. I used to do this sort of thing all the time with OS 9 - one of the reasons I really like OS X.-Franklin ------------------------------Franklin TesslerDP 800Fly! for Mac Co-moderator

[Guest]

Barry,Sounds to me like you need to calibrate your front steering wheel so that it set to zero. I'm not sure what type of controller you're using but this sounds like the cause of your hard left problem. Before you take-off, look at your plane in an external view to see if the front wheels are turned, if so, it's time to re-calibrate. I'm not sure about your ghost inputs - someone else can handle the super-natural.Peter

[Guest Allan Jones]

Gost inputs? Maybe Barry needs an OS X-orcist!

[Guest ftessler]

Nah, this is a Classic case for the Ghostbusters!-Franklin------------------------------Franklin TesslerDP 800Fly! for Mac Co-moderator