Technical Question for Rollecoaster Tycoon 3--Please help!

[Disney Wrassler]

Okay, so I started to record a ride I have been working on for months now. When the recording started, it went pretty good until I reached one small portion/room in the ride.

Whenever I seem to get to this certain area of the ride, it seems as if the recording just comes to a stand still. I mean, for some odd reason, the recording process gets significantly slower. It gets so slow, that sometimes the mouse even freezes on the screen unless you move it. I know the recording process is slow, but it shouldn't be this slow.

I tried to figure out why it gets slower during this portion of the ride by removing billboards, fire particles, turning off the fireworks show, removing various pieces of scenery, recording it in the day mode and it still made no difference.

I still have a few ideas up my sleeve that I want to try because there has to be something in the scenario that is causing this to happen.

My question is, do you think if I bought a video game graphics card, or some sort of memory card for the computer, will it help make the recording process a bit faster, especially with this problem area of the ride?

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Do you know how much RAM is in your machine and what kind of video card you are using?

[Disney Wrassler]

No I don't MBC. But I do know that the video card in my PC came with the Dell computer I play on. I'm sure the video card that came with the computer is not the best one for RCT3 game play, but somehow it manages to run the game decently. The card that came with the P.C. is not good enough to display some of the effects, such as the reflections of objects on water and what-not.

I was thinking about going into the computer store today and asking them some questions about my computer and the cards they sell though.

I know they will be expensive, but maybe they will help me out when it comes to recording the problem area in the ride.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Well, your problems could be due to low RAM. and it isn't very expensive to upgrade. How old is the computer?

[Disney Wrassler]

In between 2-3 years. I also found that my computer has 256 MB of RAM.

I went to the computer store and they found out what graphics card I can get. I looked over at their selection of graphics cards with one of the guys who worked there and he told me that the cards will definatly help with RCT3. He also suggested that perhaps the recording process was freezing during certain parts of the ride may be because the computer is having a hard time reading all the data.

He also stated that the graphics card may help because having one means that the game would not be relying on my computer Memory/RAM and would be relying on the card instead.

I hope that didn't confuse anyone . I'm just not very savy with computers and tried to say what he told me as best as possible. The guy said he also played RCT3 and knows that the card we were looking at would definatly help.

But I guess there are only two types of cards. One that is compatible with most of the newer computers and one that is being circulated out because it only works with the older computers, such as mine. I forget what card he told me my computer takes, but it has three letters, one letter being a P, and it is getting harder to find because it is getting phased out.

The card I am thinking about purchasing and having them install has almost 200 MB on it.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Well, I would still consider a RAM upgrade as well. Not sure what your operating system is but with XP, 256 is about the bare minimum and RCT would certainly benefit from throwing another 512 or even a gig in the machine. And even a gig can be had for about 50-60 bucks if you look around.

[Sambo]

Glory - I just paid $50 for 2 GB DDR DIMM.

Go for 1 GB at least, and the graphics card with at least 128 MB memory - 256 is better.

If you had 256 MB of RAM, and were sharing that with the onboard graphics chip, it was no wonder it slowed to a crawl. There wasn't enough memory to run the game and process the images at the same time. Separating that will be the biggest step in solving the problem.

[Disney Wrassler]

Now that I remember, the card I was looking at was in PCI format. It had somewhere inbetween 150-260 MB of RAM, I forget the exact #. I believe the card had more thatn 200 though because the other PCI card they had available only had about 150 MB and that one was cheaper. But he also said the graphics card was good enough to play games such as World Of Warcraft on, especially when it came to my computer. I did bring my computer in and showed it to him and he took a look at what cards the computer can take. It turns out, my computer can only take PCI cards.

But he did say that the card, when it gets installed, would definatly help gameplay.

I think the guy at the computer store also said that he may be able to update the RAM on my computer even though it has no internet connection.

EDIT: Cruiser, I have Windows XP and will definatly ask the guy at the computer store if he can put as many MB of Ram on my computer as possible .


Thanks for your help and input guys .

[Sambo]

I think the guy at the computer store also said that he may be able to update the RAM on my computer even though it has no internet connection.

These two things are no way related. You don't need any internet connection to add RAM.

The equivalent would be like your auto repair place saying they may be able to install snow tires even though you don't have an FM radio receiver.

This place sounds dicey to me...

[FantasyWatersDude]

Also turn off the shadows, clouds, reflective water, and trees off map. that has helped me a lot with game play. Not sure about recording, but it may help.

[Disney Wrassler]

These two things are no way related. You don't need any internet connection to add RAM.

The equivalent would be like your auto repair place saying they may be able to install snow tires even though you don't have an FM radio receiver.

This place sounds dicey to me...

OOOHHHHH! Okay . The guy at the store did say something about also putting more RAM on the computer and I had no clue about what he was talking about . I just said No to him and told him that I wanted the graphics card installed . He gave me a funny look on his face . Silly me .

Also turn off the shadows, clouds, reflective water, and trees off map. that has helped me a lot with game play. Not sure about recording, but it may help.

Actually, I can't turn on the reflections in the water because of the computer. That is also one reason why I want to get this card. I hope it will let me turn the reflections on because I have never seen it like that before. But then after I have fun seeing the reflections on water, I of course would turn it off again.

But I do have shadows turned off. I turned them off simply because I hated how they made some areas dark and impossible to see, even with lights turned on.

Here is a question I asked Lost Boy.

Given the fact that my computer takes PCI cards only, Do those cards have to be Ati Radeon or GeForce? Or can the game run good with other graphics cards as well? I know the computer store sells the Ati brand, but I forget if the card we looked at was Ati or some sort of off brand?

The guy did say the card would still run RCT3 perfectly fine, and much better, but I am still kinda curious.

[Sambo]

An ATI or nVidia based card as long as it has hardware T&L. That is "Transform & Lighting". Here is more info: http://www.nvidia.com/object/transform_lighting.html ATI's Smartshader tech - http://ati.amd.com/products/pdf/smartshader.pdf

The card must be capable of the integrated transformation, clipping and lighting (T&L) to perform those higher end graphics in RCT3. Pretty much any current ATI Radeon or GeForce2 or greater.

Based on your computer motherboard - Must it be a PCI, or can it be a PCI-e?