Situation Comedy is almost unplayable due to jerky graphics [Archive]

oddbasket

01/06/2007, 05:02 am

I need help. I downloaded SC through the link received by email. The graphics are extremely jerky and stutters like 5 frames per second. The scripted animations plays fine at full framerate though. but actual gameplay drops to stutters.

My system is a HT P4 3ghz, GF7800GS 256mb, Audigy2, 1gb ram. Tried lowest possible settings and its still the same. Culture shock plays just fine though.

Also, I would like to see support for 1280x1024 resolution. My LCD soesn't scale anything other than the resolutions it supports (setting to scale by adapter doesn't help) so a custom 1280x960 just adds graphical garbage at the bottom and it really ruins gameplay.

But my above problem is of upmost importance, pointless to have the correct resolution when I can't even play the game properly, eh? Would appreciate any remedies, thanks.

Kevin

01/06/2007, 08:19 am

Please try deleting your prefs.prop file

mandilarator

01/06/2007, 10:00 am

oddbasket

01/06/2007, 03:31 pm

Please try deleting your prefs.prop file
Nope, doesn't help. Neither does redownloading and reinstalling. Hope you can come up a another solution. It's almost as if the game was badly coded this time round or heavily unoptimized.

VoodooKing

01/06/2007, 04:32 pm

I have exactly the same problem with oddbasket.
I've tried to delete the .prop file, but nothing changed...
My system is:
Pentium 4 HT 2.8Ghz, 1.5GB Ram, ATI Radeon X1950Pro.
I have already installed the most recent drivers for all my devices.

I have the same problem. When the jerky graphics happens, my harddisk appears to be trashing as well. Doesn't happen with episode 1 though.

oddbasket

01/06/2007, 05:30 pm

And I've tried everything, drivers and directx are the latest, every ingame setting, even lowering and disabling hardware acceleration for both display and sound. Nothing works. And it seems this happens across different hardware configurations.

It happens/worsens when something other than Sam moves on screen ie Max or the little SkinBodies car. Definitely looks like a game/programming issue. I think this warrants immediate attention by tech support.

kirkunit

01/08/2007, 06:02 am

I also have the same issue with SC. The first episode work just fine, no problems at all. This one stutters like crazy... the mouse pointer takes big leaps instead of smooth motion. Seems worse when there's onscreen animation - for instance, in the office at the beginning, there's improvement when Max doesn't move around.
System: AMD AthlonXP 2400+ on Asus A7V600-X motherboard, nVidia 7600GS with 93.81 drivers, onboard SoundMAX digital audio via S/PDIF, 1GB RAM, tons of disk space.

viski

01/09/2007, 04:41 pm

At least its not just me. That was my first complaint, and I figured at the time it was an old graphics card. Guess not.

Larrin

01/13/2007, 04:26 pm

I've been having the same problem, but I have integrated video as well. The main street, especially with the skinbody car, has the most slowdown.

Sacharissa

01/14/2007, 09:41 am

Emily

01/14/2007, 10:16 am

I've been having the same problem, but I have integrated video as well. The main street, especially with the skinbody car, has the most slowdown.

In your case, it's definitely because of the integrated video, which is not supported. Sorry about that. :(

For the rest of you - are any of you running programs that could be carrying on in the background and interfering with the game? What type of virus protection are you using?

VoodooKing

01/15/2007, 01:14 am

In your case, it's definitely because of the integrated video, which is not supported. Sorry about that. :(

For the rest of you - are any of you running programs that could be carrying on in the background and interfering with the game? What type of virus protection are you using?

Hi Emily,

I can safely say that I have the normal stuff running like Norton and Zonealarm. I have never had a problem with Episode 1. Only Episode 2 gives this problem. And I seem to notice that the game is smoother (Hard disk does not trash as much) when Max is standing still.

fathamburger

01/15/2007, 11:05 am

Hi Emily,

I can safely say that I have the normal stuff running like Norton and Zonealarm. I have never had a problem with Episode 1. Only Episode 2 gives this problem. And I seem to notice that the game is smoother (Hard disk does not trash as much) when Max is standing still.

Well just because the integrated video doesn't meet requirements doesnt mean the game won't *run*, it just won't meet "reasonable" performance standards since those cards don't have any technical oomph. They are cheap, disposable "solutions" intended mostly only for 2D use, regular windows, web surfing etc. They cost Intel like 10 bucks or less each and are the bane of PC game developers everywhere. Outside of playing casual 2D games, you really want to get a better video card for games. It doesnt have to be the greatest, as long as it means directx9 and Telltale's minimum requirements. Might be able to find one pretty cheap, although seriously I would wait for a DirectX10 card post Vista so you get something that will last awhile.

I feel for you if you're still on an integrated graphics this close to the next gen (more cards will be out in the next 6 months at lower prices). Seems like you're going to have to wait longer :( Maybe you might luck out and find something you can use for now for less than 50 bucks though :)

oddbasket

01/16/2007, 03:28 pm

@fathamburger: I think you quoted the wrong person for your integrated video post.

oddbasket

01/16/2007, 03:32 pm

In your case, it's definitely because of the integrated video, which is not supported. Sorry about that. :(

For the rest of you - are any of you running programs that could be carrying on in the background and interfering with the game? What type of virus protection are you using?
I tried disabling Norton and Comodo firewall as well as every systray programs except for Razer, Creative, and Nvidia. Still the same. If the above mentioned utilities are the cause of conflicts, than that would constitute as a compatibility bug, no? given how commomn those hardware are in gaming systems.

oddbasket

01/16/2007, 03:36 pm

No I'm not saying this just to be awkward <g>, but it played just fine on my, rather lowly, system (AMD 2800+, 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD, X800 256MB). No stuttering, no slowdown - perfectly smooth.

Obviously, I cannot assist with anyone's problem, but at least you all know now that it isn't the game.

Sarah
I don't run into any of the bugs mentioned in this forum either, including the verified autosave and crashing bug in the forthcoming patched release. Can you safely say that's not the game's fault as well?

eatonjb

01/20/2007, 06:08 pm

so.. is there a fix for this?

compaq V2000 1.5gig of memory. and a new install with Not even AV installed?!

please help

VoodooKing

01/25/2007, 12:08 am

No I'm not saying this just to be awkward <g>, but it played just fine on my, rather lowly, system (AMD 2800+, 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD, X800 256MB). No stuttering, no slowdown - perfectly smooth.

Obviously, I cannot assist with anyone's problem, but at least you all know now that it isn't the game.

Sarah

Perhaps you just didn't notice the problem. See if your Hard disk light keeps blinking whenever Max is walking around.

Mizer

01/31/2007, 08:52 am

The problem, certainly in my case, is caused by Comodo firewall. Using File Monitor, part of the SysInternals programs, I found that for some reason, cmdagent.exe, which is part of Comodo firewall, was checking the Sam and Max - Situation Comedy.exe at least 50 times per second, except when the game was running a scripted event from data.ttarch.

The temporary solution is to EXIT Comodo firewall from the tray, and then go into task manager and kill the cmdagent.exe process. You can then play the game fine. However from what I can gather, you'll have to reboot to re-enable the firewall.

The other thing that you can try is going into services and disabling the Comodo Application Agent after quitting Comodo from the tray, and then trying the game. If the game runs ok, after quitting try starting the service up again and then running Comodo firewall. Haven't tried this yet, but now I need to reboot so I'll do so and let you know.
*EDIT* You can't stop the service, so this doesn't work.

Obviously it is going to be up to somebody from Telltale to get in touch with Comodo and work out whose problem this is to fix. The first episode works fine, should be interesting to see what the third one does.

I hope this helps you if you are having problems, and you have Comodo firewall installed.

Emily

01/31/2007, 09:19 am

Thank you for the information about Comodo firewall. Very interesting.

Do you happen to know if this happens with other games of ours, or if the problem is limited to Situation: Comedy? (You can download the Culture Shock demo here (http://www.telltalegames.com/demo/cultureshock) if you want to try it out.)

Mizer

01/31/2007, 09:22 am

You're quick, I just sent you an email about it!

Culture Shock works fine, and I unfortunately don't have any of your other games yet. Let me know if I can help out any other way, I'll check back tomorrow.

Emily

01/31/2007, 09:54 am

Okay, that's good to know, thanks.

Mizer

02/07/2007, 10:30 am

Any news on this? Has anyone else identified with this problem at all? Anyone from Telltale got in touch with Comodo to find out what's going on? Anyone running Comodo firewall and have Situation Comedy working fine?

Emily

02/07/2007, 10:42 am

No, we don't have any more info on this yet. I have a big list of issues I need to go over with the company that makes the activation software, and this is one of them.

Mizer

02/07/2007, 10:49 am

OK thanks for the update Emily, I appreciate it - looks like I'll have to play Situation Comedy unprotected! :)

Emily

02/07/2007, 12:45 pm

You don't have to be connected to the internet when you play it, so if you're worried about turning off the firewall you can disconnect the internet connection. Sometimes with broadband that's a hassle, but I figured it was worth mentioning.

Mizer

02/08/2007, 02:09 pm

Just so you know this is still happening in The Mole, The Mob and the Meatball.

I did ask on the Comodo firewall forum to see if anyone there had any ideas about why this was happening but so far no dice.

yoshi252

02/08/2007, 02:23 pm

I just wanted to tell you that I'm also affected by this bug. I noticed it in "Situation: Comedy" and in "The Mole, The Mob and the Meatball", although I don't have any anti virus software or the like installed.
I use WindowsXP 64bit edition... maybe that is of importance.

yoshi252

02/08/2007, 02:49 pm

After replaying "The Mole, The Mob and the Meatball" from a Savegame near the end of the game I noticed that the slowdown doesn't appear anymore.
Strange bug...

Angultra

02/08/2007, 11:50 pm

I would like to report the same problem. When playing episode 3 I get very choppy graphics, it starts out bad and gets worse to the point of unplayability.

When I checked my RAM, it was steadily decreasing (I have 1.5 GB RAM, X800XT video card, 2 Ghz processor), so a memory leak could be the problem but I'm not sure.

Also, the first 2 episodes played perfect before. It might be a problem with Vista as well, as I recently upgraded...although I made sure to turn off most the stuff that runs in the background, and delete that props.prefs file but still no dice. Please look into this because I really want to play episode 3, thanks!

oddbasket

02/09/2007, 11:25 pm

Thanks for the tip about comodo Mizer. I tried this with ep3 as well and while it does helps but doesn't completely eliminiate the choppiness. I can still visibly see stuttering when Max is moving on the screen. I've yet to try a complete uninstall of comodo to see if it fixes it.

ShaggE

02/10/2007, 02:24 am

I must be one lucky son-of-a-midget then, I have an integrated graphics card, and it runs fine... oddness

Kilroy

02/10/2007, 04:24 am

I was having the same exact problems reported with jerky graphics playing back. I have an ATI integrated graphics card (128MB on-board).

My card has a BIOS option to add an additional 128MB of graphics memory from main memory, in addition to the on-board memory.

I was originally just using the onboard 128 MB of memory. Adding the additional 128MB of memory alleviated my playback problems...

fwiw,

Kilroy:)

Mizer

02/10/2007, 07:40 am

Having played more of episode 2 and 3, they both seem to leak memory, and also there are two instances of the sam and max program loaded, one which takes up 880k of memory which I assume this is the initial load screen. However, in-game this small instance of the game eats up the processor as well as the larger 100+ meg process, which I am guessing is causing some of the choppiness. With episode 1, only one process is launched and everything is fine.

Malaak

02/11/2007, 07:59 am

I too have encountered this problem. While episode 1 ran fine, episode 2 was choppy until I killed the comodo firewall as suggested above. But that didn't help at all for episode 3. After observing it for a while, I noticed the choppiness occurs whenever Max walks around. As soon as he comes to a standstill or Sam slaps him into the air it disappears. Scenes where Max doesn't move at all, like the last one, are smooth as silk. According to Taskmanager CPU load skyrockets whenever he's on the move, but only in episode 3.
My system is a P4 3ghz with 3 gigs of ram, a 7800GS AGP and an Audigy2.

Gdrk

02/17/2007, 10:51 am

I too seem to suffer from this problem with Situation Comedy. Seems that whenever Max walks, the framerate drops to single digits. All scripted animation, such as dialogue or walking through the door runs perfectly, as did Culture Shock (not a hitch).

And yeah, I too am using Comodo personal firewall. Watching the task manager shows that the cmdagent.exe sucks the cpu along with two processes of Sam & Max whenever the slowdown is occuring. When not, Sam & Max gives some 30-40% load on the cpu.

Didn't try the third episode yet. Tried deleting prefs.prop, didn't help. Gonna try shutting the firewall down (and plugging me off the net) next.

Computer:
Athlon XP 2600+
2 GB ram
Geforce 7600GS

Emily

02/17/2007, 11:02 am

Gdrk

02/17/2007, 11:31 am

Emily, that's great!

I just tried shutting Comodo down and killing the cmdagent.exe process, and it worked for me, for both episodes 2 and 3. So there's something there indeed. I turned windows firewall on before doing that, so I didn't need to unplug the network cable.

oddbasket

02/18/2007, 07:19 pm

Hey guys,

We became aware yesterday that the version of Software Passport (the activation / copy protection) software we have been using has a memory leak in it. This may be the cause of these slowdowns.

We're testing a fix on episode 4 right now and if it solves the problems, we will fix it in episodes 2 and 3 as well.

I hope this is it and it finally gets fixed. I am wondering if a cracked version to bypass activation/copy protection would not have this problem... hmmm... of course that's not the permanent solution we paying customers would want.

Ironblade

02/21/2007, 09:39 pm

Hi, guys, I´ve been having the same problem too, and I have an Athlon 64 3500 and an ATI Radeon x850 Pro.

The hint about Comodo Firewall improved the performance a lot. I also shut down the AVG Antivirus ".exes" through task manager, and it seems now the game runs almost perfectly.

Just to let you know, since I've been trying to fix it for some time now, even thought that my video card was broken or something.

kirkunit

02/22/2007, 12:09 pm

I solved my issue in the 2nd episode as well, by turning off the firewall (Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro, 4.0.1007.7323 (591)). So it's not just Comodo.

Harald B

02/23/2007, 02:43 am

For the record, Comodo was apparantly the main source of trouble for me too. Killing the Comodo process pretty much eliminated all the lag I've been experiencing.

EDIT: Hm, misread the thread title a bit. Actually, for me killing Comodo solves the lag in episode 3, which I had at first attributed to memory leak. I don't recall ep2 lagging on me all that much, but maybe that's because I used McAfee rather than Comodo back then..

schuubars

02/23/2007, 08:44 am

The best workaround for the firewall thing is not to use software firewalls, i use now only a HW Firewall. (yeah in the past i used SW too, but now i am a bit more clever *g*)

Just to mention(for further reference), Peoples with Dual/MultiCore CPUs should always check if the CPU Affinity causes problems for every Game.(especially with AMDs). (Sound stuttering,Animation Stuttering or playing to fast ect.)

AndromedaNoShun

02/23/2007, 02:32 pm

Damn, cant get through the car chase part of ep 3... too slow, I tried to turn off virtually everything on the pc : antivirus, firewall, msn, skype... no such luck, it's just way too slow...

adg1034

02/24/2007, 08:56 pm

I do not use Comodo Firewall, but parts of Episode 4 definitely had frame rate problems for me (E6400, 2GB RAM, X1950 Pro), especially during scenes in the Oval Office. It was definitely still playable, but Sam & Max shouldn't be suffering these problems on my system.

oddbasket

03/01/2007, 02:58 pm

The stuttering in episode 4 this time includes scripted animations as well. In particular when Sam speaks, the rest of the cast speak at full framerate. Guess the issue is there.

Emily

03/01/2007, 03:27 pm

glandythorpe

03/01/2007, 06:30 pm

I didn't notice much lag like I did in ep 3, but ep 4 still gradually ate up RAM like no tomorrow. The only time the game typically stuttered for me was just before the cut scenes.

Athlon XP 2700+, 1 GB RAM, FX5700 Ultra 128 MB, running game at 1024x768

Roft

03/02/2007, 10:21 pm

Can we get an ETA on the patch for Episode 3?

Been waiting some time so I can play it lag free.

Roft

03/06/2007, 02:40 pm

Finlay decided to bear with the horrid lag and play through Episode 3. It was certainly frustrating to say the least. I'd like to play through it again as I didn't really enjoy it that much due to the frustration of the lag. At least Episode 4 doesn't seem to have the same problems.

Still rather disappointed with the length and stability of Episode 3.

Roft

03/10/2007, 05:58 pm

Anyway to get an in game console or something so I can disable maxes idle walking or something? I'd like to play through 1-4 again over spring break, but 3 is just so unenjoyable for me with the "max walks you lag" bug.

I looked around. I'd kill for a dirty work around.

Emily

03/11/2007, 02:21 pm

Hey Roft,

I don't think there's any way to keep Max from walking around in the retail version, sorry. (Interesting idea, though! Maybe we should put that in, in place of Warp Drive...)

The new versions of episodes 2 and 3 are in QA right now, and we're working hard to get them out to you guys as quickly as possible. Obviously we don't want to introduce any new bugs so we want to test them thoroughly before we send them out into the world.

kirkunit

04/02/2007, 08:33 pm

The new versions of episodes 2 and 3 are in QA right now, and we're working hard to get them out to you guys as quickly as possible. Obviously we don't want to introduce any new bugs so we want to test them thoroughly before we send them out into the world.

These aren't out yet, are they? Where will they be announced when they are? If I just knew where to look my visits to your, albeit nice, site could go a lot faster... :)