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| Antialiasing, High Priority, etcetera... |
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Raven93
Joined: 14 Jun 2003
Posts: 22
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 Posted: Sun Jan 23, 23:40 |
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Read this all the way through before you try it.
For those of you experiencing stuttering, especially with force feedback, in "ToCA Race Driver 2", Codemasters has offered the rather inelegant solution of using "ctrl+alt+delete" to bring up the Task Manager and change to high priority for "rd2.exe" under the "Processes" tab. That's a pain in the butt everytime you run the game. So Windows XP users, copy and save everything between the following dashes into a new text file:
=========================
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\Start High Priority]
@="Start High Priority"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\Start High Priority\command]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\cmd.exe /c start \"Start High Priority\" /high \"%1\""
=========================
DO NOT save the dashes, just the stuff between them.
Now, rename your new text file to "Start High Priority.reg" and it should become a registry file with a turquoise Rubik's Cube icon. And don't use those quote marks when you rename it, just Start High Priority.reg like that.
Now, double-click your new "Start High Priority.reg" file. When prompted as to whether you want to add the information in the file to the system registry, click "Yes".
Now right-click on an .exe file, or a shortcut or icon linking to an .exe file, such as the desktop icon for "ToCA Race Driver 2". In the right-click context menu, you should now see an option to "Start High Priority". It will work on all your game or application shortcuts. Just right click on an icon or .exe file. If you select "Start High Priority", the game or application will launch at high priority, and you won't need to "ctrl+alt+delete" and use the Task Manager to bump it up to high priority, or install any third-party utility programs to get the job done. This will give your games and applications more CPU time, and make them run better in many cases.
I had the problem with my force feedback steering wheel fighting with my sound card in ToCA Race Driver 2, resulting in stuttering whenever I enabled force feedback. This fixed it. The game now runs smooth as silk with force feedback.
If right clicking is just too much effort, and you want to launch a certain game or application as high priority everytime, right click on the shortcut (desktop icon) for the game or application and select "Properties". Copy and paste everything between the following OUTSIDE quote marks, including spaces, into the "Target" box for the shortcut, BEFORE the target information that is already there. LEAVE the target information that is already there, just paste this in BEFORE it:
"C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c start "Start High Priority" /high "
Copy everything above but the OUTSIDE quote marks. LEAVE the quote marks around "Start High Priority" in the command line. Include spaces, including the last space after "/high" and before the final quote mark.
My shortcut "Target" information for my ToCA Race Driver 2 icon looks like this:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c start "Start High Priority" /high "C:\Program Files\Codemasters\Race Driver 2\rd2.exe"
Now clear any information in the "Start in" slot.
This will ONLY WORK if you have already done the "Start High Priority.reg" file trick above, and it does not work with all games. Some you have to launch by right clicking and selecting "Start High Priority" to get them to behave. But other games will accept the shortcut mod.
You might have to reassign the game icon to the shortcut after this. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't, depending on which game you're setting to high priority. For example, "Delta Force: Blackhawk Down" doesn't need its icon reassigned. "Superbike 2001" does. I really don't know why that is, it just is.
If you do need to change the icon back to the original game icon, instead of a command prompt icon, after adding that information to the target, just click the "Change Icon" button and browse to the game's .exe file or .ico file, or any other icon you want for the game, and select it as the icon for the shortcut.
Also, if you have the "Top Six" option enabled for your Start menu in "Windows XP", you may want to right click and select "Pin to Start Menu" on the Command Prompt icon when it shows up, or you'll be removing it from your top six list on the Start menu all the time. It makes pulling up a command prompt easier anyway. Or you can disable the "Top Six" feature on your Start menu.
Anyway, this should help smooth out some stuttering games, and fix various things, and is especially useful for "ToCA Race Driver 2". If any of your games give you problems when they are run at high priority, just remove the "C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c start "Start High Priority" /high " information from the target slot of your shortcut properties, fill in the "Start in" information for the shortcut, and your game will be launched at normal priority. Some games will not like the shortcut method delineated above, but will launch at high priority just fine if you leave the shortcut alone and start them by right-clicking and selecting "Start High Priority". Experiment and see what works best for a particular game.
If you follow these instructions, you do so AT YOUR OWN RISK! Neither I, nor Blackhole Motorsports take any responsibility for, or accept any liability for any negative outcome that may result from using this little tweak. It should be fine, but be advised that if your computer goes belly-up after you do this, YOU did it of your own free will! It doesn't have anything to do with me or Blackhole Motorsports, it was your own choice to implement these suggestions.
Now, mandatory legal B.S. aside, let me know if this fixes your problems.
Also, tired of seeing jaggies in "ToCA Race Driver 2"? To set antialiasing in your graphics card's control panel, and have it actually work in "ToCA Race Driver 2", you need to do the following:
1) Nvidia cards' FSAA settings will work if "Hi-Res Bonnet Reflections" are turned off in the Advanced Section of the hardware setup program (the "Setup ToCA Race Driver 2" utility in your "ToCA Race Driver 2" Start menu entry).
2) Radeon cards' FSAA will work if the game is minimized and then restored as the tracks are loading.
Goodbye jaggies! Looks better, eh?
Hope you all find these tweaks useful. Enjoy!
Cheers!
Rick... 
Last edited by Raven93 on Mon Jan 24, 07:22; edited 1 time in total |
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zeroskater_66
Joined: 17 Jan 2005
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Mon Jan 24, 03:01 |
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It's so simple !! I have been bothered by stuttering for years by many different games. From motocross madness and viper racing(in the old days), to rfactor and rbr. This has, as far as I can see, eliminated the problem entirely.
Hooray for Raven! Thanks for bringing this to our attention !!!!!!! |
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Raven93
Joined: 14 Jun 2003
Posts: 22
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| Posted: Mon Jan 24, 07:17 |
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LOL! No problem, ZS66! I've been lurking quietly around here for quite a long time, and don't say much, but I thought this needed to be addressed. It sure improves RD2. Myself, I rarely do the shortcut trick, because only some games will accept it, but the right click and select "Start High Priority" method, once you've done the .reg file thing, will work on virtually every game out there. So it's probably best to use that, unless you like to tinker. I find that this also works great for NHRA Drag Racing Top Fuel Thunder, solves a lot of stuff for that title, and speeds it WAY up. It'll fix up lots of stuff, if you have any titles that are running crappy. I guess Richard Burns Rally responds well too, but I haven't personally tried it. Glad I could help somebody with this tweak.
Cheers!
Rick... |
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