GREY MATTER (News and Potential Spoilers Within!)

[Tawmis]

So I installed it on the home PC... and for some reason, the intro video and everything is EXTREMELY choppy and EXTREMELY slow.

My computer meets all the requirements - only one I don't know for sure is the soundcard.

Requirements:
OS: Windows 7/ Windows XP - I have WINDOWS XP
Processor: 1.4ghz - I have 3.00Ghz
Memory: 1GB - I have 3GB
Soundcard: 256MB Compatible - I have Creative SB X-Fi

From what I see here, there's no 256MB sound cards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster_X-Fi

As a side note, such instances make me want to continue my gaming on consoles and just use PCs for the internet, email, etc... and definitely not for gaming...

[BBP]

Tawm: if you're ever near, come on over and I'll gladly introduce you to the magical world of CD-i.

It's possible that the soundcard is the issue. I got a strange audio distortion that really hurt my ears during the first chapter, and after that I suddenly got blurbs everywhere, when watching Youtube vids or playing DVDs and all. Once I got a BSOD right after such a blurb, then I did a recovery of the important Windows files, and now the blurbs are gone. I'd need to re-install GM to be sure.

[Collector]

I doubt that your older hardware has anything to do with it. The game is pretty undemanding. Perhaps a conflict with something else you have running? Do you have a number of other things running in the background? Turn off your AV software. Try killing any un-needed processes before running the game, possibly even Explorer.

[Tawmis]

I will check. But I even defragged the entire drive, to see if that was an issue (it was, admittedly, severely fragged because of all the video editing and saving, and deleting I do with NeN) - no difference there. Will try as you suggested Collector, later.

[DeadPoolX]

What about your video card? You shouldn't have a problem there (GM isn't exactly cutting edge in the graphics department) but given that it's a new game it might want more recent video drivers.

Like Collector said, try turning off some programs while playing. If you're concerned about leaving your AV program switched off, disable your internet connection while playing the game.

I quickly Googled your issue and it seems it's definitely not unheard of. This person is having the same problem and she has a much newer PC than you do.

[BBP]

Or check the official forum here:
http://forum.dtp-entertainment.com/view ... 54&t=17304

[Tawmis]

I can't believe a reboot was the problem. Once I rebooted, ran smoothly. Even went in and upped the settings...

[BBP]

Come to think of it I didn't have that problem. I installed it at 10PM or so, and by the time it was finally finished installing, it was time for bed.

[Tawmis]

The thread you linked had the moderator suggesting a reboot, which fixed it for almost everyone who posted. So I rebooted. And it fixed it.

[BBP]

I don't understand, do you leave your system on 24/7?

[Tawmis]

I don't understand, do you leave your system on 24/7?

Pretty much.

[Collector]

I pretty much leave mine on all day when I am home, but shut it down when I am going to be out for any length of time or when I am going to bed. Leaving it on for long periods of times when not needed just ages the electronics. It also allows it to collect more dust, clogging the cooling. This also has the advantage of at least one reboot per day, which is good to purge and defrag the memory. That said, I do leave it running most of the time I am at home and awake, whether I am currently using it or not. Constantly powering it up and down is stressful, too. Think about when light bulbs usually blow -- when you first turn them on.

[BBP]

With bulbs, that is because cold wolfram has much less resistance than warm wolfram. The wire grows hot almost instantly, but it's just that one short power surge. There's hardly any wear and tear from it though, and leaving a lightbulb on while you're away is only more avantageous if you come back in three seconds. I'm not sure how that works for PCs but if yours is any like our Vista, I can imagine you'd leave it on all day.

[Tawmis]

I also think it depends on the computer hard drive type. If it has a SETA drive, there's literally no hard drive spinning going on; but regular hard drives have to spin up every time it's restarted.

I am not sure why I leave mine on constantly, to be honest. It has Windows XP and the boot time is about 30 seconds, so it's nothing painful. And I am always SO super conscious about anything else left on, because of the electricity it sucks up. Yet, strangely I leave my PC, dual monitors, and speaker system (attached to it) on all the time.

We have another laptop (with VISTA on it) that we essentially use to connect to the printer, that's always on (as a shared printer). So that when the wife and I might be on our laptops (with wireless) we can print, without having to plug into the USB printer. (We use that laptop with VISTA on it to do this, because it was originally my laptop from a few years ago, and words can not describe my hatred of Vista, and buying a new OS for it was not going to work, and when I tried to reinstall my Windows XP on it, made matters worse, so I reverted back to Vista).

[Maiandra]

Amazon had it on sale and we took advantage of that to grab our copy! I'm looking forward to another game with a good story. Yay!