# BIG Forged alliance problem



## funnybone1 (Oct 17, 2011)

ok iv had this problem for a very VERY long time now and none of the fixes or threads online helped me one bit.

forged alliance units and production etc freeze, menus and game still navagatable.
leading up to that the game runs in s l o w motion 

at time of these "slow downs"/unit freezes even before they happen
CPU usage= 30-40% (accross all cores)
GPU usage= always 60-98% (like that in pretty much all games)
RAM usage= never over 1.5GB (4GB total 64-bit OS)

PC specs
AMD Phenom IIx4 @3.5 GHZ
GTX560 ti
4GB DDR3 1333MHZ corsair
windows 7 home premium 64-bit and windows 7 pro 32-bit

happens on both OS's
im using the very latest version of supreme commander forged alliance
latest drivers, latest everything

i have tried
the core maximizer (no effect at all)
re-installing countless of times (both OS's)
many virus scans (none found at all)
many google search's ( came across a few threads latest being 2008 and none were solved)
the sorien AI mod (no change at all)
the ram increase in the shortcut (no change still dont go over 1.5GB)

im 90% sure that its due to the fact that the program cant seem to use more than 1.5GB of RAM

my friend has 
an intel core i5 2500k
GTX460 
4GB RAM 
and same OS

yet he can run the huge battles no lag at all and he even removed the unit limit.

this problem has been driving me insane for a very long time, i have wasted so much time and effort trying to solve this problem to no avail

this really is my last resort

thank you


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## Sven2157 (Feb 10, 2009)

Start here:

First, some games take the switches that you can include in the "Target" section, under the shortcut...

Others... ONLY if they are programmed to.

Second:
Regardless of how many systems I have installed on, I seem to run into a similar situation as you and your friend. This SUX!

But we must trudge through and figure why, what is happening is... well, happening...

From what you have described so far, it to me sounds like a Video graphics problem. Not your card (video card), but the Motherboard and other system hardware that may be not playing well...

Could I get a bit more info, since I don't own the game?

I can offer this while you wait:

Open a command prompt, then type *bcdedit /set uservaincrease 4906*
restart your computer.

Also increase your virtual memory, whatever it is what windows calls it; disk space.

Follow my original post on "Optimizing Games" which is a Sticky at the beginning of this thread.

Let's start there... Let me know what your think, and maybe what other information you could give... :wink:

Thanks....


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## funnybone1 (Oct 17, 2011)

thank you for your reply :wave:


didn't know about the switch in the target section, good to know 
my friend isn't suffering from the same situation, infact he can run the game like a god :O ray:
only diff is he has an intel based system


ok suprememe commander....
basically its an RTS, you can play on huge maps ranging from 5km-81km
you can have up to 8 player battles going, each player can have up to 1,000 units, the graphics are a little... dated but the weapon and explosion effects are pretty nice.

a game description and the system resources being used is.... really all i can give you.

my mobo is an Asus M4A785TD-M EVO
my power supply is a corsair TX650w 

:smile: i already looked at your thread and done the increase and all, good post BTW very simple to understand :grin:

why 4906?.. i dont have that much RAM


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## Sven2157 (Feb 10, 2009)

funnybone1 said:


> why 4906?.. i dont have that much RAM


This is _Virtual Memory_, not memory; or RAM. Basically your Operating System allocates a section of your disk. It uses this section to temporarily store data while it is being processed. 4096 is 4GB of disk space that the OS can use for these operations.

Now Windows will never use that amount, so it will allow other operations to utilize some of the allocated space. This gives more "working" area to the processor and RAM.

To make sure we are all on the same page, I have to ask; Do you have the latest Motherboard and Video drivers? Perhaps a clean install of both is in order. I suggest downloading the latest from the manufacturer's websites and then FULLY uninstall ALL motherboard and Video drivers.

*REBOOT*

Then when you install the new drivers, make sure you right click and choose "Run as administrator". This is very important with Windows Vista/7, as it allows the program to install without interference from the OS Security Software.

Let's see how that goes...


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## funnybone1 (Oct 17, 2011)

Sven2157 said:


> This is _Virtual Memory_, not memory; or RAM. Basically your Operating System allocates a section of your disk. It uses this section to temporarily store data while it is being processed. 4096 is 4GB of disk space that the OS can use for these operations.
> 
> Now Windows will never use that amount, so it will allow other operations to utilize some of the allocated space. This gives more "working" area to the processor and RAM.


awesome will do



Sven2157 said:


> To make sure we are all on the same page, I have to ask; Do you have the latest Motherboard and Video drivers? Perhaps a clean install of both is in order. I suggest downloading the latest from the manufacturer's websites and then FULLY uninstall ALL motherboard and Video drivers.


i already have all drivers up to date, by mobo drivers do you mean the BIOS?

*REBOOT*



Sven2157 said:


> Then when you install the new drivers, make sure you right click and choose "Run as administrator". This is very important with Windows Vista/7, as it allows the program to install without interference from the OS Security Software.
> 
> Let's see how that goes...


i always do that when it comes to installations thanks


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## Sven2157 (Feb 10, 2009)

funnybone1 said:


> i already have all drivers up to date, by mobo drivers do you mean the BIOS


No MOBO, is a short way of saying *MO*ther *BO*ard. :wink:

Funny you mentioned BIOS. You may need to update the BIOS for your MOBO. However, *I HIGHLY SUGGEST YOU GET HELP WITH THIS, IF YOU DON NOT FULLY KNOW HOW TO FLASH A BIOS!*

Basically, BIOS updates include assembly code, which are the basic set of instructions for your hardware. The BIOS, *B*asic *I*nput *O*utput *S*ystem, communicates with the OS and Hardware, directing instructions to their destinations. It also aids in the execution of the instructions.

Go to your MOBO manufacturer's website and see if there is an update for your system.

Good Luck!


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## funnybone1 (Oct 17, 2011)

Sven2157 said:


> No MOBO, is a short way of saying *MO*ther *BO*ard. :wink:
> 
> Funny you mentioned BIOS. You may need to update the BIOS for your MOBO. However, *I HIGHLY SUGGEST YOU GET HELP WITH THIS, IF YOU DON NOT FULLY KNOW HOW TO FLASH A BIOS!*
> 
> ...


done that, that was easy


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## funnybone1 (Oct 17, 2011)

even with the new mobo version and GPU drivers im still getting the problem
using my sisters laptop atm


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## Sven2157 (Feb 10, 2009)

At this point, I am beginning to wonder if your CPU is the problem. AMD processors are notorious for overheating! They are HORRIBLE about that and stating a speed for which the CPU can't achieve.

This is not an issue with Intel Chips, as they have thermal protection built into the architecture of the chip. AMD started to do this as well, but hasn't reached the Intel level, as of yet.

Does your CPU have the stock heat sink and fan that came with it? Would it be possible to get a new one that can handle the heat factor for that chip? Does your case allow for proper cooling?

When games start to lag for "no apparent reason", 99.9% of the time, it is heat related.

Make sure that the case is free of ALL dust. If you have access to an air compressor, I suggest giving your entire system a really good "blowing out". That includes fans, fans on cards, air intake ports, etc, etc...

*Remember that air compressors will build moisture and shoot water out, if they are not equipped with a water trap!* Though you may not be able to see any, believe me it is present! Just make sure that the system is turned off, and then give it a couple minutes before turning it back on, afterwards...


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## tcutchi (Oct 18, 2011)

Hi, hate to kinda barge in like this, but me and my friends are having a similar, if not the same problem with Forged Alliance. All the computers are mid-range to high-end gaming rigs, all are fully updated (game, drivers, everything), all are fresh installs, and all running the game on LAN (2-4 players and 2-4 AI's)

Game runs just fine in single player skirmishes, no matter how long they get, but on LAN it'll usually freeze up around an hour and a half of play, the last half hour to an hour of which it'll run a bit slower than normal (judging by the game timer). Most of the time it'll resume when a player or 2 quits, but of course that's no fun for the players that have to leave, is it....

Also, it seems to be a lot more persistent when the AI is losing horribly >.>

Any help/patches/fixes would be greatly appreciated, thanks

P.S. yes, we have gone though the above stated steps on all computers


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## funnybone1 (Oct 17, 2011)

Sven2157 said:


> At this point, I am beginning to wonder if your CPU is the problem. AMD processors are notorious for overheating! They are HORRIBLE about that and stating a speed for which the CPU can't achieve.
> 
> This is not an issue with Intel Chips, as they have thermal protection built into the architecture of the chip. AMD started to do this as well, but hasn't reached the Intel level, as of yet.
> 
> Does your CPU have the stock heat sink and fan that came with it? Would it be possible to get a new one that can handle the heat factor for that chip? Does your case allow for proper cooling?


i have a pretty big cooler, the stock ones aren't very good, that was the first thing i changed when i baught it



Sven2157 said:


> When games start to lag for "no apparent reason", 99.9% of the time, it is heat related.


its not really lag.
the game slows down, doesn't lag, but all the units and structures and build ques, weapons fire etc all goes into a slow motion.
you have the ability to adjust the speed of the game to speed it up or to slow it down, but when thre becomes more units the slower the game gets.

like a said in my first post, the game DOES NOT use my PC's resources, it looks like to me that the application just isn't able to use my processor or ram 100% or even 50%, the game only uses 
30-40% of the CPU
and 1.5GB of RAM
i thought that switching to a 64-bit operating system would allow the game to use more of my computers resources, but i have not noticed any change


o and to the guy who just came into this convo, welcome :wave:
and whats your PC specs and does it run fine without slowdown on the largest map with 8-player cheating AI's with a 1,000 unit cap?


also something else that i should tell you, i also have the trinity pack of sins of a solare empire
its like forged allience only far newer, better graphics and in space with ships instead of tanks.
and the im getting the same problems, only difference is that it doesn't slow down, it just lags
but in this case it doesn't use my GPU 100% that stays at around 20%


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## tcutchi (Oct 18, 2011)

> o and to the guy who just came into this convo, welcome :wave:


 Thanks :smile:

I don't have the exact specs as these are my friend's systems, but I do know the one he uses (and hosts on) is an Intel SandyBridge i7 quad-core at 3.3Ghz (or something close to that, no OC) with 8 GB of RAM, and a 560Ti GFX card with more than sufficient cooling throughout. All running Win 7 x64.

All the rigs in the house are pretty close to that as well, and the other games we LAN include Far Cry 2, Vegas 2, Flatout 2, and Titan Quest: Immortal Throne. SupCom is the only game that has any problems at all, everything else is butter on all the systems.

As far as skirmishes, I've never personally played single player over there but he usually plays with 1500 unit limit, usually with an Adaptive on his side vs a couple of non-cheating techs or turtles, and it runs just fine, usually 3-4 hour games he says.

LAN games are 2-4 human players against the same number of non-cheating (usually tech) AI's with nukes, naval and game enders turned off in the Unit Manager, 500-1000 unit cap, and a 20 minute No Rush timer. The game runs fine for about an hour and a half real time (The in-game timer shows about an hour even at 1x time, it just plays a bit slow for some reason). The ethernet network is 1Gbit all around, no wireless, so that's not the problem either :4-dontkno

At my house I play single player skirmishes and campaign with no slowdowns, freezes, or crashes whatsoever and my specs are almost the same as yours, funnybone1:

AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE @ 3.3Ghz
GTX 460 1GB stock OC'd (EVGA), Getting a 560Ti 2GB soon though
4 GB Corsair Xfire RAM
Win 7 Pro x32 (Soon to be upgraded to x64 so I can use 8GB RAM)

Exhaust temp is a mere 80F (~27C), with the GFX card hitting 37C Max according to Precision. Of course this is the comp that runs it fine (Never tried LAN though), so that doesn't really help, much does it >.<


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## funnybone1 (Oct 17, 2011)

tcutchi said:


> Thanks :smile:
> 
> I don't have the exact specs as these are my friend's systems, but I do know the one he uses (and hosts on) is an Intel SandyBridge i7 quad-core at 3.3Ghz (or something close to that, no OC) with 8 GB of RAM, and a 560Ti GFX card with more than sufficient cooling throughout. All running Win 7 x64.


nice but now im thinking it may be related the 560 and GFX drivers



tcutchi said:


> As far as skirmishes, I've never personally played single player over there but he usually plays with 1500 unit limit, usually with an Adaptive on his side vs a couple of non-cheating techs or turtles, and it runs just fine, usually 3-4 hour games he says.


could you ask him how much of the CPU and RAM is being used whilst he is playing it?
he can have it in wondowed made and have task manager next to it
that would help me allot.



tcutchi said:


> LAN games are 2-4 human players against the same number of non-cheating (usually tech) AI's with nukes, naval and game enders turned off in the Unit Manager, 500-1000 unit cap, and a 20 minute No Rush timer. The game runs fine for about an hour and a half real time (The in-game timer shows about an hour even at 1x time, it just plays a bit slow for some reason). The ethernet network is 1Gbit all around, no wireless, so that's not the problem either :4-dontkno


its possible that one of the other guys computer is having the same problem has me, so then the other PCs slow down also.
cos the others cant be going in real time whilst the other is slowed down lol :4-thatsba



tcutchi said:


> At my house I play single player skirmishes and campaign with no slowdowns, freezes, or crashes whatsoever and my specs are almost the same as yours, funnybone1:
> 
> AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE @ 3.3Ghz
> GTX 460 1GB stock OC'd (EVGA), Getting a 560Ti 2GB soon though
> ...


also i should have mentioned this before, but i baught my CPU has a 
PhenomIIx2 550
then i activated the other 2 cores, its perfectly stable. (running it has quad for years)
its possible that supcom still thinks its a dual so still treats it like a dual...maybe? no? not sure 



tcutchi said:


> Exhaust temp is a mere 80F (~27C), with the GFX card hitting 37C Max according to Precision. Of course this is the comp that runs it fine (Never tried LAN though), so that doesn't really help, much does it >.<


my GPU temp stressed is about 58c my CPU i think gets into the low 50s


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## tcutchi (Oct 18, 2011)

funnybone1 said:


> nice but now im thinking it may be related the 560 and GFX drivers


Could be, but I won't be able to test that until I get the 560Ti myself, and that won't be for another couple weeks I think, so I'll have to get back to you on that one. Altough he says it runs just fine on all the rigs in skirmish (He's tested them all single player and has no problems). Rest of the comps I believe are running either 460's or 260's, so I'm leaning towards it not being a driver problem (That and the fact that nVidia uses the same driver across a few gens of GPU's)




funnybone1 said:


> could you ask him how much of the CPU and RAM is being used whilst he is playing it?
> he can have it in wondowed made and have task manager next to it
> that would help me allot.


It was at about 40% after the game game froze, and around 50% while running. About the same on all the comps



funnybone1 said:


> its possible that one of the other guys computer is having the same problem has me, so then the other PCs slow down also.
> cos the others cant be going in real time whilst the other is slowed down lol :4-thatsba


That's what I thought too until we each played 3 hour skirmishes on every rig with no slowdowns or problems otherwise 



funnybone1 said:


> also i should have mentioned this before, but i baught my CPU has a
> PhenomIIx2 550
> then i activated the other 2 cores, its perfectly stable. (running it has quad for years)
> its possible that supcom still thinks its a dual so still treats it like a dual...maybe? no? not sure
> ...


Hmm, if 'doze sees it as a quad then I'd assume SupCom would too? Also I've seen a lot of forums suggest Core Maximizer, have you tried it or had any luck?

Also you seems to be running quite a bit warmer than me o.0
I had a 460 that would hit about 75-80C and then just give me a BSOD right away.. Talked to EVGA about it and they said it was probably just a bad cooler and sent me a replacement, which has been running like at said around 37-40C max, and that's while I'm doing heavy gaming (Rage, Dead Island, etc). Runs at bout 50-60 fps with everything turned up 

Completely unrelated but just for a second opinion: I'm using a 32" 1080p LCD tv as a monitor and getting over 60 FPS on it means it tears the display up quite a bit. I'm considering moving to a 120Hz or even a 240Hz LED display, but what I wanted to ask is do you think spending the $270 on the 560Ti 2GB card is a good idea? I have a couple weeks to decide since I'd go over my credit limit buying it now, and the other reason I want it is because I really want Arkham City and that comes with it... :grin:

As far as the problem though my comp has nothing to do with it, it's not even in the LAN games

But again none of the systems have any trouble on their own, it's just LAN games. =[ I've also read on another forum that the game has no problem with online matches either, LAN is the only thing people are having trouble with :sigh:


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## funnybone1 (Oct 17, 2011)

tcutchi said:


> Could be, but I won't be able to test that until I get the 560Ti myself, and that won't be for another couple weeks I think, so I'll have to get back to you on that one. Altough he says it runs just fine on all the rigs in skirmish (He's tested them all single player and has no problems). Rest of the comps I believe are running either 460's or 260's, so I'm leaning towards it not being a driver problem (That and the fact that nVidia uses the same driver across a few gens of GPU's)


never played LAN my problems in the skirmish and single-player game modes, compared to others or you guys its just runs like ****






tcutchi said:


> It was at about 40% after the game game froze, and around 50% while running. About the same on all the comps


im not sure whats going on there






tcutchi said:


> That's what I thought too until we each played 3 hour skirmishes on every rig with no slowdowns or problems otherwise


its the skirmishes i cant play without it happening, always happens about 30 mins into a large battle.





tcutchi said:


> Hmm, if 'doze sees it as a quad then I'd assume SupCom would too? Also I've seen a lot of forums suggest Core Maximizer, have you tried it or had any luck?


core maximizer was supposed to work with duals, not quads
also apperantly int here latest patch that im running they already addressed that problem that the maximizer was created to fix.



tcutchi said:


> Also you seems to be running quite a bit warmer than me o.0
> I had a 460 that would hit about 75-80C and then just give me a BSOD right away.. Talked to EVGA about it and they said it was probably just a bad cooler and sent me a replacement, which has been running like at said around 37-40C max, and that's while I'm doing heavy gaming (Rage, Dead Island, etc). Runs at bout 50-60 fps with everything turned up


my temps are well within there thermale limits, they dont get hot, just warm



tcutchi said:


> Completely unrelated but just for a second opinion: I'm using a 32" 1080p LCD tv as a monitor and getting over 60 FPS on it means it tears the display up quite a bit. I'm considering moving to a 120Hz or even a 240Hz LED display, but what I wanted to ask is do you think spending the $270 on the 560Ti 2GB card is a good idea? I have a couple weeks to decide since I'd go over my credit limit buying it now, and the other reason I want it is because I really want Arkham City and that comes with it... :grin:


well if i can remmber rightly you have a 460, buying a 560 is litarally just a sidestep, and for that price to get pretty much what you have now is silly. im using a 1080p 27" LED monitor, and i can tell you that it was a really nice improvemant over the LCD, infact i have my old 22" LCD has my second monitor, i highly recommend using dual displays 



tcutchi said:


> But again none of the systems have any trouble on their own, it's just LAN games. =[ I've also read on another forum that the game has no problem with online matches either, LAN is the only thing people are having trouble with :sigh:



well since they knnow about it and that its a genuine problem they may be working on it, who knows, you guys could try sins of a solare empire, exactly like supcom but with a far greater economy and you use ships instead, and you can take planets etc, can get a nice 8-way going there

unfortunatly im having the same problem with that game also, so i can't play both of my fav games :sad:

hey for your next LAN party you should play dead island, looks like its made just for LAN i can imagine it being really fun to play with several peaple in at once.


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## funnybone1 (Oct 17, 2011)

ok i think i found the problem, after much playing.

has the game goes on ram usage rises steady has needed, so does the GPU, when i got 20mins,
CPU usage
core 1=100%
core 2=40-60%
core 3=20-40%
core 4=40-60%

has a whole it wont use the entire thing, i have seen it spike now and a gain to 57%, highest i could get it to go stays mostly at 51%
i managed to get it over 1.6GB RAM so its not the RAM
the GPU during all this slows down once the CPU reaches its 51%
the GPU slows down to about 20% but i can make it raise to 90% during a battle, im not sure whats going on here.
the GPU temps are perrfectly fine and so is the CPU so temp isn't the problem.

during that time there are about 1-2,000 units


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## funnybone1 (Oct 17, 2011)

still having this problem


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