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Author Topic: A Sad Day for a Craptop User  (Read 14637 times)

Alex

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Re: A Sad Day for a Craptop User
« Reply #15 on: July 01, 2017, 11:44:40 AM »

Also: hardly ideal, but running with sound off reduces memory use significantly.
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Schwartz

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Re: A Sad Day for a Craptop User
« Reply #16 on: July 01, 2017, 12:13:07 PM »

Yes, 2 GB is shaving it very close if you include OS overhead. Modern Windows.. at least 700 MB, and that's after page file shuffling. Linux with a lean Window Manager like Openbox or i3 can get down to ±200 MB. It's worth a try if you don't want to upgrade. Should certainly be enough to run the vanilla game.. I find with mods I end up needing 2 GB for the game alone.

Linux should also offer the ability to use a cheap (ideally fast) USB stick or SSD as a virtual ram disk. Note that ram disks have high throughput so it may not be ideal for SSD longevity.
« Last Edit: July 01, 2017, 12:15:53 PM by Schwartz »
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TheWetFish

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Re: A Sad Day for a Craptop User
« Reply #17 on: July 01, 2017, 12:56:33 PM »

2nd Gen Intel i5
2 GB RAM
32-bit Windows 7

I think that's all the pertinent specs. If it's any help, specific laptop in question is Mid 2011 11" Macbook Air running Bootcamp.

One of the first settings I muddled with was the VMPARAMS. But anything over 1100 MB gives me an OoM error.

Another trick was to resize all background jpegs down to 25%.

And yes, I did disable graphicslib in its config files.

All I'm really up against is the dreaded OoM error.

Maybe many heads are better than one here. Any tips to squeeze in more mods? Dropping down to 30 fps and indeed, lower than that, isn't an issue. Pretty much used to slideshow graphics at this point.

I think it's also important to mention: I'm quite able to play the game as it is. What I'm trying to do here is to get at least 1 faction mod to run, and maybe work from there.

That is useful information, thanks.  Off the top of my head this might be a page file issue but let's confirm before we make any changes.

Which operating system are you running on top of bootcamp? Windows 10?

Could you describe the OoM error? Or, if you have a phone with a camera handy, take a photo

Are you using the GraphicsLib preset configuration files or did you manually edit your GraphicsLib configuration?

How much free hard disc space do you have? (More than say 4GB?)

Only if you know how; check your page file settings.  If you don't know how, let us know which operating system you're on and we'll walk you through it
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Achataeon

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Re: A Sad Day for a Craptop User
« Reply #18 on: July 01, 2017, 05:43:29 PM »

At some point, I briefly tried to migrate into a completely Linux setup. But eventually, I decided to switch back to Windows. The lack of games (or at least, the games that matter to me) really hurts, on top of already being a difficult OS for school productivity. Although I might be able to try it again once I have a lot of spare time available.

As for running it without sounds... yeah, I don't want to go in there. But here's one thing I tried. In the sound config files, I linked all the entries to play a silent ogg file so I had control which sounds would be there and which sounds would be silent. Basically, I silenced all sounds except for the combat sounds (which is really the only reason I can't play without sounds) I don't know if what I did helps, really.

I think I've said it already, but I'll say it again.
The laptop in question is a Mid-2011 11" Macbook Air running bootcamp.
It houses a 2nd gen Intel I5 processor, gets by with integrated graphics,
runs on 2 GB of DDR2 RAM, as well as a 64 GB SSD storage (24 GB remaining free space)
Oh, it also uses a 32-bit Windows 7.
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CrashToDesktop

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Re: A Sad Day for a Craptop User
« Reply #19 on: July 01, 2017, 05:59:37 PM »

I'm unfamiliar with how Mac's laptops work, but can you add more memory to them?  Been using a Lenovo laptop for college and work for pretty much as long as I can remember, and I've always been able to a add more sticks of RAM into it.  I know Apple isn't the most, ah, allowing of people doing things to their products, so I'm not sure.  If you can add more RAM, then you could probably boost up how much RAM you allocate to Java.

EDIT:
Wait, already said that it costs an arm and a leg to get more RAM for Apple products.  Shame that is, I could get sticks of ram for decent prices for other laptops that used DDR3 ram sticks, less than $10 per gigabyte of ram on a given stick the last time I needed to buy some.  Definitely worth it, but not sure on Apple prices.
« Last Edit: July 01, 2017, 06:05:08 PM by The Soldier »
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Achataeon

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Re: A Sad Day for a Craptop User
« Reply #20 on: July 01, 2017, 06:13:53 PM »

Yeah, that's why upgrading isn't really an option. The way I see it, a complete replacement is a more prudent course of action. But that's gonna be a far way off, from what I can tell.

And for those wondering, the laptop in question is a gift for getting highest marks in class for several years in a row. Although it would have been better to have spent all that premium for a decent tower, but you can't really reject a gift can you? That'd just be downright rude.
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nomadic_leader

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Re: A Sad Day for a Craptop User
« Reply #21 on: July 01, 2017, 07:24:33 PM »

You know SS has a mac version, have you tried that? Since you have a mac. Maybe it would run better, since your laptop is designed to run OSX.

Wait, why on earth are you using a mac laptop only to run windows? You realize windows laptops are like 4x cheaper? Oh its a Macbook air. So the windows laptop would be 5x cheaper.

You seem a little in the dark about macs and your own macbook. You say upgrading the ram is too expensive. Uh, I have a 2010 Macbook pro, and I got 16gb new for $100 from macsales.com. It works adequately for SS; I could also upgrade to a SSD.

But actually for your particular model, Macbook Air cannot be memory upgraded at all (unless you're really good at soldering or find someone in a chinese bazaar) so it's using disk space as temporary memory; that will be slow. It's so stupid how modern apple laptops can't upgrade the memory or anything else (also they have like, 1 port). Your laptop scores higher on speed benchmarks than mine. It would be fine if only the memory was upgradable. But Sir Jon Ives designs these as useless trinkets.

The Macbook pro line of 2010-2012 was the zenith of apple. All downhill from there.
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Achataeon

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Re: A Sad Day for a Craptop User
« Reply #22 on: July 01, 2017, 07:53:43 PM »

Yep. I do agree with you fully, but I didn't really have a choice in the matter. Like I said in my previous reply, the laptop is but a gift. It was either I get to have a laptop (no matter how crappy it actually is) or I don't.

But re: Playing SS on OSX.
That actually didn't cross my mind at all. While I am reluctant to return to OSX, it seems like a decent idea. Will try it out before the weekend ends.
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nomadic_leader

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Re: A Sad Day for a Craptop User
« Reply #23 on: July 01, 2017, 10:13:22 PM »

good luck; though 2gb ram is not much; even before i upgraded I think i had 4.

might be able to get a couple hundred if you sell the air. or trade it for a macbookpro 2010 or 2012 that you can upgrade the memory for :) trade for a cheap windows laptop
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CrashToDesktop

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Re: A Sad Day for a Craptop User
« Reply #24 on: July 01, 2017, 10:16:45 PM »

might be able to get a couple hundred if you sell the air. or trade it for a macbookpro 2010 or 2012 that you can upgrade the memory for :) trade for a cheap windows laptop
If you are going to do this, take my word and try to get a Lenovo.  Might be a bit more expensive depending on the model, but they're definitely worth it.
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cjuicy

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Re: A Sad Day for a Craptop User
« Reply #25 on: July 01, 2017, 10:17:27 PM »

You should get better performance with Mac OSX whatever the heck it is. With what you are trying to run, I must admit that even as a lifelong Windows user, it should work much better.
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Achataeon

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Re: A Sad Day for a Craptop User
« Reply #26 on: July 01, 2017, 11:09:09 PM »

might be able to get a couple hundred if you sell the air. or trade it for a macbookpro 2010 or 2012 that you can upgrade the memory for :) trade for a cheap windows laptop
If you are going to do this, take my word and try to get a Lenovo.  Might be a bit more expensive depending on the model, but they're definitely worth it.

Heh. I've definitely seen firsthand the capabilities of Lenovo tech, so I'll keep that in mind. But considering that I barely ever use my laptop away from home, it would probably better (and cheaper) to invest in building up my own tower.

Anyways, I'll report on my progress once I get the setup running.
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Achataeon

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Re: A Great Day for a Craptop User
« Reply #27 on: July 02, 2017, 06:03:01 AM »

Mind = Blown

Modded SS! The glory of the 0.8 update WITH MODS.

I guess the simplest solutions are the best solutions after all. Thanks to nomadic_leader for dropping that one on me. I notice just a bit more performance increases to boot.

All that's left is to finish up the dual-boot configuration. But yeah, thanks to everyone who chipped in with their ideas. I hope everyone (especially me) comes out of this thread just a little bit wiser.
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cjuicy

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Re: A Great Day for a Craptop User
« Reply #28 on: July 02, 2017, 09:39:32 PM »

Mind = Blown

Modded SS! The glory of the 0.8 update WITH MODS.

I guess the simplest solutions are the best solutions after all. Thanks to nomadic_leader for dropping that one on me. I notice just a bit more performance increases to boot.

All that's left is to finish up the dual-boot configuration. But yeah, thanks to everyone who chipped in with their ideas. I hope everyone (especially me) comes out of this thread just a little bit wiser.
Congradulations! Hope you have fun getting curb stomped by Templars and [REDACTED]!
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Drokkath

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Re: A Sad Day for a Craptop User
« Reply #29 on: July 07, 2017, 10:11:14 AM »

I can relate a lot to the OP's main post as in I've had crappy laptops about 8 years ago, crappy as in I couldn't play anything new for years on end, was just downright painful for an example running or trying to run Silent Hunter 3 with Grey Wolf mod and even default game got into a slideshow and then occasional blue screen of death. It was a gaming hell.

Had enough of the crappy stuff and ended up buying a desktop PC, which still wasn't good enough.. history more-or-less repeated with the newer machine too, got fed up again and got into  customizing and personalizing a desktop gaming PC from pre-built parts and assembled my own ideal machine which I to this day use with Windows 7 being my OS in it.


Heh, talking about it made me realize another reason why I don't use default ships or default mod ships in Starsector for long, too much of a nutjob about having a ship that lives up to my list of an ideal vessel.
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