My game specs

Hi,

My game is up and running reasonably well between 10 and 15fps on a 400mhz P2 with a TNT card.

It can be played but obviously I would like to make the experience a bit better on this pc. The problem I seem to be having is that there isn't enough time for the hardware mouse pointer to update smoothly.

What is weird is that the mouse pointer always updates smoothly under OpenGL. As this is a mouse driven game, it kinda needs a smooth mouse. Plus its pretty bad form jerking the os cursor!

Any tips on speed and mouse smoothness?

Are you talking about the windows pointer or one you're drawing yourself, in fullscreen mode?

If the windows pointer is working fast (and I'm guessing it must do) then have you considered only running your game in windowed mode? There's code in the achives that sets a window's client area to the same size as screen res, so that it looks like it's running in fullscreen mode. It's B3D source, but I'm sure it could be converted to bmax. This may only be doable in DX though, I'm not sure.

Just an idea.

[edit] Here's the code, in case it's any use:
http://www.blitzbasic.com/codearcs/codearcs.php?code=1682

Hardware os pointer, game is in windowed mode... thats the whole point: the windows os pointer ISN'T moving smoothly: huge jumps are made across the screen.

But under OpenGL, all works as expected.

Ah!

Hmmm, do you really need your specs to be as low as 400 Mhz? The min specs of a pc you buy nowadays are 1.5 Ghz. I'm not suggesting you cut out a section of your market running old computers, but surely a higher spec CPU wouldn't dent that too much? Say 700-800 odd?

Sorry if those specs you posted weren't your minimum :o)

Thanks, but this is my minimum spec.

The game is perfectly playable under OpenGL @ 15fps, this is my point. DX is badly messing up the os pointer somewhere. I have tried inserting delay 10 etc to no avail...

Sorry, i must have read over that too quick. I see your point, sorry. :o)

From that I assume we are talking about a DX problem:

you tried adding a delay in the game loop?
or calling the mouse move routine more than once each loop

Maybe you are hogging the cpu too much and there isn't enough time to process the mouse pointer.?