[TDK (old)]

I've been trying to play UrT for a few years under Linux.  I used to think my problems were computer-related and gave up until I bought myself a new laptop this summer.  It's a dual core 2.0 GHz with 4GB RAM, a 17" 1920x1200 display, and nVidia GeForce 8400M with 256MB RAM.  That *should* be beefy enough to play.  I'm using ioUrbanTerror 1.0 and have tried the provided binary, as well as rebuilding my own.  My system runs Fedora Core 7.

I exit out all other apps when playing UrT, but my problems still persist.

The first one seems to be sound related.  If someone is firing at me, my keyboard input seems delayed until their shots finish.  I can hit fire repeatedly and nothing happens until there's a break in the sound.  Watching demos of my play confirms that no shots are fired.  It looks like I just run up to someone and stand there, waiting to be shot.

Another is that shots don't seem to register.  I'll follow someone around a map, unloading into their back repeatedly with an LR-300 and a silencer (sometimes two clips' worth).  Maybe one shot will hit.  When I watch demos of my play (recorded on my own system), it shows that I wasn't even aiming at the opponent, but while I'm playing it does display as being on target.

I can hit targets that are standing still across the map, but if they're moving, forget it.  Usually I end up hitting them when they're behind a wall on my screen.  Similarly, I'll run for cover and get shot once I'm behind a wall.  Oftentimes I'll start rounding a corner and get shot by someone who's not even on my screen yet because in my world view I haven't entered a room.

I've tried my old config file, new config files, and config files from other players like /VeX/civil, but the problems continue.

Some days aren't as bad as others, but over the last two weeks it seems to be worse and worse to the point where I'm losing interest in playing.  The best that I can usually hope for is to run out, unload an entire clip into someone, and hope I manage to take them out when they take me out.  It's frustrating to know that I can't ever play better with this configuration.

Does anyone have any ideas?  The most recent change I made was to turn off 'cpuspeed' (turns out that my processor speed was changing during game play, making things interesting) which helped my FPS significantly.  I don't know what to do about the sound issues, and the non-registering shots is a puzzle. 

Please, help...

Thanks,

TDK

[mitsubishi]

/cg_lagometer 1

does it look right?

right means, the top bar has little teeth with a regular smooth pattern that doesn't get yellow bits. the lower part is smooth and always straight. no reds, blacks, yellows should appear.

[|it|Nexu]

Is compiz/compiz-fusion/beryl/xgl disabled when you play UrT? (ps waux | grep -i compiz  and  grep -i composite /etc/X11/xorg.conf)

Are you running a SMP enabled kernel? (uname -a)

Is your sound system using ALSA or OSS? (cat /proc/asound/cards)

Got powernowd running?

I have ioUrT running on 2 system with Linux (and Windows, dualboot); one is a desktop with A64 3500+ on GF6800, second is my laptop Centrino 1.1Ghz on i915GM. The first one obviously has no performance issue at all. The second one runs 'decently' at 30-40 fps at lowest settings with non of the problems you described.
I would guess the problem is not with your hardware (no way jose!) but more in software configuration.

[TDK (old)]

Quote

/cg_lagometer 1

does it look right?

right means, the top bar has little teeth with a regular smooth pattern that doesn't get yellow bits. the lower part is smooth and always straight. no reds, blacks, yellows should appear.

The lagometer usually looks fine.  Sometimes I tweak rate or cl_packetdup if things look out of whack, but most of the time it's not necessary.  The bandwidth is generally solid, although my ping time is often one of the lowest to the servers that I play on (say 30 or so, with most others around 80-120).  Every once in a while my TiVos will start doing something and mess up my game, but lagometer definitely shows that. 

TDK

[TDK (old)]

Quote

Is compiz/compiz-fusion/beryl/xgl disabled when you play UrT? (ps waux | grep -i compiz  and  grep -i composite /etc/X11/xorg.conf)

No.

Quote

Are you running a SMP enabled kernel? (uname -a)

Yes, it's SMP-enabled..  I didn't recompile ioUrban Terror with SMP enabled, however.

Quote

Is your sound system using ALSA or OSS? (cat /proc/asound/cards)

ALSA.

# cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#0  | head -5
Codec: SigmaTel STAC9205
Address: 0
Vendor Id: 0x838476a0
Subsystem Id: 0x102801f2
Revision Id: 0x100204

Quote

Got powernowd running?

No, not running either.

There are other processes running like hald, audispd, etc. that I'll have to start turning off.  I'll let you know if there's any improvement with only a barebones install without any of those hardware polling applications.

[|it|Nexu]

Could you put one (or all) of those demo's online which you mentioned in your original post?

[TDK (old)]

I think that I've tracked down most of my problems to sound (although since 4.1, I get serious fps issues when more than 12 players are on at a time). 

The problem I'm having is that input is supressed whenever there is sound nearby -- especially continual sound.  If someone fires at me with the negev or ump, I can't shoot back.  I try, but my keypresses/mouse clicks are ignored until there's a break in the sound.  I play with a silencer so that I don't block my own input, but if I'm near anyone with a rapid firing gun or a group of people, forget it.  I can't shoot/reload/bandage/move.  The same goes for those annoying little voice things that people do, like 'I've got the bomb'.  As soon as one of those kicks in, I get about 2fps until the message stops.

I'm using built-in, onboard sound on a laptop, so I don't have many options.  Has anyone had good experiences with USB soundcards?

[mitsubishi]

does it use a soundserver?

[TDK (old)]

Quote

does it use a soundserver?

Standard ALSA.

> cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [Intel          ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
                      HDA Intel at 0xfebfc000 irq 20

I will freely admit that I know nothing about sound under Linux...  Until UrT, I never really had a use for it! 
I'm going to try another kernel/ALSA upgrade (this chipset is so new that only the beta ALSA had it before).

[mitsubishi]

that will still show if a soundserver is running.

ps -e|grep artsd or something.

if it's kde, it should be in the control settings.