Flightgear Running Slowly

Chronothread · 02-17-2009, 03:30 PM

Hello,

I'm using Ubuntu 8.04 and I recently installed Flightgear. But whenever I try to use it the game runs extremely slowly. Both in a window and full screen it has the problem. I believe my computer should be able to handle the game without a problem. It has 2GB RAM, 3.33GHz Dual Core, and a fairly good Nvidia card (I don't know the exact on right off hand). In anycase, I've never really had a problem running things before. I'm running compiz in the background, but I've tried temporarily disabling it using "metacity --replace" but the game still runs slowly. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm still no expert with Linux, but hopefully I'll be able to understand any explanation you might have. Thanks!

Randux · 02-17-2009, 04:24 PM

Couple of things to check. I don't know your distro, but are the nvidia drivers installed and being used? Check /var/log/Xorg.0.log and try to find which modules are being loaded.

If nvidia drivers are installed then you need to make sure you are using direct rendering. It should be happening, but double check by opening a terminal in your x session and typing:

glxinfo | grep direct

You should see:

direct rendering: Yes

Chronothread · 02-17-2009, 05:13 PM

Yep, nvidia drivers are installed and direct rendering is running.

Other opengl stuff runs well. Such as the gl screensavers. They used to run slowly as well but then once I got everything installed they run smoothly now.

And here's somethings from my /var/log/Xorg.0.log file.

Code:

X.Org X Server 1.4.0.90
Release Date: 5 September 2007
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux Ubuntu (xorg-server 2:1.4.1~git20080131-1ubuntu9.2)
Current Operating System: Linux sdi 2.6.24-23-generic #1 SMP Mon Jan 26 00:13:11 UTC 2009 i686
Build Date: 13 June 2008  01:08:21AM

If you need more let me know. Thanks.

Randux · 02-18-2009, 04:13 AM

I don't see anything there to indicate nvidia is loaded and dri is working but if you have checked that, fine.

You should ask on the flightgear forums. Maybe you don't have enough RAM to run it, who knows?

It says you are running i686 arch on your dual core. That doesn't make sense to me because you said you run 3.3GHz. Are you overclocking or did you just select the 32 bit Ubuntu?

Chronothread · 02-18-2009, 05:27 PM

Yeah, I didn't include that from my /var/log/Xorg.0.log file. The Nvidia stuff is installed and working fine. Also, I just picked the 32-bit version of Ubuntu, I've heard of problems with the 64-bit and it was recommended to me just to use the 32-bit.

Anyway, apparently Flightgear seems to be working smoothly now. I'm not exactly sure why. The computer had been restarted after installation but it seems that it started working well only after the computer had been restarted once Flightgear had been used once. I don't see what else could have caused it. At the moment it seems the controls are a bit sensitive, but that's both due to me using a keyboard and not related to this thread. Hopefully the rest of my problems with the simulator will just be because I don't know what I'm doing yet.

Thank you much for your time though.

Randux · 02-19-2009, 06:42 AM

Ok, good it is working for you.

If you have a Core 2 Duo (not Dual Core) it's worth at least trying Ubuntu 64 (do they have a live CD) as it may work better with games and graphics but you could use some more RAM...