Echoes performance issue

[Maynard]

I've been playing Echoes the last couple days (which rocks) but I'm getting a funny performance issue with it.  At any graphic setting above "off" I get horrible hitching and pauses.  Once I get up around level 5-6 on normal, it's actually stopped more than it's playing, and I die shortly after.  On graphical mode "off" it seems to keep playing smooth forever.

Specs:
AMD Athlon64 3200+, Geforce 6600GT OC, 2GiB PC3200, Audigy2 ZS, XP Pro.
No other programs running, other games run fine, etc.

Thanks!
PS:  Windowed mode?

[fog]

Hi Maynard and welcome to The Zoo.

That's a weird problem.  Sounds like it's probably a memory leak to me.  After you've had this problem, if you start a new game without exiting the program is that still slow or is it ok until you reach level 5-6 again?

Thanks!
PS:  Windowed mode?

Quite possibly.  It's on my list of feature requests

[Maynard]

Well, now that's funny.  If I play a game 'till it starts stuttering, die, start a new game without closing the application, it starts at level 1 perfectly smooth.  Soon as I hit level 7 (which seems to be where it consistantly starts) it chugs.  I can do this over and over.

I really nave no idea what it could be.

[fog]

Well at least we can rule out the obvious memory leak.

The only thing that happens on level 7, as with the other levels, is the introduction of a new enemy (the Asteroid Belt in this case) and I can't honestly see how that would slow things down.

Perhaps it's just coincidence that it appears to happen at level 7 and is really down to the amount of things on screen.  Does the same thing happen if you switch off all FX in the graphics menu?

[TheKhakinator]

I could never run DuoTRIS on windows 98. On two PCs. But then when they upgraded to XP it ran fine. Never really found out why.

[fog]

I could never run DuoTRIS on windows 98. On two PCs. But then when they upgraded to XP it ran fine. Never really found out why.

because Win98 is poo 

[teeri]

I got unplayably horrible performance when sound was on, but immediately after I muted sfx game ran smoothly. Music plays ok, though. My soundcard is X-Fi Extreme.

[fog]

Hi teeri and welcome

I got unplayably horrible performance when sound was on, but immediately after I muted sfx game ran smoothly. Music plays ok, though. My soundcard is X-Fi Extreme.

Strange.  Echoes does play a hell of a lot of layered sound fx ( a lot more than anyone would imagine ) but I'm surprised if that's the problem.  I can easily test that mind as it just means changing one flag in the game scripts.