graphics stutter fixed

[67510e46f10a5xerkon]

I don't know if any of you have noticed this "problem" but I have a weird graphical glitch with System Shock.  It's sort of a sutter, it happens about 3 times a second while moving and it's very rhythmic--it's a steady skip,skip,skip kind of like it skips a few frames or something.  It's the kind of thing that some people might not even notice and others would be really bothered by it (that's me!  )

Anyway, one day I was playing and it was gone.  I was running around and everything was so smooth.  Then the next time I played it was back, and I was surprised because I hadn't changed anything.  Well, after a lot of trial and error (and I still don't know exactly how I figured it out) I realized that if I had firefox open in the background while I was playing and I was at a site that had Flash content on it there was no more stutter.  Everything was completely smooth.  So now, before I start playing I always go to fileplanet.com (lots of flash on there homepage.)

If you haven't had this problem or have no idea what I'm talking about, well...you're probably sorry you even clicked on this!     But if you have that little glitch too give this a try, maybe it will help.

[67510e46f12c6Kolya]

Huh, weird. Firefox is known for it's aggressive RAM usage. Might have something to do with that. Otherwise I don't know how FF could influence the game. If you're so inclined you could run eg a movie, set to silent, in the background, and see if that has the same effect.

[67510e46f1493xerkon]

I have to be at a site with Adobe Flash or at least something more than text.  I just tried the game right now with firefox open to SBF and it still jittered.  But if I go to Fileplanet or youtube then suddenly everything's smooth.

I tried the same thing with IE 8 but my game's still stuttery (is that even a word?) no matter where I go.

I did try Windows Media Player and that fixed it too.  I don't have any movies to play but I just clicked on some random link to some video and that did the trick.

Anyway, I'm going to see if I can upload a couple of short videos of game play, one smooth, one with stutter, so people can see what I'm talking about.  It's kind of hard to describe.

[67510e46f164cxerkon]

I tried uploading some videos, one smooth, one with the hitch, but I think youtube must reduce the frame rate from 60 fps to 30 which caused them both to be pretty much indistinguishable from each other.  That made me realize that the little stutter I'm noticing is probably comparable to < 2 missing frames.  So my "stutter" is basically less than 1/30th of a second long.

Clearly I should be way less focused on that and way more focused on the fact that, hey, I'm playing an 11 year old game made for win98 on XP and I'm playing it in 1920x1200 hor+ with a whole bunch of great mods and it's really fun!