Building a pc for playing Emergency 4 with mods in 1080p and/or 4k

[Pascal90]

Hello,

I would like to know what kind of setup would be most compatible with Emergency 4, to be run with mods smoothly in 4k.

 

Currently I'm running on socket 775 Q9300 quad 2,5 ghz, 4 GB RAM, windows 10 and I have tested the next videocards:

Geforce GT220 (crap)

AMD Radeon 5870 (crap)

Geforce 960GTX (crap)

Geforce 9600 GT (good)

 

I have also tried several performance tweaks such as disabling mbfastcopy, changing CPU affinity, control panel and compatibility settings, etc. All cards were tested at Full HD (1920x1080).

So with the first three videocards, in vanilla and in mods the framerate drops to 15 when a vehicle is selected. With my oldest and in comparison weakest video card, Emergency 4 runs stable between 25-30 fps when a vehicle is selected. 

 

I would like to know other user experiences for playing Emergency 4 with mods in Full HD and/or 4k, what setup you are using and which windows? 

Would it be better install windows XP if the pc is dedicated for Emergency 4? Let me hear your experience.

 

[itchboy]

Full disclaimer - I don't run Em4 in full HD, however I can give advice based on my and others' experiences.

Em4 lag appears to be system dependent and can fall under various categories. You unfortunately have one of the worst types you can get. I got lucky and my Em4 lag only happens in the editor and heavily scripted mods. I get a healthy dose of selection lag in most heavy mods, and in the editor, usually 5-10 FPS when in certain menus in the editor for no reason. Even without 4K or HD resolutions, this happens and I can imagine it can be way worse when scaled up.

Of note, is that none of this happened to me on my old WinXP setup from back in the day, so you might be yet another victim of Em4 not liking modern hardware.

The community has already come to the conclusion that Em4 bottlenecks after a certain level of spec. We think it is because Em4 is bound by it's own code, meaning you can have an 8 core + 3080 GTX gaming machine and it won't do jack because the game is designed to consume at most 2gb before it shit's itself.

I don't really have a solution here except to get the highest spec of whatever you can find and just roll with it because Em4 doesn't seem to care whether it's an old or new CPU or GPU set, it will find a way to lag. It's just a matter of hoping you get the less intrusive forms of it.

[Kidfireman723]

20 minutes ago, itchboy said:

Full disclaimer - I don't run Em4 in full HD, however I can give advice based on my and others' experiences.

Em4 lag appears to be system dependent and can fall under various categories. You unfortunately have one of the worst types you can get. I got lucky and my Em4 lag only happens in the editor and heavily scripted mods. I get a healthy dose of selection lag in most heavy mods, and in the editor, usually 5-10 FPS when in certain menus in the editor for no reason. Even without 4K or HD resolutions, this happens and I can imagine it can be way worse when scaled up.

Of note, is that none of this happened to me on my old WinXP setup from back in the day, so you might be yet another victim of Em4 not liking modern hardware.

The community has already come to the conclusion that Em4 bottlenecks after a certain level of spec. We think it is because Em4 is bound by it's own code, meaning you can have an 8 core + 3080 GTX gaming machine and it won't do jack because the game is designed to consume at most 2gb before it shit's itself.

I don't really have a solution here except to get the highest spec of whatever you can find and just roll with it because Em4 doesn't seem to care whether it's an old or new CPU or GPU set, it will find a way to lag. It's just a matter of hoping you get the less intrusive forms of it.

Oh. Oh wow that's not good. Well when it comes to the HD and 4k I found it was just my folders being as unorganized as A high schoolers locker I deleted all my Em4 files and just went to steam and re-installed it . That completely fixed the entire thing but hearing this news just makes me as sad a kid without parents. At least I know its just not me being dumb and letting my computer go to sh*t. Thank you Itchboy. 

[Pascal90]

11 hours ago, Kidfireman723 said:

Oh. Oh wow that's not good. Well when it comes to the HD and 4k I found it was just my folders being as unorganized as A high schoolers locker I deleted all my Em4 files and just went to steam and re-installed it . That completely fixed the entire thing but hearing this news just makes me as sad a kid without parents. At least I know its just not me being dumb and letting my computer go to sh*t. Thank you Itchboy. 

What setup are you using? Which hardware and software? And which screen resolution do you use for Em4?

Edit: i even tried reinstalling windows completely and install em4 with one or two mods.

[Pascal90]

12 hours ago, itchboy said:

Full disclaimer - I don't run Em4 in full HD, however I can give advice based on my and others' experiences.

Em4 lag appears to be system dependent and can fall under various categories. You unfortunately have one of the worst types you can get. I got lucky and my Em4 lag only happens in the editor and heavily scripted mods. I get a healthy dose of selection lag in most heavy mods, and in the editor, usually 5-10 FPS when in certain menus in the editor for no reason. Even without 4K or HD resolutions, this happens and I can imagine it can be way worse when scaled up.

Of note, is that none of this happened to me on my old WinXP setup from back in the day, so you might be yet another victim of Em4 not liking modern hardware.

The community has already come to the conclusion that Em4 bottlenecks after a certain level of spec. We think it is because Em4 is bound by it's own code, meaning you can have an 8 core + 3080 GTX gaming machine and it won't do jack because the game is designed to consume at most 2gb before it shit's itself.

I don't really have a solution here except to get the highest spec of whatever you can find and just roll with it because Em4 doesn't seem to care whether it's an old or new CPU or GPU set, it will find a way to lag. It's just a matter of hoping you get the less intrusive forms of it.

I have the idea that many factors in modern setups are limiting potential and functionality of EM4. 

So you say it yourself, in Windows XP there shouldn't be lag. In that case, as I already was imagining, building a Windows XP setup might be the most trustworthy option. 

I found out in the readme file that these video cards are supported. What video card with the same architectural structure would you recommend me to try?

processor and windows XP in 32 bit? What cpu would you recommend?

I do know that NorthernAlex from that YouTube channel plays smoothly on 4k. I did sent him a message via his website hoping to receive an answer what he is using. If i receive an answer, I will post it here. In the meantime I would be happy to hear your opinion and dig a little further.

[itchboy]

7 minutes ago, Pascal90 said:

I have the idea that many factors in modern setups are limiting potential and functionality of EM4. 

So you say it yourself, in Windows XP there shouldn't be lag. In that case, as I already was imagining, building a Windows XP setup might be the most trustworthy option. 

I found out in the readme file that these video cards are supported. What video card with the same architectural structure would you recommend me to try?

processor and windows XP in 32 bit? What cpu would you recommend?

I do know that NorthernAlex from that YouTube channel plays smoothly on 4k. I did sent him a message via his website hoping to receive an answer what he is using. If i receive an answer, I will post it here. In the meantime I would be happy to hear your opinion and dig a little further.

Alex is running a 20 series card I think, and an Intel 8 core CPU. He has super high end stuff simply for content creation. He previously ran AMD in the early to mid 2010s and it absolutely shit the bed on him, hence the switch to intel.

I'm mostly sure on WinXP being the most stable but not sure on 4K. I don't know if XP can even deliver 4K resolutions or the kind of performance (on 32 bit alone) that can get you max performance. I think a more likely outcome would be running Em4 with no stutters and less bugs but only on an appropriate resolution for 2009 like 1080p.

I don't have any older CPU to recommend to be honest. The last time I studied CPU's properly, it was the first gen Intel i3's and AMD Athlons from over a decade ago. I don't think those can get you the 100FPS or whatever you want. Modern CPU's are out of the question because they can't install XP and are designed around 32 bit which defeats the purpose.

I also think that having to build a WinXP rig just for Em4 isn't a good idea. Now on the other hand if you're doing it for nostalgia games and to have a period-correct machine to play old stuff like classic NFS or GTA, then by all means, go ahead. I wish I could teleport to you the junk computers I have here because I got 3 period correct 2005-2008 CPU's here with XP and other 2000s' hardware like wheel mouse and CRT monitors.

[losangelesi]

13 hours ago, Pascal90 said:

I have the idea that many factors in modern setups are limiting potential and functionality of EM4. 

So you say it yourself, in Windows XP there shouldn't be lag. In that case, as I already was imagining, building a Windows XP setup might be the most trustworthy option. 

I found out in the readme file that these video cards are supported. What video card with the same architectural structure would you recommend me to try?

processor and windows XP in 32 bit? What cpu would you recommend?

I do know that NorthernAlex from that YouTube channel plays smoothly on 4k. I did sent him a message via his website hoping to receive an answer what he is using. If i receive an answer, I will post it here. In the meantime I would be happy to hear your opinion and dig a little further.

 

Yeah, none of this makes a difference in "limiting potential". its the code that makes a difference and the mod and what the person did. Windows XP doesn't unlock a secret door in emergency. I use a 3700x, 3080, 64 gigs of ram, so technically by that spec by your terms I should basically be locked out of EM4 because I'm too "high end". that's not the case. It works fine. I'd recommend probably not going and blowing money on a system from 2005 that literally won't run anything else unless you're doing it as a collector or nostalgia stuff. Also have fun with all the used GPUs from the time period. They need maintenance like new paste. its gonna be 10+ years old lol. It will not run 4k. 4k is for 2070Super+ GPUs. 

[Grim_Wizard]

Your experience is going to be more CPU based than GPU based. I used to run the game fine at 1080p with a GT220. Just get a modern system, this game is not worth the headache of buying old hardware. 

[n00bingtarget]

I'm playing it on an i7-10700, 32GB DDR4, and a GeForce RTX 2070.  Modern hardware only really causes me  any issues on mods with the traffic problem where you need to fix the traffic signals.

 

[EmC-Unit]

On 11/28/2021 at 6:19 PM, Pascal90 said:

Hello,

I would like to know what kind of setup would be most compatible with Emergency 4, to be run with mods smoothly in 4k.

 

Currently I'm running on socket 775 Q9300 quad 2,5 ghz, 4 GB RAM, windows 10 and I have tested the next videocards:

Geforce GT220 (crap)

AMD Radeon 5870 (crap)

Geforce 960GTX (crap)

Geforce 9600 GT (good)

 

I have also tried several performance tweaks such as disabling mbfastcopy, changing CPU affinity, control panel and compatibility settings, etc. All cards were tested at Full HD (1920x1080).

So with the first three videocards, in vanilla and in mods the framerate drops to 15 when a vehicle is selected. With my oldest and in comparison weakest video card, Emergency 4 runs stable between 25-30 fps when a vehicle is selected. 

 

I would like to know other user experiences for playing Emergency 4 with mods in Full HD and/or 4k, what setup you are using and which windows? 

Would it be better install windows XP if the pc is dedicated for Emergency 4? Let me hear your experience.

 

We dont know your budget.On 4K? Without sarcasm, you would need to get a hole new system. Imho your rig is kinda weak for windows 10.

Best and cheapest upgrade you can do (if you dont have it yet). Is to purchase a sata SSD. Going back for windows XP to play on 4k is "bad idea".

The game is old (2006) and it is no longer supported by creators. They put something on top of it to sell it on steam, but thats it.