V-Sync - what's it good for?

[fattymoon]

V-Sync is one of the video options on Trainz 12. I had no idea what it did until I read this excellent explanation. Now you too can grok. http://www.pcworld.com/article/229024/geek_101_what_is_vsync.html

In a related note, when I first played Crysis I noted the manual recommended going in to Task Manager on the PC and ending all processes except task manager itself and explorer (why explorer I don't know). Of course, in my case, I leave the Steam thingie running also if I'm playing a Steam game. This is supposed to help your game run better. I do this for all my games/sims. Does anyone else do this?

 

[wreeder]

Explorer is the name of the process that displays the interface you see as your desktop. Kill it and you'll be staring at a blank background with no icons, no start button and no taskbar.

William

 

[Kamidan]

I used to kill unnecessary process in my task manager years ago, back when I had really sloppy computer habits and had everything but the virtual sink running on my computer at one time.

I've now improved my habits of computer operation and don't allow too much extra junk to run anymore.

I used to also have to kill explorer all the time a couple years ago, the easiest thing to do was simply to kill explorer process in task manager and before closing task manager switch to the apps screen and choose to start a new process and simply type in explorer and it would bring it back all nice and new and clean like.

 

[RRSignal]

Essentially, I strip all my computers down to the essential services; no automatic updaters and crud. Far more importantly, I run Trainz and other performance-intensive programs on a machine that's basically non-networked except on-demand (i.e. no firewall, AV, etc.) Again, that's not really an option for Steam due to the copy protection.

There's a program, Gamebooster, that does much of this, If you search the Parts and Labour thread, you'll find all sorts of reviews.

 

[fattymoon]

Thanks. I just looked at it on CNET and the editors recommended it, so it's downloading now. http://download.cnet.com/Game-Booster/3000-18512_4-10913645.html