i once played this on GeForce 2MX and it ran fast so you should consider you have some compatibility issues here.

I also think it's weird.

Found location where i have 24fps. Changed from 1400x900 to 1024x768 and no change in fps. Tried lowering/changing different settings and no luck. Changed cpu speed from 1800 to 900 and fps dropped from 24 to 16. Installed Vietcong Starter 1.65.1 and no luck.

Installed Hidden & Dangerous 2 and it also shows surprisingly low fps. Then I've installed NOLF 2, as it's also a DX8 game, and it works smoothly.

Okay, i thought maybe it's dx8-9 relates issue. Took laptop with geforce 4200 and got almost the same fps value. Slightly worse. I don't understand it completely.

I'm playing this game now on my main Windows 8.1 rig. It's crazy hard even on average difficulty. Is this normal, or does the AI become deadlier on fast machines?

Curiosity piqued. I'm going to try it on my PIII 1ghz with MX440.

Pierre32 wrote on 2021-11-20, 10:40:

Curiosity piqued. I'm going to try it on my PIII 1ghz with MX440.

Thanks, try new game in 1024x768, same scene. That's what i have:

Left one is pentium m 1600mhz with geforce 4200 and right one is core duo 1800mhz with ati x1900.

If you need I can upload the game, no need for install.

Errius wrote on 2021-11-20, 10:34:

I'm playing this game now on my main Windows 8.1 rig. It's crazy hard even on average difficulty. Is this normal, or does the AI become deadlier on fast machines?

This game was always hard as hell. I don’t remember how it worked back then on my pc but I remember is was cracking my ass in gameplay 😁

I've switched from Catalyst 10.2 to 7.11 and fps boosted from 20 to 27. That's confusing...

vorob wrote on 2021-11-20, 10:42:

Thanks, try new game in 1024x768, same scene. That's what i have: […]
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Pierre32 wrote on 2021-11-20, 10:40:

Curiosity piqued. I'm going to try it on my PIII 1ghz with MX440.

Thanks, try new game in 1024x768, same scene. That's what i have:

903A85C9-493B-4BD4-8533-D373B3887D0F.jpeg

Left one is pentium m 1600mhz with geforce 4200 and right one is core duo 1800mhz with ati x1900.

If you need I can upload the game, no need for install.

Finally got around to installing this to test. Correction to my previously mentioned spec: The CPU currently installed is a PIII 933mhz, with 256MB RAM,and a PCI MX440 64MB.

Note also that I'm running the base game only, not the Fist Alpha expansion.

Desktop res is 1024x768 so I started the game on that. Left all graphics settings at their defaults. In the intro / base level, I'm lucky to get 15fps. Winding graphics sliders to their minimums brought little if any improvement. I restarted the game in 800x600 with all the minimum settings I could manage. And even then, no real improvement!

Nvidia drivers are 45.23. I could experiment with others, but to be honest my system is singing so nicely with everything else at the moment that I don't want to rock the boat.

have you tried the solutions from this page : https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Vietcong

Quote from the site "Most compatibility and performance issues with new systems (Windows Vista and later) can be fixed in the VCStarter tool"

It doesn't look like there's much there to help a Win98 install. I've installed the patches, but not VCStarter.

VCStarter tool does nothing on retro system.

did you installed the latest patch from https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Vietcong (version 1.60) 😀 ?

I know that you applied the official patch, but which version, as they are 3 (1.3, 1.41 and 1.60)

you can always try DgVoodoo for Win98/XP/2000 : http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo/

vorob wrote on 2021-11-19, 21:39:

So we've got this shooter, Vietcong, and its expansion - Fist Alpha. I've installed it all properly, applied the official patch, and play in on a relatively powerful machine: Intel Core Duo T2400, 2gb ram, mobile ATI X1900 and Win XP SP3.

And, well, the performance of this game sucks. On some missions, it can be about 20 fps. Tried smth called Vietcong Starter but it did nothing in terms of performance.

I don't get it. It's a game from 2002. I'm launching it on a powerful laptop from 2006 and it runs like a potato sometimes.

Yep, i've got 1.60 patch. But this doesn't matter cause same crap performance is under Demo. Only lowering the Catalyst version helped a bit. Maybe under even older driver performance will be good.

OK, I see, yeah sometimes a different GPU driver can solve the problem

vorob wrote on 2021-12-22, 20:22:

Yep, i've got 1.60 patch. But this doesn't matter cause same crap performance is under Demo. Only lowering the Catalyst version helped a bit. Maybe under even older driver performance will be good.

I had the same issue, I only get 15 FPS on my Duron 700 machine no matter what video card. Turns out that this game is quite CPU heavy, the box definitely lies by saying 500 MHz or better. I dug out two magazine reviews from the time and their "performance report" boxes show that a 1400 MHz CPU is needed for smooth gameplay on low details, 2000-2200 MHz for maximum details, and even that will only yield around 35 FPS. They also mention that the video card doesn't matter as much, even a Geforce 2 MX is enough for 800x600, a Geforce 4 will be enough for maximum details.

Try this experiment. Install gpuz, enable logging sensors and gpu load to file, start the game and play 5 minutes. Then check how much load on the gpu actually you have. Also check temperatures, maybe your problem is throtling?

Like I said in my previous posts I had low fps even on 2ghz and 2,4ghz cpu. I also noted that switching divers gave me 7 more fps (20>27).

I conclude it’s a badly programmed game that run good on specific hardware with specific drivers.