Ideas for slower computers

[richielee]

Hi Corey,

Couple of thoughts / sugestions regarding slower computers.

From what I can gather, the reason most of the older computers running TD run slow, is due to Internet Explorer re-rawing the clock.
I know you can set the clock to not display seconds which helps. Would it be possible to add an option to only display the last 59 seconds of a round and also drop the 0

i.e. instead of 00:00:59 - display :59

I'm only asking as my wife has vitoed a new laptop!

Cheers Richard

[tandemrx]

Pretty sure you can already do this,

You would just set up a new screen set to display with the condition of 59 seconds left and then for that screen set use just "seconds" for the time display.

This thread (midway down) - corey explains how to use just "seconds" for the display clock.

http://thetournamentdirector.net/forums/index.php?topic=624.0

Another option is just to use a clock without seconds as you are doing, but to add some sound events at say 30 seconds left, then 15 seconds left, then maybe 5 seconds left (you could use different sounds or even an announcment of "30 seconds left").

This might be a better option since your slow laptop would still have problems displaying those last 59 seconds (I have had the same problem with my previous slow laptop).  I like using the sound events.  Everybody knows that time is running out when my sounds start to play (I just use one at 1 minute and at 30 seconds left).

[Corey Cooper]

You could also, instead of creating a new screen set, just create a new property group in the Clock cell that displays only when the time left is less than 60 seconds.  Then set the default property group to display the clock without the seconds, and the new property group to display the clock with the seconds.

The screen set option that tandemrx mentioned could actually be better (harder to maintain if you change other items on the screen, since you may then be forced to make the changes on two screens), but it might run faster.

Other options are to lower the font point size for the clock.  And probably the best (although maybe not as aesthetically pleasing) is to lower the resolution of the screen.

Testing 2.5 connected to an LCD TV with 1920x1080 resolution, my laptop slowed a little trying to update the game window, and it's a 2+GHz Core Duo 2.  Lowering the resolution will definitely speed IE up.

[richielee]

Nice one Fellas! I'll give it a whirl tomorrow