Hardware / Software requirements
First of all, please report us about success / failure / issues about running Speed Dreams on your particular configuration : it will help everyone know what's really possible and what's not.
The best place for this is the users mailing list ...
See below a simple and detailed procedure for getting frame rates and memory usage figures suitable for comparison.
Torcs was told to need at least a 600 MHz CPU (800 MHz recommended), 128 Mb RAM (256 Mb recommended) and an OpenGL 1.3 capable graphics card with 32Mb GRAM (64Mb recommended). This is certainly not relevant for nowadays Windows / Linux OSes.
You need more now (2011), as Speed Dreams is constantly improving visual rendering (and the underlying OS also needs more) :
- Video card : at least 128Mb ; better with 256 Mb or more
- CPU / RAM :
| OS | Minimum configuration | Confortable configuration | Confirmed ? |
| Windows XP 32 | at least 1.5 GHz, 512 Mb | 2 GHz and 1 Gb | Jean-Philippe |
| Windows Vista 32 | at least 1.5 GHz, 2 Gb | 2 GHz and 3 Gb | Anyone ? |
| Windows 7 64 | at least 1.5 GHz, 1 Gb | 2 GHz and 2 Gb | Anyone ? |
| Linux 32 | at least 1.5 GHz, 1 Gb | 2 GHz | Anyone ? |
| Linux 64 | at least 1.5 GHz, 1.5 Gb | 2 GHz and 2 Gb | Jean-Philippe |
But beware, both 2.0.0 and 1.4.0 suffer memory leaks if you don't exit SD between races ; examples :
- under Linux 64, for the 2.0.0 Beta 1, around 9 Mb lost for each new Practice race on Espie with Arne Fisher (other settings to default values).
Moreover: Make sure that you have installed the latest sound and graphics drivers.
Reference performance data
Reference memory usage data
Reference performance data
You'll find here some data about actual frame rates experienced on various configurations and versions.
Detailed procedure and game settings (please use this and _no_ other, otherwise we cannot compare) :
- disable the "Sync to VBlank" (vertical synchronization) feature of your video back-end, otherwise, on medium to high-end configurations, you'll get frame rates limited to the refresh rate of your flat panel / CRT screen, or an integer divider of it ; you generally do this through your video card control panel ... depends highly on your video card ...
- remove the whole user settings folder (you may want to save it temporarily under another folder)
- if you are testing 1.4.0 under Windows, you'll also need to reinstall it,
- start Speed Dreams,
- in the Options / Display menu, select :
- Display mode : full-screen (unless it doesn't work for you),
- Video init. : Best (unless it doesn't work for you),
- Screen / Window size : the maximum possible size (unless you get unplayable frame rates)
- if you are testing 2.0 or later :
- in the Options / Graphics, disable the Sky Dome simulation (set its distance to 0)
- under Windows XP, in the Options / Simulation menu, activate the "CPU Affinity" for more accurate frame rates (but don't activate multi-threading !)
- select the Practice race mode :
- at Grand Prix Circuits / Espie track (= E-Track-6 for 1.4.0),
- for Arne Fisher (USR AI driver, on-board the SC Boxer 96)
- for 1 only lap, normal display mode.
- start the race,
- if you are testing 1.4.0, hit F2 once to get the bonnet view,
- let the race go to its end (about 1:48 long),
- read out the "average frame rate" in the console (in the last lines of the log).
2.0.0
| Desk/lap top | OS | CPU / RAM | Video card (Driver) | Full-screen | Window size | Frame rate |
| Laptop | Windows XP 32 SP3 | Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26 GHz DDR3 1066 | Intel GMA 4500MHD | Yes | 1280x800 | 45 |
| Laptop | Windows XP 32 SP3 | Intel Core i7-720QM 1.6GHz DDR3 1333 | nVidia Quadro FX880M 1Gb | Yes | 1600x900 | 70 |
| Laptop | Windows XP 32 SP3 | Intel Core i5-2520 2.5GHz DDR3 1333 | Intel Core i5 HD 3000 + Nvidia NVS 4200M 1Gb | Yes | 1366x768 | 30 |
| Desktop | Windows XP 32 SP2 | AMD Athlon 64x2 4600+ 2.4 GHz DDR2 800 | nVidia 8800 GT 512Mb (195.62) | Yes | 1920x1080 | 150 |
| Desktop | Windows XP 32 SP3 | Intel Xeon W3520 2.7GHz DDR3 1066 | nVidia Quadro FX1800 768Mb | Yes | 1280x1024 | 125 |
| Desktop | Windows XP 32 SP3 | Intel Xeon W3550 3.1GHz DDR3 1066 | nVidia Quadro FX1800 768Mb | Yes | 1280x1024 | 137 |
| Desktop | Linux Mandriva 2010.0 x86_64 | AMD Athlon 64x2 4600+ 2.4 GHz DDR2 800 | nVidia 8800 GT 512Mb (185.18.36) | Yes | 1920x1080 | 140 |
| Desktop | Linux Mint Debian amd64 | AMD Athlon 64x2 4600+ 2.4 GHz DDR2 800 | nVidia 8800 GT 512Mb (Nouveau) | No | 1920x1080 | 46 |
| Desktop | Linux Mint Debian amd64 | AMD Athlon 64x2 4600+ 2.4 GHz DDR2 800 | nVidia 8800 GT 512Mb (295.20) | Yes | 1920x1080 | 120 |
Note: Above figures like ">60" reveal cases where the "Sync to VBlank" feature could not be inhibited.
1.4.0
| Desk/lap top | OS | CPU / RAM | Video card (Driver) | Full-screen | Window size | Frame rate |
| Desktop | Windows XP 32 SP2 | AMD Athlon 64x2 4600+ 2.4 GHz DDR2 800 | nVidia 8800 GT 512Mb (195.62) | Yes | 1920x1080 | 150 |
| Laptop | Windows XP 32 SP3 | Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26 GHz DDR3 1066 | Intel GMA 4500MHD | Yes | 1280x800 | 50? |
| Laptop | Windows XP 32 SP3 | Intel Core i7 2.7GHz DDR3 1333 | nVidia Quadro FX880M 1Gb | Yes | 1600x900 | 200 |
| Desktop | Windows XP 32 SP3 | Intel Xeon W3520 2.7GHz DDR3 1066 | nVidia Quadro FX1800 768Mb | Yes | 1280x1024 | 240 |
| Desktop | Linux Mandriva 2010.0 x86_64 | AMD Athlon 64x2 4600+ 2.4 GHz DDR2 800 | nVidia 8800 GT 512Mb (185.18.36) | No | 1920x1080 | 150 |
Note: Because of Windows XP being quite bad at dealing with multi-processor/core computers (at least up to SP2, no automatic CPU affinity), you should have multiple runs to get an accurate figure (take the maximum value of all your runs).
Reference memory usage data
This is a difficult subject, but we'll make things simple and comparable ; to get figures, we'll use 1 and only 1 method per OS (examining the "speed-dreams[-2]" process) :
- Linux : the 'ps au' command, and its VSZ and RSS figures (VSZ = Total virtual memory usage, RSS = Resident memory usage),
- Windows : the "Process explorer" tool (by Mark Russinovich), a good replacement for the poor standard Windows Task Manager, and the "Virtual Size" and "Private Bytes" process properties, assumed to be equivalents for Linux's VSZ and RSS (but things seems quite unclear here, so comparisons between Linux and Windows figures should be considered with caution).
And we'll use 2 scenarios :
- minimum : Practice at Espie with Arne Fisher,
- heavy : Quick Race at Espie with 24 Supercar AI drivers (12 USRs and 12 Simplixes, 4 of them driving the Boxer 96, 4 the Lynx 220, 4 the Spirit 300, 4 the Cavallo 360, 4 the FMC GT4, 4 the Murasama NSX).
Notes:
- Of course, you can imagine more drivers competing together ...
- Espie is not the most memory-hungry track, but one of our top ones ; you can expect saving around 50 Mbytes with some lower quality ones, and lose around 50 Mb with some more heavy and HQ ones (figures taken from 1.4.0).
- don't forget do divide the kilo-bytes figures by 1024 (not simply 1000) to get the mega-bytes ones.
2.0.0 Beta 1
| OS | Minimum scenario (Mb) | Heavy scenario (Mb) |
| Linux Mandriva 2010.0 x86_64 (1) | VSZ=370, RSS=140 | VSZ=550, RSS=310 |
| Windows XP 32 SP2 (2) | VS=170, PB= 30 | VS=290, PB=100 |
Notes:
- Compiled with GCC 4.4 (options = -O3)
- Compiled with MSVC 2005 Pro, standard CMake Release configuration
1.4.0
| OS | Minimum scenario (Mb) | Heavy scenario (Mb) |
| Linux Mandriva 2010.0 x86_64 (1) | VSZ=480, RSS=270 | VSZ=620, RSS=410 |
| Windows XP 32 SP2 (2) | VS=110, PB= 30 | VS=240, PB=100 |
- Compiled with GCC 4.4 (options = -O2 -march=athlon64 -ffast-math -fno-strict-aliasing)
- Compiled with MSVC 2005 Pro, standard CMake Release configuration
