SLI Celestia

General discussion about Celestia that doesn't fit into other forums.
danielj
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Post #21by danielj » 07.09.2006, 23:14

I run a virus scanner and it found the trojan horse PSW.banker.What is it?Can be this that is slowing down Celestia?

chaos syndrome wrote:I dunno, have you tried running a virus scanner or an anti-spyware tool recently?

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t00fri
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Post #22by t00fri » 07.09.2006, 23:52

danielj wrote:I run a virus scanner and it found the trojan horse PSW.banker.What is it?Can be this that is slowing down Celestia?

chaos syndrome wrote:I dunno, have you tried running a virus scanner or an anti-spyware tool recently?


Are you really saying that you operate your Windows platform with internet connection on a dayly basis WITHOUT a pro quality online virus scanner ( including a daily automatic update) and without a well-configured firewall?

If so, then I'd say : all these and many more predictable nasty consequences are just your own responsibility...

Bye Fridger
Last edited by t00fri on 07.09.2006, 23:56, edited 1 time in total.
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danielj
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Post #23by danielj » 07.09.2006, 23:55

A pro quality virus scanner costs too much money.I am using a simple freeware antivirus and firewall.


t00fri wrote:
danielj wrote:I run a virus scanner and it found the trojan horse PSW.banker.What is it?Can be this that is slowing down Celestia?

chaos syndrome wrote:I dunno, have you tried running a virus scanner or an anti-spyware tool recently?

Are you really saying that you operate your Windows platform on a dayly basis WITHOUT a pro quality online virus scanner, with dayly automatic update and without a well-configured firewall?

If so, then I'd say : all nasty consequences are just your own responsibility...

Bye Fridger

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t00fri
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Post #24by t00fri » 08.09.2006, 00:02

I don't understand: just like you can't run your CPU without a $20 ventilator, you need to spend some $20 for a good PRO virus scanner that REMAINS up-to-date.

It's part of your computer equipment if you want to run Windows reliably. Not using a scanner is saving at the wrong place.

Bye Fridger
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Kolano
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Post #25by Kolano » 08.09.2006, 00:14

Actually free anti-virus tools these days are quite compentitive, beating out many of the "professional" ones.

See this link for details...
http://tech.cybernetnews.com/2006/09/04/and-the-best-antivirus-is/
System:
Asus A8N-SLI Premium nForce4 SLI
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
2xeVGA GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB
2gb Dual Channel DDR (400) 3200

phoenix
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Post #26by phoenix » 08.09.2006, 00:29

t00fri wrote:I don't understand: just like you can't run your CPU without a $20 ventilator, you need to spend some $20 for a good PRO virus scanner that REMAINS up-to-date.

It's part of your computer equipment if you want to run Windows reliably. Not using a scanner is saving at the wrong place.

Bye Fridger


actually my win2k has been running without a virus-scanner for over 5 years now on a permanent internet-connection and never had problems with a virus, trojan horse or worse...

the only thing protecting me is a self-made firewall on my linux-box.
ok. not using IE, outlook + disabling windows-messager-service also might have something to do with that ;)
Last edited by phoenix on 08.09.2006, 00:30, edited 1 time in total.
most recent celestia win32-SVN-build - use at your own risk (copy over existing 1.5.1 release)

Kolano
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Post #27by Kolano » 08.09.2006, 00:30

In response to danielj...

I'd guess that your slowness is caused by...

a) 8x anti-aliasing

With my SLI setup I still only run with 4x. Since the majority of objects (outside of spacecraft) are not that geometrically complex I tend to find that even running without antialiasing can be fine.

b) 1000x speed + VTs

As others have mentioned, this tends to really push ones graphics card memory, forcing swaps to regular memory. If you spin your view around ISS and look towards space rather than earth, does your rate dramatically improve?

-------

Generally I do tend to agree with Danielj that Celestia "is very hungry with memory and speed". Even with my beefy setup I often find my system struggling. This is most likely due to me overburdening it with add-ons (my extra's directory is currently 16.7g).

From other discussions here, I understand that effectively automatically culling objects is a difficult task. A few ways of handling some of the burden might be to...

a) Implement an improved "extras" mechanism allowing easy selection of add-ons to utilize vs not.

b) Additional render options, allowing one to turn off/on more object types. (i.e. spacecraft, asteroids, moons). I know the inability to turn off spacecraft can significantly impact my viewing of earth, as I currently have most of the satelite add-ons installed.

c) Improved LOD cut-off's for texture loads. If I have the log output turned on I tend to notice textures being loaded for things that are still just 2-4 pixels across. It would seem that simply using the objects "color" rather than it's textures at that size could be more efficient. I understand some amount of pre-loading is needed to allow smooth transitions as one zooms towards something, it just seems more loads go on than are really needed.
System:

Asus A8N-SLI Premium nForce4 SLI

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+

2xeVGA GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB

2gb Dual Channel DDR (400) 3200

Malenfant
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Post #28by Malenfant » 08.09.2006, 00:33

daniel - if you want a good free antivirus, then get avg antivirus. While you're there, get ewido antispyware too. Both are free from http://free.grisoft.com , though ewido limits its functionality after 14 days. Ideally you should install them, update them, and then reboot into safe mode and run them from there. You do not need to pay for a virus scanner, but if you do buy one I'd strongly recommend getting NOD32 ( http://www.nod32.com )- it's the best virus scanner I've seen, it's very compact, it's not a resource hog, it's not invasive and annoying like Norton, and it's very effective. It's also relatively cheap at US$39 for a one year subscription, and you get updates about three times a day.

you might also grab MS windows defender while you're at it.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/securit ... fault.mspx

I'd recommend these to all windows users, btw. I'm working as a computer tech now, and this is what we recommend to our clients and use ourselves.
My Celestia page: Spica system, planetary magnitudes script, updated demo.cel, Quad system

danielj
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Post #29by danielj » 08.09.2006, 02:28

I??m actually using AVG,but it couldn??t delete the trojan horse.
The computer is a little exposed because if someone wants to see adult content,the firewall has to be set to low.The same happens when you are downloading a torrent file.It??s a pity...


Malenfant wrote:daniel - if you want a good free antivirus, then get avg antivirus. While you're there, get ewido antispyware too. Both are free from http://free.grisoft.com , though ewido limits its functionality after 14 days. Ideally you should install them, update them, and then reboot into safe mode and run them from there. You do not need to pay for a virus scanner, but if you do buy one I'd strongly recommend getting NOD32 ( http://www.nod32.com )- it's the best virus scanner I've seen, it's very compact, it's not a resource hog, it's not invasive and annoying like Norton, and it's very effective. It's also relatively cheap at US$39 for a one year subscription, and you get updates about three times a day.

you might also grab MS windows defender while you're at it.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/securit ... fault.mspx

I'd recommend these to all windows users, btw. I'm working as a computer tech now, and this is what we recommend to our clients and use ourselves.

Malenfant
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Joined: 24.08.2005
With us: 19 years 3 months

Post #30by Malenfant » 08.09.2006, 02:39

You shouldn't have to adjust the firewall settings to do anything. That said, if someone's browsing habits include going to dubious websites, then that person shouldn't be so surprised when they find trojan and viruses on their system. It's like taking some antibiotics and then walking through a plague-infected town - maybe your antibiotics would work, but there's also a good chance that something will get through in that barrage of infection.

I'd recommend getting your computer cleaned up by a professional - sounds like it'd be best to hook up your harddrive to another computer and clean it up remotely from there.
My Celestia page: Spica system, planetary magnitudes script, updated demo.cel, Quad system

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LordFerret M
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Post #31by LordFerret » 08.09.2006, 04:35

My system is far from high-end, my second system even farther. I am quite happy with the results I'm getting from Celestia, even with some of the larger add-ons choking the system lol... as it's been said, I just slow it down a bit and enjoy a most beautiful view.

AVG Free is a very worthy download, so is ZoneAlarm firewall, and so is Ad-Aware Personal SE. All are free, an investment you can't beat. I highly recommend you look into such things as Malenfant suggests, danielj.

I'll also note from experience, that there are items which AVG will not remove which Ad-Aware (or SpyBot) sometimes will; And as a last resort, make note of the item which can't be removed and Google it - you'll surely find detailed instructions for manual removal.

While I'm at it I'll also note that if you wish to trim the fat from your OS (remove unnecessary background tasks), you might want to take a look at PAC's Portal. There are numerous other similar sites out there as well.

Good luck!


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