Hey guys,
As soon as a Mech appears on screen, my FPS are falling in the one-digit-area.
The game gets REALLY slow if a mech is visible…
(I think I saw a similar post around here sometime, but I couldn’t fint it anymore)
Is there a solution for this issue?
Greetings
jedi93
G’Day Jedi93
Just quickly, have you tried updating the video card drivers ?
(assuming you have some form of graphical accelerator)
I only ask since it has solved my issue with the clunker I am running.
Strictly speaking, the CPU your running is slightly more powerful than the P4 I have in this machine.
But, the only reason why GTB runs on this machine is due to the Graphics Card - hence the question.
well, since I have this crappy GMA950/945GM Chipset, the latest driver is from 2007, I think.
Since I last reinstalled my system, I then also installed the driver and never changed it, so it’s the latest (official) one…
I had hoped your laptop would have a dedicated graphics card, but it appears not to be the case.
Looking at that particular chipset, I would say that the “graphical accelerator” component would not have enough “grunt”
(Based on information gained from graphics card bench mark sites using the card in my PC as entry level)
Sorry mate, based on what I understand of GTB and the computer in question, the issue looks like its related to your hardware rather than software.
my hardware is almost always the issue 
But why those massive slowdowns when a Mech appears? The game itself runs fine (well, it’s relative, but…)
Heheh, i hear ya, you should see my shelf of “Games to play when i Upgrade one day”
At a guess, I would say it has to do with the animation of the mechs.
AFAIK:
The tanks are basically 2 images. Turret and main Body, therefore the graphical resource requirement is rather small. However the mechs are 120 frames of animation. Something i found out the hard way 
Since your chipset shares resources between graphical and computational, i would say that the introduction of an animated resource proves to be too much. One option might be to mod the game and replace or remove mechs altogether.
sounds familiar:)
You got any ideas how I could do this?
Currently - No,
But once i get back to my modding station, i will see if any ideas hit me from left field.
Edit:
The only idea I have at this point in time is for you to modify the dds files for the game.
when you navigate to \Gratuitous Tank Battles\data\bitmaps\units\mech\ you will see a whole pile of folders.
In the folders HM,LM & MM you will see 3 files (for example)
HM_1.dds
HM_1_Legs.dds
HM_1_legs_512.dds
Rename the HM_1_legs.dds to somthing like HM_1_legs.bak
then make a copy the HM_1_legs_512.dds and call it HM_1_legs.dds
Rinse Repeat for all directories.
Run the game again and see if it helps
You are a genius!! it works 
now I can play with Mechs AND an acceptable performance…
Thank You 
Your quite welcome - It is what we are here for 