http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=21165
--- Comment #32 from Erich Hoover ehoover@mines.edu 2010-08-24 09:57:24 --- (In reply to comment #31)
... Changing settings seems to have little to no effect (resolution, game/foliage/texture quality, etc) all seem to be independent of framerate, which makes me feel that there's a bottleneck not directly related to the rendering. ...
Being cognizant of the performance issues we've all been experiencing I've been formulating a theory as to their source. After playing many times with my father, and watching certain types of artifacts occur with different settings, I am growing suspicious that somehow it is the processing of audio that is causing the slowdown.
Evidence: 1) When loading games there is a black screen before the "wormhole effect" that consumes roughly the same time as the effect itself. 2) Only when playing using the ALSA driver do I see the "zoom crosshair doesn't show up" bug, and when I do see the crosshair under these conditions it is always timed with the end of an audio event (ie. hearing gunshots or footsteps). 3) When standing still the framerate appears to be much better than when walking, and it is even worse when two people are walking within earshot of each other.
I don't exactly have the time to track this down right now (I have a backlog of patches I need to update), but I'm hoping this information will be useful to someone else.