3 replies to this topic

[Toing]

Hello all,

I've recently bought a new laptop for work and the occasional game. The specs are:

Dell Inspiron 1564
Core i3M
3GB DDR3
Intel GMA HD
Windows 7 64-bit

This is a laptop that can handle MechWarrior 4 (full settings), Rome Total War (medium to full settings), Demigod (low settings), Unreal Tournament (full settings) etc.

However, none of the Infinity Engine games will work smoothly on this machine. They all install, load and play fine, without any errors or graphical glitches whatsoever. However they all experience some or all of the following (with all graphical settings and hardware acceleration turned up):

- Periodic stuttering/freezes (time between freezes seems to be faily consistent, and happens regardless of what is on screen)

- Lag and general slowness in game and in menu screens

- Mouse pointer lag and "jumpy-ness"

To compare, I've never had any IE game issues on my main PC (Windows 7 64-bit, Core 2 Due E6600, 2GB DDR2, NVidia 8800GTS). If fact the laptop specs exceed the PC specs in some areas, and they both use the same OS. That narrows it down to the graphics card. But surely the Intel GMA HD, which is a fairly new integrated chip can handle IE games? I've hardly seen any complaints online of people having IE trouble on that chip; most people seem to have issues with the 8-series cards.

Progress so far:

- Turning down all the graphics options, using the lowest colour depth, software acceleration on everything seems to solve most of the issues. This removes freezes in IWD1 and IWD2 and PST, but BG2 freezes remain. This removes lag in BG2 and PST, but not in IWD1 or IWD2.

- Using Resolution/UI mods have no effect on the performance. The games are just as likely to freeze at low resolutions as they are at high resolutions.

- Using the D3DWindower seems to solve the lag issue of the games, but it does not stop the stuttering and freezing.


Although I've been able to play most of IWD1 and some of PST with everything turned down, I would ideally like to play these games smoothly with all options turned on. Any thoughts or suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Jarno Mikkola]

Although I've been able to play most of IWD1 and some of PST with everything turned down, I would ideally like to play these games smoothly with all options turned on. Any thoughts or suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated.

When you start the Config.exe(in the IWD's game directory) and go to the Graphics, what exactly do you have in there? List the selected...

And here is helpful list for prevention of the lagging in BG2, so use it accordingly:

1. Always patch the game(s) with the latest official patch, start a new game and exit after the game has auto-saves itself(so you have to make a char or choose a pre-made one), before you install any mod, and you might as well make a safe backup from the important files: data and override -folders, baldur.exe, BGMain.exe, dialog.tlk and CHITIN.key, in the unmoded game this should take about 960 to 1020 MB's, depending on how the computer counts it, or use the BWS to do it with a lot less space required.
2. Put the ambient sounds off from the BGConfig.exe, as some of the areas might have no ambient sounds and so the game tries to start them many time continuously, and so looses processing power.
3. Get a huge RAM storage, and set the Cache size to huge from the BGConfig.exe... the recommendations wary, but it can be from the 300 to 4000(Mb's) depending on the size of your installation and how large the .bif files end up being. This will eat your hard drive space fast, but only temporarily.
4. Don't mess with the game configurations so the speed adjustment percentages stay on "normal" ratings even if you have very high end machine, as the game has own it's internal fps counter, it sometimes tries to correct the fps on it's own by lowering graphs etc. Also the games frame rate should be set to about 30, as that's the default.
5. I wouldn't recommend to anyone to install any of the speaking item mods, as they use the only script the game uses to control everything essential, and as the mod changes the complete structure of the baldur.bcs to fire the comments everywhere, that's bad for the frames/second count, and can make the everything essential not to work, and that's bad and worse.
6. Trying to avoid too many effects on a character(about 20 is fine, 200 is too many, and 20 000 is way way too many...)
7. De-fragmenting your hard drive might also help... as you don't have to go find the data in the pieces. (hmm, there is a joke in there, hih)
8. Before installing the mods, plan the exact order, so they are in correct order, and make sure if you uninstalled the game that you deleted the old mod files, the data and override folders(don't go and overwrite them) so you can start from a clean install, so there is no leftovers from old mods.
9. Helpful links for Tutu and BGT(the English and German .pdf files) -based Megamods. And the most recent BWP vX, which today is the v9..., or later.
10. Take note that you should have done all the points 1-9 before you install any mods! But you should be able to do them still, with few alterations.
11. When you make an install order, make it the final install order, so do not expect yourself be able to install and uninstall any mods or their components after you have started a new game, and if you use biffing; a new install restart, or your saves and probably the whole game will get cheesed if you uninstall and reinstall/change install components. The only exception is the so called 'Hot Fixes'. So if a mod is updated with a new version, DO NOT INSTALL IT, unless you wish to restart the current game from a a totally new game, and probably from a new install too.
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12. And when you have installed all the mods you are going to, it might be a good idea to test your game to make sure your mods work, particularly any newer or untested mods. Once you are satisfied your install works, and only then, you will want biff your override folder, but do that knowing that you generally can't change the game much after. The easiest way to do this is to use the End_biff from here, or the more modern Generalized Biffing.
13. Repeat the step 7 again, if you think it might help.
14. Run as few programs on the background while playing as possible, if you think it might help. And scan for viruses, but do so when you are not playing the game... so don't have the Anti virus program running in the background.
15. When you quit the game, delete all the files from the Cache, temp and tempsave folders, if the game even puts any files in these. This might cause a little loading time increase, but it is worth it, cause it removes lags and assertion errors when playing the game.
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16. Inventory management(no stacks that have more than about 200 items, in a bag, arrows etc.), -might also help, as in if you drop an item to the ground and or store it in a stash the stuttering might go away in a few seconds there after. And do not carry too many bags of holding and the like storage_items.
17. NPC management, some mods might cause lag if a particular NPC is in the party for some odd reason or another, so if dropping the NPC from the party and waiting a few seconds, results in the end of the lag or stuttering, you should do so. And don't forget that somebody needs to know about it, the circumstance this happens etc. good debugging info...
18. Play the game yourself! So, if needed for large battles etc. heavy AI usage requiring encounters, turn the group AI's off by pushing the glowing lantern on the bottom right corner of the screen so it's not lightened anymore, unless it's strictly necessary for 1 action or another... as it might be needed to be running... for example while you level up with a few mod installed Kits, and if possible make the characters AI to be the None, or very limited and small script, such as auto attacking an seen enemy if the character is idle in battle.
19. Complete all the quests you are given, as in a long game, some scripts that are looking IF you have this-or-that quest active, will be screaming and causing lags, if their checks are in global category and they remain true all the time... it can be very bad, but the mod doing this should be fixed.
20. For some unexplained reason, when you have played the game quite long time, starting a new game so it autosaves in ToB and importing the BG1 or SoA game in, might help to clear out some of the stutter in them, even after you go back and load the game in the BG1 or BG2 portion of the game, we have to investigate this a bit.
21. And if you know your way around coding a .tp2 file and have file name knowledge, you can debug files with a custom made mod based on this.
21.1 The other is to play the game as far as humanly possible can with the growing stutter/lag/slowdown until you can't take it anymore, and make more than one save along the way, then install the LStest mod from the bottom of this thread, use NearInfinity to export the script source of the .bcs's that are reported by the dialog window the most frequently, and report us what it gives and upload the exported .baf files as they are easier to read, and someone should be able to help you then. Then you can uninstall the LStest mod, copy the fixed .bcs file to the 'override' folder if someone is able to help you, and then you get to play the game once more. If you do not have a NearInfinity, then follow the Answer 11 in this post.*
22. Keep in mind that these advices won't solve the whole problem, as there can be things that make a lot of lag for no apparent reason, until they are found, and then it's more than obvious... like the ambient sounds caused lagging problem, it's caused by missed files that references have never been rechecked to be accurate.
23. The last miracle cure, while you are desperate, and so still reading this, let me remind you that there is nothing at the bottom of the barrel, so you have probably missed one of the earlier tweaks, so it's time to recheck them again. And the latest version is of this Mini infopack is the only accurate one, as I might have changed a few of the above mentioned things, after the last time you have read them, and don't just dismiss a point because it didn't hep before as all these are here for a reason and that's to help in the lagging, so read them again.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 16 June 2010 - 03:24 PM.

[Toing]

Sorry for the late reply.

Heres a list of settings in the IWD config:

General Tab:
System: All set to High End 700MHz

Game Tab:
Cache: 999MN

AI Framerate: 30

Path Search Nodes: 400000

EAX Off

Graphics Tab:
Resolution: 800x600

2D Colour Depth: 16-Bit

Fullscreen

2D BLT: All software BLTs turned on

3D OpenGL OFF

Game Options: All ON except Sprite Mirroring

Tile Pre-Cache: 100%

==============================

With those settings above, Icewind Dale is playable, with only slight lag (slight as in its not silky smooth like it should be) with no freezes or stuttering.

As soon as any 3D effects are turned ON or any software BLTs are turned OFF, the game immediately starts lagging and freezing. Same goes for IWD2 and PST.

[Jarno Mikkola]

With those settings above, Icewind Dale is playable, with only slight lag (slight as in its not silky smooth like it should be) with no freezes or stuttering.

As soon as any 3D effects are turned ON or any software BLTs are turned OFF, the game immediately starts lagging and freezing. Same goes for IWD2 and PST.

Hmm, yeah, I have seen that, there's probably a problem with the graphic cards software turning things haywire... you probably have to use one of the solutions in here, yes, there is 4 links to them in the lower part of the first message... if one doesn't fix it, you can try the second... although if one doesn't, then none of them probably be able to fix it either.
My best bet is that the Compadability Administeration solution might work...

And the probable reason why the game lags is that the Intel GMA HD only supports the OpenGL 2.1, while the BG2 needs/wants OpenGL 1.2 "compliant video card". And from that you can actually see that the laptops spects aren't actually better (in this prospect of the package), as the NVidia 8800GTS uses the OpenGL3.0. Although to my understanding this might not matter, at least this much, but I wouldn't be the one to know.