Terrible Game Performance

[Metall_pingwin]

Let me start with posting my system specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.8Ghz
GeForce 8800 GT 512mb (oc'd)
4GB RAM
Windows Vista Ultimate


My computer should be running circles around this game blindfolded. Alas, it does not - and I am confused. (I bought the game on Steam, if that's of any importance.)

The first thing I did of course was turn up the graphic settings as high as possible, the second, apply a wide-screen patch.

When I started up the game I was astonished to see that i'm encountering unplayable amounts of lag. I'd estimate a 10-15fps rate, considering that my GamerOSD doesn't work here.

Confused, I turned the Antil Aliasing off, but the performance did not change - I continued experimenting with different settings to no avail until I realised that what was causing so much lag was the Soft Shadows setting.

Turning it off rendered the game playable, but still noticeably sluggish, turning off Frame Buffer (?) made it smooth as butter.


This however doesn't seem like proper behaviour for a game this old... Why am I getting so much lag? Is this a known issue, or is my computer being odd?

[Fyurii]

One of two things spring to mind.

1: Your graphics card is too good.

2: You're using drivers that are up to date.

I used to use an ATI card, when TSL had come out.
Going above a certain version of the Catalyst drivers for it gave a noticeable decrease to performance in both games.

I don't know what Nvidia drivers are best for KoTOR or TSL, unfortunately.

I realise both of those options sound a little "wtf!", but neither KoTOR or TSL seem to respond well to hardware and drivers that are basicly superior to what it needs.

Of course, the third option that springs to mind is one many people don't consider...
Blame Lucas Arts.
They didn't want Bioware to continue support of the game at the time i.e more than two patches.
And of course they did even worse to Obsidian.

[Inyri Forge]

ATI is much more notorious with that (catalyst drivers have always had issues). nVidia usually has less of this, although the 8800 itself seems to have some issues with quite a few games. I couldn't give much advice, especially since the card is overclocked. Keep in mind that Vista might be at fault here as well. Search for info relating to TSL's issues with Vista.

[Zach]

Originally Posted by Inyri Forge

Search for info relating to TSL's issues with Vista.

Yep, it could very well be this, as my brother has had horrendous issues with KOTOR/TSL on a vista computer. It's not as good as yours, but he's experience save game issues (they wouldn't load) and game crashes.

[Graeme]

KOTOR should work fine on Vista as well as TSL with the downloadable fix included. Seeing as you're using a dual-core, have you tried enabling V-Sync (which is, and should be set to off by default)? As Fyurii had said; there are some occassions where the drivers and/or your graphics card are 'too good' for KOTOR. If this is the case, try downgrading your graphics driver to a fairly older one and see what happens. And from what I know, the GeForce 8800 (excluding some versions of it, ie. 8800 GTX SLi) seems to have some issues if it comes to crashing and FPS problems.

Anyway, try that and let us know if it had resolved your problem.

[Metall_pingwin]

The game has never crashed, it's been very stable but the FPS are simply very low.

In-game and forced v-sync do nothing to the game performance, and neither does disabling threaded optimization.

As for drivers, I'm not going to bother. I don't think I care enough to start going through a bunch of old drivers, testing out each one individually to find the one compatible with the game.

Ill keep soft shadows off, leave frame buffer on and just deal with the strangely choppy frame rate - I got used to it by now anyway.

If you have any other "soft" solutions to try though, I'd love to hear them.

As for blaming lucas arts.... Well, if that's going to solve my problem sign me up, otherwise ill go ahead and waste my energy masturbating or something.

[Graeme]

Originally Posted by Metall_pingwin

In-game and forced v-sync do nothing to the game performance, and neither does disabling threaded optimization.

Forced V-Sync, however, does prevent crashes specifically for KOTOR, should the person use a dual-/quad-core. But, seeing as you haven't experienced any crashes, I guess that option is not quite useful. I've done some further investigation if it comes to unusually low fps. It seems they claim that the game is CPU limited and changing resolution, AA and/or AF has little effect, and the same for most other options. Shadows does affect your FPS though, regardless of this. As for any "soft" solutions; I do not have any in mind. Perhaps someone else does.

otherwise ill go ahead and waste my energy masturbating or something.

Oh wait... I'd better visit the Perv's Nightclub in the spam forum.

[HK-67]

Originally Posted by Metall_pingwin

The game has never crashed, it's been very stable but the FPS are simply very low.

In-game and forced v-sync do nothing to the game performance, and neither does disabling threaded optimization.

As for drivers, I'm not going to bother. I don't think I care enough to start going through a bunch of old drivers, testing out each one individually to find the one compatible with the game.

Ill keep soft shadows off, leave frame buffer on and just deal with the strangely choppy frame rate - I got used to it by now anyway.

If you have any other "soft" solutions to try though, I'd love to hear them.

As for blaming lucas arts.... Well, if that's going to solve my problem sign me up, otherwise ill go ahead and waste my energy masturbating or something.

If you have already tried fooling around with the graphics settings, you might just be having problems on the Endar Spire (which I assume is where you are at). Try and get to Telos, the Frame Rate might get better.

[Inyri Forge]

There is no Endar Spire in TSL. Do you mean Peragus? Because the Endar Spire and Telos are definitely not in the same game.

[Graeme]

You are aware that this problem is in regards to KOTOR and not TSL, right...?