Bad performance in and around Timorous Deep.

[Invert]

Hi folks!Let me start by saying that it is great to be a part of the community again, I feel I can enjoy myself in EQ2 now that I have a computer that doesn't suffer from performance problems.Well, actually I'm lying, which is the point of this thread! My PC is in really great shape now so I decided to return to EQ2 with a BANG and bought myself the Rise of Kunark expansion, however playing my new Sarnak has been tough because the performance in this area (The starting area) is really sub par. I can tell that it's not my computer because any other zone I've encountered outside of TD has been performing flawlessly (Even FP Harbour!).I'm running the game at Extreme Quality with the only custom setting being #of rendered shadows set to "Average".I guess the point of this thread is to ask if anyone else suffers from this or if it's just a problem on my end.Any help/tips/suggestions would be great,Thanks in advance.

[vivanos]

It all depends on your hardware and OS.  Are you using WinXP or Vista?  What sort of processor?  What video card?  How much video ram?  How much system ram?These are all factors in determining what recommendations to make.I get solid performance in TD with a 7600GT, and an AMD 64 X2 4200... but I play on High settings(vram = 256), and I've fine tuned a few options here and there.  The city that runs the worst on my system is Kelethin... have yet determine if that's network lag though as video settings there seem to matter little.  Kelethin is still VERY playable though... I'm just neurotic when it comes to FPS.

[roeddog]

<p>Hiya Inverted,</p><p> I just decided to roll a sarnak on AB late yesterday (the 16th) and also noticed a significant decrease in fps in Timorus Deep. I mentioned it on lvl1-9 chat and two other people in TD said they too were having some degradation in fps in TD.  I usually run on very high detail, and whatever defaults that setting uses, and get and avg of 35fps with a little drop in the Harbor area.Extreme detail nets acceptable fps for me and is really nice to look at, but I am partially blind in my left eye and have very little depth perception; unfortunately my eyes get tired very quickly on extreme setting so i rarely use it except to admire a particuarly pretty area or sight which EQ2 has loads of IMO. </p><p>I tried ultra in TD and almost caught 5fps, i say almost because the 5 flashed for a nano second and the meter went back to a steady 3!</p><p>Anyway, I just switched to balanced for the time being while in TD, of course it doesn't offer the detail the high or extreme settings do, but it is easier on my eyes. I'll post the spec for my system, something I have never done out of pure embarassment but here goes:</p><p>OS Name Microsoft® Windows Vista^TM Ultimate    <b><span style="color: #ff0000;">(believe it or not I'm one of the few that actually likes Vista. The little less than a year I've used it I've experienced no problems with it at all. I edit video and do a ton of sound mixing, recording (not cd ripping) and reinforcement of live performances with it and never had a crash, lock-up or glitch. The biggest problem I had was having to wait for the drivers for my EMU-1212 sound card to become available)</span></b>Version 6.0.6001 Service Pack 1 Build 6001Other OS Description  Not AvailableOS Manufacturer Microsoft CorporationSystem Name </p><p>System Manufacturer AcerSystem Model Aspire M1620System Type X86-based PCProcessor Genuine Intel(R) CPU            2140  @ 1.60GHz, 1600 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)BIOS Version/Date Phoenix Technologies, LTD R01-A2, 8/10/2007SMBIOS Version 2.5Windows Directory C:WindowsSystem Directory C:Windowssystem32Boot Device DeviceHarddiskVolume3Locale United StatesHardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.0.6001.18000"User Name MISTRESSONEJeffTime Zone Eastern Daylight TimeInstalled Physical Memory (RAM) 2.00 GBTotal Physical Memory 2.00 GBAvailable Physical Memory 1.37 GBTotal Virtual Memory 4.25 GBAvailable Virtual Memory 3.25 GBPage File Space 2.29 GBPage File C:pagefile.sys</p><p>Nvidia GeForce 8600GT w/ 512meg ram <b><span style="color: #ff0000;">(I'll readily admit that I do not know much about video cards. This one has me somewhat confused because all the reviews I read prior to buying it has/had this card listed as having 256meg of ram and not 512, but the distributor I bought it from had both cards with this one just a few dollars more. I would have liked to have gotten a better card but it was an emergency situation (my old old dinosaur of a card died) and I had to get what I could afford at the time</span></b></p><p><b></b></p><p><b><span style="color: #ff0000;">*Edit was to add my nifty little siggy that failed to show up the first time*</span></b></p>

[Invert]

Hi Roeddog, thanks for the great reply!I've been doing some tweaking of my game over the past week and I've basically discovered that, for me, there are only 2 main settings that reduce performance drastically. 1. Enviromental Shadows2. Water/Ocean QualitySo it's not surprising to figure out why the starting area is so terribly laggy, it's set on a beach! I've also noticed a few other areas that give me similar performance, which I hadn't progressed to yet at the time of posting the original message. They are the docks at Butcher Block Mountains and the docks at the Sinking Sands.However I was happy to see that the devs added some light Multicore support in the last patch, I just hope that they continue to build on what they have already started with that and perhaps get shadow calculations to be more effecient as I think that is the main factor that is holding performance back.

[TSR-DanielH]

<cite>Inverted wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hi Roeddog, thanks for the great reply!I've been doing some tweaking of my game over the past week and I've basically discovered that, for me, there are only 2 main settings that reduce performance drastically. 1. Enviromental Shadows2. Water/Ocean QualitySo it's not surprising to figure out why the starting area is so terribly laggy, it's set on a beach! I've also noticed a few other areas that give me similar performance, which I hadn't progressed to yet at the time of posting the original message. They are the docks at Butcher Block Mountains and the docks at the Sinking Sands.However I was happy to see that the devs added some light Multicore support in the last patch, I just hope that they continue to build on what they have already started with that and perhaps get shadow calculations to be more effecient as I think that is the main factor that is holding performance back.</blockquote>Yep, Timorous deep can be one of the most computer intensive areas in the game.  It is near a town with tons of NPCs, is situated by the ocean, and has a low level area surrounding it.  The ocean can kill framerates to a certain extent but the main performance hit is from all the NPC's being drawn.  If you're willing then I would recommend setting down the maximum number of low quality character models.  Most of those NPCs being loaded are off screen or on the other side of the mountain and are somewhat meaningless.  I usually have that setting fairly low when in the TD area.

[Cassea]

Your problem might be your video card. Tim Deep is one of the nicest looking zones and uses your system to the max. The 8600 has great specs but they crippled it with slow memory. The 8600 just does not have the bandwidth to do high resolution graphics.To see if this is the issue check your fps in Tim Deep at 1024x768 and then 1280x1024 and see if the fps shoots up when you lower the resolution. If this is the case it's the 8600 that is limiting you. If the fps stays the same then it's most likely your CPU not being fast enough to render everything and you'll have to lower your view distance in that zone.LOL I don't know why I guessed you had an 8600.... What vid card do you have?