Poor performance post- v1.4.

[Nudz]

I've just downloaded the full game from your website, and couldn't help but notice that it has now been patched to "1.4", despite the official download link saying that the latest version is "1.3".

Trying the "Infantry Division"-tutorial, I noticed that overall performance seems to have gone down a fair bit since last time I tried. Performance in SoW has always been really poor for me, mostly because my computer is simply too good for the game, as insane as it may sound. (My computer is running on multiple cores, and the game is simply too crappily optimized to not run as a damn slideshow whenever I play.) Note that this computer plays "Total War: Shogun 2" with every graphical option maxed-out, on 50+ FPS.

Problem is; performance seems to have gone from "crap" to "abysmal", since the last time I played. (About a month ago.) As I checked the changelist online, I noticed that you have done some changes that were supposedly designed to improve performance to some degree - although it appears to have had the opposite effect on me - and I was wondering if your tinkering with the game engine can have caused some of this? Does the game run some new calculations under the hood, or something of the sort? Any obscure text document-type settings you've altered? Do you have any advice as to what I can do to at least fix this to some degree?

My computer:

"Two Radeon HD 6990s in CrossFireX.
6GB RAM.
Intel Core i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07GHz (8CPUs), ~ 1.6GHz.
Windows 7 64-bit.
The game runs on a fast SSD-drive."

Please help, if you can. :pinch:

[Garnier]

There are ways to determine what exactly is slowing it down.

Some possible causes:
- Game calculations
- AI calculations
- Rendering trees/vegetation
- Rendering objects
- Rendering troops

At the start of the game, no AI running or troops moving at all -- with 3000 troops on the field total.
When I have all settings turned on, with lots of wheat fields showing, I get ~15 fps.
If I then hit "T" three times to turn off the wheat fields and trees, I get ~30 fps.
If I aim the camera at the ground so I am not rendering any sprites at all, I get ~150 fps.

Another test, with 60,000 troops total, all in a small area.
Game paused, look at about 5000 troop sprites at once, with vegetation turned off (T key) I get ~25 fps.
Unpause game, all units are moving from AI, I get ~6-8 fps.
If I look at the ground so nothing is being rendered, I still get ~6-8 fps. This tells me it's the AI and game calculations causing the real slowdown.
If I look at the ground and pause the game, I get ~50 fps.

You could try doing different things in game like this to figure out what causes the slowdown. It could be the AI, in which case you wouldn't have the slowdown in MP games where all units are TCed. Or it could be rendering the wheatfields that's the problem, in which case hitting the T key a few times solves it.

[Blaugrana]

Garnier - could you remind those of us who don't know how to see the fps?

TIA,

Jeff

[Chamberlain]

Blaugrana,

Add the following to your SOWGB.ini file located within the Work folder :

[Debug]
DbgLvl=1

The FPS:xx will appear in the top left hand corner of the game.

Chamberlain

[Garnier]

I use fraps when I want to see the fps. The DbgLvl thing shows a whole lot of stuff, which I don't want when I'm actually playing.

[voltigeur]

try disabling xfire/sli and see if frame rates improve.

cheers

[Blacklander]

Having problems as well. My game worked PERFECTLY before 1.4, using only 2-gig RAM and the video card that came with the computer. If it's AI that's the cause, then maybe I'll be playing MP with no problems, and can then switch back to 1.3 for solitaire games.

I really wanted to buy Antietam, but will hold off for now.

R. Treviño

[Jubal Early]

try disabling xfire/sli and see if frame rates improve.

cheers

I’d like to try that could you tell me where to do it please. Thanks !

I have a quad core myself Nudz and SOW has always ran very poorly for me so you are not alone . This is my computer I actually bought it especially to max out SOW.

http://www.isitetv.com/cb241cbf92059867 ... 799-p4.htm

Like you I can run Napoleon Total war and Shogun 2 almost maxed out with stunning graphics I have noticed a little improvement with 1.4 but it’s still not good on large scenarios. You may want to read up on when we discussed this previously.

http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/techni ... rigs#15054

[Little Powell]

Blacklander - I can tell you that there isn't anything in 1.4 that should have slowed down performance. It should have increased it, so it must be something else causing your slowdown. Try setting your troop uniforms to Best.. With the new texture technology, Best will actually perform as good if not better than High, Medium or Low.

Also try tweaking the other graphics settings, check for processes etc. running on your computer, and again, try the Best Uniform Quality setting.

[Garnier]

@LP

Shouldn't Best uniforms and High uniforms perform the same, but Best take longer to load due to more uniforms?


To those with performance problems, try some variations like I did in my post. It might depend entirely on the size of the scenario, or whether AI is running, or whether you're looking at lots of wheatfields/trees.

I have a quad core i5, and I can run multiplayer battles with more than 30,000 troops at say 15-30 fps, depending on what I'm looking at. This is acceptable for me in this game. But if I play that size battle with AI, my fps goes down.

When I had 2GB ram, my fps would always be below 10 if I had wheatfields visible, so I usually turned them off.