Jump to content

DirectX 10 (poor frame rate) advice

dysphunc

By dysphunc
in General Discussion

 Share

Recommended Posts

dysphunc

dysphunc

Posted
Posted (edited)

Editing as I have new information but still original intact so we can see how we go their.

 

My reason for this tweak working is wrong, but it is confirmed to do something. It greatly helped me and I hope this can greatly help some people that are still struggling to enjoy the game due to bad frame rates. Feel free to download http://www.skyrimforge.com/media/files/552/705/d3d9.dll (place in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic\swtor\retailclient") and skip to page 3 http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=302368&page=3 for the better information :-)

 

 

Greetings,

 

Before anyone QQ's and skips through this post with out reading the first half I am not regurgitating the same information people already have been told in this forum to help their video performance. Some people either never had performance issues with ToR and some were fixed by installing the latest DirectX 9 driver set. But for a lot of us still have a bad frame rate despite having a a reasonably good computer. For example I run a 2.8ghz quad core AMD, 8 GB ram, GeForce 250GTS and can play most new games on medium to max (just got the Mass Effect 3 demo - runs like a dream) settings getting 100+fps (I usually use Vsync so it's capped at 60fps when I play.) Games like Kingdoms of Amalur, Crysis 2, MW3 all run awesomely but ToR (and Skyrim) ran like poop.

 

The difference between those games are what DirectX environment they run in. Having a DirectX 10 card, they either have backwards compatibility for DirectX 9 or have to emulate DirectX 11 and not many games run in DirectX 10. In total there are actually less than 50 at present out of 1000's of PC games. Both ToR and Skyrim were created in DirectX 9 and optimized to run in a DirectX 11 environment, but only run in a 11 environment *unless you have a DirectX 9 card). Most games (Kingdoms of Amalur, Crysis 2), if you have a DirectX 10 card you will be forced to run in DirectX 9, but some (Skyrim, ToR) you get forced into DirectX 11. So if you have a DirectX 10 card (even a beefy one) you have to emulate a DirectX 11 environment emulating DirectX 9 - essentially stripping your frame rate by 2/3. When I first booted up ToR with Vsync off I had 15-25 fps, very playable but a little frustrating. A couple of weeks ago it was suggested (from these forums) to install the latest DirectX 9 drivers, I believe helping the frame rate of everyone by a few fps, or people with DirectX 11 cards that didn't have a full DirectX 9 driver set by a lot. It didn't do anything noticeable for me. But it did jog my memory to when I got Skyrim and it ran like a turdburger, I read a reddit post explaining how to "force" the game to load in DirectX 9. I did that then Skyrim ran like a dream! So I tried the same in ToR and had awesome success, my frame rate went from 20fps to 100+ fps (depending on the zone.)

 

In order to force ToR into DirectX 9 you need to find a dll file called "d3d9.dll"place it in your ToR clients executable folder, for example for me its "C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic\swtor\retailclient". When you boot the game you should notice your resolution and graphics setting have reset, It will say everything is still on what ever setting you left it ie. shaders = high, but they're reset to low. Just flip em to low hit apply then flip em back. You should have a noticeable fps difference. If you don't know how to see your fps in Tor you hit Ctrl+Shift+F. If it's coming up as a hard 60fps you've got Vsync on, switch it off to see what your card is doing. I have a real crappy "Emachines" laptop with a ATI 5470 which ran ToR at 10-20 fps and with "d3d9.dll" runs at 30-40 fps.

 

I hope this helped a lot of you guys with a low fps, use it for future games too that "should" run well on your hardware.

 

If anyone wants/need to add anything or I'm inaccurate in anyway please feel free to let me know!

 

http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/5701/72663198.jpg

 

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5816/screenshot2012021112214.jpg

 

http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/4923/screenshot2012021112181.jpg

Edited by dysphunc
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ZombieCow

ZombieCow

Posted
Posted
Another remedy I've heard that helps is.... spin around three times... click your heels together and say "please get good fps." Some have said this works... give it a try.

 

You sir, made my day :D 100fps in Skyrim?? I'll check it out first thing when I get home!!! :cool:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dysphunc

dysphunc

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Another remedy I've heard that helps is.... spin around three times... click your heels together and say "please get good fps." Some have said this works... give it a try.

 

Oh sweet ignorance, what is it like in your tiny heads?

 

 

Fresh screen shots with d3d9.dll removed from the folder.

 

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5816/screenshot2012021112214.jpg

 

http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/4923/screenshot2012021112181.jpg

 

notice the frame rate down the bottom left, now inspect the previously mentioned screen shots with d3d9.dll in the exe folder

 

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/909/screenshot2012021515303.jpg

 

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/7650/screenshot2012021515273.jpg

 

See the difference???

 

It works for me, i'm only sharing it so other people can enjoy ToR more - take your un-constructive criticism and troll another thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dysphunc

dysphunc

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Then where are the OMGWTFBBQ threads of people have success? Where's the 100 comment thumbs up post on reddit?

 

Maybe I'm the first to discover it? Or it only works for some people? What's the point of bashing my thread as I'm only trying to help?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ZetaRet

ZetaRet

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hi Dysphunc,

 

Ok, so I tested this out. I decided to try this on Tython, as this is one of the worst places I have experienced frame rate issues. I was pretty surprised by the 80+fps I was getting soon after logging in. Unfortunately, it soon dropped down to around 10-15 fps once I started exploring the paths and areas with more foliage. Despite that, I wonder if you're on to something.

 

I must ask, since using this trick, have to also noticed an initial spike and then subsequent drop in fps? or have you been good the whole time? Granted, I only tried this out for like 10 minutes ( it's late here, I'm tired). I plan on doing a more involved test tomorrow to see if I can get more consistent numbers.

 

And good for you, dude. I'm glad to see some people on here try to problem-solve. Ignore the mouth-breathing trolls who need the free therapy this forum seems to provide for them. There are people that genuinely appreciate your effort.

Edited by ZetaRet
Link to comment
Share on other sites
dysphunc

dysphunc

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks for the feedback.

 

For me it's pretty constant, it can dip from time to time - mainly in indoor areas for some reason. I find I get better performance with vsync on because it renders frames in advance. So instead of most of the time getting 80-100 fps and then it intermittently dipping to 10-20, i won't load past 60 fps and buffers for screen tearing - but I don't get the spikes and dips.

 

What are your specs and what settings do you use?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
-sasori

-sasori

Posted
Posted
Greetings,

 

Get a proper resource monitor or use the Win7 build in. You should notice which .dll is used durings swtor's execution. ;)

 

At best you just did change the used dll but it's still the same file and version since you did copy it.

 

 

Sadly in this case there is no room for magic programming and miracle fps increases.

Now if you did use a different dll we might could perhaps argue.

Besides it appears you got the emulation and directx part all wrong. Swtor is by no way you try to spin it "Directx 10".

 

Well if the game now finally appears for you to run better. Who i am to complain.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ZetaRet

ZetaRet

Posted
Posted (edited)
Thanks for the feedback.

 

For me it's pretty constant, it can dip from time to time - mainly in indoor areas for some reason. I find I get better performance with vsync on because it renders frames in advance. So instead of most of the time getting 80-100 fps and then it intermittently dipping to 10-20, i won't load past 60 fps and buffers for screen tearing - but I don't get the spikes and dips.

 

What are your specs and what settings do you use?

 

My machine is a dinosaur. Dual-core, 4GB RAM, 8800 GTS (a dx10 card). I run the game on medium to low. Strangely, I never had too much trouble with Skyrim, expected it to crawl on my machine.

 

So, I tried a couple more planets, plus I also turned VSync on. To be honest, I'm wondering how much difference it made on my computer. Tython was exactly the same as last time I tried it. Balmorra and Tatooine were better, but not by much.

 

I think its doing something because of these strange bursts of high frame rate (which are now 60fps 'cause of the VSync), but I'd have to say that my overall average in this game is a solid 20fps. You're reporting better results and it could be the difference between your more updated specs and my low-end ones.

Edited by ZetaRet
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Invictos

Invictos

Posted
Posted

The difference between those games are what DirectX environment they run in. Having a DirectX 10 card, they either have backwards compatibility for DirectX 9 or have to emulate DirectX 11 and not many games run in DirectX 10. In total there are actually less than 50 at present out of 1000's of PC games. Both ToR and Skyrim were created in DirectX 9 and optimized to run in a DirectX 11 environment, but only run in a 11 environment *unless you have a DirectX 9 card). Most games (Kingdoms of Amalur, Crysis 2), if you have a DirectX 10 card you will be forced to run in DirectX 9, but some (Skyrim, ToR) you get forced into DirectX 11. So if you have a DirectX 10 card (even a beefy one) you have to emulate a DirectX 11 environment emulating DirectX 9 - essentially stripping your frame rate by 2/3. When I first booted up ToR with Vsync off I had 15-25 fps, very playable but a little frustrating. A couple of weeks ago it was suggested (from these forums) to install the latest DirectX 9 drivers, I believe helping the frame rate of everyone by a few fps, or people with DirectX 11 cards that didn't have a full DirectX 9 driver set by a lot. It didn't do anything noticeable for me. But it did jog my memory to when I got Skyrim and it ran like a turdburger, I read a reddit post explaining how to "force" the game to load in DirectX 9. I did that then Skyrim ran like a dream! So I tried the same in ToR and had awesome success, my frame rate went from 20fps to 100+ fps (depending on the zone.)

 

In order to force ToR into DirectX 9 you need to find a dll file called "d3d9.dll" (just search your HDD, if you can't find it just google it ) and place it in your ToR clients executable folder, for example for me its "C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic\swtor\retailclient".

 

After reading up on this a bit, it appears that the fix for Skyrim is an altered version of the d3d9.dll. So if the OP still had a copy of that file on his system, he might see an improvement in SWTOR, but I don't think simply copying the base version of the file to your SWTOR directory does anything.

 

For what it's worth, I tried the OP's advice and saw no noticeable improvement. Honestly didn't expect anything, but hey, why not? Truth be told, framerates are less a concern to me than the occasional bouts of hitching that go along with the game's apparent I/O bottleneck. YMMV, caveat emptor and all that jazz.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cretinus

Cretinus

Posted
Posted (edited)
The thing that helped me to get around 80 fps (up from 35) was to set the shadow quality to low (which automatically also disables bloom). By doing this I can even keep everything else at maximum. And if I disable the shadow stuff completely, I get fps of about 100. The shader seems to be quite a resource hog. Edited by Cretinus
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Marctraider

Marctraider

Posted
Posted (edited)
Greetings,

 

Before anyone QQ's and skips through this post with out reading the first half I am not regurgitating the same information people already have been told in this forum to help their video performance. Some people either never had performance issues with ToR and some were fixed by installing the latest DirectX 9 driver set. But for a lot of us still have a bad frame rate despite having a a reasonably good computer. For example I run a 2.8ghz quad core AMD, 8 GB ram, GeForce 250GTS and can play most new games on medium to max (just got the Mass Effect 3 demo - runs like a dream) settings getting 100+fps (I usually use Vsync so it's capped at 60fps when I play.) Games like Kingdoms of Amalur, Crysis 2, MW3 all run awesomely but ToR (and Skyrim) ran like poop.

 

The difference between those games are what DirectX environment they run in. Having a DirectX 10 card, they either have backwards compatibility for DirectX 9 or have to emulate DirectX 11 and not many games run in DirectX 10. In total there are actually less than 50 at present out of 1000's of PC games. Both ToR and Skyrim were created in DirectX 9 and optimized to run in a DirectX 11 environment, but only run in a 11 environment *unless you have a DirectX 9 card). Most games (Kingdoms of Amalur, Crysis 2), if you have a DirectX 10 card you will be forced to run in DirectX 9, but some (Skyrim, ToR) you get forced into DirectX 11. So if you have a DirectX 10 card (even a beefy one) you have to emulate a DirectX 11 environment emulating DirectX 9 - essentially stripping your frame rate by 2/3. When I first booted up ToR with Vsync off I had 15-25 fps, very playable but a little frustrating. A couple of weeks ago it was suggested (from these forums) to install the latest DirectX 9 drivers, I believe helping the frame rate of everyone by a few fps, or people with DirectX 11 cards that didn't have a full DirectX 9 driver set by a lot. It didn't do anything noticeable for me. But it did jog my memory to when I got Skyrim and it ran like a turdburger, I read a reddit post explaining how to "force" the game to load in DirectX 9. I did that then Skyrim ran like a dream! So I tried the same in ToR and had awesome success, my frame rate went from 20fps to 100+ fps (depending on the zone.)

 

In order to force ToR into DirectX 9 you need to find a dll file called "d3d9.dll" (just search your HDD, if you can't find it just google it ) and place it in your ToR clients executable folder, for example for me its "C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic\swtor\retailclient". When you boot the game you should notice your resolution and graphics setting have reset, It will say everything is still on what ever setting you left it ie. shaders = high, but they're reset to low. Just flip em to low hit apply then flip em back. You should have a noticeable fps difference. If you don't know how to see your fps in Tor you hit Ctrl+Shift+F. If it's coming up as a hard 60fps you've got Vsync on, switch it off to see what your card is doing. I have a real crappy "Emachines" laptop with a ATI 5470 which ran ToR at 10-20 fps and with "d3d9.dll" runs at 30-40 fps.

 

I hope this helped a lot of you guys with a low fps, use it for future games too that "should" run well on your hardware.

 

If anyone wants/need to add anything or I'm inaccurate in anyway please feel free to let me know!

 

http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/5701/72663198.jpg

 

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5816/screenshot2012021112214.jpg

 

http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/4923/screenshot2012021112181.jpg

 

You are spreading false information. having d9d9.dll file is not simply the game using directx9 all of the sudden. The game IS directx9 based and it cannot run without it.

 

With or without this file it WILL run in combination with directx9 :)

 

d9d9.dll are often initialized by a game for specific functions when it finds the file in the executable directory, no matter if the game does or doesn't have this file by default.

 

Nice examples are the Shader based anti aliasing methods which have this file included in their package, it makes the game initialize the d9d9.dll file and with that the specific function which is included.

 

You can use it as a hook for all kinds of stuff. I myself use D3D antilag which also comes with a d3d9.dll file which puts my prerendered frames to a more desirable value.

Edited by Marctraider
Link to comment
Share on other sites
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.