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Game Engine and Shadows

AdamChattaway

By AdamChattaway
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AdamChattaway

AdamChattaway

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Basically im now on my 3rd PC since i started playing the beta for SWTOR, and on all my pc the Shadows of this game still are broken. Now i have a GTX 670 ftw, 12gig ddr3 ram, intel ivy 3570k 4.0 ghz and still i lagg/stutter/low fps with shadows turned on.

 

Not only do shadows cause, camera rotation lag, random rotation speed ups and slow downs and jitter but the game has trouble handling more then 16 people on screen even on my pc where you cannot really get a better CPU.

 

You really need to fix and remake this games engine, if Funcom can do it with age of Conan then you guys can, spend the money and reap the rewards when people come back and play again without these issues.

 

Ive heard you took the alpha version of the hero engine and made the game with the unfinished, badly optimized engine and they would not give you support etc, but please so something, this is one of the best mmo's Ive ever played and its largely ruined due to this intolerable game engine, so fix the engine and see it prosper.

 

-----------------------------

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/686/nvidd.jpg

 

These are my settings, i changed them a bit to what is showed here and im testing in game.

 

Update: My fps was on 60 in the sewers, i started a fight with 2 mobs and it dropped to 45-50 and caused some lagg, as with the rep/imps fighting at that outpost on balmorra, fighting/effects seem to lower fps a lot and cause lagg.

 

UPDATE:

Ok so here are two pics ive just taken, see how my fps has dropped by 20 just to be in combat with 1 mob

 

Out of combat - http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/594/screenshot2013022017434.jpg

In Combat - http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/1716/screenshot2013022017432.jpg

 

After gfx tests of turning everything to minimum and then turning each option up 1 by 1, i can identify that SHADOWS are the sole cause of the FPS drop, for some reason when shadows are ON fps in combat on my high spec pc drops by up to 20, along with the other issues listed above.

Edited by AdamChattaway
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Cmdluke

Cmdluke

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there's gotta be something in your machine that it doesn't like. I'm running an i7 2700k, 16gb of 2133 ram, gtx 660Ti SC 2gb and I have absolutely no issues running at full 1080 resolution on maxed out settings (including full shadows) at a constant 60 fps in full screen windowed mode. Edited by Cmdluke
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CrazyCanukk

CrazyCanukk

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hmm.

 

I have the same issue OP.

 

I am running

 

I7 3570k at 4.0 ghz..

8 gigs Muskin ram

2 gtx 580 in sli.

the game itself is even installed on an SSD (not that it means much but helps a bit)

 

I have also found drastic frame drops with shadows enabled on high in either a single card or SLI and i don't think anyone can argue that my system should be tearing this game to shreds for an Fps rate.

 

I have also found turning shadows to low or off have fixed the problem .. and i tried different driver versions and none worked.

Edited by CrazyCanukk
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AdamChattaway

AdamChattaway

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there's gotta be something in your machine that it doesn't like. I'm running an i7 2700k, 16gb of 2133 ram, gtx 660Ti SC 2gb and I have absolutely no issues running at full 1080 resolution on maxed out settings (including full shadows) at a constant 60 fps in full screen windowed mode.

 

Im on coruscant right now, i drop to as little as 30 fps with shadows on in the first quest area, now only does the fps drop which would explain poor game engine and optimization, but the shadows cause me to have rotation issues, example, lets say i rotate at a speed of 50%, suddenly with shadows on around npc's i will rotate at 100% then back to 50% randomly, so it speeds up for some strange issue, this must be caused by shadows and the dam disgusting camera smoothing they have forced on in this game, you cant turn it off and its very bad.

 

Fresh installs of windows every new pc, my pc can handle planetside 2 on high with 50 fps in a very very large battle so its obviously not my pc. all this aside, even the hero engine devs said bioware took a broken alpha game engine off them and with no updates or support, TESO is built with the hero engine and that preforms 100x better.

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Vember

Vember

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Basically im now on my 3rd PC since i started playing the beta for SWTOR, and on all my pc the Shadows of this game still are broken. Now i have a GTX 670 ftw, 12gig ddr3 ram, intel ivy 3570k 4.0 ghz and still i lagg/stutter/low fps with shadows turned on.

 

Not only do shadows cause, camera rotation lag, random rotation speed ups and slow downs and jitter but the game has trouble handling more then 16 people on screen even on my pc where you cannot really get a better CPU.

 

You really need to fix and remake this games engine, if Funcom can do it with age of Conan then you guys can, spend the money and reap the rewards when people come back and play again without these issues.

 

Ive heard you took the alpha version of the hero engine and made the game with the unfinished, badly optimized engine and they would not give you support etc, but please so something, this is one of the best mmo's Ive ever played and its largely ruined due to this intolerable game engine, so fix the engine and see it prosper.

 

I have the exact same card as you and I can run this game on max settings with no lag whatsoever.

 

edit - I do get the occasional hitch on the fleet when there's 200+ players around.

Edited by Vember
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AdamChattaway

AdamChattaway

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Just curious. Have you all tried messing around with your Nvidia Control Panel Settings? Setting like "Ambient Occlusion" & "Antialiasing Transparency". Maybe turn them off or something, if they are turned on.

 

Ill do some testing and send you a screenshot in a minuet, but most of the lagg and fps issues arrise when around npc's or mobs, even is only 10-20

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AdamChattaway

AdamChattaway

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Just curious. Have you all tried messing around with your Nvidia Control Panel Settings? Setting like "Ambient Occlusion" & "Antialiasing Transparency". Maybe turn them off or something, if they are turned on.

 

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/686/nvidd.jpg

 

These are my settings, i changed them a bit to what is showed here and im testing in game.

 

Update: My fps was on 60 in the sewers, i started a fight with 2 mobsd and it dropped to 45-50 and caused some lagg, as with the rep/imps fighting at that outpost on balmorra, fighting/effects seem to lower fps a lot and cause lagg.

Edited by AdamChattaway
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Marb

Marb

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For me, shadows have always caused a noticeable drop in consistent input responsiveness in seemingly random areas. Now this kind of input delay I'm talking about is not the same kind you get from a good old low fps.

 

For example going into the cantina on hutta with shadows on gives me a stuttery delayed camera response, but out side the camera is smooth as butter. In both scenarios my fps did not drastically differ. So I do notice strange input delay in some areas with shadows on without the fps drop that *should* be there to cause it. All I can put it down to is a hardware / driver quirk that affects the odd player.

 

EDIT: It looks like the op is describing two different problems. Fps does drop dramatically for some people when many players or mobs are using abilities fx.

 

The issue I described is an odd quirk with the shadow renderer that has been there for those afflicted since beta weekends / early access

Edited by Marb
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AdamChattaway

AdamChattaway

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For me, shadows have always caused a noticeable drop in consistent input responsiveness in seemingly random areas. Now this kind of input delay I'm talking about is not the same kind you get from a good old low fps.

 

For example going into the cantina on hutta with shadows on gives me a stuttery delayed camera response, but out side the camera is smooth as butter. In both scenarios my fps did not drastically differ. So I do notice strange input delay in some areas with shadows on without the fps drop that *should* be there to cause it. All I can put it down to is a hardware / driver quirk that affects the odd player.

 

UPDATE:

Ok so here are two pics ive just taken, see how my fps has dropped by 20 just to be in combat with 1 mob

 

Out of combat - http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/5...3022017434.jpg

In Combat - http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/1...3022017432.jpg

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Traejun

Traejun

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has anyone tried a fresh windows and game install to see if it solves these problems?

 

Just reinstalled about 6 weeks ago on a new machine. I've never had performance issues... still don't. However, from my understanding, issues related to shadows and other textures is related to the ancient, crappy Hero Engine BW decided to use.

Edited by Traejun
typo
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Marb

Marb

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There is no reason fighting a single mob should cause a machine with those specs to go from 60 to 42 fps, something is really wrong here.

 

Even though I have problems with shadows, my system is nowhere near your specs, but I don't have fps drops of that magnitude when in combat.

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AdamChattaway

AdamChattaway

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There is no reason fighting a single mob should cause a machine with those specs to go from 60 to 42 fps, something is really wrong here.

 

Even though I have problems with shadows, my system is nowhere near your specs, but I don't have fps drops of that magnitude when in combat.

 

I've turned gfx to minimum and am turning each one on and testing combat, on min i get only 1-3 fps drop in combat, ill turn each one up and see what causes such a big drop.

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Cmdluke

Cmdluke

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I've turned gfx to minimum and am turning each one on and testing combat, on min i get only 1-3 fps drop in combat, ill turn each one up and see what causes such a big drop.

 

with your specs, you shouldn't get even a 1-3 fps drop during combat. my cpu and gpu aren't as good as yours and I'm at a constant 60 fps at all times.

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AdamChattaway

AdamChattaway

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with your specs, you shouldn't get even a 1-3 fps drop during combat. my cpu and gpu aren't as good as yours and I'm at a constant 60 fps at all times.

 

Ok tests complete, turned game to min and maxed out each gfx option 1 by 1, the only setting that causes me to drop mroe then 2-3 frames in combat is shadows, soon as i turned shadows on as the last option to max and started combat i would dip into the mid 40's and average around 50 and causing some slight camera slowdown.

 

So why shadows lower combat fps i have no idea. but its the root of all issues it seems.

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