[SOLVED]Extreme lag when scrolling around on the campaign map.

[Massive_attack]

Howdy ! Its been a while since ive played M2TW, and I recently upgraded to Win7 from xp, after losing all my old files, so I was surprised and dissapointed that after installing my game and a few mods, moving the camera on the campaign had such chop.

When im not scrolling, the map runs just fine. I think some of the charachters move a bit too fast, but maybe thats just me. It almost seems like there zipping around even when i dont tell them too (go fast).

I have shadows turned off, but most of my other settings are high. The game reccomended them, and I figured my PC which can handle a game like crysis with respectable settings, could handle the campaign map. Especially since it did, before i updated and lost my files.

Anyway, DXdiag is attached, but heres some basic specs:

Operating system: Windows 7 home premium 64-bit (6.1, build 7600)
System model: (slash MOBO, or whatever) P5QL-Pro
Processor: Intel core 2 duo CPU, E7500 @2.93GHz (2 CPU's), ~2.9 GHz
Memmory: 6144 MB RAM
Page File: 2667 MB used (Im running several windows, medieval 2, and a few programs atm), 9617MB available
DX version: 11
Graphics Card: NVIDIA 9800 GT

To my knowledge, all drivers are up-to-date. Including the Nvidia ones.

additional info: im using a bevy of mods, and an ENB series modification. The ENB mod is the most likely and obvious culprit, and id like to see if anyone has a vanilla/patched d3d9 file I could use. Just to swap with the ENB one to see if its the cause of my woes.

It should be noted i tried removing the mod beforehand and it did nothing to help the problem.

Ive tried:
-defraging
-increasing my min and max page file
-reducing external programs
-utilizing a more-or-less vanilla setup
-turning off campaign shadows
-setting maxframestorenderahead (or something) to 0 in the Nvidia control-pannel for medieval 2 and its expansion
-I am patched to 1.5
-tweaked the hell out of the nvidia control pannel to ensure optimum performance
-tweaking ENB to be less demanding on my machine, although land battles are fine. In fact, they run very smooth, even with up to 4000 men on the screen (havent tested much higher than this)

Notes: again, this only happens on the campaign map
getting that d3d9 file (or fileS) from the game directory might be the problem, they could be bad.
I had several strat map mods, but i removed them and the effect remains
This occurs on all versions of the game, even ones i have not extensively modded, such as kingdoms campaigns

The lag is charachterized by a sense of choppiness. Whereas in a normal game scrolling would be seamless, fast, and simple, when I scroll its clunky, pausing every two-to-three seconds.

Clicking anywhere on the minimap can cause up to 3-5 minuite lags
campaign map FPS is solid when not attempting to move the camera.

Please help !
Does anyone have any suggestions ?

[irishron]

When you installed Win 7, did you install the motherboard chipset drivers for Win7?
Have you disabled the UAC?
Have you tried installing directx 9.0c manually?
Have you tried installing .Net 4 manually?
Have you tried setting the Nvidia Control Panel to application controlled and set your graphics ingame?

[Massive_attack]

1. Several automatic updates were downloaded and installed when i ran windows 7. They included (I believe) motherboard, chipset, sound, graphics, etc drivers. I am not 100 percent certain everything is up to date, but i do trust the built in windows update mechanism alot more than my own expertise. Still, ill see if i can get the newest drivers for my 9800. That shouldnt cause any serious problems I think.
2. No, but i run medieval 2 as "administrator"- should i still disable UAC ?
3. No, why would i ? I use Direct X 11, if i manually installed 9 now, would that not cause serious problems ?
4. See 1, I am running the newest version of microsoft's .net framework.
5. No, but i did this on purpose. The entire reason i did anything to my nvidia control pannel was because of this problem. I dont see how going back to game-managed graphics settings will be of any use, since it seems they were the problem to begin with.

[irishron]

1. Motherboard chipset frivers are your responsibility. Microsoft won't do it.
2. My 9800GT has the 260.xx drivers. Are there newer ones?
3. This game hates UAC.http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=397636 may come in handy. I did it and disabling the UAC before installing the game in C:\Games.
4. This game needs dx9. dx11 will never see it. they are two different formats. Installing it with the UAC disabled works best.
5. This game is old enough many of the features will only conflict with the ingame ones. I tried it and now do my setting in graphic options, and then tweak those in medieval2.preferences.cfg. If you edit it, set it read-only or the game will overwrite it.

[Massive_attack]

1. Ill look into this, your probably right although i do remember my P5QL and various chipsets getting updates. Ill see about using a professional driver update utility to determine whether or not there is a problem, but i doubt thats whats causing Med2 to be so problematic.
2. I wasnt sure myself, so I just downloaded and installed the newest ones. That was likely a superfluous move but there it is.
3. Thanks, I did what it reccomended and added those permissions. I dont want to disable uac entirely, its a bit of a pain but the entire reason im using windows 7 now was viruses, so turning off a program meant to stop them would be... counter-productive. (the systems mostly clean now, so say my 5 or so AV programs at least)
4. I was under the impression dx9 features and .dlls were included in direct x 11. If that is not the case, how could i add in the missing functions ? Would I install direct x 9.0c, then dx10, then dx 11 all over again ? I am concerned it might hurt my machine.
5. If that was the case, would the battles not be affected ? They appear to run fine. I only enabled:
Anisotropic filtering- 2x (after disabling this in the game, the idea being the gfx card just manages it instead)
AA mode: set to Override program settings
Maximum pre-rendered frames: 0 (this was a suggested solution to other users experiencing this- did not work)
multiple display settings: single display perfomance mode (I have only one screen)
power settings: performance
Texture filtering: off (which is the program reccomended specification anyway)

I guess i could let the program handle AA and that sort of stuff again- I dont really see why.

[irishron]

My first computer had DOS 3 and you could still end up with a bad floppy swapping with your buddies. I don't worry too much about it. I have Zone Alarm Security Suite with a good firewall, antivirus, and secutrity program builtin. I also have Microsoft's Security Essentoals installed. I always have a spam box full of emails I refuse to opne. The UAC won't really slow down someone from a website but more to keep the kids out of your programs or business dealings. I'm the only one using it so with some common sense, I don't need UAC. BEfore UAC, people just password protected stuff, anyway.

[Massive_attack]

Yeah, still, any idea why my campaign scrolling is so... laggy ?

Edit: Aha ! Fixed !

I think it was a combination of .net framework 4.0 and my graphics card drivers. Its soooo smooth now. All of the clunkiness and long load times are gone too, which i assumed were just side effects of ENB. This is wonderful !

Thanks irishron, your tech support was great ! Heres some +rep !

[terrandragon]

Yeah, still, any idea why my campaign scrolling is so... laggy ?

Edit: Aha ! Fixed !

I think it was a combination of .net framework 4.0 and my graphics card drivers. Its soooo smooth now. All of the clunkiness and long load times are gone too, which i assumed were just side effects of ENB. This is wonderful !

Thanks irishron, your tech support was great ! Heres some +rep !

Can anyone give some insight on this? I installed the newest .net framework (4.5) and I am still experiencing the laggy campaign scrolling. I enjoyed the mod a year ago and recently came back after installing Windows 7 and am now having these new problems! Help!

[PoleCat]

Can anyone give some insight on this? I installed the newest .net framework (4.5) and I am still experiencing the laggy campaign scrolling. I enjoyed the mod a year ago and recently came back after installing Windows 7 and am now having these new problems! Help!

So you upgraded to Win7. What OS were you using before - XP maybe? How much RAM do you have in your system? It could be that you don't have enough memory to run both the newer OS and M2 at the same time without lag.

[terrandragon]

Yes, I was using Windows XP before upgrading. I have 4gb of RAM, is that insufficient? And is that the main source of the problem of the lag of scrolling across the campaign map?

[irishron]

You're welcome.

[[TIG]PeterPain]

!!!??? " Aha ! Fixed !

I think it was a combination of .net framework 4.0 and my graphics card drivers. Its soooo smooth now."

!!!???


Hey guy , what exactly did You do? I downloaded .net framework 4.0 and new nVidia graphic driver, still laggy/choppy campaign map ... please tell me (in plain english) how You fixed that problem.

Thank You in advance,

Peter

[WAR monger]

How did this get solved? This is my exact problem!

[Ishan]

It all depends on your hardware and the resolution at which you're playing the game. On my old PC the map hanged\lagged especially when a character was selected. Don't select anything and try to do it again. The lag happens on heavy textures like that of high mountains etc also.

[WAR monger]

It all depends on your hardware and the resolution at which you're playing the game. On my old PC the map hanged\lagged especially when a character was selected. Don't select anything and try to do it again. The lag happens on heavy textures like that of high mountains etc also.

Well, its not the map that is lagging or the characters or anything. Those run smoothly. Scrolling is impossible, when I find a solution though, I hope it will be soon.

[dking]

Having the same problem.

Any advice?

Win7 64
i5-2500
GTX 560
8 gig

[irishron]

4gb is enough.

When you installed Win 7, did you reformat and do a fresh install or one of Microsoft's notoriously bad upgrades?

[terrandragon]

I believe I reformatted and fresh installed, but are there any visible problems with upgrading directly? Maybe some things that I could possibly check or remove if I -did- use the notoriously bad upgrade?

[irishron]

Check to see if Windows upgrade made a separate Windows folder called Old Windows or something close. If not, it's a clean install.

Either way, post your dxdiag.

[terrandragon]

There is, but there's just empty folders in it for some reason. Before I upgraded, I had to reformat due to a virus.

Here's my dxdiag.