Frame Skipping, but no Framerate Drop

[GondorCaptain]

So here are my specs:
3.4Ghz Intel Core i7-2600K 8MB Cache Quad-Core
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 92mm CPU Fan/Heatsink
ASUS SABERTOOTH P67 REV 3.0 (Intel P67, 2xPCI-E, 8xSATA, 4xDDR3)
16GB (4GBx4) PC3 10666 DDR3 1333Mhz Memory Lifetime Warranty
128GB Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1 SATA3 SSD
22X LG SATA Dual Layer DVD+/-RW/CDRW w/Nero
1536MB GeForce GTX 580 GDDR5 PCI-E Dual-DVI (Major Brand)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
InWin C583 Black ATX (3 5.25, 5 3.5) Fan, Front Audio/USB
650watt Corsair CMPSU-650TX

I'm getting noticeable frame *skips* during battle. I've experienced it with vanilla M2TW and Kingdoms, as well as mods like TATW and SS.

With everything set to high, when battle commences, especially when the killing begins, and I move the camera around, it jumps instead of smooth panning. Fraps recorded a minimum framerate of 30... so I'm sure it's not my system sucking. I've tried tweaking the options, but didn't get consistent results. Could really use some help.

[irishron]

This game only uses one core of your i7. Think bottlenck when trying cram all those 3d polygons through it before it see the graphics card.
The game's sweetspot for vram is 512mb. 1gb cards and now yours have trouble with it for reasons I don't know.

My 512mb card does it on the campaign map with everything maxxed at 1920 x 1080 but smooth on my old 1280 x 1024 monitor.

It's the game. Try lower monitor resolutions.

One player has been doing it with 5850s in crossfire but with lower resolution.

[GondorCaptain]

Thank you so much! You have no idea how worried I was that my 2 months old 2k system might be having problems!

But okay, resolution wise, I have an old monitor, 1280x1024 native. I've played on the game's default resolutions, so like 1024xx... because when I tried matching the two I get weird ratio errors and the entire right side of the game cut off(I have square monitor, probably why).

So yeah the resolution I played on was like the 2nd lowest, should I lower it to the lowest possible? Or should I try to match them, but if so what can I do to fix the ratio errors?

And thanks again good sir you've lifted a heavy worry from my heart

One other thing, I'm also getting shadow flickers no matter what options I tweak. They flickering is better with AA off, and medium to close zoom(far zoom has terrible blocky/flickering shadows). Any tweaks to improve this?

[irishron]

Short of turning shadows off, I have no solution for it.

Square monitor? I have not seen one of those in along time. I can believe the side being cut off. I have a 1280 x 720 monitor in the closet for backup and when I set it to 1280 x 1024, I lose part of the map, I think off the top.

Enjoy playing inspite of it. Don't be afraid to play with the settings. You just may find an off-the-wall combination that actually works.

[Gunguy]

I have this issue too, made a thread about it ages ago...
Anyway, to make a long story short, I had a similar issue, when units would clash the game would go from smoothness to a camera feeling like it was skipping frames. Oddly disabling sound (through the audio menu)
fixed it. But no sound ruined the game for me, so I tried other things. I set the game to one core (via task manager), and ran the game in windows vista compat, and disabling desktop composition. It seemed to help the issue, atleast for me.
Its something with the age of the game, I have a 2600k and GTX570.

[GondorCaptain]

I have this issue too, made a thread about it ages ago...
Anyway, to make a long story short, I had a similar issue, when units would clash the game would go from smoothness to a camera feeling like it was skipping frames. Oddly disabling sound (through the audio menu)
fixed it. But no sound ruined the game for me, so I tried other things. I set the game to one core (via task manager), and ran the game in windows vista compat, and disabling desktop composition. It seemed to help the issue, atleast for me.
Its something with the age of the game, I have a 2600k and GTX570.

Can someone tell me how to set the game to one core and disable desktop composition? Also which compatibility mode should I use, xp service pack 3 or vista?

I have win7 if that helps. And after reading your thread I'm guessing tweaking the Nvidia control panel didn't help much?

[irishron]

Not saying anything about montor resolution, I'd say as low as it will go and work your way back up.

The game pushes everything-data, sound, graphics-through one core of the the i7.
It should be set XP Compatibility as that is what Visual Studio was used to write the game.
Have you disable the UAC?
Have you updated directx 9.0c manually? Windows Update won't.

[GondorCaptain]

Irishron, I saw gunguy's other thread and it seemed this piece of advice made the most difference:

Originally Posted by irishron
The best advice is set the Nvidia control panel to application controlled and set year graphics settings ingame.

Can you tell me what you mean by set to application controlled and set year graphics settings? I know how to open my Nvidia control panel, and I think I can set every option to app controlled. But I have no clue how to set the year setting.

Also how do I know what Directx I have? Using dxdiag gives me the latest version, I think I have 11. Not sure how to check if I have 9, let alone update to 9.0c

Still glad I'm not alone, and glad it's not my hardware that's having problems.

PS I was advised by a CNET member to get Intel Rapid Storage Technology. I installed the service, but I'm not sure what it does either haha. Hopefully it makes everything run better.

[irishron]

Irishron, I saw gunguy's other thread and it seemed this piece of advice made the most difference:

Originally Posted by irishron
The best advice is set the Nvidia control panel to application controlled and set year graphics settings ingame.

Can you tell me what you mean by set to application controlled and set year graphics settings? I know how to open my Nvidia control panel, and I think I can set every option to app controlled. But I have no clue how to set the year setting.

Also how do I know what Directx I have? Using dxdiag gives me the latest version, I think I have 11. Not sure how to check if I have 9, let alone update to 9.0c

Still glad I'm not alone, and glad it's not my hardware that's having problems.

PS I was advised by a CNET member to get Intel Rapid Storage Technology. I installed the service, but I'm not sure what it does either haha. Hopefully it makes everything run better.

Open Nvidia Control Panel, 3d Settings, Manage 3d Settings, Select Program ot Customize-Medieval2,
And set every setting to application controlled you can.

Directx 9.0c = http://www.microsoft.com/download/en...ylang=en&id=35 for the latest.

It maybe a good idea to run Windows Update manually and install all software options. Hard telling what you maybe missing.

[StealthFox]

I run TATW and M2TW with all settings maxed just fine on my desktop and laptop. Here are my specs:

AMD Athlon II X4 620 2.60GHz
8GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce GT220 (1GB RAM)
Windows 7

Intel Core i7-2630QM 2GHz
6GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce GT555M (1.5GB RAM)
Windows 7

Maybe its a problem with your graphics drivers or maybe even with your particular model of graphics card. I don't think it is because of a multicore processor or amount of graphics card memory.

[GondorCaptain]

Yeah I could only change like two things to application controlled, and it didn't seem to help.

Also is disabling the sound the same as muting the sound? I did the latter and also no help.

How do I run in XP compatibility? Also which service pack? I think I attempted to change the compatibility but windows told me could not find a program at path, is it because it's a batch file? How do I run batch files in compatibility mode?

Also stealthfox what FPS do you get with your laptop? Try playing Siege of Cair Andros all maxed out, if you get smooth 30+ framerate I will buy your laptop (or a similar model).

[StealthFox]

Also stealthfox what FPS do you get with your laptop? Try playing Siege of Cair Andros all maxed out, if you get smooth 30+ framerate I will buy your laptop (or a similar model).

I've never actually recorded what framerate I get, but I will say I just got done playing a custom battle on pellenor fields with 10,000 troops on the field. (unit size at huge) It ran perfectly like always, no lag or framerate drop(except when I turn up the speed to 6x there might be a little ). I have all settings maxed except shadows, anti-aliasing, and anthropic filtering, which are all on the next to highest setting. I left those at the "recommended level" and since I'm happy with the look of the graphics, I've never actually tried bumping those all the way to max.

The laptop I'm running is the Alienware M14x with the i7, 6GB RAM, and 1.5GB graphics card.

[irishron]

I've never actually recorded what framerate I get, but I will say I just got done playing a custom battle on pellenor fields with 10,000 troops on the field. (unit size at huge) It ran perfectly like always, no lag or framerate drop(except when I turn up the speed to 6x there might be a little ). I have all settings maxed except shadows, anti-aliasing, and anthropic filtering, which are all on the next to highest setting. I left those at the "recommended level" and since I'm happy with the look of the graphics, I've never actually tried bumping those all the way to max.

The laptop I'm running is the Alienware M14x with the i7, 6GB RAM, and 1.5GB graphics card.

Maybe it's back to player preferences. If you two can sort this out, I'll sit back and learn. I am for all intents and purposes out of ideas.

[irishron]

You need sound to play or the game will have other problems.

Right-click the icon(s), click properties, click Compatibility tab. I have mine set XP SP3.

Program path = does the game start? .bat has nothing to do with it unless you moved things around.