Very low FPS in RTW campaign map

[Kirila the Kitten]

Hello, everyone. I've been trying to play RTW recently on my "new" laptop and the campaign map just isn't playable in how few frames I get. It is weird though as my previous laptop had weaker specs all around and could run it quite well. The battles are incredibly smooth though.

Current specs:
Intel i3 3217u 1.8 GHz
GPU: AMD Radeon R5 M240 and Intel HD 4000
RAM: 4 GB

Until now I tried using the 4 GB patch and giving the exe high priority and messing with the core affinity. No success.

I would be really grateful if you could help me out so I can enjoy this game again.

[Skizzy]

Have you tried messing around with the graph.settings yet and see if that improves anything?
Are you using any mods?

[Kirila the Kitten]

Oh boy, I have messed with the settings. Didn't go to the complete low though. Might try that. I removed AA and Campaign Map Shadows obviously.

Yes and no, the low fps are persistent both in the vanilla game and all the mods I tried (a lot).

[Skizzy]

Hmm you don't need to go to the full low with your laptop.
Not even nearly.
I never used the 4GB thing at all for RTW (i7 3770K, 8GDDR3, nVidiaGF 630 2GD3)

Are you running RTW on WinXP? Win7? Win8? Win10?
Might be changing the compatibilty to a different version of windows could help.

[Kirila the Kitten]

I'm on Win7 64-bit. I think I tried compatibility mode once. I'll make sure to give feedback.

Everything on low didn't work either.

[Skizzy]

I meant on what compatibility are you right now?
If you are unsure, check out step 1 from this guide: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...-windows10-FIX
Just tell me on what compatibility your are running the game now, and if you remember, on what were you running it before..?

You don't need to run your graph.settings on low for that laptop..
Medium settings might help in the battle-part of the game, but not for the campaign part.

[Kirila the Kitten]

Oh, I was on Win XP (SP 3). I am going to try Win 7 right now.

EDIT: No improvement. I will try the -ne thing now.

EDIT 2: Nvm, I apparently already did that a while ago. I think about giving up.

[Skizzy]

Never give up..! What would your generals think of that..?
Do you know on what WinX or what compatibility you used to run rtw before?
I'm sure your laptop shouldn't have any issues running rtw, not it's just down to figuring out what's wrong..

[Kirila the Kitten]

I think none. No compatibility mode.

[Skizzy]

In that case you probably ran on WinXP/Win7 before on your old pc/laptop..
On what compatibility are you running right now, if any?
What WinX does your new laptop use?
Do this to check: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...erating-system

[Kirila the Kitten]

My new laptop and my old one have Win7 64-bit.

EDIT: I was thinking about installing the game's DirectX files. I might be on to something.

EDIT: On to nothing. No luck whatsoever. I can't think of any possible source of this issue.

[Skizzy]

Not asking what operating system your laptops use, but rather on what compatibility you run the game?
Again I'll refer to step one from the link I provided earlier to check on what compatibility you play the game.
And if you remember on what compatibility you played before, if any?

[Kirila the Kitten]

On my old one, although I haven't checked yet, I was not using the compatibility mode. On the new one I've tried XP (SP3), Win7 and no compatibility mode. No success with either of them.

I decided to mess with core affinity again and got some results.

Test 1: Win7 compatibility mode, Run as Admin, no core affinity -6-7 FPS (never thought it was that bad)
Test 2: Win7 compatibility mode, Run as Admin, CPU 0- 9-11 FPS (slight improvement, playable)
Test 3: Win7 compatibility mode, Run as Admin, CPU 1- same as above
Test 3: Win7 compatibility mode, Run as Admin, CPU 2- same as above
Test 4: Win7 compatibility mode, Run as Admin, CPU 3- 6-7 FPS (weird)
Test 5 Final: Win7 compatibility mode, Run as Admin, CPU 1 and 2- 6-9 FPS

Test 6 Sequel: WinXP (SP3) c. m., Run as Admin, no core affinity- 6-7 FPS
Test 7: WinXP (SP3) c.m., Run as Admin, CPU 0- 9-11 FPS

Conclusion: Compatibility mode doesn't matter.

[Skizzy]

Hmm thought maybe setting it to WinXP would change it up a bit.
Never mind that then..
However you did now find a 'playable' result in test 2, 3 and 3 (guessing this was test 4?)
Not sure I can think of anything that might help you any further, sorry..

[Kirila the Kitten]

No problem. Thanks for the support though. Hopefully we get a remaster of this game someday.

[Skizzy]

Ok so I did some searching around for you after work and came to this:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/archiv...p/t-41599.html

Not sure if this forum lets me link to the .org but trying it anyway :p
If the link doesn't work, do this:

Go to your preferences.txt file (C:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\common\Rome Total War Gold\preferences\preferences.txt -- or wherever your version of RTW is installed)
Go to these lines (use [Ctrl]+[F] to find it faster):

CAMPAIGN_MAP_MAX_SCROLL_SPEED_MIN_ZOOM:80
CAMPAIGN_MAP_MAX_SCROLL_SPEED_MAX_ZOOM:80

Change that value (80 in this example) to a different value.
Try 100 maybe.. See if it works and get back to me on this.

Also, have you disabled the Steam overlay cr*p?
Do you even run the game over Steam or via disc install?

Hope this first thingy works though.

[Kirila the Kitten]

I run it via disc install, I gifted my steam code to someone when the GameSpy servers were shut down. I don't need or want Steam for this game.

I tried this and I get a very large improvement. Didn't check the FPS but I will report on that later. Thanks a lot! Didn't know this problem was so old.

[Skizzy]

Hope it helps enough to make the game playable for you again, glad to be of assistance.

[Kirila the Kitten]

Alright, so the FPS hasn't improved at all. But the jankiness of the mouse is gone. I think this is good enough for me. Thaks again, Skyzzy!

[Skizzy]

Yeah this wasn't to improve the FPS at all, just to make it less noticeable.. :p
Glad to be of assistance.