Quick Performance Tips

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

A few Performance Tips from my Tech thread. Plus a new a TOB's high priority batch file for your convenience.

1) Auto High Priority REG for TOB.

A Priority Reg. (100% safe to use) which automates the High setting choice for your TOB.exe from task manager, so in theory you will free more resources for your game and possibly have better FPS and gaming experience. For some systems (mostly mid-range builts) it will be helpful, so just give it a try.

TOB Priority Reg
You'll need to run it only once...No other games or programs will be influenced.

2)How to make the game recognize your full memory.

Let's try something in case TOB isn't recognizing your full GPU memory.(it's an issue with gtx cards usually).

Check from your settings if your GPU's memory is fully recognized and if not just do this. (Υοu must have Hidden files enabled in your Windows setup).

a)Go to C:\Users\User name(your profile)\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Thrones folder\scripts\preferences.scripts . Open it with Notepad.
b)Scroll down or quick search and find the gfx_video_memory 0;
c)Now change it to gfx_video_memory -2000; or -4000; -8000; ( probably for future use).

Launch the game and you memory should be displayed correctly in game. Also you will notice better performance and FPS.

3) Use SmartClose.

SmartClose is a lightweight easy as a pie program who can give your PC the boost it needs, when you wanna squeeze a few more FPS for your game. It creates a back up of your unused or unprotected programs and applications running in the background of your PC and closes them with 1 click. You can decide exactly what to close or keep so you wouldn't need to do it every time manually.

The smart close tutorial.

Middle and low range systems will gain more from this. You can find it here.

4)GameBooster

Razer created this cool program which has many uses for you.

a)Optimizes your PC for Gaming by killing unused apps and programs so you'll have more Free RAM.
b)Boosts your PC's Gaming session and Auto-Restores it when you're done.
c)Monitors your FPS stats and save them so you know your machine's performance.
d)Built in FPS counter.
e)Tweaks and fine tunes control.

Tutorial Razer Cortex Game Booster 2016.

You will see an improvement of various FPS (depending on your setup) but it will mostly help Low and Middle range setups so if you have plenty of Ram and a high end CPU-GPU you will not need it. You can find it here.

I usually prefer manual editing, but for people who aren't Tech savvy, it's a good solution.

5)FIX for stuttering issues and general performance.

Some times the TOB's settings file becomes invalid and bugged, DirectX files as well.

So try this easy FIX:

Go to: C/users/USERNAME/appdata/roaming/thecreativeassembly/Thrones folder/scripts

If you cant find that, click on the windows button and in the search bar type in RUN, click on that and then enter %appdata%.

When you finally get to the scripts file, delete it (these are the games settings)

After the scripts files are deleted go into your steam game library, right click on the game and go to properties, local files, then verify game files.

Once that is completed find the game files, which would be wherever you have steam located, and follow this: Steam/Steamapps/Common/Total War Saga Thrones of Britannia/redist/directx

In the directx folder, find the DXSETUP application and install directx through that

6)Water sources.

Ιn case of heavy stuttering reduce your water setting to medium-low. Users have found a bug when even normal land battles have underground water sources .
Water's rendering is a known heavy system strainer so it's advisable to reduce it.

I'll need to search water map's bug further, since some users stated that CA fixed it for TOB.

7)Disabling Xbox DVR in Windows 10

Sometimes users experiencing low FPS or FPS loss after upgrading to Windows 10. That's because in some systems the Xbox DVR feature and Xbox App specifically, aren't working as they should or they are just buggy and problematic.
So if you don't use them, feel free to disable them for good and probably gain a few FPS fro your gaming experience.

If you are signed into an Xbox account in Windows 10, you can stop Xbox DVR from running by opening the Xbox app and following the steps below:

a)Access the Settings menu by clicking the cog in the bottom left of the screen:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

b)Click on 'Game DVR' near the top of the window and look for 'Record game clips and screenshots using Game DVR:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

c)Toggle this setting off to disable Game DVR:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I will keep this thread updated with new content whenever is possible.
Feel free to post any issue you may have and I'll try to assist you as soon as possible.

[twc_kpx]

Hello,
Tried this : )Now change it to gfx_video_memory -2000; or -4000; -8000; -> gfx_video_memory -8000;



Settings in game shows only 4K (4*1024) memory size. I have a GTX 1080Ti (11*1024) memory size.
Can I do something else to have the game showing the right memory size (and use it !).
Anyway thank you for this information.

Have a nice day

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

Hello,
Tried this : )Now change it to gfx_video_memory -2000; or -4000; -8000; -> gfx_video_memory -8000;



Settings in game shows only 4K (4*1024) memory size. I have a GTX 1080Ti (11*1024) memory size.
Can I do something else to have the game showing the right memory size (and use it !).
Anyway thank you for this information.

Have a nice day

Hi,
Well, according to Total War Devs, it's generally believed that the engine uses all your memory, even when not showing it.
-4000; makes sure that 4 giga of your GPU's memory will be used and -8000; takes it one step further. You don't lose anything by using the latter entry, so feel free to do it just to be sure.
I'm not 100% sure if the engine is capable of recognizing or using your full memory's size, since I haven't checked all the updates in TOB's engine yet, but I'm sure that you won't need them anyway, since Total War games are CPU and NOT GPU hungry.

Feel free to reach me for any other issue-question you may have.

[Cyber Centurion]

hi Greek Strategos! thanks for your tips and tools, I found them very useful for Rome2 too! One question: which one is more effective between Smart Close and Cortex (as I presume it's not possible to use them together)?

Inviato dal mio Nexus 6P utilizzando Tapatalk

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

Hello. I'm glad you have found them helpful.
Well, if you prefer not to get hassled with your task manager etc, Smartclose is a very practical tool. It's less powerful but also less ''intrusive'' than cortex.
Razer's tool is more ''brutal'' and usually helps mid range systems to squeeze a few more fps, by allocating more memory and freeing system's resources. I would suggest Smartclose for starters and then you could move to Cortex, if needed.

[billydilly]

The game is 32bit, so it doesn't use more than 4 Gb. The devs have said this for years.

The "water bug" isn't really a bug, all TW games have water under the land mass.

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

The game is 32bit, so it doesn't use more than 4 Gb. The devs have said this for years.

Hi. Warscape uses 32bit, correct. I'm all aware, since I have personally talked 1000 times with one of Attila's lead creators (and good friend of mine) about patching up the exe. The first VRAM ''trick'' created to make the game fully recognizes 4gb of VRAM, since Rome 2 only recognized 3gb and the 'unlimited video memory' option in the graphics settings had issues from day one. You could easily check this with a Google search. In Warhammer they have fixed it, because they made a ''refresh'' in the engine's code to work successfully with more VRAM than 3gb and also 64b systems according to Devs. For TOB I said I wasn't 100% sure, since I haven't checked all the tech parameters or possibles patches to the exe. yet. Tech threads are ''living organisms'' constantly evolving and updating. So the entries may change in the future. The extra step of -8000; could be used in any Total War game which uses Warscape or any modification of it, in case CA patches the exe and according to my sources they're positive about doing this for TOB, soonish.
If you see any harm coming from this (there is none) just don't use it.

The "water bug" isn't really a bug, all TW games have water under the land mass.

All Total War games since Shogun 2 using crooked A.A which creates many issues for users, (especially with NVIDIA cards) so I don't see the logic behind ''all total war games have it so it's not a bug''. Well, if you believe hidden water sources are not a ''bug'' and you're ok with a completely useless resource hog, then feel free to use whatever water setting you like, but I'm obliged to inform people about it, since that's this thread's main purpose

This is a thread giving suggestions for known issues, which you could easily find in most tech pages around the web, but many people don't know what to search or where, so I'm just providing easy,quick solutions for them from my experience and hardware-programming knowledge.
Thank you for your inputs though. Feel free to share any helpful info you may have, so to assist our fellow users with their tech problems. That's my-our purpose here.

[twc_kpx]

Thanks for information. I will leave as it is (I have no particular problem for the moment).
Have a nice week.

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

Thanks for information. I will leave as it is (I have no particular problem for the moment).
Have a nice week.

Αnytime buddy. You too.

[billydilly]

Hi. Warscape uses 32bit, correct. I'm all aware, since I have personally talked 1000 times with one of Attila's lead creators (and good friend of mine) about patching up the exe. The first VRAM ''trick'' created to make the game fully recognizes 4gb of VRAM, since Rome 2 only recognized 3gb and the 'unlimited video memory' option in the graphics settings had issues from day one. You could easily check this with a Google search. In Warhammer they have fixed it, because they made a ''refresh'' in the engine's code to work successfully with more VRAM than 3gb and also 64b systems according to Devs. For TOB I said I wasn't 100% sure, since I haven't checked all the tech parameters or possibles patches to the exe. yet. Tech threads are ''living organisms'' constantly evolving and updating. So the entries may change in the future. The extra step of -8000; could be used in any Total War game which uses Warscape or any modification of it, in case CA patches the exe and according to my sources they're positive about doing this for TOB, soonish.
If you see any harm coming from this (there is none) just don't use it.



All Total War games since Shogun 2 using crooked A.A which creates many issues for users, (especially with NVIDIA cards) so I don't see the logic behind ''all total war games have it so it's not a bug''. Well, if you believe hidden water sources are not a ''bug'' and you're ok with a completely useless resource hog, then feel free to use whatever water setting you like, but I'm obliged to inform people about it, since that's this thread's main purpose

This is a thread giving suggestions for known issues, which you could easily find in most tech pages around the web, but many people don't know what to search or where, so I'm just providing easy,quick solutions for them from my experience and hardware-programming knowledge.
Thank you for your inputs though. Feel free to share any helpful info you may have, so to assist our fellow users with their tech problems. That's my-our purpose here.

No worries mate. I always turn the water settings way down because it's under all the land mass.

Apparently the game can use more than3.5Gb because they use something called Large Address Aware

This is from CA on reddit:

Some people have noticed that the GPU VRAM value doesn’t change above 3.5Gb. The reasoning for this is that the Attila engine, from which Thrones is based on, is a 32-bit application.

However, the engine is Large Address Aware – which essentially means that it can allocate more memory than the standard 32-bit limitations.

The Dev team has worked hard on performance and optimisation for Thrones, and as such it should never need to use more than 3.5GB of VRAM.

https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/co...jyj/?context=3

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

No worries mate. I always turn the water settings way down because it's under all the land mass.

Apparently the game can use more than3.5Gb because they use something called Large Address Aware

This is from CA on reddit:

Some people have noticed that the GPU VRAM value doesn’t change above 3.5Gb. The reasoning for this is that the Attila engine, from which Thrones is based on, is a 32-bit application.

However, the engine is Large Address Aware – which essentially means that it can allocate more memory than the standard 32-bit limitations.

The Dev team has worked hard on performance and optimisation for Thrones, and as such it should never need to use more than 3.5GB of VRAM.

https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/co...jyj/?context=3

Yep. It's seems TOB's performance is much improved compared to Attila's. I'm aware of the Large Address thing, but I haven't seen the reddit source, so thanks, I'll surely check it out.
I would very much prefer 64bit engine though, since with mods we'll need much more VRAM. For example in DEI with the updated textures, custom unit sizes and all, we surely could use more. The good thing is that 3 Kingdoms will 100% have 64bit engine.

[IamOdysseus]

CPU
- Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz
RAM
- 4 GB Kingston @ 1600 MHz
- 4 GB Kingston @ 1600 MHz
GPU
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4 GB

Do you think these specs can be good enough for playing TOB? Does it perform better than Warhammer II? Thanks as always Greek Strategos

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

CPU
- Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz
RAM
- 4 GB Kingston @ 1600 MHz
- 4 GB Kingston @ 1600 MHz
GPU
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4 GB

Do you think these specs can be good enough for playing TOB? Does it perform better than Warhammer II? Thanks as always Greek Strategos

Hey buddy.
Α quick reply since I'm on my phone. Your CPU could use a boost but if it's indeed a (K) version you should live with that. Another pair of RAM would be helpful and your card is more than enough for running the game. The 970gtx is still a good card and TOB isn't a GPU heavy title.
AFAIK TOB runs better than Attila and a bit worse than Warhammer.

[Geoffrey of Villehardouin]

Many thanks for your performance tips. The game runs better than Attila on my computer. There was a benchmark test done by Havoc on Youtube that showed it to ran at a much higher frame rate with fewer issues and this has been my experience. But every little bit helps. +rep

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

Many thanks for your performance tips. The game runs better than Attila on my computer. There was a benchmark test done by Havoc on Youtube that showed it to ran at a much higher frame rate with fewer issues and this has been my experience. But every little bit helps. +rep

I will update the thread with more tips soon. Thank you for the kind words and all.

[Geoffrey of Villehardouin]

Your TOB Priority Reg seems to have helped solve any remaining problems. The game seems to run ultra-smoothly for me now, on a non-gaming laptop, which seems amazing. No breaking up / stutter of the sound so far, just very occasional frame lapses or reversals, where a previous frame is reloaded before the next frame, whatever the technical term for that is. Just occasionally, nothing too troublesome, I used to see more.

I have a hunch you might know if there is a similar tool for Rome II?

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

Your TOB Priority Reg seems to have helped solve any remaining problems. The game seems to run ultra-smoothly for me now, on a non-gaming laptop, which seems amazing. No breaking up / stutter of the sound so far, just very occasional frame lapses or reversals, where a previous frame is reloaded before the next frame, whatever the technical term for that is. Just occasionally, nothing too troublesome, I used to see more.

I have a hunch you might know if there is a similar tool for Rome II?

Glad to hear that. Yep, just click on my signature mate.

[deltaminds]

Thanks a lot for the deep insightful performance tips, it has certainly boosted a few things here and there. They are noticeable for sure. I will share this with my friends as well

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

Thanks a lot for the deep insightful performance tips, it has certainly boosted a few things here and there. They are noticeable for sure. I will share this with my friends as well

Jolly good.
I'll soon update the list with various performance mods similar to my Rome's 2 DEI thread, so stay tuned.

[Nizam]

working on attila?