Best way to prevent freeze in large battles with high polycount models?

**Kilgore Trout** · May 07, 2020, 11:48 PM

I just had a freeze during a big battle. There was my full army against two almost full AI armies. None of the unit models in either army is vanilla. They are all very high polycount models that I imported from various mods. I have a fairly state of the art computer – I-7 cpu, nVidea 1070, 16 gigbytes ram. I am also using ReShade (colorfulness, FXAA, clarity, curves). I have the 4gb patch installed. I have all of my video settings on highest, including unit detail.

I read in another thread that Gigantus posted, “The unit detail setting at highest will do you in - reduce it to high, that way sprites get activated again. 'Highest' always uses 3D models which hits your graphic processor pretty bad when you zoom out.” However, the frame rate in my battles is always good, so I wonder if reducing the Unit Detail setting will really help with the freeze.

I see in another post that Gigantus suggests that “bloom, effects, and grass are the other bogeymen.” I understand what bloom and grass are, but I am not clear about effects. Does anyone know just exactly what Gigantus might have meant by effects?

I have also read elsewhere that anti-aliasing, shadows and reflections consume a lot of resources. So I also wonder if they might be contributing to the particular freeze I am getting. I also wonder if ReShade might be a factor.

If anyone could give me any further insight on this, I would very much appreciate it.

**Dismounted Feudal Knight** · May 08, 2020, 07:04 AM

I would say, take down your settings from ultra. Downgrade the engine's load. It does not matter so much how good your computer is or runs the game itself. It's what the game can handle within its own confines (4gb aside), and polycount in excess is not something the game handles well at all, especially if you've made a frankenstein of fancy junk. Start by reducing how much the game has to process and work from there. I'd look at ReShade later since it's an overlay and I'm not aware of complications resulting from it specifically. Freezing instead of CTD is mildly concerning and results in me not being entirely confident with the issue (since my experience with freezing tends to point to drivers and other compatibility issues between game and computer), but I'll treat it like I'd treat a more regular CTD caused by overload for troubleshooting purposes.

Consider running over the directory with this tool, which may help if the models themselves are problematic (since modelers in m2 have a concerning tendency to focus on the bling vs the function, often the case when you go bonkers with poly in general for m2, but I digress). Shouldn't break anything and only helps stability; the option you'd want is to Fix Bounding Spheres.

I'm assuming there is a level of frequency to this, ie, it happens repeatedly on larger scenarios. If it's occasional, the game will do that and given what you specify as your configuration, I'd say it is to be expected. To me this is a matter of tuning and testing, starting with reducing the game's overhead. If you prefer, start in the ways that don't immediately tear down the visuals (ie, reducing grass, aa, shadows, etc from the engine) and leave you with the eye candy, but have that chance of making the engine throw up.

**Kilgore Trout** · May 15, 2020, 05:28 AM

Thank you for your response, Commodus IV. I'm pretty sure the models are fine as I always test each new model in a custom battle. And yes, while some of these modelers may have gone bonkers with the poly count, such unit models are really worth the cost as they beat anything in Rome 2 or Attila for bling hands down.

I'll start with reducing Unit Detail to High and Grass to None. Also, I now see what Gigantus meant by Effects, and reducing that and bloom will be my next step if the above alone is not sufficient. Finally, I will reduce shadows if need be.

**Dismounted Feudal Knight** · May 15, 2020, 06:17 AM

Breakage sometimes isn't a result of the individual model reliably going haywire, but the combination on a larger scale, particularly the overall polycount and the game's ability to handle it + surrounding load. If no options result in meaningful change, this may have to be considered. But , the options listed should be a viable start. There's other tweaks one can do in the settings menu and the config file itself that may have results, but that's more an individual trial and error deal for what runs best on your system and somewhat unique configuration.