Optimizing my settings?

**Ketchup** · March 23, 2007, 01:19 PM

Hi I am just wondering what you guys would set settings as in M2TW for my rig because I'm a bit stuck, especially with the resolution (campaign and battlemap) Also do you think i should put on shadows?

Heres my comp specs: memory-1.5 GB
video card- nvidia 7600gs 512mb
processor- 2.8ghz intel pentium 4
lots of hard drive space left...

Cheers

**Grand Duke Vytautas** · March 23, 2007, 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by Ketchup

Hi I am just wondering what you guys would set settings as in M2TW for my rig because I'm a bit stuck, especially with the resolution (campaign and battlemap) Also do you think i should put on shadows?

Heres my comp specs: memory-1.5 GB
video card- nvidia 7600gs 512mb
processor- 2.8ghz intel pentium 4
lots of hard drive space left...

Cheers

Hi there check this thread of how to deal with siege lag and optimize your gaming performance http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showth...t=80407&page=4
My post in that thread:

Hi tw players!

I too had this annoying issue of siege lag. In the settlement level of city/fortress siege and above the game was absolutely unplayable for me - medieval total slideshow (fraps showed 1 fps ) when looking at the city side (esp where cathedral is), but I searched hard how to solve this annoying lag and now I finally can play normally again (15 fps average almost on higest settings, just shadows off)

Here's my main specs:
Athlon xp 2800+ 2.08 Ghz (weakest part considering cpu hungry M2TW)
1 Gb RAM
GeForce 7600 GS 256 Mb

Here's my solutions what I did to this problem:

1. Raise AGP aperture size to 1/4 or 1/2 of your RAM. I have mine set at 256 Mb (earlier it was just 64 Mb). You can do that in BIOS.

2. Raise your virtual memory 2x of your ram. You can do this in my computer-properties-advanced-performance settings

3. Turn shadows off - this is no1 fps killer in M2TW (certainly a bug or it isn't optimized for performance, didn't have this issue in RTW and besides I really like and miss shadows in M2TW)

4.http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=68690
really boosted my fps greatly, very useful program for all games.

5. Lower your settings - esp shader version to 1, texture quality to medium, building detail to low, turning vertical sync sometimes helps

6. optimize your computer for gaming by creating seperate user account just for gaming, turning off all unnecessary processes and stuff in the background
you can find many guides on net just google for them
1 program that esp helps here is GAMEXP and similar

7. When your in game menu, hit alt-tab or alt-esc, then ctrl+alt+del and in processes tab fin medieval.exe, right mouse click, priority set to high, really helps sometimes improve the game

Well if all above didn't help you, as it was for me , then I have final 2 'solutions' to this issue:

8. Enable all above and enter siege battle, but then don't look at the city you attack but at the opposite direction all the battle (this way your fps are back to normal again). It can be annoing way of storming city, but still better than having 1 fps in 3 seconds lol

and the final thing that saved my day is

9. my computer-properties-advanced-performance settings-advanced-MEMORY USAGE select PROGRAMS
this one small fix just made my M2TW sieges very enjoyable

On the whole, I think M2TW sieges' performance wasn't optimized as well and are certainly performance buggy, ocassionally i get tiny lag once per 3 seconds on massive sieges, but nonetheless I found some ways how to deal with this situation and share my experience with you

Cheers and happy conquering

**King_Sulieman_YHWH** · March 23, 2007, 02:20 PM

Make sure you play the game with campaign map shadow unchecked in the video options, then hit appy changes. This makes the campaign screen much less laggy on my computer, infact it removes the lag.

I have a comparable CPU, about half as much RAM, and a vid card w/256MB.

I run all textures on low, large unit setting. Turns out 100% lag free and beautiful nonetheless. I can't imagine how good it would look on a super machine, in fact .. I'd say gfx THAT good are overkill!

**Ketchup** · March 23, 2007, 02:31 PM

kk thnx a lot Grand Duke but I have a few questions :
1) What is Bios?
2) How can I get my framerates to show up on screen?

cheers

**wipeout140** · March 23, 2007, 03:19 PM

Originally Posted by Ketchup

kk thnx a lot Grand Duke but I have a few questions :
1) What is Bios?
2) How can I get my framerates to show up on screen?

cheers

1.BIOS, in computing, stands for Basic Input/Output System. The primary function of the BIOS is to prepare the machine so other software programs stored on various media (such as hard drives, floppies, and CDs) can load, execute, and assume control of the PC. This process is known as booting up.To get to the BIOS press F2 or delete to load up the but this depends on your machine so might not be F2, or delete but it will say for few seconds at start of booting

2. Fraps allows that and more

**Grand Duke Vytautas** · March 23, 2007, 03:26 PM

Originally Posted by Ketchup

kk thnx a lot Grand Duke but I have a few questions :
1) What is Bios?
2) How can I get my framerates to show up on screen?

cheers

To answer your questions:
1. Bios is a 'setup program' (I'm no comp buff

) before your operating system starts which can be enabled with 'del' and 'esc' buttons for example. There you can set that mentioned agp aperture size
2. for framerates to show on screen while playing you need a program like http://www.fraps.com/

Good luck!

EDIT: Oooops wipeout was faster than me