Oblivion/Morrowind run awful.

[Prenihility]

Allright, im playing both Oblivion and Morrowind, and interestingly they both have the exact same problem despite their technical differences. Im running a Phenom X3 8550, and an ATI HD4850. 4GB RAM. Both Oblivion and Morrowind suffer from frame frame rate loss whenever NPCs are in view, usually when i go into a town or something. Even when one NPC is on screen, it goes down, and i have observed it in FRAPS, the same goes for Morrowind. When it loads another area , for example: Right when i get off of the ship at the beggining, it does not perform well. I have the latest drivers for my card (at least i think i do, since every other game i play on this computer runs exceptionally well. I actually first borrowed the game from a friend on disc, and i noticed the problem. I just had to purchase both Oblivion and Morrowind on Steam, and the problem persists. Indoors, however, my frame rates are very good and the game performs very well. I can turn down the settings drastically and it will not help with the NPCs though...It still lags and drops around NPCs. A good example: In the "Spies" quest in Oblivion, once i go to talk to Burd in Bruma, it will lag once all of the guards are walking about once you enter the room he is in. I thought it was kind of like when you are in the wilderness, it lags once a loading area comes along, and then quickly goes back up to speed, but no, the lag is persistent around NPCs. I know my computer isnt INSANE, but it should get the job done, considering my friend plays it on his AMD Athlon which my processor can destroy; and not to mention aging. Also, you need a Pentium 3 clocked at 500Mhz to properly play Morrowind, so my specs are out of the question for Morrowind. So far, i have tried doing some research, and i will install the Morrowind Graphics extender, and see if that helps(im completely lost,i have no idea what to do) As for Oblivion, i REALLY want to play the game, i need to get it working, please help. :wallbash:

[bben46]

First, shut down all of your background programs, especially the indexing service.

 

Then check out the tweak guides. http://www.tweakguides.com/

Use the system tweaks first, then the vid card tweaks, then the game tweaks.

[Prenihility]

First, shut down all of your background programs, especially the indexing service.

 

Then check out the tweak guides. http://www.tweakguides.com/

Use the system tweaks first, then the vid card tweaks, then the game tweaks.

 

Hmmm...i dont know how exactly these tweaks will help me with NPCs, i checked out the video section of the tweaks , and its for shaders/decals and whatnot, so i dont think its going to help me. NPCs are my problem, same with Morrowind. Whenever they are on screen, it lags, as soon as i look away, it's fine. Also, it could POSSIBLY have to do with the animations in the game, since i noticed that my Frame rate drops a little once i switch to 3rd person view. As for Morrowind, there's nothing to tweak in Morrowind, ill try the system tweaks now. But any suggestions/speculation would be great :thumbsup:

[dezdimona]

First, shut down all of your background programs, especially the indexing service.

 

Then check out the tweak guides. http://www.tweakguides.com/

Use the system tweaks first, then the vid card tweaks, then the game tweaks.

 

Hmmm...i dont know how exactly these tweaks will help me with NPCs, i checked out the video section of the tweaks , and its for shaders/decals and whatnot, so i dont think its going to help me. NPCs are my problem, same with Morrowind. Whenever they are on screen, it lags, as soon as i look away, it's fine. Also, it could POSSIBLY have to do with the animations in the game, since i noticed that my Frame rate drops a little once i switch to 3rd person view. As for Morrowind, there's nothing to tweak in Morrowind, ill try the system tweaks now. But any suggestions/speculation would be great :thumbsup:

what bben told you works,we here who try to help others don't just throw out things and hope they will work. bben is one of the best'geeks' here ( I mean that nicely) he's helped hundreds-thousands of people. I would have give you the same answer he did. All we can do is tell you what works,whether you use or follow the advice you get is up to you!

[bben46]

There is no Magic mod fix for a slow game (or slow computer) it will take some work on your part to speed things up. However, there are some mods that can help AFTER you have done everything else. Using a mod to fix a slow computer is like putting a band aid on a broken leg. It looks like you are doing something, but the leg is still broken.

 

The Tweak Guides includes a link to an article on tweaking Morrowind. Look for 'Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind' in the list of game tweak guides.

 

The reason these tweaks will work with NPCs is they improve the frame rate of everything. NPCs are not separate, they are just another visual element in the game. The differences between Morrowind and Oblivion are really not that great. They work basically the same at a low level. Oblivion, being newer has more eye candy and should actually run slower on the same system.

 

The tweaks, especially the system and vid card tweaks will not only help Elder scrolls games, but everything you do on your computer. By improving the operation of the base computer that runs the game you actually get an improvement in the function of the game.

 

Something else to look into is viruses and spyware. Spyware is well known for slowing even powerful computers down to a crawl. It does this by taking up system resources that are needed by your actual processes (programs and games) So,

 

IN THIS ORDER

 

Run an Antivirus scan

Run a spyware scan. or maybe even two different antispyware scans to get rid of the spyware.

Run a registry cleaner - be sure to reboot both before and after using the registry cleaner

Run the disk defragmenter

 

This is stuff you should be doing anyway, but many people forget to do on a regular basis. A cluttered computer that is spending 2 out of every three CPU clock cycles trying to call home to a spyware outfit is not going to run anything well.

 

My recommendations for free software

Antivirus: AVG or Avira The free versions of both work very well

Anti Spyware: Spybot Search and Destroy, or Super AntiSpyWare.

Registry cleaner: CCleaner - the best I have found - be sure to uncheck the included yahoo toolbar (unless you want another toolbar cluttering up tour system)

Defragmenter: the one included with windows will work fine

 

Recommended site for free software, MajorGeeks. http://www.majorgeeks.com/

Be sure to read the information as not all programs on the site are free. However, they are free of any malware.

[Prenihility]

I forgot to mention that this computer is new. And i do spyware/virus checks regularly. Wouldn't my other games perform bad if it were viruses. Also, how could a virus affect specifically NPCs? That sounds ridiculous. Ill try disabling background services, even though i only have norton running in the background. Another thing that escapes me is Morrowind, why would Morrowind lag. Clearly my hardware is out of the question since you need a Pentium 3, running @ 500MHz to run it... Oh and just throwind this in here. Even if i turn everything down to low, even 640x480 resolution, it still lags with NPCs around. Oh ,and as for the tweaks, i have no idea what to do... I dont even know what to "tweak" seeing as shader tweaks and whatnot makes no logical sense when it comes to NPCs. If...err.. someone could tell me what to tweak. that would b awesome.

[bben46]

That is what the Tweak Guides do, they tell what to tweak, why to tweak and how to tweak.

[Prenihility]

CCleaner is among the first things i installed on this computer as soon as i got it. I dont c how defraging my disc will help, seeing as, like i said, i've only had it for less than a month, not a year. Oh, and according to the guide it cant help me tweak my vid settings, only for Nvidia cards, so thats a barrier i've broken. :ohmy:

[bben46]

In the tweak guides, look for ATI Catalyst Tweak Guide under System Guides.

 

Are you running XP, Vista or Win7? and 32 or 64 bit? Or any other system such as Linux on Wine.

 

Do you have your page file set for the proper size?

 

Have you tried shutting down any background processes?

 

Have you tried turning down the video settings to see if that will speed you up? If so, how much did it speed up?

 

What is your FPS range? As NPCs are moving, they take a lot more processing power than trees and rocks. As you add more and more NPCs you will see some slow down. After about 15 NPCs the game will start having problems even with the best system.

 

Are you running any mods at all? if so what?

 

Have you installed the latest patch? (I don't think you need it if it was downloaded from Steam)

 

A dxdiag report might help in diagnosing. It tests the Directx software installed as well as giving some info on the system.

To open this program type dxdiag in the Windows Vista start menu search bar or the Run command (Start->Run...) in any other version of Microsoft Windows

[Prenihility]

Im running Vista 64 bit. And no matter what my video settings are, even VERY LOW doesnt help. it starts to lag, hard once NPCs are in view. Also, i typed tdt to view my FPS and it says it went through 64 processes when i played for about 5-10 minutes. How do i throw up the Dxdiag report?