Stuttering/Lag in certain situations

[fork21]

Hi.

 

I just upgraded to Win7 Home x64 and reinstalled Fallout 3 and DLCs only. I was previously using Vista x86, with which I had no problems. Now, on Win7, I get performance hits in certain areas:

 

- In the Tenpenny Tower lobby, FPS will drop while the camera is directed at the two chandeliers. No other light fixture does this.

 

- While outdoors, anywhere, tilting the camera up or down causes the game to stutter until I stop moving the camera. Turning horizontally, on the other hand, does not do this. This is especially problematic when using VATS outdoors, since the dynamic camera angles trigger the stuttering effect often.

 

I have already contacted BethSoft support and they recommended a clean re-install as well as running Fallout in compatibility mode. Reinstalling did nothing. Running Fallout with Vista compatibility slightly improved performance in those problem areas, but I would like to eliminate them completely.

 

Specs

Core2Duo E8400 3 GHz

4 GB RAM

GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB (x2)

 

I am using the latest available drivers from nVidia.

[pkleiss]

Try the older 186.xx version for your NVidia drivers. Many Vista / Window 7 users have complained that 19X.xx (196, 191, 190, etc...)drivers are not as effetive as the 186.xx version. Other than that, you may have a codec problem which can be difficult to diagnose. Disabling your audio then trying the game with no sound can help determine if its an audio codec versus a video codec.

Check out this thread for a list of tool that cacn help with codec problems. another thread dedicated to Windows 7 problems can be found here.

 

Good Luck.

[fork21]

186 drivers fixed the outdoor stuttering issue!

 

However, I still have FPS drops while in the lobby looking at the chandeliers. I also noticed that I now have lower FPS in Rivet City and around the Jefferson Memorial. These new problems (as well as the chandelier issue) are corrected by turning AA completely off.

 

I'm happy the game is playable now, but is there any way to treat the AA?

[mechine]

You two make me wana puke my guts out...

 

 

 

 

nah i'm kidding...

 

 

I've been watching too much Glee kind of sounds like what Jan would say huh

 

 

 

Anyway,

 

 

 

turn of AA an AF via the fallout 3 launcher (performance)

 

 

then force AA an AF via your grapics card control panel

 

I can run SLI 32XQ with no performane loss from forcing AA via

 

Override any application setting for AA

 

 

 

At any rate forcing AA and picking any AA or AF setting you get more quality AA an AF with more performance

 

but it doesn't work on other games, just fallout for some reason.

 

 

 

None of the AA an AF settings have as much low performance or quality as the fallout 3 applications AA an AF

 

 

 

 

You don't have to tell us it worked, Me knows it works...

 

 

 

Purge your cell buffer every so often too, an reboot the computer every so often

 

The cell buffer gets all kinds of corupted data in there which eats FPS ~ PCB

 

but it can be dangerous to purge the buffer, depending on what just happened an where you are

but that's only 1 in 10 maybe

 

The reboot of the computer gets rid of the system cache going corupt, nothing else we can do about it

 

 

 

http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=167910&hl=

[fork21]

I've tried running AA from the nVidia control panel, but even with 2x AA I take a substantial FPS hit in all areas. I can set AF to 16x with no problems, though.

 

I've downloaded the HD texture packs from F3Nexus to compensate for the lack of AA; I suppose it'll tie me over until some new Win7-friendly drivers come out.

 

Thanks for the assistance.

[roquefort]

"Purge your cell buffer every so often too, an reboot the computer every so often"

 

Good advice. The purge (console > PCB) is particularly effective after entering interior cells. Rebooting is good too, as this game, like Oblivion, has memory leaks that cause distinctly sclerotic performance after a couple of hours.

[mechine]

hmmm

 

I run Nvidia 8800 GT's in SLI

 

Everything is set up kind of like that, except for the CPU which is a old P4 Ht

 

Which uses simulated duel cores, rather than actual core 2 duo or twin core

 

 

Even still, the SLI thing an all

 

Running anything over 2X in the fallout 3 launcher causes a performance drop

 

Anything under 4X in the fallout launcher also looks dotted, stuff like the players hair.

 

 

 

So I set the AA an AF on the default fallout 3 launcher options to off (performance)

 

 

 

Then in the nivida control panel, I use "override any application setting" as a global setting

 

for AA, which from there I can pick any AA setting 2X to SLI 32XQ with no noticable drop in performance.

 

Since it's a global setting I have to switch it off if I move to another game, but it's just more easy to manage that way.

 

 

 

This allowed to use the default Fallout 3 textures (set on large) which are quite lame, hence the vast amount of

 

reskins for stuff like floors an walls. Rather than use the HD texture packs, which are awesome, I just use the killer

 

AA an AF settings, which even set at 4X 4X makes the lame default textures useable, however around 16X 8X they

 

start to pop an look real, 32X 16X is about where they start getting to high quality an effecting performance.

 

 

 

 

 

I can run SLI 32XQ AA an 16X AF, and run around getting the great FPS like fallout should be, from using the default textures.

 

But anytime I use a HD texture pack or "high res" packs AA an AF go out the window, because the same setting will be

 

junk frame rates, what with everything else going on in the wasteland.

 

 

 

 

 

They HD packs are offered mostly in different sizes, which we by default want the best one. Which happens to be the worst one

 

when it comes to performance. It may be the case that you should go back an only download an install the smallest version

 

or lowest res version of the high res texture packs. It's not designed for performance, it's to look good.

 

 

 

 

Not many people at all know about the benifit of running "override any application setting" which is built into Nvida drivers.

 

It goes against every rule an everything we know about games an gamming. Which is probably why the high res textures came about.

 

The rest of the settings you can pretty much guess at, but this one would be the most important when it comes to high performance

 

in a high quality mode. It's not even mentioned in the tweek guide.

 

 

 

I can take a look at the ground outside megaton with AA an AF off, an it looks like a mess I can't tell what it is.

 

Then forcing the AA on a moderate setting, now I can see tires, cans, cups, rocks, junk mixed about in the ground texture.

 

Which that's enough for me. Textures are a deal breaker. Someone could forget a simple step of putting in mip maps for them.

 

Which will cut the performance in half on any given gaming system.

 

 

 

 

 

So I think maybe it's either use the texture packs, an then forget any AA or AF.

 

or forget the texture packs an use override any application setting, so that you can pick a higher setting than default fallout launchers

 

 

 

 

Mipmaps could play a part in it too. There's a free program called paintnet, which will open a texture in .dds without

 

having to mess with a converter (which it also loads up faster than anything else out there)

 

I've cut a texture's file size in half, just from opening up that texture, and then saving it

 

with the create mipmaps checked in the save preview window.

 

It turned a high res gun created with a program which doesn't allow the direct opening an editing of .dds formats

 

It was a texture converted into .dds which was 1.2Mb in file size

 

Opened it with paintnet, then saved it, which changed the size from 1.2Mb to 600Kb

 

 

1. it was from the original creator using a converter type set up for creating .dds textures

 

2. the doob creator forgot to put mip maps in it

 

 

 

either way it doesn't really matter, because once I saw this I was like WTF

 

so I opened them an checked both maps to see that they were identical

 

the now smaller version (thanks to paintnet) looked just as good as the others.

 

 

 

 

I've got a mod cooking right now, but I have to start over, because now I know a way to check an

 

make sure the textures in it are all set up for good high performance.

 

 

 

It could be the case that you could try using paintnet to open an edit these high rest textures one by one directly

 

without the fancy convertion to .dds methods, quickly, then not edit them at all just click save, an make sure

 

in the preview that create mipmaps is checked. Reducing the overall size of these awesome texture packs

 

while making sure they have mip maps, and then making them perform better, while keeping all the high res.

 

 

 

Normal maps however are just huge, usually about twice the size of the actual textures, a normal map is like

 

embossing, it's like a bump map sort of, so that a texture doesn't look flat an smooth, it's jagged or has lines in it

 

ridges, an such... Normal maps eat up a big bite out of performance, but in some cases you have to use them

 

without them the item will look really dark. But I've heard of players totally removing all normal maps, to get performance.

 

You could try removing some of them, an maybe it will work, on some of the fancy HD texture packs.

 

They are hard to work with though, Paintnet will mess them up more than it can fix them in most cases.

 

I used to could do it, but it was really way to much work.