Slow-motion, not joystick-related

[roquefort]

I recently re-installed Oblivion (having played through with a couple of different PCs before) after spending a long while in the Fallout3 world. The problem is that all the animations run in slow motion; PC, NPCs, creatures all move around like they're underwater.

 

I cheated my PC's speed up to more or less normal through the console but this doesn't really solve the problem as all the other characters still drift around like they're on quaaludes, and fighting animations are sluggish. Note that this isn't FPS lag that I'm talking about.

 

1) It isn't the well-known joystick issue -- there's none plugged in and joystick is disabled in the .ini file.

 

2) Although I've installed a couple of mods, this was apparent from the beginning, with just vanilla + DLC.

 

3) It worked perfectly well on the previous install, on the same machine, with the same settings.

 

4) Fallout3 still runs with no problems.

 

5) Vsync is disabled, so that isn't slowing things down.

 

 

Had an extensive search around Google about this, and all I could find were joystick fixes, so I'm not expecting too much in the way of solutions here, but any ideas would be appreciated. The game isn't unplayable, just (literally) a drag.

[MichikoUnknownFox]

What video card are you using? I may be wrong, but it sounds like your video card is having trouble drawing each frame. Run diagnostics, check to see if your card is running hot and stuff.

 

In any case, FPS is a bad way to measure a video card's performance, really, because you could have a high reported FPS and still have a slow game. I have, by most peoples' standards, a low FPS (12-30), but I have the game actually running so smoothly, enough to even take videos using FRAPs.

 

Another means of measurement, which is more relevant to a video card's performance, especially for the way your problem sounds, is milliseconds per frame a.k.a. frame time. This article I found through a quick Google search might explain it better than I can.

 

Another possibility is an actual Oblivion bug that I think I read about before, but I can't remember what causes it or if the symptoms are the same. Something about animations in particular slowing down, but I think it only affected objects and not actors. Hmm...

[roquefort]

What video card are you using? I may be wrong, but it sounds like your video card is having trouble drawing each frame. Run diagnostics, check to see if your card is running hot and stuff.

 

In any case, FPS is a bad way to measure a video card's performance, really, because you could have a high reported FPS and still have a slow game. I have, by most peoples' standards, a low FPS (12-30), but I have the game actually running so smoothly, enough to even take videos using FRAPs.

 

Another means of measurement, which is more relevant to a video card's performance, especially for the way your problem sounds, is milliseconds per frame a.k.a. frame time. This article I found through a quick Google search might explain it better than I can.

 

Another possibility is an actual Oblivion bug that I think I read about before, but I can't remember what causes it or if the symptoms are the same. Something about animations in particular slowing down, but I think it only affected objects and not actors. Hmm...

 

 

Thanks -- I'll check those out. Haven't actually done an FPS check as it all seems to run smoothly (even in Fallout). The ms/frame thing sounds interesting and I will look into it.

 

Can't get too involved with this now though as I'm flying to Portugal on thursday (if the ashcloud lets me :wacko: ) and have to get sorted out and packed for that.

 

EDIT: That Oblivion bug you mention might be the a-bomb (as it's called) that affects door & flame animations (among others).

[Tomlong54210]

What video card are you using? I may be wrong, but it sounds like your video card is having trouble drawing each frame. Run diagnostics, check to see if your card is running hot and stuff.

 

In any case, FPS is a bad way to measure a video card's performance, really, because you could have a high reported FPS and still have a slow game. I have, by most peoples' standards, a low FPS (12-30), but I have the game actually running so smoothly, enough to even take videos using FRAPs.

 

Another means of measurement, which is more relevant to a video card's performance, especially for the way your problem sounds, is milliseconds per frame a.k.a. frame time. This article I found through a quick Google search might explain it better than I can.

 

Another possibility is an actual Oblivion bug that I think I read about before, but I can't remember what causes it or if the symptoms are the same. Something about animations in particular slowing down, but I think it only affected objects and not actors. Hmm...

 

 

Thanks -- I'll check those out. Haven't actually done an FPS check as it all seems to run smoothly (even in Fallout). The ms/frame thing sounds interesting and I will look into it.

 

Can't get too involved with this now though as I'm flying to Portugal on thursday (if the ashcloud lets me :wacko: ) and have to get sorted out and packed for that.

 

EDIT: That Oblivion bug you mention might be the a-bomb (as it's called) that affects door & flame animations (among others).

A-bomb usually affects games with 200+ hours. However, it is worth checking regardless. You can use the Oblivion Animation Fixer to help with that (if that is indeed the problem) - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5127

[roquefort]

Yeah I had the A-bomb after my first run-through of the game, and fixed it. This is a new install though, with only a couple of (real-time) hours on it. I will run the fix again though as it can't do any harm (he wrote confidently..)

[Tomlong54210]

There is an entire thread on this issue - http://forums.bethsoft.com/?showtopic=813915&hl=slow/frozen+doors <-- ...if this is actually your problem

 

Could you describe the issue for me again, please? Have you tried resetting your codecs?

 

K-Lite - http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm <-- You can use this to do that.

[roquefort]

There is an entire thread on this issue - http://forums.bethsoft.com/?showtopic=813915&hl=slow/frozen+doors <-- ...if this is actually your problem

 

Could you describe the issue for me again, please? Have you tried resetting your codecs?

 

K-Lite - http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm <-- You can use this to do that.

My current problem isn't the A-bomb (whose effects I am familiar with). In my case, characters move around as if underwater. There's no jerkiness or stuttering, just an overall sluggishness with no obvious FPS drop. As I said though, I'll have to shelve this as I have packing to do ;)

 

I have K-lite.

[MichikoUnknownFox]

Let us know when you get around to testing. Frame time problems tend to be smooth, but slow. This is my problem in some games when I play with high settings (like Assassin's Creed, which I have to play in low settings). It's smooth as in no stuttering, but everything is slow motion, even if my FPS is around 20 or more. Actually this was when I had to do some research about frame time, and tweaking my settings, because I was bothered that my FPS was supposed to be at a reasonably playable level but combat (Assassin's Creed uses a special depth of field style shader or similar method during combat) and certain larger or crowded areas were going in slow motion.

[roquefort]

Let us know when you get around to testing. Frame time problems tend to be smooth, but slow. This is my problem in some games when I play with high settings (like Assassin's Creed, which I have to play in low settings). It's smooth as in no stuttering, but everything is slow motion, even if my FPS is around 20 or more. Actually this was when I had to do some research about frame time, and tweaking my settings, because I was bothered that my FPS was supposed to be at a reasonably playable level but combat (Assassin's Creed uses a special depth of field style shader or similar method during combat) and certain larger or crowded areas were going in slow motion.

Oh I will certainly report back if I make any progress on this. I wish more people would do that when they get these odd problems fixed. :thumbsup:

[Tomlong54210]

Let us know when you get around to testing. Frame time problems tend to be smooth, but slow. This is my problem in some games when I play with high settings (like Assassin's Creed, which I have to play in low settings). It's smooth as in no stuttering, but everything is slow motion, even if my FPS is around 20 or more. Actually this was when I had to do some research about frame time, and tweaking my settings, because I was bothered that my FPS was supposed to be at a reasonably playable level but combat (Assassin's Creed uses a special depth of field style shader or similar method during combat) and certain larger or crowded areas were going in slow motion.

Oblivion's game engine is different, which is why utilities such as streamline have smoothing features. Many users with good systems but heavily modified setups, will have FPS switch erratically between 10 and 60 FPS. Smooth FPS changes are not inherent to Oblivion.

 

Roquefort, even though you already have K-Lite, I am suggesting that you reset your codecs. Reinstall it, or do whatever it takes. That fixes many peoples lag issues. You are trying to reset you codecs, not just install a fancy code pack. That does not matter much at all. You may also want to try a clean boot.

 

Clean Boot - http://www.ehow.com/how_5331553_clean-boot-windows.html