taks

simply tinker with turning options on and off while checking the showfps output is what i did. shadows are the biggie, as well as turning off v-sync in your nVidia/ATI control panel. i get a minimum of 30 fps outdoors, usually 40+, and around 50-60 indoors with mostly medium settings. taks

i'm surprised it runs as well as it does with my system. heck, the application takes 500 MB to run. huge... taks

direct comparisons of any engine are ridiculous when they are obviously rendering different styles of graphics. it is a different engine entirely. there isn't even a slight resemblance of NWN2 to oblivion. i'm not sure why you don't seem to understand this. two completely different approaches to graphics. to assume one runs with certain performance should automatically imply another will run with similar performance is an absolute joke. if you cannot understand why this is, i cannot help you. taks

16:10 aspect ratio... very odd. LCD monitor mfgs are strange in this regard. 1024x768 is what i'm running, btw. but i'm on a CRT (dell 19"), so the interpolation issues are irrelevant. obviously the NWN2 engine is doing something more than oblivion's. certainly not a low-end system as mine is. taks

quick points welshrat... first, disable v-sync in your nVidia options. it defaults to application controlled. this is a big boost. second, turn off shadows in NWN2. third, water reflections and refractions can probably be turned off, too, as there really aren't many scenes with water in them. fourth, cut down your dynamic lights to something less than 4. taks

so far, the only solution to this i've seen is freeing up space. i got the same "critical rebuild" error before i had cleared out enough space to make the patch updater work. i.e. the updater could not find the unzipped file, which was not unzipped because of a lack of space, and simply assumed that the file was missing and therefore i should do a critical rebuild. i think it worked similarly for NWN1, but there wasn't a 7 GB requirement with that one... ugh is all i can say. sorry dude. taks

1.03? do you mean 1.01? only one patch has been released that i know of, and it takes you to 1.01, i thought (i could be wrong, since i'm not at home to check). are you trying to run the updater a 2nd time after the first update? or just failing on update immediately after install? taks

it should, and i don't know why it won't. though, as noted, 1680x1050 is not a standard 4:3 aspect ratio. maybe it is because the game is trying to force 4:3 on top of your native mode? dunno... perhaps the black-bar fall-back is all you can do. taks

read that statement. where did i say that YOUR LCD is a problem? i said that LCDs need to run natively. period. that by itself is a killer. typical native resolution for larger LCDs is 1600x1200, which is difficult for all but the best of video cards to support. it's not the monitor, setzer, it is the video card combined with an LCD with a high native resolution. that high of a resolution is extremely taxing on any video card. if you had a native resolution of 1024x768, you probably would have zero issues (i still don't understand why the next step with LCD mfgs is 1280x1024 since that is not 4:3). since that's obviously not your native resolution, you can expect the game may look funny. it may not, i don't know since i don't use an LCD. with my desktop here at work, anything other than native looks like crap, even just winders. whatever. even after you quoted me you still can't point to where i said your monitor is a problem. all i said was that running out of native is a problem for LCDs, in general. since your native is, apparently, 1680x1050, that means your video card has to provide resolution for 1680x1050 in order to look as good as the monitor can deliver. as soon as you switch out of native resolution, the video card has an easier time, but it renders funny on the monitor. actually, i don't say one thing then another, you just repeatedly read the wrong thing into what i've said. sorry, hope your woes are solvable. taks

allowing games to auto-adjust is an issue, too. taks

ok, this is the LAST time i will say this... LCDs IN GENERAL, are difficult to use with games. LCDs require that you run them in native resolution mode. if you have a game that has a stout graphics requirement, which NWN2 does, then running in native mode is next to impossible (unless 1 FPS is attractive to you). NOT ONCE DID I EVER SAY YOUR LCD IS THE PROBLEM. sheesh... as a result, you have to turn down your resolution. ALL LCDs LOOK CRAPPY OUT OF THEIR NATIVE RESOLUTION. got it? this latter point, btw, is why i have not switched to an LCD. CRTs do not have a native resolution problem ala LCDs. i didn't say it was your monitor. read all three (now four, not counting the post in the other thread) of my posts on this subject. it's not really an "issue" with NWN2's engine either. it is a DIFFERENT engine, that is all. what you consider great graphics using oblivion or WoW is totally different simply because the engines are different. also, what you see as graphics intensive may really not be so intensive. one thing i've noted with NWN2 is that there is much more detail in the general surroundings. certainly oblivion has better overall textures, but look at the detail when you're in a building, or even the detail outside. it is fairly general. the engines are soooo different it is like comparing apples to oranges. taks

and was considerably less graphics intensive. NWN had a lot of problems when it was first released, too. as a matter of fact, i'm having major issues running WCoC (premium module) even now (major stutters, with daggerford as well). but they still sit in memory, which is slow. RAS/CAS latency is a killer. checking IS logic. again, you don't know that without knowing what the code is actually doing. how much of the graphics features are truly offloaded to the GPU vs. the CPU is one in particular. something has to generate the data for the dynamic lighting and shadows and water reflections/refractions, for example, before handing it off to the GPU. it is impossible to tell what the bottleneck is unless you are actually using the library itself. certainly, but that doesn't mean it is poor code. again, remember, there is much more detail in what we see in NWN2 than a game like oblivion. how that is handled is at best, a guess by either you or me. bottlenecks are not always unavoidable. taks

run it on a desktop? taks

huh? what is an "ultra-multi-posting"? taks

yeah, is the autosave thing a bug? i get a few here and there, but not many. taks

newc's post reflects my sentiments pretty well. i can't say i'm a fan of the automap, btw. you really can't tell anything from it other than your general direction except in towns where the roads are well defined. you can zoom in pretty close to see more detail, but then all you can see is your immediate surroundings because it is so small. taks

and somehow i'm the troll. this statement is pretty ridiculous even for you, volourn. none of these comments to setzer have anything to do with defending NWN2. they are simply facts regarding using any LCD with what appears to be a graphics hog of a game. i never said anything different. all i've noted is that this game runs great on my rig, on which many othe games do not. quite often, people that have issues with any game are victims of their own setup, intentional or otherwise. taks

this is contrary to developer comments that i've seen. it is actually a pain with so many checks. checks result in many if/then statements, case statements, loops with branches, etc. this is time consuming. particularly when these checks have to access relatively large tables, which means memory accesses which are very slow (not every table fits into cache). also, the fact that it is mostly integer based does not change the fact that the CPU can only issue so many instructions per cycle. granted, most high-end CPUs are out of order, but that only helps a bit (high-end means anything intel, AMD or PowerPC). while it may not seem to balance out, not knowing the underlying code prevents anyone from making an accurate assessment. certainly it may be possible to streamline the engine to handle graphics better, but i don't know that for sure. taks

there's a separate EXE for AMD? i wonder if mine is automatically using that (particularly since i have the AMD64)? sorry philwolf, not sure what your issue is then. you have 60 GB FREE? or just 60 GB? also, is this 60 GB on a separate drive? i believe it needs to be FREE on the drive you have winders installed on, generally C:\. apparently it unzips onto C before patching, even if you're installed on another drive. taks

perhaps, but neither of us are actually working with the engine itself to know exactly what it would take. the detail with this game is beyond anything i've seen with oblivion, and certainly the D&D rules implementation is hurting CPU performance, which means less help for the GPU. taks

well, i'll use my system as an example... AMD64 3200+ with ASUS A8V MX is running $113 (i don't have the MX, though not much different). WD 40 GB (caviar) HDD is probably $40 or less. 1 GB DDR333 is about $100 (i have OCZ, but i'm not overclocking so brand is immaterial). vanilla 6800, 128 MB vid card is in the $100 range. case is maybe $100 for a good one from Antec with appropriate supply. monitor is in the $100 range for a 19" or 20" CRT. keyboard and mouse, $50 for logitech USB varieties. CD probably another $50 or so. audigy 2 can be had for under $100. EAX 3 makes a difference IMO. speakers probably for $100 for a decent 5.1 setup. total is on the order of <$900. certainly under $1000 for a low-end rig. another $1000 can put you into a better mobo + an AMD64 FX and a 7950GT (512 MB) with 2 GB RAM. you could probably get that with a 250+ GB SATA drive as well, all for under $2000. i'm due for an upgrade. given that one of my SATA channels has died, i'm not sure if i will stick with this mobo and get a dual-core 4600+ or step up to a completely new system. i'm leaning towards new system, but the $1000 or so it will cost has me waiting it out... taks

sometimes you just get tired of repeating the same thing. particularly in the morning after only one cuppa joe. i realize that, and i've tried to explain why. LCDs are just plain quirky, and this engine is definitely a hog, with plenty of "features" that will degrade performance. but comparing it to WoW or oblivion is pointless because they are different engines doing different things. oblivion, in particular, seems to have all of its effort focused on graphics. i get the standard FPS "feel" from it, with an rpg thrown on top. certainly that's just my opinion as i program with neither engine. curious, does WoW have dynamic lighting and shadows? i need to check oblivion (i have it installed) to verify the same. taks

i'm finally in act II, btw. probably took 20 hours or so. so far i'm having a blast. definitely glued to my computer the past few days. fittingly, the "political intrigue" portion of the story is underway now. at least, now it is more obvious what is going on and how they intend to accomplish their goals (they being the baddies). taks

again, NO, I DID NOT SAY YOUR MONITOR WAS THE PROBLEM. please re-read what i said. twice now, btw. as with ANY LCD (read: ANY, not just yours or your brand or model), graphics look best IN NATIVE RESOLUTION MODE. with NWN2, that resolution is too much for the graphics card to handle so you have to pair it down to get the frame rates to acceptable levels. once you do this, the LCD is running out of native mode, and no longer looks that great. ANY LCD. wow, this is a big DUH. i did't say you said that either. the fact that WoW is not a crpg means it has a different overall structure, which stresses your system differently. really, this is not rocket science. the reason that the type of game matters is the type of engine running it. engines are different. oblivion is more of a FPS type engine. WoW is something else (not sure exactly). NWN2 is a D&D crpg with a completely different engine (and requirements) than either of those. you're comparing performance of NWN2 to WoW or oblivion is pointless because THEY ARE DIFFERENT ENGINES ACCOMPLISHING DIFFERENT TASKS! sheesh... taks

sorry dude, but you're wrong about this. you are correct, however, that most folks will upgrade before real problems arise, though not "a thousand times over." this i agree with... at least from a mobo standpoint. many are designed with overclocking in mind (ASUS make several that i know of). not all CPUs, however, are capable of withstanding OC stresses (this gets into a "binning" discussion, btw). all of your peripheral components, however, are not designed with serious overclocking in mind (granted, just a simple OC on the CPU core should not effect peripherals). and contrary to previously posted opinions (not sure who said this), it's not outright failure that will occur. it really can slowly die. i can also guarantee that testing something designed to handle OC, one that is not OC'd will last longer over all. taks