Dantooine - Horrendous Lag

[magnusblitz]

Upon entering Dantooine for the first time, the game proceeds to lag HORRIBLY. I mean something like 1 frame a minute. If I'm in a menu screen (either my own, or a pazaak screen, etc) the game is fine, but when I'm in the starport the game will lag horribly. My character will often shoot off across the entire "level", usually followed by him stopping and spinning around in one spot before the lag becomes so bad the game seems frozen (it's not, I can still go to the menu).

 

I'm not getting this bug if I go to another planet (Onderon, for example). Also, in one case I managed to move my character around the back side of the Ebon Hawk in the starport - towards and past the Ithorian pazaak player - and the game was fine, but when I circled around the game lagged again.

 

This is making the game unplayable (obviously) and I guess I COULD start at another planet (though I'd rather not), and it'd be pointless if I could do three planets only to still have Dantooine lag.

 

Any ideas on how to fix this? I haven't tried the patch, but it had no update about this problem, and in fact seemed to only fix one problem I had (the swoop race bug) and I've heard it's made a bunch of new ones, so I haven't installed it.

[<SP]

you can find many solutions to your problem on this site, just use search. Or scroll down the tech support section. I solved this by downloading 4.11 drivers for my ati card and the putting the .dll file in kotor2 folder. Or you can put the "disable vertex buffer objects=1" under graphics options in swkotor2.ini. If you have an ati card these should work for you too...If you dont, well......hmmm...cant think of anything else

[Darth Homer]

I had the same problem. Then i tried the vertex buffer thingy and it runs fine now...

 

My specs are:

P4 2.8 @ 3.5

Crucial 3200 x 1GB

Abit IC7-G

X800 XT

 

Also, i'm using the cat's 5.5 without the ogl dll from 4.11

[The_Yugster]

Im also haveing the same problem but with KOTOR1 on Dantooine.

Im proberly going to seem like a dumb ass here but I cant find this ".ini" thing any were? How you ment to alter the files in them any way they dont seem to be in note pad format?

I cant seem to find any link's as well for down loading this ATI 4.11 driver's is there any outher options apart from these?

[kalimeeri]

FWIW, I found that the Disable Vertex Buffer line in Kotor 1's .ini file works very well for that game too, better than putting the 4.11 dll in the game folder. While the game was developed with these earlier drivers, it wasn't real happy with them on my WinXP machine with a more advanced video card than I originally had.

 

(Make sure your game folder has been instructed to show you 'all' the files in the game directory, then use 'open with' and select Notepad.)

[Eden]

If you have an ATI graphics card, update it. That is supposed to help, although from what I heard it doesnt.

 

What worked best for me is to turn the camera around and have your character run towards the screen. It takes a little bit of effort to get exactly to where you need to - just try to follow the map. Also, try to stick to the edges the best you can. Moving into the middle of the fields tends to bring the lag back, even when running towards the screen. It's certainly not a fix but it made the Datoinne part playable for me.

 

I never tried the vertex buffer fix - sounds promising.

[Ileria]

If you have an ATI graphics card, update it.  That is supposed to help, although from what I heard it doesnt. 

 

What worked best for me is to turn the camera around and have your character run towards the screen.  It takes a little bit of effort to get exactly to where you need to - just try to follow the map.  Also, try to stick to the edges the best you can.  Moving into the middle of the fields tends to bring the lag back, even when running towards the screen.  It's certainly not a fix but it made the Datoinne part playable for me.

 

I never tried the vertex buffer fix - sounds promising.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Oh yes ... it works wonders. From 1 frame per 10 seconds to 20-25 frames per second ... and I'm using Radeon X800XT PCIe graphics card.

[votemarvel]

To be honest I tried all the above solutions to get KOTOR2 running with my Radeon 9250 but with no luck, the only thing that worked for me was to get a Nvidia card.

 

It was a real pain to have to do it too, as the radeon ran all my other games really well.

[Atreides]

I've had this problem and this simple in-game trick works (no file modification) like a charm. The lag problem happens (and recurs) when you load up a new map on Dantooine.

 

After you've loaded up the level (with lag), go to Graphics options then change your texture pack settings (lower or higher) or change your vertex buffer settings. Ok it and your screen should "reset". The level then plays like normal. Changing the requirements upwards (higher texture or enabling vertex buffer) didn't seem to have a negative effect. As long as the screen "resets" it works.

 

I also lagged a lot in the Korriban academy but after I lowered my texture settings to medium the lag went away. At first I thought that the reduced requirements did the trick, but thinking back it could be the same case as Dantooine.

 

Let me know if this also works for you.

 

Edit: Btw I'm running a Radeon 9.6k Pro with 5.5 Cat drivers.

[Master Dahvernas]

The real, technical reason this happens is because there is an error in the rendering code the Odyssey Engine uses with regard to Vertex Buffer Objects. Vertex Buffer Objects have to do with storing calculations in your frame buffer and the error is it doesn't do this correctly which means slower calculations that equal lower FPS.

 

This also effects your CPU since your CPU has to process an abnormal amount of inefficient code to the point it slows the game down to almost zero frames per second.

 

Even an AMD64 rig -- Any high-end CPU --Can be brought to its knees when the code isn't properly otpimized or has errors in it like this one. This is relevant because if you have a low-to-mid-range CPU, you're going to see the effects a lot more severly than if you have a high end (Pentium VI, 3.2+; AMD64) CPU as well.

 

In addition, what type of card (Nvidia or ATI) you have also greatly affects how severe you may experience this problem since the Odyssey engine is an outdated OpenGL engine and historically will perform better on Nvidia hardware as Nvidia has superior OGL drivers compared to ATI. This isn't "fanboy" talk, this is fact.

[zeroFantasy]

The real, technical reason this happens is because there is an error in the rendering code the Odyssey Engine uses with regard to Vertex Buffer Objects. Vertex Buffer Objects have to do with storing calculations in your frame buffer and the error is it doesn't do this correctly which means slower calculations that equal lower FPS.

 

This also effects your CPU since your CPU has to process an abnormal amount of inefficient code to the point it slows the game down to almost zero frames per second.

 

Even an AMD64 rig -- Any high-end CPU --Can be brought to its knees when the code isn't properly otpimized or has errors in it like this one. This is relevant because if you have a low-to-mid-range CPU, you're going to see the effects a lot more severly than if you have a high end (Pentium VI, 3.2+; AMD64) CPU as well.

 

In addition, what type of card (Nvidia or ATI) you have also greatly affects how severe you may experience this problem since the Odyssey engine is an outdated OpenGL engine and historically will perform better on Nvidia hardware as Nvidia has superior OGL drivers compared to ATI. This isn't "fanboy" talk, this is fact.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

companies can never get anything right. They fix one thing but break another. ATI, Obsidian...

 

*sigh*

[magnusblitz]

The "in-game trick" only worked for 10-15 seconds before it started lagging again.

 

Updating my drivers (ATI Radeon) worked wonders and I was able to finish the game quite wonderfully.

[Marka Ragnos]

the "in-game trick" isn't that great because you have to keep doing it every time you start lagging. for when I had my 9600xt 256mb and for right now with my 6600gt 128mb agp I used the disable vertex buffer objects=1 command line and it worked.