Why do mods have so much lag in them?

[𝄡TheDevilsKnock𝄡]

To start off my specs are I5-4690k OC to 4.2 ghz, GTX 970, and 16 gb of RAM. I am also running this on Windows 10 Pro. Way more than enough to run this game and base game actually runs at 400 FPS on average (according to Steams FPS counter which I'm getting the feeling is partially broken) and Vsync always caps it at 60 fps (like it should). Point is, with mods I sometimes drop down to 30 FPS or even 20 FPS and very rarely if ever hit 60 FPS (even in the galactic conquest screen I hardly ever hit 60 yet in base game it actually hits 650 FPS {again according to Steam's FPS counter} without V-sync), it makes no sense. I also have this bug in them where the game is insanely sped up (happens in base game without V-sync also but V-sync doesn't fix it in the mods). By sped up I mean I still lag, but everything is moving about twice if not 3x as fast and the fast forward button is off (turning it on makes it about 6x as fast). Any ideas on why this is happening or are the mods just not well optimized? The mods I tried were RaW and Thrawn's Revenge btw.

[𝄡TheDevilsKnock𝄡]

Also what's a mod that is somewhat of a total conversion but also leaves all the destruction of ships still in? I noticed the Thrawn mod was incredibly well made (besides the lag which could just be something on my end) but the ships had no sense of being destroyed to them. That's one of my favorite part about space games like Sins of a solar empire and Homeworld, I love watching capital ships and other various ships go down slowly while explosions still happen on it. It's lame as hell when a giant battle against a huge ship just ends with it basically disappearing.

[Nat]

its not your pc its the capcity of the engine to run on your pc. Think like using the warp core from the 1701 original in the 1701 E without Scotty and thats basically the crux of it all. Understand?

[Firewalk]

I have Thrawn's Revenge as well and get the same thing. I wouldn't call it lag, more like the game slowing down a lot if there are huge fleets onscreen.

I think it really does push the limits of the engine. You have 40 capacity on units, the effects and models are of a much higher quality than the ones in the base game too. Finally, just about all of the space units have a lot more weapon hardpoints, all firing at the same time. All that combined leads to a lot more stress on the engine.

Agreed on the breaking apart thing though. A ton of ships just go *poof*, which I dislike.

[𝄡TheDevilsKnock𝄡]

Ok yeah I get what you're saying. I didn't really think it was that because what's the point in making a mod that the first battle in galactic conquest slows the game way the hell down? I'm used to game engine limitations like the RAM limit on Skyrim and Sins of a Solar Empire (which I'm guessing this game is probably also limited at about the same amount of RAM) but only way to hit that in Skyrim is with a ton of script mods and in Sins they basically warn you incredibly large battles of about 100 or so ships will start to lag it. Point is, I just don't get why the devs on EaW would put such high quality textures into their mod (which was something I did notice, they look really damn good) when battles of about 5 capital ships and 10 frigates drop your performance by a pretty insane amount. Back to my earlier question though, is there a pretty good conversion mod that doesn't break the engine limits with about 20-30 ships and still has ships explode?

[Morkonan]

This is a problem with many modded games. The problem doesn't lie with the base game, but the fact that the mods were not made within the limitations of the base game.

For instance, lots of high poly objects and high resolution texture maps might look good, but they'll play heck with a game that wasn't built to handle them and was written for video cards that are older than the gamer trying to play the mod..

It is a rare thing when a mod is actually optimized for the game its made for. When you see a mod group that routinely cleans up their work and attempts to produce mods that fit within the intended system specs, follow them - They know what they're doing.

[Jesus†]

Is there a fix for the "speed up" bug?
When playing thrawn's revenge in skirmish space battle, the game feels like fast forwarded
fps are above 120. happens with vsync on/off.

[Nat]

the only true fix is if the modders were to reverse engineer that engine and expose it to gamma rays. which is possible. But that is not a tale for me to write just to dream