Help With Low FPS

[TheGameHoarder]

Ok, so I've played G2 way back in the 2000's on a very old computer no problem. Now on my newer computer highest settings it lags. This is not normal. Can something be done about it? I just bought this game again on steam just for this mode.

I have an 940M Laptop, 5200u intel graphcis card, 8GB Ram. And yes I'm running it on my dedicated graphics card.

See people talking about DirectX 11 mod that might fix the issue. But want to hear opinions. I do not want to overenhance the visuals as I'm afraid my system might have a problem with that. But the base game not working proper makes no sense to me.

Please help.

[Smartik1]

Seen multiple laptop users having issues here because the game kept using their integrated card. Few things I've seen in old games:
- Games require the DirectX they were built on otherwise they get bad performance. Because the game is old, it needs the old files. Steam should be installing this on first launch, but that doesn't always happen. You can try run DXSETUP.EXE in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\TheChroniclesOfMyrtana\DirectX\" to make sure you have it.
- Newer hardware behaves better and gets better visuals too with higher DX. Because the game was made before DX11 existed, it needs to be added through a plugin you get from Github.
- Make sure you create a savegame before adding DX11 as the New Game button will likely break afterwards.

This game has higher requirements than original Gothic 2 by the way. This game recommends GTX 680 which is 250% better than your 940M. Check the stats here:
https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-680-vs-Nvidia-GTX-940M/3148vsm28796

You can likely improve the performance, but not by that much.

[TheGameHoarder]

Thank you for your answer Smartik1 . I understand and see what can be done with various tweaks; for now I've added the DX11 support, gameplay seams less choppy but according to the plugin CTRL-F11 FPS counter I clock at maximum 20 FPS, which is incredible (bad way), turned god rays HBO+ etc off. Feels better. But still...

The graphics are basically the same as they were in the 2000's, worse than Skyrim, which with some tweaks I can run at full settings basically. Makes no sense to get these low FPS... really.

[The Commissar]

Originally posted by TheGameHoarder:

Thank you for your answer Smartik1 . I understand and see what can be done with various tweaks; for now I've added the DX11 support, gameplay seams less choppy but according to the plugin CTRL-F11 FPS counter I clock at maximum 20 FPS, which is incredible (bad way), turned god rays HBO+ etc off. Feels better. But still...

The graphics are basically the same as they were in the 2000's, worse than Skyrim, which with some tweaks I can run at full settings basically. Makes no sense to get these low FPS... really.

Probably the engines fault.

[TheGameHoarder]

Originally posted by The Commissar:

Originally posted by TheGameHoarder:

Thank you for your answer Smartik1 . I understand and see what can be done with various tweaks; for now I've added the DX11 support, gameplay seams less choppy but according to the plugin CTRL-F11 FPS counter I clock at maximum 20 FPS, which is incredible (bad way), turned god rays HBO+ etc off. Feels better. But still...

The graphics are basically the same as they were in the 2000's, worse than Skyrim, which with some tweaks I can run at full settings basically. Makes no sense to get these low FPS... really.

Probably the engines fault.

Is there anything that I can do? I tried all settings in F11 with DX11 even with all on lowered settings I still get low FPS. It's frustrating. It's playable but very frustrating. I don't mind 15-25 FPS in newer titles but in a game such like this with the wonky walk animations and imprecise controls and then low FPS it makes the game really hard to play. Absurd that a graphic card that can run Skyrim proper couldn't run this game.

[Amigo500]

maybe try turn vsync on and cap fps to 60

- and install the dirext X from the Games Folder + the dx 11 from the pinned thread.

[Smartik1]

Originally posted by Amigo500:

maybe try turn vsync on and cap fps to 60

- and install the dirext X from the Games Folder + the dx 11 from the pinned thread.

Vsync is a terrible function, especially in older games it had bad design. The only time you should be using it is when you get screen tearing (half a frame is offset from the other half of the frame). It is meant to not push frames until your screen refreshes. If your FPS is lower than refresh rate you end up missing frames, which can result in FPS being cut up to half (in olrder games if you couldn't keep up with 60, your fps was cut to 30). He's already barely making 25.

[TheGameHoarder]

Well turning HBO+ & SMM off seams to have bossted a few FPS this time, after installing th DirectX from Gothic 2 directory. I was in the Inn in the first Village and I noticed straight 30-31 constant (I had it capped at 30) and then I go outside, all fine same framerate, was actually thinking of turning it up a little bit, but then as soon as I re-entered back to the Inn again the frames drop back to 20; I go back outside it's 30 again, go back in the inn again it drops again to 20-25. I don't know makes no sense, usually indoors frames would be better.

UPDATE: I decided to run the game on integrated. Wow, it runs at constant 30-31.
[Clearly something else wrong than my Video Card being underpowered]

So I decided to test this out too. So I put HBO+ and SMM back to on, constant 30-31, no change, I was like "cool"... so I put the Shadows & Shadow Filtering on as well... fps drops to 18... I disable them, then I am back at 20-25, if that makes sense.

This is a technical issue, not a hardweare one from what I can tell in this "little experiment". Any ideas, thoughts on what could be wrong?

Until I find a better solution will run it with integrated.

RE-UPDATE: Maybe it was an anomaly, I put it back on dedicated to test it with Quality instead of High Quality, same result move a bit indoor and go from 30 to 20, but now integrated starts from 20 and stays at 20 no longer 30 FPS. This is a headfull.

[Smartik1]

Originally posted by TheGameHoarder:

Well turning HBO+ & SMM off seams to have bossted a few FPS this time, after installing th DirectX from Gothic 2 directory. I was in the Inn in the first Village and I noticed straight 30-31 constant (I had it capped at 30) and then I go outside, all fine same framerate, was actually thinking of turning it up a little bit, but then as soon as I re-entered back to the Inn again the frames drop back to 20; I go back outside it's 30 again, go back in the inn again it drops again to 20-25. I don't know makes no sense, usually indoors frames would be better.

You have to keep in mind that you are not loading a new area by entering a door. The world loads as a single instance. You simply have a lot more objects with a lot more detail inside than you do outdoors.