Dungeon Siege 2 Broken World - Low framerate

[GothicIII]

So I am struggling on this for weeks now. I am talking about the expansion which is not officially available on steam: Dungeon Siege 2 - Broken World.

I debugged already the multiplayer issues and posted my findings on
https://github.com/GenesisFR/DS2TroubleshootingGuide/issues/2
So that's done and the fix is working. You can play with your friends without any network issues now (especially with duplicate name errors and hosted games unable to join/see).

Now I am struggling with low fps problems. No matter the settings the game runs like on a potato. In fights fps can even ditch below 10. This is getting really hard on the eyes.

This issue is somehow bound to hardware. AFAIK I can exclude any software since I prepared a portable Windows 11 with everything preinstalled. Out of 6 systems the game runs fine on 3. The ingame options/ini settings do not fix this.

Test hardware:
(Windows 11, on 1080p+, Testmap is just outside of the 1st druid village inside the 1st shrine, completely zoomed out with zoom far mod)

+AMD Razer 7 7800X3D on an x670E Asrock board with a RTX4090 (~140fps)
+Intel i5 12600k on an noname board with a RTX3060 (~90fps)
+Intel i7 7700k on an acer laptop with a RTX1050 (~60fps)
-Intel i7 13700k on a z790 MSI board with a RTX4090 (~22fps)
-Intel i7 12700k on a z690 MSI board with a GTX970 (~22fps)
-Qemu KVM with GTX970 passthrough (~15fps)

This is all booted from the same system drive without changing any settings across systems. Since all GPUs are Nvidia GPUs, the driver version is the same (536.40).
Btw this issue happens also on Windows XP with the original disc version.

List of things I can exclude:
-90% sure: BIOS settings like Virtualization Settings (Vt-x, VT-d and AMD equivalent) and many more
-GPU hardware (Intel onboard has the same issue)


I suspect that the .exe wastes CPU cycles on some hardware configurations but I am a debugging beginner so I struggle currently on debugging this properly.

Has anybody even a clue what is going on? Are there any other people out there that solved this somehow?

[marcew44]

I think you are out of luck if you already tried the virtualization trick, that's the only fix i've ever seen work for this issue.

[jjj0309]

I'm suffering the exact same issue as you, frame rates gradually tanks as I play the game. From 60+ to bellow 12 within few hours. My CPU is ancient Intel 6700, hope you can find solution soon.. Or else I'll just move over to AMD Ryzen this year, if Intel screw up 15th gen.

[LucasRCD]

Apparently you're right on the money about the game wasting CPU cycles when running on newer hardware. HOWEVER, that's exclusively a problem if you use Broken World.

Apparently nobody's bothered trying to find a specific fix for this issue, however, so everyone's just gonna be waiting for someone to make a mod that fixes this expansion pack-induced spaghetti code.

[jjj0309]

I upgraded to 9800X3D and having the exact same issue as before; the game performance gradually dropping as I play the game. From 150+ FPS to below 20 within few hours of gameplay.
And it seems it's somehow related with the inventory system, as I more often open my inventories I feel the FPS dropping even severely. Not entirely sure but it felt that way.

[GothicIII]

Originally posted by jjj0309:

I upgraded to 9800X3D and having the exact same issue as before; the game performance gradually dropping as I play the game. From 150+ FPS to below 20 within few hours of gameplay.
And it seems it's somehow related with the inventory system, as I more often open my inventories I feel the FPS dropping even severely. Not entirely sure but it felt that way.

At least it happens for you in a few hours of gameplay. On my systems the fps drop instantly as soon I start/join a multiplayer session.

I'd like to switch to amd, too. It would cost me over 1000$ which is kind of a bummer... But the intel system is instable as hell since the CPU cores started to degrade (i7 13th gen). Intel has lost my trust I won't buy anything intel related anymore.

[Chad "The King" ThunderCuck]

pretty sure its a windows 11 issue, as i was playing the game perfectly fine at 8k and like 200+ FPS in windows 10, "upgraded" to 11, and im lucky to get a solid 60 at any resolution.

[Frankie-Z-]

in win 11 I've had a few other games show similar problems , ran fine in win 10 and like poop in win 11 , I can't give a specific reason as to why but I think it has something to do with other devices running on the PC like mouse and keyboard I have the Rat 8 mouse and driver installed and for whatever reason with the switch to win 11 it seems to affect game performance on older games. causing sever lag , when I switch to some generic 3 button mouse it seems to improve but there's still problems.

[CiergeDassaut]

I had the very same problem on my 13th Gen Intel config (13700K/AMD RX6950XT/Win11). I would typically get between 20 to 30fps which confused me a fair bit.

Then tried running the game (broken world) with Win 7 compatibility mode which seems to do the trick. I now hit close to 100fps in and around Eirulan without any issue.

I'll have to go further in the game to see if the framerate stays similar throughout or if some areas present more issues.

Edit : It seems like I unfortunately spoke too soon. The performance seems to degrade steadily the more I play. Relaunching the game sloves it at first but then the FPS slowly drops back to between 30 to 40 fps...

[InconspicuousBlackVan]

Known problem. The frame rate starts fine, but quickly tanks after couple minutes of playing to anywhere between 20-30 FPS, no matter what you do. There are some details in this thread:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/39200/discussions/0/405690850601811605/

The vanilla game without Broken World is perfectly fine and it runs at consistent 240 FPS on my system. The Broken World .exe seems to be the culprit.

[prostoe_bydlo]

Non moded game show me 75 fps max (both ds2 and ds2bw). I didn't notice any fps drops below 70. But 75 is kinda weird number. My monitor have 180Hz rr.

[InconspicuousBlackVan]

Originally posted by prostoe_bydlo:

Non moded game show me 75 fps max (both ds2 and ds2bw). I didn't notice any fps drops below 70. But 75 is kinda weird number. My monitor have 180Hz rr.

Did you play for a while or did you just load up the game? The FPS is initially fine. Do a couple teleport transitions and move around for a bit.

If it stays at 75, consider yourself lucky. Well, mostly the CPU you have being one of the few that the game doesn't shi* itself from.

[prostoe_bydlo]

Originally posted by InconspicuousBlackVan:

Originally posted by prostoe_bydlo:

Non moded game show me 75 fps max (both ds2 and ds2bw). I didn't notice any fps drops below 70. But 75 is kinda weird number. My monitor have 180Hz rr.

Did you play for a while or did you just load up the game? The FPS is initially fine. Do a couple teleport transitions and move around for a bit.

If it stays at 75, consider yourself lucky. Well, mostly the CPU you have being one of the few that the game doesn't shi* itself from.

I played whole prologue for ds2 (cuz I don't have ds2 char) and like 20-30mins of bw with 93level chars. Game practically show me 75 fps is max limit which game can offer. It goes near 60fps sometimes during intense fights but up to 75 again right after. My cpu is 5700x3d and I play only in windowed mode with 1600x1200 res cuz game cannot handle other resolutions (high ones). I played till level 93 on my previuos pc with i7 3770k and win7, same - no fps problems, but I had 60hz monitor on my previous pc and I never noticed that fps limit.
Not a big deal, I just wonder why such weird number.

[Наёмник]

Originally posted by prostoe_bydlo:

Originally posted by InconspicuousBlackVan:

Did you play for a while or did you just load up the game? The FPS is initially fine. Do a couple teleport transitions and move around for a bit.

If it stays at 75, consider yourself lucky. Well, mostly the CPU you have being one of the few that the game doesn't shi* itself from.

I played whole prologue for ds2 (cuz i don't have ds2 char) and like 20mins of bw with 93level chars. Game practically show me 75 fps is max limit. It goes sometimes near 60fps during intense fights but up to 75 again right after. My cpu is 5700x3d and I play only in windowed mode with 1600x1200 res cuz game cannot handle other resolutions. I played till level 93 on my previuos pc with i7 3770k and win7, same - no fps problems, but I had 60hz monitor on my previous pc some I never noticed that fps limit.

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Dungeon_Siege_II#Video
you can set maxfps=xxx (number) command, I set more than 60-75 for ds2 without broken sword, it works.

[InconspicuousBlackVan]

Originally posted by prostoe_bydlo:

I played whole prologue for ds2 (cuz I don't have ds2 char) and like 20-30mins of bw with 93level chars. Game practically show me 75 fps is max limit which game can offer. It goes near 60fps sometimes during intense fights but up to 75 again right after. My cpu is 5700x3d and I play only in windowed mode with 1600x1200 res cuz game cannot handle other resolutions (high ones). I played till level 93 on my previuos pc with i7 3770k and win7, same - no fps problems, but I had 60hz monitor on my previous pc and I never noticed that fps limit.
Not a big deal, I just wonder why such weird number.

Yeah, seems that Intels suffer from this much more than AMD. Could be that whatever the .exe is doing does not work on AMD CPUs, so the game can't flood it with whatever calls it's making.

Though you are still getting throttled. The game has no issues running on very high framerates like 240. If you are getting only 75 max, you are just better off than most others, but still suffer from the Broken World issue. There is no FPS cap in the game. I can play the base game on 240 FPS stable without issues.

[jjj0309]

Originally posted by InconspicuousBlackVan:

Originally posted by prostoe_bydlo:

I played whole prologue for ds2 (cuz I don't have ds2 char) and like 20-30mins of bw with 93level chars. Game practically show me 75 fps is max limit which game can offer. It goes near 60fps sometimes during intense fights but up to 75 again right after. My cpu is 5700x3d and I play only in windowed mode with 1600x1200 res cuz game cannot handle other resolutions (high ones). I played till level 93 on my previuos pc with i7 3770k and win7, same - no fps problems, but I had 60hz monitor on my previous pc and I never noticed that fps limit.
Not a big deal, I just wonder why such weird number.

Yeah, seems that Intels suffer from this much more than AMD. Could be that whatever the .exe is doing does not work on AMD CPUs, so the game can't flood it with whatever calls it's making.

Though you are still getting throttled. The game has no issues running on very high framerates like 240. If you are getting only 75 max, you are just better off than most others, but still suffer from the Broken World issue. There is no FPS cap in the game. I can play the base game on 240 FPS stable without issues.

I can confirm it affects AMD too, at least for 9800X3D. Hundreds of initial framerates plunders into bellow 20 per seconds after few hours of gameplay. Annoying enough to force me to restart the game now and then. I turned off any virtual technology related functions from the bios and Windows setting.