Saelig: the Troubleshooting guide

A tech support guide by a non-techy person. You have been warned

Introduction

Hi, I'm Ash, and I'm the proud owner of a very highend gaming laptop which happens to be the 3rd most valuable tangible asset I own, because, y'know, priorities. I'm also an Elder Millennial which means I'm old enough to have learned how to navigate my way around a file directory because they actually taught us oldsters that in school back then, but most of what makes computers tick is like total voodoo to me. My laptop goes VRROOMM SPARKLEY~ (until it doesn't and it goes CRASH instead)

Ugh, I swear if there's any sort of software bugs or crashing possible, I WILL FIND IT. Luckily for me and unluckily for the hapless computer knowledgeable people who meet me, I have no problem asking the dumbest blond questions on how to make my beautiful shiny computer go back to working again. Jamie from Attacoppe Games is the nicest person ever who patiently answered my why-it-crashy-and-no-worky questions. So TADA, the guide you probably will never need on how to get Saelig performing smoothly and you don't have to ask him the dumb questions because I already did that! :D

Uh oh, it went CRASH

Does Saelig go unresponsive while trying to load the map of a new or saved game?

• Do you use Windows? Check if you have any Windows updates
  
• Also check if your graphics card driver is up to date and properly installed. I have an Nvidia one, and Nvidia's software sucks. I've had several occasions where the Nvidia app refused to install the latest graphics driver, so I had to uninstall the APP, and then go to the Nvidia website and download the latest driver for my card there. The driver download directly from the Nvidia website re installs their stupid app too, ya know, in case you actually want the dang thing.

Does Saelig experience performance stutters every time it starts raining in game?

• Experiment with the different Vsync settings in Saelig's options until you find one that works best for your computer. While there are several schools of thought on this, I find that I personally cannot see any visual difference beyond a 60 FPS (Frames per Second) setting.

Here is where that setting is in Saelig's graphics options VV
Interestingly, this setting does not appear to remain applied in Saelig once chosen (I should probably ask Jamie about that), so I chose to limit my Nvidia card itself to 60 FPS after Jamie explained that graphics cards just try to do the very best they can all the time. I happen to have a monster powerful graphics card, so it was attempting to draw enough power to run a city the size of Los Angeles while trying to render Saelig, and making the game stutter all over the place. I made a picture how to do this as well in the Nvidia section.


Does Saelig crash to desktop randomly, but most often after you turn the game speed up to the highest setting?

• Do you use Avast antivirus? Avast in particular doesn't play very nicely with Saelig. You have to add Saelig as an exception to the firewall to make them play nicely together. I made more pictures in the Avast section. If you use another type of antivirus software, and also get this crashing type, definitely try adding Saelig as an exception to your firewall software too.

Adding Saelig to Avast's firewall

Avast is pretty good antivirus software, but boy does it like to wig out about Saelig. You need to add Saelig to Avast's firewall to prevent them from conflicting and crashing your system. Open up your Avast software, whatever your antivirus software may be. I'm hoping that my pictures from Avast can be followed by people with other antivirus solutions too.


Next, click on the More dropdown on the right, and pick Allow New App.


Now you need to browse in your file directory to find the Saelig.exe file. If you're using the default location for your Steam library, it should be located here VV

Limiting your Nvidia graphics card FPS

Maybe you have an Nvidia card, or another manufacturer's. Regardless, it's a good idea to put a upper limit on the frames-per-second (FPS) it renders to prevent overachieving cards from trying to turning your motherboard into a melted, smoking ruin.

With Nvidia, this is quite simple. Open up your Nvidia Control Panel software, and go to Manage 3D Settings. The Max Frame Rate setting is what you want, and you just click on the right-hand column to access a drop down menu.


Like I mentioned in my intro, there's a couple schools of thought on what FPS is best, but I have a stupidly powerful Geforce RTX 4090 capable of just about anything, and I find that I honestly cannot visually see any difference if it's set above 60 FPS. Try a couple different settings and pick what looks best for you. :)

[Reedtanguerra]

I just learned about a new program called NVCleanstall that monitors and helps install the latest Nvidia graphics driver without having to deal with their awful Geforce Experience app. Notably, it allows you to only install the driver and NOT the app or the Telemetry, aka Nvidia spyware they use to keep tabs on their customers. Not only is this a privacy concern, but I've found that my already fast laptop achieved even faster performance once I installed my driver sans Telemetry. Yeet that thing

[Daniel_Zabojca]

No problem Reed, I'm happy to help anyone out whenever I can.

I also remembered another good point, and that is the Cleanup feature of the Avast suite.
- The cleanup module, if you have the trial or anything above free (like Premium Security or ultimate), OR have the module installed:
-- Passively impacts performance, specifically CPU. This is not intel-bound, but across all CPU 'brands'.
- Uninstalling that module will often improve overall PC performance.
I don't know why but holy f*ck even when you don't use the module it STILL decides to hog resources.

Overall I do use Avast and I enjoy the suite, more than Norton. Yes I other AV's before.

I hope I can help you out a bit too as a fellow Avast User!

Have a nice day!

[Reedtanguerra]

Thank you Daniel! I'm so happy I was even able to help anybody! Also, thank you for all the excellent suggestions as you clearly know 10x more techy stuff than me 🥰

[Daniel_Zabojca]

Part 3:
Another noteworthy thing:
- Disable the NVIDIA overlay, or discord overlay.
-- The NVIDIA background process in the NVIDIA APP. This affected my performance considerably over multiple driver versions.

-- Discord overlay might affect performance, but that is I think individual-based. On my computer it affected the performance sometimes, however it was not a consistent thing. Discord updates either caused/fixed it. Schrodringers enshittification.


All in all, take my award/steam community thingy, and have a great day!

[Daniel_Zabojca]

Part 2:
- I have low latency mode off, because sometimes it actually bottlenecks the processing speed.
- Threaded Optimization: I keep this one on auto, and sometimes I turn it off for specific programs. For some f*cking reason this contradicts 'better performance' claims of NVidia. Back when I had an older GPU and CPU, this setting had a big impact on my gaming experience. Why? I don't f*cking know. Drivers were up-to-date.

[Daniel_Zabojca]

A few additions to your amazing guide, because I also have Avast (prem), and I have a 3090 24G ROG STRIX (release day purchase). Processor is a Intel I7-9700K Running stable OC on 4.9~5.1, full specs on my profile for the curious.

- PhysX setting in the NVIDIA control panel might f*ck around with your game, it did so for me with a couple games. I set it to the GPU, this might be a good suggestion.
- Power Management mode: I set it on prefer maximum performance overall, otherwise lag-spikes/RNG hickups happen.
- Vertical Sync: I use 'Use 3D Application Setting'. I had the unfortunate experience of researching why I have screen-tearing with VSYNC enabled in the control panel but not games itself.
-- There are 'different' types of VSYNC. This is worthy of mentioning in case people experience 'tearing' with it enabled.