Came back to SH4, picked this up, now I have some problems...

[TriskettheKid]

To start, I was able to run SHIV pretty well on my laptop.

It's specs are:
2.2 gHz Core 2 (T7250? I think?)
4 gb DDR2 ram
256mb 8600m GT
Vista Ultimate

Now, to start, when I tested SHIV stock, it ran pretty much smooth, at about 30fps with pretty much everything turned on.

I just downloaded the U-boat addon, and went to test it out, and now I'm getting massive FPS problems. I can start inside the sub fine, but nowhere near stable (according the counter, it hovers between 20-60fps). Once I go outside, though, BAM. It goes from 2-120 FPS. And it stutters.

So I tweaked the settings, turned some stuff off, turned some settings down. Was able to hit a more stable 12-15 FPS outside (though still far too low, and half of what I was able to get with better settings in stock SHIV), but once I submerged, the problems started up again. FPS started becoming random, between 2-120 FPS. And it started stuttering again.

Any ideas? This is puzzling me quite a bit.

[TriskettheKid]

To add:

I can't get a stable framerate, as it appears that the FPS still jumps around wildly (20-113 inside, 12-60 outside). Stuttering still happens sometimes.

Just tried the American career, and now my sub itself is black. Pitch black. The conning tower has color, and the sub seems to have some color underwater, but the sub is pitch black.

Is this a driver issue? Do I need to rollback my drivers?

[TriskettheKid]

Anyone?

I can't figure this out and I'd really like to play.

I'd like to give GWX2.0 a break, and since I bought this, I'd really like it to run stable.

[AVGWarhawk]

It sounds like a video card issue since the sub skin is black. I'm not sure how to help. If anything for me the addon improved performance. :hmm:

[TriskettheKid]

Just reverted the drivers and then updated them, again.

It's still not running stable. The black sub seems to have disappeared, though I haven't tried it with all the US subs yet.

The FPS is still very erratic, to the point of stuttering.

Instead of getting a nice, stable FPS, as I did pre-addon, I get wilde fluctuations in FPS no matter what I do. Indoors, when not moving the camera, my FPS can jump from 8-89 FPS. Outside, I was able to get it relatively stable at around 15 FPS, but then the numbers would start jumping around erratically the minute I changed the view.

This is driving me crazy.

Is there some way to lock the FPS? I'd take 30 FPS, if I can somehow get it to stay there in a stable manner.

[AVGWarhawk]

This is oddly strange. Before 1.5 my game fluctuated quite a bit. After 1.5 it is steady as the rock of Gibraltar. Perhaps a complete reinstall? Play the came vanilla version for a few minutes then add your mods. Sorry mate, note really sure of our problems after 1.5

[maerean_m]

Here's a wild idea:

Start the game, and while in main menu, Alt-Tab and change the process priority to Above Normal from inside Task Manager. Then go back to the game and see if there are any improvements.

Did a quick test, the results are quite impressive. :rock:

[TriskettheKid]

Ok, surprisingly enough, it did help. The stuttering WAS mediated for a bit, and the framerate DID seem to settle out around 29-30 FPS outside. Inside was a different matter (it still fluctuated wildly).

That being said, once I started moving the camera around, once I started putting it under some pressure, BAM, stuttering started again and the FPS went haywire.

And this was ALL done at MEDIUM settings, except I turned LOD for land and stuff all the way down. This laptop should be MORE than capable of handling such settings.

[oli123456789]

G'day
I had the same problem and with the same grapichs card the best thing you can do is
download Alactrity PC install it etc.. It realy helps no stutters for me and a steady 30 FPS on high settings

[TriskettheKid]

Actually, I think I'm going to test it out at a lower resolution.

I was able to get SHIV to play at decent settings on my laptop's max resolution of 1680x1050. I was hoping to get the addon to run at the same settings, but I'm going to try reducing the resolution to 1440x900, or even lower.

I'm thinking it might clear up the stutter.

[TriskettheKid]

Ok, I tested it at all three resolutions: 1680x1050, 1440x900, 1280x800.

Still no stability at any of the resolutions, save the lowest. However, the ONLY stability at the lower resolution was in external view mode, and ONLY above the water. Once inside the Uboat, the framerates were no longer stable, though there was no stuttering. And outside, once I moved the camera below the surface of the water, all stability was gone and I was once again registering framerates ranging from 5-65.

I have no clue what to do now. I even turned the graphics settings down low, to no avail.

ARGH.

[TriskettheKid]

Ok, now this is really weird.

I went into the nVidia control panel and set AA and AF to 4x each.

I then started up the game, and kept the graphics settings that were giving me trouble.

No stuttering. Framerate is still unstable, but playable. I can now get, with most settings turned on, with sliders set to max, about 22-25 FPS when in external view, about 20-23 FPS when viewing underwater, and this is at my max resolution of 1680x1050.

Framerate is still a bit too unstable for my liking, but I'm going to see if the game itself stays stable enough to play a full mission.

Could the sole cause of my problems have been that the nVidia panel was set to 8x AA and AF?