"Crit Rebuild" and Win7 guide fail.

[Legacy_predcon]

               I don't know what the hell happened, but installing the
"Critical Rebuild" patch (The only one that would work was the "Hordes
of the Underdark" patch. The patches for "NWN Original" and "Shadows of
Undrentide" give me a "You can't use this patch with your version of
NWN" error) and doing everything as described here, in the Windows 7 Install Guide made things much worse for me. The
stuttering became twice as bad, and instead of restoring ANY incomplete
files, when I play the game, several models are actually missing now.
For example, in the Kingmaker intro, only two characters out of the
whole siege party are visible (the ratman and some other guy).

I've turned off the "Shiny water" option, I've made sure that the game runs with CPU Affinity set to one core, I've turned A.I Catalyst off, I've sacrificed a small woodland mammal, I've burned incense, and I can't seem to get the same satisfactory results that everyone else is getting.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_HipMaestro]

               To give the community a snapshot of your configuration, please furnish full specs as described in the Start Here sticky above.  Along with that information, identify the exact product you purchased to help determine which patch(es) are needed.  If purchased as separate items, more than a single patch may be needed.

Without specifics, suggestions will tend to be shots in the dark and waste your valuable time.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_predcon]

               I ended up fixing it through trial and error, and part of the solution I found was contrary to what everyone was telling me. For the sake of posterity, I will go through what happened. I'll start with my machine and game version specs.



Windows 7 x64

AMD Phenom II X4 965

MSI 790FX-GD70 (Mainboard)

4MB RAM (1033mhz)

Gigabyte Radeon HD 5870 SOC 1GB (Catalyst 10.11)



My game version is Neverwinter Nights: Diamond Edition v1.69, as sold by GoG.com, with the Kingmaker premium module re-installed, and the "HotU Critical Rebuild v1.69" patch installed. I haven't gotten around to installing the CEP yet, but I will tonight.



When I followed the "Windows 7 Install Guide", I found that all PC and NPC models were invisible, and the stuttering issues had doubled. Through sheer perseverance, I found that turning OFF Catalyst AI was what caused the models to disappear. Turning it back ON fixed that. Additionally, I've been told by multiple users that NWN has an issue with multicore CPU's, and that CPU affinity should be set to a single core. Contrary to this advice, I found that setting Affinity to ALL Cores, in conjunction with setting the Sound device to "Miles 2D", completely cleared up the stuttering issues, both ingame and during Bink cutscene playback.



Speaking of Bink movies, for some reason the GoG version of the game installs with the "Safemovie" line in the nwn.ini file set to "0" by default. As explained in the README found in the main game directory, this can cause an issue where Bink movies will play, but are heard and not seen (visuals will not display even though the audio track is heard). After setting this line back to a value of "1", the visuals of all Bink movies were restored.



I found that the biggest part of fixing the stuttering issues was turning the CPU affinity to "All Cores". Rather than set it manually every time through Task Manager, is there a line I can put into an ini file somewhere that will achieve this setting?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Shia Luck]

               

predcon wrote...

I ended up fixing it through trial and error,....

I am very happy you are having a trouble- free(?) game now.

....and part of the solution I found was contrary to what everyone was telling me.

computers are like that, a specific configuration of cards and motherboards might need a different soution. I am no techie, but theguide works for 90% + of people.

For the sake of posterity, I will go through what happened....

When I followed the "Windows 7 Install Guide", I found that all PC and NPC models were invisible, and the stuttering issues had doubled. Through sheer perseverance, I found that turning OFF Catalyst AI was what caused the models to disappear. Turning it back ON fixed that.

NO-where in the guide does it suggest you turn off the catalyst AI. I give that info for certain problems which I recognise in different posts, but it is not part of the guide, no? I guess you saw different posts by me and confused them, no?

Additionally, I've been told by multiple users that NWN has an issue with multicore CPU's, and that CPU affinity should be set to a single core. Contrary to this advice, I found that setting Affinity to ALL Cores, in conjunction with setting the Sound device to "Miles 2D", completely cleared up the stuttering issues, both ingame and during Bink cutscene playback.

Possibly, you might find that the soundcard was the cause f the issue. Miles or RAD cure lotss of issues. Everything else might be irrelevent. It often is. I did say "might" '>

I found that the biggest part of fixing the stuttering issues was turning the CPU affinity to "All Cores". Rather than set it manually every time through Task Manager, is there a line I can put into an ini file somewhere that will achieve this setting?

So far as I am aware using a win7 laptop, there is no setting for "all cores". It's usually a number you put into task manager or the .ini files.  More info would help you solve your issues.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Shia Luck, 07 janvier 2011 - 04:35 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_predcon]

               

Shia Luck wrote...

So far as I am aware using a win7 laptop, there is no setting for "all cores". It's usually a number you put into task manager or the .ini files.  More info would help you solve your issues.

I don't know what else I can tell you. I've given you my operating system version, and my CPU make and model. I can't think of anything else that relates to CPU Affinity and its settings. I have found a line in "nwnplayer.ini" that says "Client CPU Affinity=0". I tried setting that value to "0123", and that didn't work. Neither did "0;1;2;3" or "0,1,2,3". I've also tried a value of "-1" since that's usually the standard value for "disable this feature", and that didn't work either.

[EDIT]

@Shia_Luck
You're obviously aware of the solution found on the GoG forums, but again, for those not "in the know", I'll post it here. The answer is found in the v1.69 Patch README.

v1.69 Patch notes:  
   
 - Added new option to the nwtoolset.ini file to set the toolset CPU affinity  
    on multi-core computers. If you have more than one CPU on your PC, then  
    you can use this setting to make the toolset run on only one of the CPUs  
    by specifying the number of the CPU (0-31). Setting "CPU Affinity=-1"  
    will turn off CPU affinity  
    (default 0).  
 [Start Up]  
 "CPU Affinity".  
 - The nwnplayer.ini setting for "Client CPU Affinity" now defaults to 0 (a  
    setting of -1 will be converted to 0). If you need to disable this  
    feature set the value to -2.  
   
 So -2 is the value to use, not -1.

               
               

               

                     Modifié par predcon, 07 janvier 2011 - 05:01 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Shia Luck]

               I take it you didn't readthe "START HERE" sticky? It tels you how to supply info fo rthe tech heads who really know what might be going on. All I can say is what works for a lot of people. YOu can try it in good faith if you like, but no guarantees.



Did you try "- 2" as a value fro CPU affinit as you were advised on the GOG forum? "0" is the default IIRC, and means the computer tries to use all cores. -2 means it uses only the one from two.



Hope that helps '>