Last Song of the Freezing Creatures.

[Legacy_Jedijax]

               Ladies and gentlemen... this is the last time I'll bring the subject up.

Many of you may be familiar with the previous threads... but let's re-introduce the issue with a HEAVY load of updates:

I have a COMPLETE new system running under Windows 7 64 bits, with a i7 950 CPU, 6 gigs of RAM, 1 Terabyte drive with 32 megs in cache, and a brand new MSI GTX 285.

So, to recap: Whenever a on-activate script fires up, wether opening a container, a merchant's inventory, a PC's inventory, casting a spell, or spawning a creature, there is a slight freeze. The duration of such framing varies according to size of the inventory, type of creature etc. but it is much more obvious when creatures (hostile or otherwise) come into play. I've noticed it worsens when creatures spawn for the first time, though the lag is present to a minor extent when they come into sight again after the initial spawn.

After years of troubleshooting and changing hardware and OS (Windows XP, Windows 7 x86 and now x64) I've noticed it gets worse when custom content is added, but such is not the cause of the issue.

Let me ilustrate this: I made a clean install on my new config and system. No override folder, no haks, the prelude module of the original campaign. I'm amazed at how fluid the animation is, when.... Oh, Lord!... Pavel's brother says: "Hey there, I want to talk to you"... AND THE FRAKKIN' FREEZE SHOWS ITS DISGUSTING HEAAAAAAAAAAD!

Completely different system, completely clean install, and the thing keeps happening. I'm waaaaaaaay beyond desperate!

So, if anyone can bring one last piece of advise... a tale of a similar experience... I would offer my first-born to you....
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Jedijax, 14 janvier 2011 - 04:43 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Jedijax]

               Well, I guess that's that.



Thanks to everyone who posted their ideas and suggestions in all of the related threads over the recent months.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Inayity]

               Sorry there was never any resolution for you on this.  You should try playing NWN under Linux!  Hands down, it is the smoothest NWN experience possible.  Even my best Windows machines could never give me the true fluidity of playing under Linux.  Everything looks the same of course but there's no hitching whatsoever, right down to the constant perfect rendering of all the little particles coming off a fire for instance.

I didn't actually expect that there would be that much of a difference until I ran the client on a Linux box I was using for an NWN server and I was blown away.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_lordofworms]

               did you ever think about using windows built in VMware to create a virtual windows and try running it that way? let me know if you need more info regarding that
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jedijax]

               Thanks for the posts!

Inayiti: Can you work with the Aurora Toolset under Linux? You see, I usually work with various apps and utilities as I play the game (well, not WHILE playing the game, but I regularly stop playing, close NWN, make my tweaks, and then play again), always polishing or re-working something like a misplaced model, a teared texture, etc. It is a big step for me to actually make a Linux install just to play NWN seamlessly (not that I haven't gone to more extreme measures to do it... like losing my only remaining testicle and a kidney to get me a new, high-end PC...). Perhaps it is possible to virtualize the linux setup you mentioned?

Lord of Worms: Master, I bow before you! Been a while! Do you think a virtual windows would change the NWN experience? Hmm... hadn't even considered it because I thought, since I already had the issue when I used XP, a virtual environment with the same system wouldn't do much. However, if you think it would help somehow, I'm going to try it. Any specific configuration you have in mind?
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Jedijax, 27 janvier 2011 - 07:47 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_lordofworms]

               well to be honest my only reasoning is this. In a virtual environment everything NWN should be software driven so it cannot hurt to try it? I mean I dont know what I would do if I couldn't mess with NWN, seems I am always tinkering around in its guts..



also Hyperthreading? dont get this confused with CPU dual core.

I had a PC that I had to turn hyperthreading off in my BIOS (it was an HP pc) otherwise my game would freeze. stutter, skip..play smoothly sometimes? didnt matter what I did with NWN.ini and drivers for my nvidia card,etc drove me nuts for almost 7 months

but had a problem with my drive coming unhooked and hit the bios and saw it and said..hmmmmm...did it by accident..but it worked, so maybe look into that? could have just been a fluke on my part though.



as for VM. I was thinking along this line:

http://en.wikipedia....dows_Virtual_PC

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_lordofworms]

               also I really hate to bring this up, since I am not familiar too much with your history.



how are you installing it?

1) is it that old DVD with scratches all over it from 7 years ago? *hehe*

2) are you installing it to its default directory? or are you choosing a different location/ different hard drive?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               Sadly you may be a victim of system configuration. I have two pcs - one can run NWN, one can't: I'll give you the skinny on both systems:



Both have Win 7 64 Bit Professional and use onboard HD audio



PC 1: M4A78T-E Asus Mobo; AMD Phenom X4 955 Processor 3.21 GHz; 8 GB Corsair Dominator RAM; WD 1.5 TB Primary Drive with a 1TB Secondary Drive; ATI Radeon HD 5700 1GB Display Adapter.



PC 2: Asus Stryker II Mobo; Asus G60JX i5 Processor; 8 GB Corsair Dominator RAM; WD 1.0 TB Primary Drive with a WD 500 GB Secondary Drive; 2x Asus GeForce GTX 9800 512 MHz Display Adapters.



PC 1 runs the game perfectly - without using compatibility mode.



PC 2 can't run it worth crap. The game freezes, the toolset is wonky, and whenever a graphic effect fires - if the game isn't frozen - it WILL be.



Notice any similarities between your configuration and my PC 2? I have NEVER been able to run the game on PC 2 - hence the reason I forked out the cash for matched components and built PC 1 myself. PC 2 comes from iBuyPower (my brother's choice - not mine). Oddly enough, if I pop the AMD Video card in PC2  the game is somewhat more playable but still crappy.



However, this is just my experience and probably would play out differently for someone else with the same system. Case in point - a friend of mine has a system nearly identical to my PC 2 but with 32 Bit Win 7 Home and an old X-Fi Soundblaster card for audio. NWN runs fine on his.



Hopefully I haven't discouraged you more than you already are.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jedijax]

               Lord of Worms: The game was installed from a Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition electronic version, no DVD's required; however, the issue started about two or three years ago, with a version installed from different discs containing the original game and the respective expansions. I'm guessing it bears no significance, since I've tried three different sources since then.

The first version of NWN I had installed was in F drive. The second was installed in D drive, and the present one is on C drive. All of the HD's are completely different in size, cache and brand, so I'm guessing that isn't the issue either.

I would love to post all of the previous troubleshooting and tests made over the last years, but the issue actually spawned three different threads in the forums, so it is quite lengthy. We covered CPU threading, Graphic card configurations in three different models, custom content and overriding files, RAM use and pagefile size, NWN ini's and internal tweaks, sound card and integrated audio bugs...
You can make a forum search for the keywords: Freezing Creatures. If I remember correctly, the previous threads were called Attack of the Freezing Creatures, and Return of the Freezing Creatures.

Anyway, you mentioned something about disabling hyperthreading directly from BIOS. How may I do that, just in case it is the same issue that plagued you for some months? Thanks again for taking the time to help me!

Pstemarie: Well... that's a little difficult to nail... You see, I've had three completely different systems since the thing started, with completely different components between them... and the issue persists. Os, RAM, CPU, GPU, etc. have come and gone, so I deduct the issue must be a matter of software or configuration. None of the hardware parts are being kept from previous PC's so...

Oh, don't worry about discouraging me! I've been to suicide and back, to cutting fingers and selling body parts in order to get this fixed. I love my NWN so much, that I went through the trouble of finding a GTX 285 (it may not be a big thing in the USA and UK, but down here it was daylight robbery and a pain in the rear) just to be able to play the game, since all the 400 and 500 line of Nvidia is having issues with it.

I'm just... numb now. Never had I any trouble with anything in my life that comes close to this... I've spent all my youth and money trying to fix it... sometimes I think it has turned me all Zen...
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Jedijax, 28 janvier 2011 - 05:55 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               I think a lot of the problems - if not ALL of them - rest solely on the GPU drivers. Even when NWN was young and the hardware available hadn't outpaced the game I had problems with nVidia drivers, often having to rollback my system to a previous version just to run NWN.



The only thing you might try is to download the latest version DirectX SDK and install that. A lot of people having problems under Win 7/Vista have had a measure of success fixing issues by installing the SDK package - myself included (although it was with different games). I also think I may installed DirectX 9c as well, but I can't recall for sure (but any legacy DLLs from that will be available in the SDK package).
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Lord Sullivan]

               

Pstemarie wrote...

....
The only thing you might try is to download the latest version DirectX SDK and install that. A lot of people having problems under Win 7/Vista have had a measure of success fixing issues by installing the SDK package - myself included (although it was with different games). I also think I may installed DirectX 9c as well, but I can't recall for sure (but any legacy DLLs from that will be available in the SDK package).

I really don't see how that would fix some issues some may have given the fact that NWN is a exclusivly a OpenGL
game.

Now I don't suffer any issues at all with NWN on multiple systems all have XP and one of them also has Vista all
32 bit systems. Most weird issues I've heard of that I couldn't get why people had them was mostly on XP/Vista/Win7 64bit, but I'm not sure what to make of it since the only real difference between 32bit and 64bit is the size of chunks
of data a system can move around and/or work with.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Lord Sullivan, 28 janvier 2011 - 07:15 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               64-Bit is what we're looking at Sully '>



You are 100% right in that the DirectX SDK shouldn't have any effect on an OpenGL game such as NWN. I'm thinking the "fixes" from the SDK may lie in elements that were omitted from Vista and Win 7 which are reinstalled via the SDK.



I do know for a fact that after installing the SDK many of the graphical issues I experienced with legacy games and programs - freezes, stuttering, etc. vanished. Therefore, I'm inclined to believe that some GPU drivers benefit from the SDK and others don't.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_lordofworms]

               reboot your computer, and before the windows logo comes up repeatedly smash your function key (it may be f9, f4,f10, or f2, mine was f9) to get to system config (may also just be called system, or BIOS)

when there look for anything to do with Power options, internal devices, or devices.

you should see a 'hyperthreading' option, probably set to 'enabled' , set to disable, save and exit and let reboot, give NWN a try.

I really hope its as simple as that.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jedijax]

               I installed the Direct X SDK but it didn't help.

Also, I searched for the hyperthreading option in the BIOS, but couldn't find it in any of the tabs or configurations.

As for the virtualization environment, do you mean windows XP mode, Lord of Worms? The one accessible to Windows 7 Ultimate users?
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Jedijax, 29 janvier 2011 - 09:39 .