Performance Issue: singleplayer = fast, onlinegaming = extremely slow

[Legacy_pipboy2000]

               Hey there,

i was trying to play the original neverwinter nights campaign with a friend. He was experiencing serious performance issues. The game became unplayable for him.

Here the facts:

- He can play singleplayer in 1920 * 1080 without any problems

- When he enters the game, after opening a "new internet/LAN game", the performance drops so brutal, that he has to use 800 * 600 to make playing possible.
Even though, the performance is so poor, that he can hardly play the game

- The performance drops without anyone having entered the game

- His performance is also poor, when he enters a multiplayer game i opened

Hard and software:

- He made a new Win XP installation, he usese the latest drivers, latest directX etc.

- He uses an ATI Radeon Sapphire 1650

- The CPU is an Intel Celeron 2,6 Ghz

We don't have any clue what the problem can be and would be very glad if someone could help
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_simomate]

               I take it he's trying to play on the internet? Why haven't you given us details on his internet?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_pipboy2000]

               He is using DSL, his internetspeed is in best order.



Futhermore he is using ZoneAlarm.



I did not give any details about his internet connection, because the performance drops when HE is opening a game and noone even entered.

I thought that the connection does not matter if he is server...
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_pipboy2000]

               No idea? Anyone?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_HipMaestro]

               

pipboy2000 wrote...

No idea? Anyone?

Ummm.... maybe disable ZoneAlarm?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_kenween]

               

HipMaestro wrote...

pipboy2000 wrote...

No idea? Anyone?

Ummm.... maybe disable ZoneAlarm?

this is a toughie 
- cud be the zonealarm (zonealarm is a crap firewall, full of leaks, get rid of it)
- 1900+ resolution is extremely high for a celeron of that calibre. even my P4 2 ghz wud have trouble running that. My P4 has a lower video card than the ATI 1650 but 1900+ resolution is very demanding even on high end cards. odd it runs smoothly in singleplayer.
- could be unusual handicapping features inside the ATI 1650 or the Celeron D. they are not completely mainstream either at start of nwn or now. but this is not highly likely provided he has good drivers. what i would suggest is using a directx build which is proven to work well with nwn. for my older machines, including winxp,i use a specific directx build which always works but is not quite the latest. but for my win7 machine, i had to update these drivers.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par kenween, 05 octobre 2010 - 06:35 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_ElgarL]

               A few questions.

If YOU start a MP game and play (without anyone else joining) is the speed ok?
If HE starts a MP game and plays (without anyone else joining) is the speed ok?

If the speed is ok when hosting a MP, but still solo, then it's your internet connection thats causing the problem. Could be firewalls/Antivirus, but something external to NWN thats causing the problem.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_pipboy2000]

               

ElgarL wrote...[...]
If YOU start a MP game and play (without anyone else joining) is the speed ok?

-YES!

If HE starts a MP game and plays (without anyone else joining) is the speed ok?

- NO!
If he starts a SINGLE PLAYER game speed is okay.
if he starts a MULTIPLAYER  (without anyone else joining) game speed is very bad! And that is very odd, imho...

EDIT: Disabling ZoneAlarm had no effect
               
               

               

                     Modifié par pipboy2000, 04 octobre 2010 - 11:48 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_kenween]

               that's so strange .. i was thinking he was running as a dmclient but no.. he is using the new internet game option...

i guess he is certain his video settings for single player are ayt 1920 and he has no difficulty?.... 

keep testing and reporting if you like '> we're stil listening
               
               

               

                     Modifié par kenween, 05 octobre 2010 - 06:42 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_HipMaestro]

               Is it possible that besides ZoneAlarm he also has the standard WinXP firewall running in the background?  If so, disable that.  If not, forget I mentioned it.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_pipboy2000]

               Thank you for all the answers!

We are testing again this evening and i will tell you the results.



Maybe i can convince him to use fraps or something, so I can tell you the exact performance difference between SP and MP.



By the way: He told me, that he uses 1650 x 1080 for singleplayer now, because 1920 was a little slow.

The "He can play singleplayer in 1920 * 1080 without any problems" in the first post wasn't completely right. I'm sorry about that.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_ElgarL]

               Very odd. The only difference between single player and multiplayer is a couple of API calls.

If it was an Antivirus thing, it would affect both games.
It HAS to be a port restriction/access/firewall thing. It really is the only difference between the two.

Shut down Zone Alarm. Turn off Windows Firewall. (if he has it) Shut down Peerblock.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_pipboy2000]

               Okay, we tried without all the firewalls and it didn't help us at all...



We will give up now.



Thanks for all the help and your efforts!



We came to the conclusion, that the solution will be to buy a new PC.