Low FPS for my hardware..

[Moldavia]

Good game having some fun with this. Curse of Shadows seems to have a totally inaccurate tooltip. Tooltip refers to it as being a DOT spell however whenever I use it it just does a chunk of damage and no DOT aspect.

The only other problem I seem to have, considering the system requirements, I am lucky if I can squeak out 20-25 FPS out of the game. I am running a Dell XPS M1710 Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2 GHz, 3 GB of memory, 7950 GO GTX video card. My Settings are as follows.

Resolution: 1920X1200 (Has to be set to this or the graphics are blurry because their not running native resolution)
Color Depth: 32 Bit
Frequency: 60Hz
Antialiasing: None
Filtering: No Filtering
Triple Buffer: Off (On/Off makes no difference)
VSync: On

Dynamic Shadows: None
Dynamic Reflections: None
Full Screen Effects: Off

Environment Details Slider: All the way Left
Visibility Slider: All the way Left

Audio Quality: Medium

Based on what I see in this game I do not really understand what graphics rendered would be causing such a low FPS on my hardware. I play many games and am very knowledgeable with computers so I know how my hardware should run with games and I feel I should be getting more that 20 FPS with this game. I play WOW@50-60 FPS generally, Fallout 3/New Vegas typically in the 40-45 range, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games in the 40-50 range sometimes drops to 30-35 depending on area. So being fair I would say this game should render at least in the 40-50 range not 20.

In addition to my specs above I am running Windows 7 Home Premium fully up to date. NVIDIA Drivers are version 259.47. I run PerfectDisk 10 on my hard drive every game install and once a week so there is no fragmentation.

Thanks for your time and any assistance anybody can offer.

[Lamento]

With VSync on your game runs at 60 Hz or 30Hz or 20Hz or 15 Hz.
I suggest to set it to Off.

[Moldavia]

With VSync on your game runs at 60 Hz or 30Hz or 20Hz or 15 Hz.
I suggest to set it to Off.

VSync tells your graphics card to synchronize its actions with your monitor. Thus a VSync of 60 Hz will not allow the video card to render more than 60 frames a second which prevents "tearing" of the graphics. Turning off VSync in a game you are getting less than 60 FPS is completely pointless because it will have absolutely no effect on your framerate since it is already below the monitors frequency. With this game I cannot get more than 25 FPS out of the game no matter how low/off the settings are set too. With the settings all on low/off the whole screen is very fuzzy looking and hard on the eyes to look at.

I have been building computers/networks for 20+ years so I very well know my hardware and their capabilities. I know this game should not be producing such low framerate on my notebook. I am not sure where you get 60, 30, 20 or 15 Hz but your information is highly inaccurate. Even though this game has the option to turn off VSynch it still seems to have a Frequency limitation of 100 Hz or 100 FPS.

[Lamento]

With VSync on (and double buffering): If your system can't render 60 fps, it has to skip each second frame. ->30 fps. If it's even slower, it has to skip 2 out of 3 frames -> 20 fps, and so on (3 out of 4, 4 out of 5).

Look at the table at the bottom of this article (translated from German):
http://de.babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.3dcenter.org%2Fartikel%2Fwa s-heisst-vsync-und-wie-wendet-man-es%2Fdouble-buffering&lp=de_en&btnTrUrl=%C3%9Cbersetzen

[dzpliu]

try playing windowed. it helped me alot

[0xDEADC0DE]

VSync tells your graphics card to synchronize its actions with your monitor. Thus a VSync of 60 Hz will not allow the video card to render more than 60 frames a second which prevents "tearing" of the graphics. Turning off VSync in a game you are getting less than 60 FPS is completely pointless because it will have absolutely no effect on your framerate since it is already below the monitors frequency.

No you're totally wrong. You'll gain quite a bit of framerate turning it off. As the video card waits for the refresh, more slowly the game runs more often you'll miss a refresh cycle and the game will wait another entire cycle, dropping at 30fps instead of 60 (as it needs two cycles to complete the render)

It's pointless having it on if the game runs slow not otherwise...

Turn off vsynk, set resolution to 1280 and maybe you'll be even able to use some special effects.
Graphics is a lot uglier with every effect disabled than in lower res with everything enabled.

Also no texture filtering? really, do yourself a favor and get that resolution down. If you don't want to play the game at a lower resolution play it windowed, would be smaller but at least you'll use 1:1 pixels


I have been building computers/networks for 20+ years so I very well know my hardware and their capabilities.

so you surely know that the main thing that slow down a game is playing it at very high resolutions+vsynk. You really settled for a bad configuration on that game

[kovi_cz]

I'm no expert in this, but I would also try to reduce the resolution and set the VSync off or try to play Numen windowed as the last option. Also, don't forget that there is no Unreal/id Tech engine behind this game. :)

And how about running the game with Win XP compatibility? I learned on a Czech forum that this surprisingly can solve some image problems in Vista, maybe it can do some good in Win 7 as well, who knows...

[0xDEADC0DE]

don't worry kovi_cs I'm in windows 7 64bit and your game has no compatibility problems whatsoever with the OS itself. I'm also using an ATI card with crossfire that's normally my main source of incompatibilities and I had no problems with Numen.
I've tried it on win 7 both on my laptop and my desktop pc.

Running games at that resolution on a laptop is not a good idea, as a laptop tends to drop in performance when the chips are overheated

[Moldavia]

"No you're totally wrong. You'll gain quite a bit of framerate turning it off. As the video card waits for the refresh, more slowly the game runs more often you'll miss a refresh cycle and the game will wait another entire cycle, dropping at 30fps instead of 60 (as it needs two cycles to complete the render)"

This is totally dependent on if your video card can handle producing more frames than the refresh rate. As long as the video card is powerful enough you will never have this problem so you are only half correct. I know for a fact that my video card is not powerful enough for some games to render a complete 60 FPS with certain settings on like AA and AF which is why I typically have those turned off or in some games set to 2X. Like I said I am very familiar with my hardware I know exactly what it is capable of and for a game like this 20 FPS is not it. I am not going to get into all the technical mumbo jumbo of vsync and refresh rate because it would fill a whole page.


"Turn off vsynk, set resolution to 1280 and maybe you'll be even able to use some special effects.
Graphics is a lot uglier with every effect disabled than in lower res with everything enabled."

This is totally not true. Running any LCD on a resolution other than native causes blurry graphics. This can be proven on every LCD monitor out there that is why there is a native resolution. I have extremely good eyesight due to being born with a severe hearing loss and if I do not run a game at native resolution I can see every blurry line. Just the same in the old CRT monitors with less than 60Hz refresh rate I can see the refresh lines drawing on the screen.


"Also no texture filtering? really, do yourself a favor and get that resolution down. If you don't want to play the game at a lower resolution play it windowed, would be smaller but at least you'll use 1:1 pixels"

Playing this game windowed does nothing for framerate whatsoever. I set it to 800X600 and still cannot get more than 30 FPS out of the game regardless if VSync is enabled or not. Windowed 800x600 with every setting off and sliders at lowest did not increase the framerate whatsoever. Also more than 50% of the time I launch the game I need to redo all my video/audio settings because the game reverts to default.

"so you surely know that the main thing that slow down a game is playing it at very high resolutions+vsynk. You really settled for a bad configuration on that game"

I play every game I own at 1920x1200 with little issue. It is not a bad configuration at all. All the games I listed with the FPS values is playing with my resolution in the game set to 1920x1200.

Seriously if I can play Fallout New Vegas at 40-50 FPS @ 1920X1200 there should be no reason this game should give me 20. I have tried every resolution the game supports with every option on/off and the FPS will not render higher than 30 unless I am looking straight at the ground which obviously I am not going to play the game running around with the camera pointed straight down lol.

[kovi_cz]

Maybe I would try to reinstall the DirectX drivers and use the latest Redist (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=3b170b25-abab-4bc3-ae91-50ceb6d8fa8d) version, but other than that... And isn't there anything running in the background? Let's say ICQ, Skype, browser... I would also try to turn off antivirus.

[Moldavia]

Everything I have is up to date as I am very strict with checking for updates for all drivers on a weekly basis. I do not use a/v or wirewall software. I have extremely low amount of background running apps normally since I turn off all auto starting apps. I have custom setup for turning off system services as well so they are not taking up resources. Only thing running in background at startup is printer drivers and essential system services. This setup provides the least possible that something running will cause an issue while gaming.

I already installed that DirectX. I consider checking updates and installing latest DirectX to be standard troubleshooting methods. 20+ years building computers and I always build the same way. Constant weekly checks for driver updates on every computer in the house. Whatever the problem is has to be something odd or simply this game will never run well on my hardware :(

[0xDEADC0DE]

of course it will not at that resolution, I'm a game programmer, really, turn it down. If you don't want "blurry pixels" turn it down and play windowed. Or enjoy your framedrops...
Comparing an in-house engine made for a budget title with Bethesda own engine with years of optimization (since Oblivion) is also pointless. You seem to know a lot about how to keep a pc clean and well running, but it doesn't make you a coder, also every gamer knows that the first thing you need to lower when your framerate drops is resolution

[Moldavia]

0xDEADC0DE: LOL What parts of my posts have you obviously failed to read? I already stated twice now that I have tried EVERY resolution both windowed and full screen it does not matter. Playing 800x600 windowed with everying OFF provides the exact same 25-30 FPS as with full screen 1900x1200 with everying ON. For a programmer you sure fail to read and are stuck on your own assumptions that your 100% correct and I am 100% wrong. My brother is a programmer as well and I went to him first and he agrees, after looking at the steam store requirements for this game, that I should be producing more than 25-30 regardless if its a low budget engine.

Next time please read my posts and what I have done before replying with your repeat redundant answers because your only repeating steps I have already taken. Thank you.

[541n7]

Im having a similar problem. Gone from the game refusing to run now it runs (well more sputters like a 12 YO a after his first wank) its extremely slow the ui looks clear but the general graphics are very grainy. Dunno if thats what it sup[posed to be like at the beginning or not?

[kovi_cz]

541n7: No, the graphics shouldn't be grainy at all, but this happens to some gamers. It happened to me on my notebook as well and I solved it by getting used to it... :( I just don't have any idea about what could cause this and how to solve it.

[WonderGamer]

I'm having the same grainy issue that 541n7 is having. I had it fixed at one point, but can't seem to get it back to where it was. Game actually hurts my head trying to play it grainy like this, so I would like to get it normal if possible.

[WonderGamer]

Looks like I found a way to fix it. What I had to do was remove the registry keys for the game indicating the settings, then start up the game & set them up from scratch. I'm guessing it got some malformed data in there that needed to be cleared. Registry keys indicating the setting for the game can be located at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Centauri\numen.

EDIT: Doesn't look like it stays that way for long though. Directly after posting this, I ran into the problem again.

[kovi_cz]

I'm sorry, but I don't have any idea how to help you.

[WonderGamer]

Don't matter. I figued out what was causing it. The problem was I was trying to force the game to run in a resolution of 1360x768 by changing the registry keys for the game (seeing as this is my normal resolution for my PC, whether in-game or not). This caused the registry keys to get malformed & had to be cleared to fix it. In order to fix it, you have to delete the entire folder that I indicated in my previous post, then set up your options from scratch once it is run again. Perhaps this information will be useful in your Technical Support dept. if you ever have to fix a similar problem with the game.

EDIT: Well now I'm running into the problem again & clearing the registry keys aren't helping this time around. I'm thinking the issue may have something to do with available RAM, although I'm not entirely sure that's the case at this time. I'll try to figure it out myself seeing as you're not sure what's causing it either.

[kovi_cz]

Yes, you are right, we don't have a clue what could cause this. Your post looked so promising at the beginning, but then...

[WonderGamer]

Well clearing the registry keys usually works. What I had to do last time when clearing the registry keys wouldn't work was to restart my computer as well.

Still not sure on the cause of it because it happens even when I'm not manually editing settings in the registry. I was thinking that my NVIDIA Control Panel might have something to do with it, but changing settings there didn't help either.

The best fix I've found so far is clearing the registry keys. If this doesn't work, then restart the computer & clear them again.

If I do manage to find out what is causing the problem, then I will post back. So far I have a number of things hooking into the game, but I can't see that they are causing problems with the game seeing as it doesn't fix the issue when I kill those processes. The processes that I have that do hook into the game include: Logitech G15 Keyboard software: LCDMon.exe
LGDCore.exe
LgDevAgt.exe Logitech SetPoint
Steam Overlay
Xfire