Originally posted by Margulis

Ok so I've got some new information.  I decided to monitor my cpu usage during vanguard and noticed that it never went about 17% and didn't seem to fluctuate at all when my game hitched.  HOWEVER, I then went into task manager, performance, and then resource monitor.  I noticed the following two trends:

 

1.  The "disk" monitor fluctuated wildly, and would go from nothing to very large spikes, almost always in conjunction with my in game hitching.  I had Vanguard in window mode and also was watching this program at the same time as running around.  Even if I was just standing around it would go through random spikes and the little box next to "disk" on that screen would go from empty to completely full frequently.  Now, I'm not very adept at this sort of thing but it does seem to be a connection of sorts.   

 

2.  My network tab, and subsequent box next to it showing usage, was always at least half full, and would also spike to completely full on occasion, although it didn't happen as consistently as the disk thing. 

 

So, for those that are much more wise in this than I am, could either of these things be the source of the problem and shed some light on the situation?  Any new ideas or things to try based on this?

    If it is a hard drive access/performance issue try turning off indexing and disabling virtual memory set to none or 0 (using Windows 7 for a long time now don't really remember what vista's settings look like).You have 6 GB of ram you don't need any more drive thrashing or the wasted space. If needed turn off system restore, error reporting, remote access,and set visual effects to best performance check the use visual style and smooth edges boxes. Then run disk clean-up, disk error checking and defrag your drive.

   At that point check your mobo drivers for the latest updates. Not Bios updates just chipset / Sata updates. I don't like telling people to mess with bios updates. If this fails try an un-install and re-install of the game. If still no luck try adding another hard drive a install the game to it. see if that fixes your problem if not ... I give up try Windows 7 or XP.... 

Originally posted by Nizur

From what I've read, VG is harsh on hard drives, but you've got a pretty beefy one. Way beefier than mine and I'm rarely seeing hitching. I'm assuming you've defragged the drive?

Also, you've got an nVidia card, so you've probably got the nVidia control panel. I nearly doubled my FPS again tonight despite turning on AA by adding VG under Manage 3D Settings. I'm not sure if you've got 1 or 2 displays. I have two and noticed that the default setting was Multiple Display Performance mode. I switched that to Single Display performance mode. I also switched Threaded optimization to On.

Those settings are only for VG, not default settings. YMMV, but it's worth a try.

I also messed around with LOD settings and LightComplexity in my vgclient.ini file some more.

EDIT: BTW, what's your connection? Cable? DSL? Are you using a router? Firewall?

Hey hey!  I seem to have made some progress here.  Did some 3d setting modifications including the threaded optimization and single display performance and it is running MUCH better now.  I'm still gettting some hitching when entering a new town or something but after the inital hitching it runs smooth, and out in the field hitching is pretty minimal.  It's playable now at least so hooray!

I'm on seradon with character Margulis by the way if anyone is interested in a new friend in game.

Originally posted by Margulis

Originally posted by Nizur

From what I've read, VG is harsh on hard drives, but you've got a pretty beefy one. Way beefier than mine and I'm rarely seeing hitching. I'm assuming you've defragged the drive?

Also, you've got an nVidia card, so you've probably got the nVidia control panel. I nearly doubled my FPS again tonight despite turning on AA by adding VG under Manage 3D Settings. I'm not sure if you've got 1 or 2 displays. I have two and noticed that the default setting was Multiple Display Performance mode. I switched that to Single Display performance mode. I also switched Threaded optimization to On.

Those settings are only for VG, not default settings. YMMV, but it's worth a try.

I also messed around with LOD settings and LightComplexity in my vgclient.ini file some more.

EDIT: BTW, what's your connection? Cable? DSL? Are you using a router? Firewall?

 

Hey hey!  I seem to have made some progress here.  Did some 3d setting modifications including the threaded optimization and single display performance and it is running MUCH better now.  I'm still gettting some hitching when entering a new town or something but after the inital hitching it runs smooth, and out in the field hitching is pretty minimal.  It's playable now at least so hooray!

I'm on seradon with character Margulis by the way if anyone is interested in a new friend in game.

   Since you use Nvidia try increasing your max pre-rendered frames setting to 5 or 6 that should help to further smooth things out.

I havent played properly for over a year now but did try the new trial island few weeks back and i have to say i9ve never had any problems playing this game on max even on release, i did have a few lag issues in cities in the begining but was understandable and i was only using a top end Series 7card back then, now i have a medium range series 9 9600GTO and it still runs fine on max i mean zero problems still.

I guess it really must be just certain setups ive watched these threads since day one and obviously there is a prob just surprised ive never had any with medioca systems, damn i think i was only running 1gig a ram back on release too lol.

Reagrdless hope you sort it.

Originally posted by Margulis

Originally posted by Nizur

From what I've read, VG is harsh on hard drives, but you've got a pretty beefy one. Way beefier than mine and I'm rarely seeing hitching. I'm assuming you've defragged the drive?

Also, you've got an nVidia card, so you've probably got the nVidia control panel. I nearly doubled my FPS again tonight despite turning on AA by adding VG under Manage 3D Settings. I'm not sure if you've got 1 or 2 displays. I have two and noticed that the default setting was Multiple Display Performance mode. I switched that to Single Display performance mode. I also switched Threaded optimization to On.

Those settings are only for VG, not default settings. YMMV, but it's worth a try.

I also messed around with LOD settings and LightComplexity in my vgclient.ini file some more.

EDIT: BTW, what's your connection? Cable? DSL? Are you using a router? Firewall?

 

Hey hey!  I seem to have made some progress here.  Did some 3d setting modifications including the threaded optimization and single display performance and it is running MUCH better now.  I'm still gettting some hitching when entering a new town or something but after the inital hitching it runs smooth, and out in the field hitching is pretty minimal.  It's playable now at least so hooray!

I'm on seradon with character Margulis by the way if anyone is interested in a new friend in game.

Excellent, I'm glad you got it running well.  Yes, places like New Targonor you will probably not be able to get rid of that initial hitching no matter what you do, or what system you have.  Everyone is in the same boat there.  Once those textures are loaded, then it will be smooth like you said.... it's the trade-off of having no zones or load-screens.

Someone above mentioned something I complete forgot about.  I shut off all the weird crap Vista does with indexing, back-up etc. etc. and that made a big difference for me right off the bat.

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Originally posted by Margulis

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Originally posted by Nizur

From what I've read, VG is harsh on hard drives, but you've got a pretty beefy one. Way beefier than mine and I'm rarely seeing hitching. I'm assuming you've defragged the drive?
Also, you've got an nVidia card, so you've probably got the nVidia control panel. I nearly doubled my FPS again tonight despite turning on AA by adding VG under Manage 3D Settings. I'm not sure if you've got 1 or 2 displays. I have two and noticed that the default setting was Multiple Display Performance mode. I switched that to Single Display performance mode. I also switched Threaded optimization to On.
Those settings are only for VG, not default settings. YMMV, but it's worth a try.
I also messed around with LOD settings and LightComplexity in my vgclient.ini file some more.
EDIT: BTW, what's your connection? Cable? DSL? Are you using a router? Firewall?

---

 
Hey hey!  I seem to have made some progress here.  Did some 3d setting modifications including the threaded optimization and single display performance and it is running MUCH better now.  I'm still gettting some hitching when entering a new town or something but after the inital hitching it runs smooth, and out in the field hitching is pretty minimal.  It's playable now at least so hooray!
I'm on seradon with character Margulis by the way if anyone is interested in a new friend in game.

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Woohoo! Glad we got it playable! I'd make another backup of your vgclient.ini file as it is now, and then continue tweaking with textures, LODs and such until you get it running as good as possible.

Me: Vista 64, Intel 2 Q6600 quad@3.2 ghz, GTX 275, Liberty Enermax 620 w psu...

I have to edit my .ini file to get it to run well. It runs nicely except for places like Veskal's exchange where I sit at 18-20 fps. But I run maxed with maybe 1-2 very minor things turned down.  I am certainly able to play, it runs ok for me overall.

There is one line you can add in the ini that involves the netspeed. I am almost positive that it is not the one you see all over the tweak guides. I am kicking myself for not saving my old ini file last time I uninstalled, but it literally gave me a 20-30 fps boost when I added this line. It is something about how the game processes the online data. If anyone finds a net tweak (I found it from when I played Unreal Tournament), try that.  If not, just use the recommended one. 

On another note, I just went back to check out EQ2. Two years ago I had a crappier system and could run it on much higher settings than I can now. I have noticed with Vanguard too that I could run it on the lowest garbage settings possible and I get the same FPS as I do maxed out. The same applies to the performance I get in EQ2. I think we're in a weird transition stage with MMO gaming where some of the moderate-high to high end hardware is not running so great on these older games. I see it happening very frequently.

Originally posted by spdkilla

Originally posted by Margulis

Originally posted by Nizur

From what I've read, VG is harsh on hard drives, but you've got a pretty beefy one. Way beefier than mine and I'm rarely seeing hitching. I'm assuming you've defragged the drive?

Also, you've got an nVidia card, so you've probably got the nVidia control panel. I nearly doubled my FPS again tonight despite turning on AA by adding VG under Manage 3D Settings. I'm not sure if you've got 1 or 2 displays. I have two and noticed that the default setting was Multiple Display Performance mode. I switched that to Single Display performance mode. I also switched Threaded optimization to On.

Those settings are only for VG, not default settings. YMMV, but it's worth a try.

I also messed around with LOD settings and LightComplexity in my vgclient.ini file some more.

EDIT: BTW, what's your connection? Cable? DSL? Are you using a router? Firewall?

 

Hey hey!  I seem to have made some progress here.  Did some 3d setting modifications including the threaded optimization and single display performance and it is running MUCH better now.  I'm still gettting some hitching when entering a new town or something but after the inital hitching it runs smooth, and out in the field hitching is pretty minimal.  It's playable now at least so hooray!

I'm on seradon with character Margulis by the way if anyone is interested in a new friend in game.

   Since you use Nvidia try increasing your max pre-rendered frames setting to 5 or 6 that should help to further smooth things out.

I have to thank you all. Using the Nvidea tweaks including the one above really smoothed so many things out. I have yet to test it thoroughly but the hitching is barely noticeable now.

I have absolutely no problem running Vanguard or ANY other mmo out there. I don't have a new state of the art system but it's a duel intel with nvidia 8800 and 2 gigs of ram.

Point is, I don;t run crappy Vista. That could be the cause by itself. It's just not a good operating system for gaming.

Run "standard" named brand hardware and operating systems, and you'll probably stop beating your head against the wall to get games to run properly.

Just a thought.

I run the game at home on an old OC'ed E6300, 3GB ram free and a Ati 4870 all in 1080p res on High quality, no stuttering.

I also run this on my old crappy Dell XPS 1330 Vista 32, this lappy has a 128MB ram GC...LOL.....Lowered the setting to High performance and its smooth as...25-35 FPS. It is actually amazing how well it runs on the laptop. It looks better then Wow and runs better then wow when I had wow set for med-high settings. 

So.... I wouldn't really blame the poor performance on the game. It can and does run smooth on a lot of peoples hardware. Try fiddling with the settings ingame more. I know there's a few switches that are supposed to reduce stuttering and performance. The visuals are very customizable. I would recommend by turning volumetric clouds off firstly. 

Run XP until the first patch of Win7, Vista is utter crap.  Win7 looks pretty solid right now but it will still probably have its intial release bugs.

I can confirm that VG runs shitty on Vista but very good on XP and W7. I would switch if you care enough about playing the game..if not then oh well.

Originally posted by Fibsdk

I can confirm that VG runs shitty on Vista but very good on XP and W7. I would switch if you care enough about playing the game..if not then oh well.

I have a number of guildies that have gone with the Windows 7 release candidate and all have said that they see significant improvement.  I downloaded the releaes candidate and was about to take the leap until I saw that normal release may be as early as October.  Since I'm sitting good with performance now, I'll wait until the normal release arrives, but when it does, I'm all over it.

Originally posted by COORS

I have absolutely no problem running Vanguard or ANY other mmo out there. I don't have a new state of the art system but it's a duel intel with nvidia 8800 and 2 gigs of ram.

Point is, I don;t run crappy Vista. That could be the cause by itself. It's just not a good operating system for gaming.

Run "standard" named brand hardware and operating systems, and you'll probably stop beating your head against the wall to get games to run properly.

Just a thought.

That's kind of an interesting point.

So often I've seen players complain about one issue or another when it comes to certain game's performance. However, you then learn that they have very specialized equipment or have tweaked the heck out of their systems along with a variety of security measures.

I have a regular computer, middle to top (or by this time probably just middle) xp home edition and I only use it for games. Everything is pretty standard on it and it does not have top of the line security on it (it's a game machine, I could care less if it got a bug or virus, I'll just wipe it) and I rarely have issues.

As a matter of fact the only issue I have is that my roommate set it up and he is very security conscious. Well, some change was done at Turbine and I can't see LOTRO's server at all. After trying to figure out what happened, I made a "guest" account and lo and behold I can see LOTRO's server's.

Of course, one should expect that a major release of an operation system would be able to handle a wide variety of things but since Vanguard is a bit cranky it would just figure that Vista wouldn't like it.

.

ello'

Just to say am not a comp buff but Vanguard runs fine on Vista 64 for me. Strange how it runs well on one rig and not another. My kits quite dated AMD 5200 4 Gig ram samsung 500 gig HD at 7400  Ati Radeon 870. The wifey sruggles with a lot of hitching on her XP based comp.

yeah, it bucks and kicks me and my 32 bit Vista as well.

I am cleaning out another machine to test run Windows 7 on it before making the switch on my main machine.  Once that is complete and I like it I will prolly fully convert my main rig.  I have heard good things about win 7. 

Vista has some nice features in it.  Unfortunately i tink it will go down in history as the 2008 version of  ME !

I guess you got to wait until every OTHER release of Windows before purchasing.  hehe.