D2X-XL Performance on Notebook

Yeah, so I have your typical all-business ASUS laptop that was affordable, has great battery life, runs applications extremely fast, and has some pretty awful graphics processing. I'm not opposed to using the -pured2 switch, but honestly, I downloaded D2X-XL for the physics upgrades (that said, the reticle is missing with the -pured2 switch anyway). Problem is that while it runs decently (with no music, oddly enough) even with the Intel 4-series graphics (which I understand is not supported), I still get hiccups in framerates, especially when explosions and such occur, even with everything at the lowest setting.

On my laptop, I'm mainly interested in playing D2 with the advanced collision and damage detection turned on for the added challenge; otherwise, I could care less about the bells and whistles. Is there any configuration switch I can toss in the d2x-default.ini file in order to turn all graphics upgrades off but leave the physics upgrades intact? I have colored lighting, coronas, transparent explosion animations, debris, and the damaged-shield effect all turned on, even when everything is set to the lowest or "off" settings.

This is the kind of trouble you get when your girlfriend needs a computer and you offer your desktop gaming rig so she can check e-mail and Facebook. Wink

_________________
My ReverbNation Profile: Featuring My Descent Music Project: http://www.reverbnation.com/cliftonj

There is a main "show effects" checkbox in the effect options dialog.

_________________
Read this -> [Forum Rules] - [Installation Guide] - [FAQ] - [Switches] - [Bug & Support Trackers] - [Version History] - [Tweak Guide]

Have you tried the notebook friendly switch under Configure > Misc?

_________________
----System Specs----

Motherboard: ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus - AI *BIOS 1502*
CPU: Intel C2D E6850 3.0Ghz 4MB L2 Cache 1333FSB
Heat Sink: ASUS V60 Mini Tower
Memory: Corsair 2G DDR2 Twin2X Matched Pair 800Mhz - CM2X1024-6400C4 G SLI ready
Video Card: ATi Radeon HD 5870 Vapor-X 1GB GDDR5 OC Edition
Sound Card: Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS
Hard Drive: SATA Western Digital 320G 7200 RPM 16MB Cache
DVD ROM: LG 8164B DVD ROM
DVD Burner: Pioneer DVR-112D
OS: Windows XP Pro SP3, Windows 7 Pro, Linux - openSUSE 11.3 & UBUNTU 10.04
LCD Monitor: ASUS PG221 22" Wide Screen

That only gives you a few extra menu settings.

_________________
Read this -> [Forum Rules] - [Installation Guide] - [FAQ] - [Switches] - [Bug & Support Trackers] - [Version History] - [Tweak Guide]

The aforementioned "show effects" option doesn't just enable and disable the sliders on that window, it controls many effects that were compressed into one option when Diedel cleaned up the menu. Stuttering can be caused my multiple things, but depending on what kind of stutter you're experiencing, it's typically caused by texture loading, or CPU priority. The common "Locks up then my ship spins like crazy" problem, or similar problems, are caused by a lack of CPU priority. I'm not 100% on this, but I get it a lot and if I increase the priority of d2x-xl.exe then the problem goes away, and reports from fellow testers support this. To do this, open task manager (control+alt+delete), go to the Processes tab, right click on "d2x-xl.exe" (or whatever version of it you're running) and set priority to "Above Normal". I do NOT recommend going any higher than that. This will slow down Explorer and anything else well enough. D2X-XL is a resource hog, and if you change it any higher than Above Normal, it will cause severe stability issues.

I assume your not using hires textures or models, so the texture loading shouldn't be causing this... but I can't be sure. I'm not sure how much you know in this area, so I'll just go through the list of options of interest. In d2x.ini, you'll want to disable hires_textures, hires_models, and change model_quality to 1. Also make sure you have sdl_mixer set to 1 (that might fix your music issue). If you're running Vista or Windows 7, include the -midifix 1 switch (this will also help with music issues). I would also change -preload_textures to 6, which will slightly increase the time it takes to load a mission, but it decrease the amount of textures you have to load on the fly.

To my knowledge, hires_sounds hardly changes performance, if at all. If nothing else that we mentioned helps your problem, you might as well try that to see if it helps. Even if you didn't download the hires sound pack, D2X-XL comes with a few hires sounds, and hires_sounds is enabled by default.

_________________
I'm Sykes, I'm colorblind, and I really like Anarchy. I'm also a tester for Miner Wars. Check it out!

AMD Athlon X2 3800+ (2.0GHz per), 2GB RAM, PNY GeForce 9600GT, Windows 7 RC/Release

The features most likely causing slowdowns are particle related. Worst of all is explosion shrapnel, as it creates a real lot of particles. Next come high quality light trails (use the basic ones instead). You also should not use the highest render quality, as this enables depth blending for particles which requires quite a fast graphics card. Reduce 3D powerups to "basic" too - that will give you 3D models, but the shield spheres will be sprite based, reducing renderer load somewhat.

Ships get out of control usually when the gfx card briefly is overburdened by having to load a bunch of new big textures or so. Don't play with the hightest image quality to reduce that effect.

I wonder whether I should reintroduce a general "system performance" setting that allows to quickly adjust all feature levels at once ... Think

_________________
Read this -> [Forum Rules] - [Installation Guide] - [FAQ] - [Switches] - [Bug & Support Trackers] - [Version History] - [Tweak Guide]

Last edited by karx11erx on Sun Feb 07, 2010 10:35 am; edited 2 times in total

I wish I could find an easy way to describe the stuttering I get because of my CPU... but as of now I can't find the words. It's basically rendering one frame every 0.5 seconds, but it starts and stops solidly. It doesn't "migrate" in and out of the stuttering, if you kinda get what I'm saying. It starts, lasts for maybe 5 seconds, then stops, and it runs perfectly smooth again. It happens randomly, regardless of what I'm doing or where I am in the mine. Increasing CPU priority fixes it entirely.

_________________
I'm Sykes, I'm colorblind, and I really like Anarchy. I'm also a tester for Miner Wars. Check it out!

AMD Athlon X2 3800+ (2.0GHz per), 2GB RAM, PNY GeForce 9600GT, Windows 7 RC/Release

I know what you're talking about. I had this when the gfx card had to process to much data at once.

_________________
Read this -> [Forum Rules] - [Installation Guide] - [FAQ] - [Switches] - [Bug & Support Trackers] - [Version History] - [Tweak Guide]

Huh, that's interesting. I still get the same problem, even after my upgrade from a 7600 to a 9600 GT. I play primarily in competition mode (MP option that disables all XL effects) and it still happens. I'll try playing with some rendering options to see if the effect goes away at a certain setting.

_________________
I'm Sykes, I'm colorblind, and I really like Anarchy. I'm also a tester for Miner Wars. Check it out!

AMD Athlon X2 3800+ (2.0GHz per), 2GB RAM, PNY GeForce 9600GT, Windows 7 RC/Release

Well now. Disabling the effects just made it crash the game. That makes... a lotta sense... Think

I'm none to arrogant to admit it's the laptop. I do have my desktop for as long as my girlfriend's roommate is a jerk and won't let her use the internet router, though, so I'll just use D2X-XL on that for now. I'll just keep playing with the settings until I find something that works fairly well on my laptop without much FPS-jumping, and I'll try your suggestion about prioritizing, Sykes. Wink

_________________
My ReverbNation Profile: Featuring My Descent Music Project: http://www.reverbnation.com/cliftonj

It shouldn't crash when disabling all effects. It never did for me. You may have hit a (hard to fix) random bug. Try to restart the program and if they aren't, turn off the effects before launching a game.

_________________
Read this -> [Forum Rules] - [Installation Guide] - [FAQ] - [Switches] - [Bug & Support Trackers] - [Version History] - [Tweak Guide]

I have two laptops. One of them is a bit newer than the other one. The newer one Diedel is familiar with, and D2X-XL crashes on program start. I've messed with it for months, and we finally concluded that the video card just simply can't support it. Something that has to do with OpenGL, and how the video card handles it. The older laptop, on the other hand, plays the game just fine, even with a few of the settings enabled. 20 FPS tops, but it still runs it.

My point is, laptops are really finicky when it comes to this stuff. The hardware varies, and it can work on one laptop, but not on another, even if they have very default specs. Laptop video cards are sometimes fine-tuned for that specific laptop, and the drivers for them get outdated and discontinued quickly, once new laptops come out in that series. OpenGL, on the other hand, keeps advancing in features, thus requiring higher spec cards. D2X-XL uses more OpenGL features than I have ever seen in an OpenGL program. I know this doesn't make much sense (regarding it crashing when you turn OFF the effects), but I hope you get what I'm saying.

Too long, didn't read: Laptops are a hit or miss with D2X-XL. Their problems vary from machine to machine, and they are irreproducible and unfixable problems. The best you can do is experiment and hope you come across a fix. The most Diedel, Sirius, I, or anyone else can do here is theorize as to what the problem is, but it's a 90% chance that it's your internal video (that was regarding the crash. Stuttering? Still open for theories)

_________________
I'm Sykes, I'm colorblind, and I really like Anarchy. I'm also a tester for Miner Wars. Check it out!

AMD Athlon X2 3800+ (2.0GHz per), 2GB RAM, PNY GeForce 9600GT, Windows 7 RC/Release

Well, that's interesting. Turning on the effects and turning everything to "none" made it work again... For a while. Upon shooting the switch located behind the lavafall in the red key room in the D2 Counterstrike capaign level 1, the game crashed. It seems rather sporadic. It's like the game will run fine, and then I'll destroy a random robot, and I'll get a stutter. Then I'll open up a random door or shoot a random swith, and the game crashes.

I've narrowed the "effects off" crash to destroying a robot. As soon as a robot's health is depleted, it crashes. Very odd. Turning off notebook-friendly mode caused it to crash even faster.

Looks like I'm just going to be unable to run XL on the lappy. Sad day... But it's certainly not worth stressing out over. It only gets game time during exceptionally slow work days right now. Razz

EDIT: Interestingly, even -pured2 isn't rendered properly. I'm missing the reticle, and the score recieved from destroying a bot is displayed dead center of the screen. Maybe my laptop is becoming an XL-hater. Lolol

_________________
My ReverbNation Profile: Featuring My Descent Music Project: http://www.reverbnation.com/cliftonj

You should report these issues on SF.net, one per ticket, one ticket per issue.

You should also scan your computer for malware, make sure to have the latest drivers installed (sound too, not just gfx), and eventually try a clean reinstall of D2 + D2X-XL.

_________________
Read this -> [Forum Rules] - [Installation Guide] - [FAQ] - [Switches] - [Bug & Support Trackers] - [Version History] - [Tweak Guide]