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 Home  Forum Index Neverwinter Nights 2 NWN2: Technical Support (Self-Help) Nvidia Single Card with Vsync Performance Tips using Triple Buffering
NWN2: Technical Support (Self-Help)
SlaveDog
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
NWN 2: SoZ
Mass Effect PC
Joined: 04 Jan 2003 |
 Posted: Thursday, 02 November 2006 04:21PM |
Note: If you play with vsync off then ignore this post as triple buffering is not needed and will only take additional memory for no reason.
Here is a great tip for NW2 performance using a single Nvidia Card with 256MB or more with vsync on and using dxtweaker to enable triple buffering.
Disclaimer: These are only user tips, caveat emptor. Back up your system..blah-blah-blah if you are worried about anything.
I decided to try triple buffering when I couldn't get my SLI to work and was using only one of my 7900GTX's and the framerates where horrible. Later I got my SLI working and have already posted tips on this in another post.
DirectX does not support triple buffing officially, so setting it on in your Nvidia Control Panel does nothing, it is only for OpenGL. However, you can use dxtweaker to force triple buffering for DirectX games like Neverwinter Nights 2.
Triple buffering will allow your FPS to roam freely up to your refresh rate because it keeps two extra frames in the buffer. Ah heck, just google triple buffering if you want to know what it does.
1. You will need Microsoft .Net Frameworks installed so install 1.1 and/or 2.0. (dxtweaker uses .NET frameworks) so google for these and install them.
2. Google for dxtweaker and download it. There are plenty of guides on using it so google for those also. dxtweaker is easy to use, but you will need to launch the game from dxtweaker. And its great to use for all your Direct 3D games if you have lots of Video RAM on your Nvidia card.
3. The executable you want to use with dxtweaker is NW2MAIN.EXE, (NOT NW2.EXE). Make sure you check the box for making the game active.
4. Using the guides you googled, the module you want to load with the game is called: present changer. Just check this on the list. After checking it, another window will come up and set the count to 2.
5. With one 7900GTX and triple buffering enabled, I can keep my framerates in the 30's - 50's at 1920X1200, otherwise, I drop into the teens.
6. BTW, setting shadows above "low" and "bloom" are heavily CPU bound and may/will negate the GPU, thus any benefits from triple buffering will be lost. It does the same with vsync of and even SLI from what I've seen.
7. If you only have 128MB of video ram, you can try triple buffering and see if it helps, but you may need to run at lower resolutions to free up memory for the 2 extra buffers.
Good luck, and have fun playing NW2 with hopefully better performance.
-SlaveDog | 
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kimbambaman
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
NWN 2
Joined: 10 Jul 2002 |
Posted: Thursday, 02 November 2006 04:47PM |
Thanks for the informative post!
A question, is there any reason to believe this will not work on an ATI video card? I am looking at different options to try to get my framerate to an acceptable level.
My specs:
P4 3Ghz HT
1GB RAM
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB (yeah yeah I know)
SB Audigy 2 ZS | |
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SlaveDog
Game Owner
NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
NWN 2: SoZ
Mass Effect PC
Joined: 04 Jan 2003 |
Posted: Thursday, 02 November 2006 05:34PM |
I know it works with Nvidia since that is all I have ever used. You can always try it, or google it to see if other websites confirm it is GPU independent.
Also, don't bother with triple buffering if you are going to set shadows to medium/high and have bloom on, since they are CPU bound and will negate the FPS improvement from triple buffering. | |
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kimbambaman
Game Owner
NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
NWN 2
Joined: 10 Jul 2002 |
Posted: Thursday, 02 November 2006 05:42PM | |
Ok thanks! Will do tonight and let you know what results I get. | |
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kimbambaman
Game Owner
NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
NWN 2
Joined: 10 Jul 2002 |
Posted: Friday, 03 November 2006 04:33PM |
Well thanks for the suggestion, but that didnt help. Since I only have 128MB of video RAM it actually made it worse.
Oh well, with other suggestions I have found elsewhere in the forums I have been able to get my framerate in the 15-20 fps range which is pretty good considering my rig. (p4 3Ghz, 1GB, Radeon 9700 128MB) Not ideal, but certainly playable.
Thanks again! | |
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emperor_ju
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
SW: KotOR PC
Jade Empire
NWN 2
Mass Effect
Joined: 26 Sep 2002 |
Posted: Saturday, 04 November 2006 12:12AM |
I downloaded dxtweaker, but whenever i run it, i get an error message saying that the plugin directory cannot be found. Then when I run the program, in the module section, it's blank, instead of listing various things, including 'presentchanger.' I've tried googling this, and I've downloaded dxtweaker from different sites, all with the same result. Any thoughts?
Also, I have Microsoft .NET framework installed. It's 2.0. I don't need to downgrade to 1.1, do I? | |
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SlaveDog
Game Owner
NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
NWN 2: SoZ
Mass Effect PC
Joined: 04 Jan 2003 |
Posted: Saturday, 04 November 2006 12:21AM |
Quote: Posted 11/04/06 00:12 (GMT) by emperor_ju
I downloaded dxtweaker, but whenever i run it, i get an error message saying that the plugin directory cannot be found. Then when I run the program, in the module section, it's blank, instead of listing various things, including 'presentchanger.' I've tried googling this, and I've downloaded dxtweaker from different sites, all with the same result. Any thoughts?
Also, I have Microsoft .NET framework installed. It's 2.0. I don't need to downgrade to 1.1, do I?
I'm not sure about that. I know in my control panel's add/remove list, I show both .NET 1.1 and 2.0. It may still need 1.1 but I don't know for sure.
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emperor_ju
Game Owner
NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
SW: KotOR PC
Jade Empire
NWN 2
Mass Effect
Joined: 26 Sep 2002 |
Posted: Saturday, 04 November 2006 12:24AM | |
Yeah, I also have 1.1, and the 1.1 hotfix in my add/remove programs list. Any ideas? | |
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hammermd
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
Mass Effect PC
Joined: 28 Aug 2002 |
Posted: Saturday, 04 November 2006 10:29PM |
*BUMP*
I have a Dell1710 laptop (Yonah 2.13CPU, 2GB RAM, 7900GTX), and this seemed to work for me after I went into the driver and forced video sync ON. Next, I used dxtweaker to do exactly what the original poster said. Seems to be smoother and higher FPS that don't sink into the teens quite so often...just using FRAPS, though, so hoping it's not placebo...I don't think I'm imagining it, though...I also have shadows set on 'Medium' with everything else maxxed, though I have the default (i.e. 'medium') settings left on all the 'Advanced Graphics Settings' since I don't understand many of them (except anisotophy, which I DO understand...that's maxxed). Thanks for the tips and the tool, and I'll keep using it until there's a better workaround/optimization.
-hammer
oh, rez is down from native 1920x1200 to a much more playable 1600x1000, but it still looks good. Bloom is left on, as well, and the tool STILL seemed to help. If I go lower than 1600x1000 (down to, say, 1440x900) it looks like crap since there's no AA option to replace the bloom with. Thanks again. | |
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emperor_ju
Game Owner
NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
SW: KotOR PC
Jade Empire
NWN 2
Mass Effect
Joined: 26 Sep 2002 |
Posted: Sunday, 05 November 2006 06:42AM |
Quote: Posted 11/04/06 00:12 (GMT) by emperor_ju
I downloaded dxtweaker, but whenever i run it, i get an error message saying that the plugin directory cannot be found. Then when I run the program, in the module section, it's blank, instead of listing various things, including 'presentchanger.' I've tried googling this, and I've downloaded dxtweaker from different sites, all with the same result. Any thoughts?
Also, I have Microsoft .NET framework installed. It's 2.0. I don't need to downgrade to 1.1, do I?
bump | |
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hammermd
Game Owner
NWN
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
Mass Effect PC
Joined: 28 Aug 2002 |
Posted: Monday, 06 November 2006 12:40AM | |
Are you unzipping with paths intact? Sry to point this out if it's obvious to you, but some unzipping progs default such that paths are not kept...in other words, the directory structure of the dxtweaker isn't kept, and there is thus no 'Plugin' dir inside the main dir. I used WinRAR and it worked fine, so...that's the only thing I can think of given the messages you're getting, since you've got the .NET stuff installed. | |
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mwigdahl
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN 2
Joined: 05 Apr 2002
From: Olathe, KS, USA |
Posted: Wednesday, 08 November 2006 02:59AM | |
Very nice! Not a super-dramatic improvement, but bought me about a 25% increase in FPS. Thanks for posting the guide! | |
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xXSinist3rXx
Game Owner
 NWN 2
Joined: 06 Nov 2006 |
Posted: Thursday, 09 November 2006 12:55AM |
Thanks slavedog for the work and info. I turned bloom effects off didn't seem to make much more than a 1-2 fps difference. With shadows on high in outdoor night setting I get 22-26fps, if I turn the shadows down to low it doubles to 40-44 or so. Those evironment shadows do make it look alot nicer though.  | |
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xXSinist3rXx
Game Owner
NWN 2
Joined: 06 Nov 2006 |
Posted: Thursday, 09 November 2006 01:45AM | |
With shadows on high still on the first indoor cript indoor dungeon place with the lizards and using dxtweaker, I'm getting 30-50 fps so seems alot smoother atm. | |
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wheelercub
Game Owner
 NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
Joined: 23 May 2005 |
Posted: Thursday, 09 November 2006 11:35PM |
Thanks gang! I've found the DXTweaker Instructions to be one of the most helpful threads to deal with video lag. For reference, here is what I did which gave me about 10 more FPS. Unfortunately, that only puts me up around 22 FPS and I "had" a pretty sweet low budget gaming machine. Anyway, here's a more detailed instructional on what you need to do, including where to get the program.
- Download this file. http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/247 The site is safe, but there may be one annoying popup. Open the zip and move the folder and its contents to your desktop. Then run the .exe file.
- Add a new profile or game and select NW2MAIN.EXE, (NOT NW2.EXE).
- Check the “Active” box so that it loads only with the game.
- Click the Modules arrow to open the area and scroll through the list to get the “Present changer”. Check this box to select it.
- Then in the area below the Modules you can choose specific settings. You need to enter 2 for the “Count” option. Then you should put in the exact resolution numbers that you are playing the game at and the refresh rate of your Monitor. If you can’t find the monitor refresh rate you should be able to find what it is set at by right clicking the desktop, choosing properties, settings tab, advanced button, and then going to the monitor tab.
- There is no save button for some reason. But to play the game you just need to click the profile at the top, then click START and it should start NWN2 with Triple Buffering. It should automatically save the rest of the info for you on exiting.
- Also, here is a full guide to the DXTweaker software that I found. http://www.tweakguides.com/Graphics_1.html
I still have to do some more experimenting to get better frame rates, but in general this program worked great for me and made NWN2 playable. What I don't understand is exactly what the "2" does in the "Count" section mentioned above. Also, FYI - the program crashed once or twice for me because I put in the wrong screen resolution and didnt run at all when left this area blank.
Finally, someone suggested that I go into my NVIDIA control panel and disable V-Synch in the 3D Settings and it should give me a better frame rate. I tried this out last night and it seemed to cancel out what DXTweaker did to help my FPS. Does anyone know why this may have happend? I'm not really a pro at video card stuff.Edited By wheelercub on 11/09/06 23:36 | |
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