[Help] performance issues, can’t change Res

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[Help] performance issues, can’t change Res

superjamesus
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Post by superjamesus » Sat Nov 05, 2022 11:59 pm

Hello

Right to the point I have just installed the new patches and upgrade project from a clean install after being away from the game and the upgrade project for a year or so. The hard drive is new , clean install on ssd. Game looks better than ever but i am getting extremely low FPS so it’s unplayable. I have try’d turning all the settings to med then to low and it makes no difference. The strange thing is that the in-game assets don’t seem to change resolution when I change to say 720P everything still looks like it’s in 4K. Also switching the game from 16:9 mode to native doesn’t put the game in 4:3 I still get a full-screen game and at the lowest rest setting possible 800x600 on a 55in 4K screen the resolution and detail of all the game assets still look like they are in 4K. I thought this strange behavior. The resolution of the in-game text changes but the assets all seem in affected by any resolution setting I try.
I did occur that maybe I am due for an upgrade as the machine is getting on , it is an Alienware alpha which is around the same power as a ps4 for reference. 16gig ddr3 4th gen i5 and custom gtx890 on the board. It still handles previous gen AAA titles without skipping a beat. But has the new upgrade project moved beyond what the machine is capable of?

Although the Resolution issue and the fact that it all previously ran perfectly a year ago gives me some hope.

Any help is appreciated as I the x-wing games are favorites and modding classic games is really the only reason I have a PC

Many thanks

James

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Forceflow
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Post by Forceflow » Sun Nov 06, 2022 6:27 am

Unfortunately it's not possible to change the games resolution, those settings are indeed only used for the additional text overlay and such. The game will always run at your desktop resolution. So I suggest to switch that to a lower setting like 1080p in Windows to see if the performance gets better.
If that helps then there is a tool that will Auto-Switch resolutions when starting the game (or actually any executable) but as I am currently not at home I cannot look that up. But if changing the resolution helps I can help you find it in a few days.
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superjamesus
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Post by superjamesus » Sun Nov 06, 2022 8:02 am

Thanks so much, this makes total sense, I am sure that will fix it, my desktop resolution is indeed set to 4K but I game in 1080P so I am sure this will fix it .. auto resolution switching sounds like the answer

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Vince T
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Post by Vince T » Sun Nov 06, 2022 8:12 am

I think there's an easier way to solve this.
If you navigate to your game directory you should find a file called Hooks.ini
Open it with any text editor and search for the keyword "resolution". You should find this entry

Code: Select all


[hook_resolution]
[hook_resolution]
; Auto set the game resolution
; 1 to enable the feature
; 0 to disable the feature
IsAutoResolutionEnabled = 1

; Define the resolution width
; When set to 0, the screen width is used
ResolutionWidth = 3440

; Define the resolution height
; When set to 0, the screen height is used
ResolutionHeight = 1440
Setting this setting to 1 the game will ignore whatever is set in the game settings and instead use the settings from the blocks below.
- Setting resolutionWidth and ResolutionHeight to 0 will adopt your desktop settings
- Alternatively you can define any other values to customize the resolution.

Also make sure you have the latest ddraw.dll as it should improve performance by allocating processing time from the CPU to the GPU.
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superjamesus
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Post by superjamesus » Sun Nov 06, 2022 8:18 am

This sounds like the solution. Where’s best to source the latest ddraw.dll ? Windows was a clean install about 2 months ago so everything should be quite up to date

Many thanks

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Vince T
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Post by Vince T » Sun Nov 06, 2022 10:34 am

You'll find it on our download-Page under BETA-Versions.
Beta Effects Version 2 by Blue Max's Version 2022-11-05
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superjamesus
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Post by superjamesus » Sun Nov 06, 2022 1:43 pm

ok so reporting my results. method one changes my desktop resolution in windows to 1080p and launch the game all graphic settings default. performs perfectly no low fps.
method 2. editing the hooks.ini for a custom resolution of 1080p for some reason this does not work to fix performance issues. it set the in-game hub to be 1080p however, the performance goes back to very low fps. not sure why that would be

i have not installed the new blue max beta yet. although if the performance is good at 1080p with this method which i think it will be I may not need to if it is only a small performance optimization bump. i could push the res higher my pc can't handle 4k gaming but can usually get a bit more out of it than 1080 although I am fine with that. the fps in king. thanks, everyone for your help .love this mod .. incredible work

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Forceflow
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Post by Forceflow » Sun Nov 06, 2022 3:40 pm

Yeah, @Vince T I am pretty sure that the hooks.ini does not in fact change the resolution but only the aspect ratio and size of the text. As far as I know the only way to change the games resolution is to actually change the desktop resolution in Windows.
Murphy was an optimist! I am a pessimist!
And always remember that a smile is cheaper than a bullet! (District 9)
Webmaster of the X-Wing Alliance Upgrade Project

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Vince T
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Post by Vince T » Sun Nov 06, 2022 9:37 pm

That's odd, fairly certain that's how I change my resolution, it also reflects on the screenshots.

@JeremyaFr can you shed some light on this?

Also, @superjamesus what sort of CPU / GPU are you running? With the new ddraw there should be little to no performance draw on any vaguely contemporary pc (unless it's an office laptop with onboard intel graphics).
Your ship, Captain. I need a drink. - Vince Trageton
Vince T's X-Wing HQ - where the bad guys get their gear

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