NWN:EE Steam beta CPU performance

Zacmanmerl

Hi there, just curious to how people are finding the game runs fps wise?
Running an Intel Xeon E3-1231 and a GTX 1080Ti, tested running at minimum settings up to maximum.

Some bigger areas I get as low as 8fps, task manager showing the game maxing out one of my CPU cores (GPU only being used to about 30%), does anyone else have similar results? I would have to assume the game isn't optimised to run on multiple cores due to it's age but just curious if anyone else gets similar results or if any more optimisation is going to be coming to the game, or if there are any solutions to make it run a bit smoother.

Sherincall

A single core maxed out and a GPU at 30% sounds about right for a high load area. 8fps is quite extreme though. I'm guessing the Xeon isn't used to crunching so much single-threadedness.

Try disabling or turning down the shadows, they are the biggest CPU side impact.

DrHappyAngry

This might have absolutely nothing to do with your performance, but I've found something about the game's openAL implementation causes the game to lag really badly for me. I've got other sound issues, so I had to use a software openal. Every time I've tried the game after updating, I still have the missing sounds, and I noticed the performance is terrible. I drop the dll file back into the game directory, and in addition to fixing the sounds, it fixes the performance.

Grab the openal soft from here http://kcat.strangesoft.net/openal.html

From the archive take the file openal-soft-1.18.2-bin.zip\openal-soft-1.18.2-bin\bin\Win32\soft_oal.dll and copy it to the nwn install folder, for me it was C:\Users\DrHappyAngry\Beamdog Library\00840\bin\win32. Rename the soft_oal.dll file to OpenAL32.dll. I'm not sure on the location on steam, but you should put the OpenAL32.dll wherever the nwmain.exe and other executables are.

Like I said, this may not have anything to do with your performance issues, but maybe worth a shot. If the game gets updated, the OpenAL32.dll file could get blown away, so keep a copy around somewhere else.

Zacmanmerl

@Sherincall , yup already done that :c but I do agree with you on the Xeon, was just hoping anyone else had similar results.
@DrHappyAngry hey thanks man, I will give it a shot and see how it goes. Personally I haven't had any issues with the sound, but I shall remain hopeful

Arakim

I'm not having any FPS falloff, until my CPU/GPU melt.
Seriously, the temperature is starting to be an issue. I'll see if my shadows are turned off. Is there anything else I can do game-wise?

sarevok57

yeah i notice some hard lag sometimes as well and im running

windows 7
amd fx 9370
radeon 390x in crossfire

so with that, i shouldnt have ANY lag at all with a game that came out around 2003 especially when doom 2016 can be run on absolutely max settings on everything and i still average 90fps with that ( and rarely see it go down to 60 )

voidofopinion

On my end:

GTX 980
i7 6700k @ 4.5Ghz
16GB DDR4 2132

Enhanced Edition runs absolutely beautifully at 4K with zero slowdown.

...Unless Ambient Occlusion is turned on and then FPS holds at 60 but randomly drops to 20-30 FPS every few seconds.

Turning off AO stabilizes the issue.
Dropping the resolution to 1440p and leaving AO on fixes the issue.

So for me my only issue is the unoptimized AO but Trent said it was an early test that would go through more rigorous optimization in the future.

JuliusBorisov

Arakim said:

I'm not having any FPS falloff, until my CPU/GPU melt.
Seriously, the temperature is starting to be an issue. I'll see if my shadows are turned off. Is there anything else I can do game-wise?

@Arakim We are working on Ambient Occlusion. If it affects your performance, turn it off; it's an advanced effect.