Author Topic: FF7 - FRAME RATE GOES WORSE AND WORSE AND WORSE AND WORSE (Read 15755 times)

DLPB_ · « **on:** 2008-10-20 18:25:16 »

I don't know if you are aware of this problem. I have fraps and after some weird slow downs occured after roughly the same amount of time I decided to investigate.

What seems to happen is this: Start ff7.exe and load game.

Fraps shows 30 fps in normal prerendered surroundings. Works smooth. Menu opens, jumps to 60 fps. again, totally smooth,

But play the game (or simply leave cloud standing there 15 minutes) and the game play is now more sluggish. The menu fps is now 35-40 and the prerendered surroundings ingame is now around 27

The text is all jerky arriving on screen and frames are definately being dropped. (i have been hearing reports that after a length of time the game crashes....this may be why)

It becomes much more noticible after 30 minutes to the point you can't even enjoy the game (having to press button 4 times to get rid of text on teh screen)

There is a major bug in Xp (that is what i have tested it with) with FF7. FF7 also seems to take up the whole core cpu (if 2 cores selected, still 50% usage)

core 2 6600 pentium
Nvidia 7900 GS
XP Pro SP3

Thanks for any help at all, I have tried every patch and everything I can think of. Why the hell is it slowing down

--------

Things I have tried:

-options in Nvidia control panel....tons of options
- different patches, including 1.02

Nothing seems to work....after an amount of time, frame rate just hits a point where it is nothing like it was at the start and then if I close FF7.exe and restart...hey presto, back to smooth again. It is driving me loopy!

I am going to double check that I selected 1 core again, to make sure but I am think I checked that too....

I do have the updated mods (maybe this is a reason?): character models are all the advanced ones and yes I do own the game.

dziugo · « **Reply #1 on:** 2008-10-20 18:29:59 »

Try the Cyrix patch.

DLPB_ · « **Reply #2 on:** 2008-10-20 18:33:27 »

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=5158.0

This person may have had same problem

Additional:

mine is not a laptop and I have copied discs to image files. The cd's aren't used at all, not even when movies playing.

DLPB_ · « **Reply #3 on:** 2008-10-20 18:34:01 »

Quote from: dziugo on 2008-10-20 18:29:59

Try the Cyrix patch.

cyrix patch? You have alink or is google ok for it?

I found this>
http://support.eidosinteractive.com/index.php?_m=downloads&_a=viewdownload&downloaditemid=143&nav=0,255,196

?

dziugo · « **Reply #4 on:** 2008-10-20 18:38:41 »

Looks good.

DLPB_ · « **Reply #5 on:** 2008-10-20 19:55:26 »

Thankyou.

Something is definately different....however, this may still be because I am now in software render mode (can't seem to apply patch to anything but the original ff7.exe)

I will test the original files with software renderer too and then cyrix.

btw, why does it patch ff7config.exe

Out of interest, how would I go about adding an update to this cyrix ff7.exe? (all the patches I have got like riva and 1.02 are prebuild exe's). If anyone has a ff7.exe with the cyrix patch already added along with other updates please feel free to upload to me)

dziugo · « **Reply #6 on:** 2008-10-20 20:47:13 »

It was only to cofirm that it's the problem with your CPU. Disable the Speedstep on it (like -> set the performance to high or something like that), and you should be fine, even without the Cyrix patch.

DLPB_ · « **Reply #7 on:** 2008-10-20 20:52:29 »

disable the speedstep?

and by performance how do you mean set to high? You mean process priority or is there an option i don't know about?

btw you are being a great help

dziugo · « **Reply #8 on:** 2008-10-20 21:01:59 »

Well, you do have a software which can change your notebook performace, right? Like, tune down the screen brightness, switch the CPU to power saving. And what you need to do, is to disable the CPU power saving - and it's usually accomplished with setting the overall notebook performance to high - you just have to figure out how to do it

DLPB_ · « **Reply #9 on:** 2008-10-20 21:10:31 »

i have a pc not a laptop, so power settings are always set to on and highest power.

But since this worked with the patch, it is either the cpu patch worked or that software render mode doesn't have this symptom. I will do some tests.

In meantime, if anyone has the riva patch updated with the cyrix, let me know (in other words I need hardware renderer mode WITH the cyrix patch)

Marc · « **Reply #10 on:** 2008-10-20 21:30:33 »

Desktop CPU's now also have clock down options. Some motherboards too.

In xp, the performance settings are under control panel -> power options. select max performance.

If the issue is indeed speedstep as has been suggested, this should disable it.

dziugo · « **Reply #11 on:** 2008-10-20 21:32:29 »

Ah, right... I somehow confused your setup with the one from the thread you linked to. Anyway, make sure that it's performance is set to "Always on" (not on WinXP right now, but it should be something like "Right click on desktop" -> "Properties" -> "Screensaver" -> "Power settings" -> "Always on"), and you should be all fine. You can disable speedstep in BIOS I believe, but that shouldn't be needed.

DLPB_ · « **Reply #12 on:** 2008-10-20 22:57:41 »

I don't see speedstep in bios and all my configs are as above

I think this is definately an issue with the game itself

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DLPB_ · « **Reply #13 on:** 2008-10-21 03:15:04 »

I have confirmed that no matter the patch or version, this happens only when using hardware mode. I use TNT nvidia option because the riva 128 makes garbage happen.

The bug does not happen in software rendered mode

dziugo · « **Reply #14 on:** 2008-10-21 04:57:51 »

It is the issue with how the game is written and your CPU changing it's speed (for whatever reason). Speedstep in BIOS should be something like EIST, just read your motherboard manual.

DLPB_ · « **Reply #15 on:** 2008-10-21 16:32:28 »

well atleast i now know the problem, I will look into this speedstep. Learn something new everyday

DLPB_ · « **Reply #16 on:** 2008-10-21 17:10:50 »

Well it was worth a shot....

but speedstep is now off and still, same old. Does the same thing.

I am willing to bet that cpu patch sorts the problem though, if somehow you can get that incorporated into the riva patch for me?

dziugo · « **Reply #17 on:** 2008-10-21 17:55:18 »

It's set to "Always on", Speedstep is off and it still slows down? Does it slow down when using hardware mode and FF7 with cyrix patch? I know that it won't let you choose the hardware mode by default, but you can use the config program from 1.02 and set it to hardware mode (just hardware - no nVidia fix) - background will look garbled at best, but you could check if the patch helps

DLPB_ · « **Reply #18 on:** 2008-10-21 22:09:56 »

good idea.

I will test that

1 thing. It doesn't let me choose hardware unless nvidia option is ticked

dziugo · « **Reply #19 on:** 2008-10-21 22:35:27 »

Then, I guess, nVidia it is. It's all written into registry, but I can't check which one is hardware mode.

Edit: It's all quite strange I must admit. I wonder if the Cyrix patch worked before because it changed how frame limiters worked, or because it forced FF7 into software mode...

DLPB_ · « **Reply #20 on:** 2008-10-21 23:54:42 »

well I tested now without cyrix patch and render in software has no slow downs at all. Just in hardware., Either that or the slow down takes much longer to happen in software mode...

I will be testing this.... and I will look into the registry

DLPB_ · « **Reply #21 on:** 2008-10-22 00:04:57 »

confirmed. cyrix patch is useless in sorting problem. i played game in hardware nvidia mode with cyrix ff7.exe...

no change.

same thing. now need a way of hardware none nvidia

edit:

additional. I looked into the behaviour and this is what else: I leave menu open, in the settings area. fraps shows 60 fps. After 1 min, it suddenly PLUMMETS

Something seems to occur after ONE minute. As soon as it hits around 1 minutem the slide starts, dropping roughly 1 frame every 2 seconds. Bare in mind that this drop is more evident at first in the config area of ff7. Not the main menu or the ingame.

These follow afterwards

regardless, when the settings page hits around 30-40 fps, even the ingame scenes start to stutter so that after 5 minutes it is noticable and after 20 the game is a joke. (ingame drops from 30 fps down to 20 in short times also)

I am willing to bet that after more time, the game will simply crash or be unplayable. I will test this

DLPB_ · « **Reply #22 on:** 2008-10-22 01:07:30 »

definate pattern to the slide in frame rate.

Here is observation:

After 1 minute fraps detects that the config area screen has dropped from 60 to 59. This then continues to drop ata fast speed. It is actually slowing down, so by the time it reaches 13 fps (after about 10-15 mins) it is losing 1 fps every 2 minutes.

At same time, different screens show different fps. At the time the CONFIG area screen is showing 13 fps (as opposed to 60), the menu screen is showing 25 (as opposed to 60) and the main ingame is running at 24 (as opposed to 30)

The slide continues but at a slower rate as it approaches lower values. When the ingame screen is around 25-28, the gameplay suffers a lot/. Skips are evident, menus opening adn closing are slow, text is jerky arriving on screen (i will upload a file soon to demonstrate)

Now testing what happens after a prolonged period of time.

edit: in a BIZARRE twist....at the moment, even when I reload ff7 after exiting (and making sure the process isnt running) it carries on from where it left off. That is, the frame rates are all crap and at exact same point they were when I left the game. HOW is this possible? Again software mode shows no ill effects at all and runs 100%

I can't be the only one experiencing this, so whoever has the time, get fraps, load up FF7 in hardware mode and go to the CONFIG screen inside the game. stay there and after a min or so, you will see the fps drop from 60. Within 15 minutes you should notice gameplay changes.

I definately need to know if I am an isolated case

-I suppose the BIG question is....why is it only happening in hardware mode...?

dziugo · « **Reply #23 on:** 2008-10-22 04:58:42 »

Well, you got my attention, so I'll definitely be testing this as soon as I grab a PC with FF7 installed (~Friday). It kind of makes sense now - why would CPU slow down if it's getting used up at 100%? Slowdown could be caused by those lost megahertz, but you've already proven that it's not the case here.

DLPB_ · « **Reply #24 on:** 2008-10-22 05:09:07 »

remember that you see it much faster after around 1 minute whilst in the config screen of FF7. The other screens also decrease but this takes time to be noticed. After 15 minutes you should see massive loss of frame rate in any screen (except battle screen which is 15 fps to begin with and would probably take much lomger to be noticed)

sliding the "battle speed" option side to side you will see it get affected with the change in frame rate until it is unable to slide anywhere near as fast as it did. Around this time you shiuld notice that the game is stuttering even in normal gameplay.

That is....if this bug is universal