Slowdown problem.

[z9john]

Hey everyone.... first off let me say that I've been really looking foward to playing this game, and DLed the demo (which I love) to check it out... but this one issue is keeping me from a purchase at the moment:

I have a fairly decent PC, able to run most 3d games pretty well, but for some reason I get these bad slowdowns (drops in framerate and a slow down of animations and swimming and such)  every once in awile.  They seem to occur mostly in areas with alot of objects on the screen, or when their is a background scene far off (forgive me for not knowing the technical term). Where I really notice it is the large area right before entering Naija's Home for the first time (after her vision).

I tried lowering everything down to the lowest settings (resolution low, vsync + mipmap + effects off) and i still get that slowdown in those same areas and at practically the same intensity.

It's weird since I can run everything on the highest settings and still get perfect framerate  in  other areas.

Im running the latest drivers (not beta) and I have pracically nothing running in the background (I turn off AV and so on)

Any suggestions?

Specs:
Windows XP Pro SP2
BFG Tech 7800 GS OC AGP
2.66 GHz Pentium 4
1 GB ram
Onboard Realtek sound card

[Alec]

Are there any intensive video card settings on like anti-aliasing and the like?

[z9john]

Not that I'm aware of, I just checked the Nvidia Control Panel and it seems I have most of the settings to "Let the application decide."

[dhakkel]

I had this, too, and I thought it was caused by me forcing AA etc. I turned them off, and the problem was gone! ... until I got to the final boss area, haha.

This morning I downloaded the latest beta drivers and installed them, and the problem is gone.. for now. I'll repost if anything bad happens.

Note that I have a 8800 GTX, so this problem should be even LESS likely to happen to me, but it still did. I think it was probably a driver issue, driver issues are funny like that.

[smjjames]

WARNING: SPOILERS IN THE POST!













I've only had a slowdown once, and that was during the first dream sequence. But it is graphics heavy and it slows down when that creature (I couldn't see what it was exactly) which fires a big laser when you near the end. Although I've seen games where there is an intended slowdown when a big attack or something occurs. So it is most likely a normal slowdown because there are so many things happening at once.

[z9john]

Thanks everyone for your posts!

But yeah, I tried toying around with video card settings and all, nothing seems to really work.  If it is a driver issue, maybe I should just wait for the next update or something.

Besides, all of this tweaking of the game has gotten me kinda used to the slowdown, haha.

WARNING: SPOILERS IN THE POST!


I've only had a slowdown once, and that was during the first dream sequence. But it is graphics heavy and it slows down when that creature (I couldn't see what it was exactly) which fires a big laser when you near the end. Although I've seen games where there is an intended slowdown when a big attack or something occurs. So it is most likely a normal slowdown because there are so many things happening at once.

The weird thing with that (if I'm thinking of the same scene) is that during that sequence the game runs almost perfectly.

IDK, I know it sounds weird.... I can't understand it either.

[smjjames]

WARNING: SPOILERS IN THE POST!


I've only had a slowdown once, and that was during the first dream sequence. But it is graphics heavy and it slows down when that creature (I couldn't see what it was exactly) which fires a big laser when you near the end. Although I've seen games where there is an intended slowdown when a big attack or something occurs. So it is most likely a normal slowdown because there are so many things happening at once.

The weird thing with that (if I'm thinking of the same scene) is that during that sequence the game runs almost perfectly.

IDK, I know it sounds weird.... I can't understand it either.

maybe it is an intended slowdown as it only lasts for a few seconds while that laser is firing and otherwise acts normal. It's not an issue for me as the game acts normal. I do get a little bit of a slowdown when I accidentially ram an enemy with my shield on or I ram a projectile and it hurts. Similar with the energy god when he whacks me hard enough for the screen to go red briefly.

I do have the ripples on, so dunno.

[dhakkel]

That enemy is a regular, non-special non-slowdown enemy, so yeah, you're having this problem too.

The only intended slowdowns in the game are when you are low on health and you get hit.

[nambit]

Does anyone know if there are any issues with the Intel GMA boards?
This game is running unbearably slow on my laptop and, after waiting
about a year for the release, it's rather depressing.  I'm not sure if it's
a driver thing or not, but here's my system details:

Dell XPS 1330 notebook
Intel GMA x3100 integrated graphics (based on 965 chipset I believe)
2.0Ghz Intel Core2Duo T7250
2 GB 667 ram.
Windows Vista 32 Premium

Any help would be appreciated.  I have to resort to 640x480 for the game
to be playable.

For the record, Vista rates my graphics card a 3.5.

[z9john]

That enemy is a regular, non-special non-slowdown enemy, so yeah, you're having this problem too.

The only intended slowdowns in the game are when you are low on health and you get hit.

Yea, I guess I should just clarify that when I meant slowdown I meant there was a framerate drop.  When I get hit when my health is low the framerate is still good even though the action slows down.

My bad.

[smjjames]

That enemy is a regular, non-special non-slowdown enemy, so yeah, you're having this problem too.

The only intended slowdowns in the game are when you are low on health and you get hit.

Yea, I guess I should just clarify that when I meant slowdown I meant there was a framerate drop.  When I get hit when my health is low the framerate is still good even though the action slows down.

My bad.

How do I look at the framerate? just wondering.

[dhakkel]

Use a program that shows it, like Fraps or something.

There is no ingame command afaik.

[nambit]

Bump.... so I guess I'm S.O.L. on this issue as no one replied. 

Does anyone know if there are any issues with the Intel GMA boards?
This game is running unbearably slow on my laptop and, after waiting
about a year for the release, it's rather depressing.  I'm not sure if it's
a driver thing or not, but here's my system details:

Dell XPS 1330 notebook
Intel GMA x3100 integrated graphics (based on 965 chipset I believe)
2.0Ghz Intel Core2Duo T7250
2 GB 667 ram.
Windows Vista 32 Premium

Any help would be appreciated.  I have to resort to 640x480 for the game
to be playable.

For the record, Vista rates my graphics card a 3.5.

[Mush Man]

Shit post. Please ignore.

Edited: 22 March 2011

[nambit]

Hey Nambit! I'm a fellow Vista user.

OK, my "Game Graphics" rates as my base score of 3.4, however, I run the game fine, if anything, too fast. I haven't actually played the actual game on my Vista yet, but the game runs absolutely fine. I was running the game using my Gran's comp and suffered some choppy and slow gameplay (I got up to the first save point on that one, not because I suck but because I'm not dedicating much time to Aquaria). All I can say is "grin and bear it". Or buy some better hardware. I'm sure the game runs fine on your Desktop PC, right?

Sigh, I just spent a bundle on this laptop and it can't play this game right.
You see, the laptop is hooked up to my plasma TV, so  you can imagine I really
want to play the game on the laptop.  The desktop is in the other room.  I really
don't understand why it's so bad with the gma x3100 as it should be fine enough
for this game.  I even tried XP and the game still lagged.  I moved the desktop into
the room where my plasma is and man, at 60 fps, the thing is amazing on the
plasma.  I had to put the desktop back, though, as it clutters my condo living room.

To think an Athlon X2 (3800) desktop with a measly Geforce 7300GS card (128Mb)
is smoking my 2.0Ghz Core2duo laptop with all the fixins (and 2GB ram)... hurts.
I'm still hoping it's a simple driver issue that intel will resolve.