Huge slow downs in Diablo 2 ...

[Zenoth]

Yeah ...

So I installed my good ol' social life ripper, a.k.a Diablo 2, after months of hibernation and avoidance. The last time I played it was on my ATi Radeon X1800XL 256MB, rest of the system specs are the exact same, except for my new GPU, which is shown in my sig. With the mentioned card from ATi, I ran that game at 200+ FPS constantly, and it never, ever slowed down once. That's to be expected, right ? That game is old, and isn't fully 3-D, even though it uses some Direct3D effects.

Well, now, with my GTS 640MB, OC'ed or not, I get around 150+ FPS ...

Ok, now you'll say "well then what in the great heck are you complaining about ?!".

Well, there is one huge difference. As soon as there is some enemies on screen, or as soon as I go to specific locations, it slows down to around 10 to 20 FPS, and it will remain to that crawl as long as I stay in those specific places and/or as long as the number of enemies on screen remain there, dead or alive it doesn't matter. I have tried the following drivers: 158.22, 160.02 and 162.18, nothing changed. There is no AA, no AF, I even made a profile for it. I tried to move the slider to "Performance" from "High Quality", and nothing changed. Still slows down.

Is the GeForce 8 series supposed to perform poorly in 2-D semi-3-D games or what ?

Oh and that's on XP SP2.

 

[lupi]

Have you tried different version driver?

 

[Zenoth]

As I mentioned in my post, yes, three different versions, one official WHQL, two others Beta, still from nVidia, no modified third party drivers concerned.

 

[pontifex]

has anyone ever made a mod to make it player in greater than 800x600 or whatever low resolution it was normally at?

 

[Zenoth]

No, sadly. I think Blizzard is monitoring resolution changes the same way they are monitoring Map Hacks and other misc software that alters game-play significantly, not to mention that the engine itself wouldn't support it properly I suppose, since the game is quite old. But I always wondered why wouldn't D2 support higher resolutions, considering that there are other similarly made games out there that can be played up to 1024x768 and 1280x1024 (Age of Empires II engine for example).

But I doubt that my issues are related to the resolution though. I tried lowering it to 640x480, but it doesn't help, and it makes the game look like the first Doom, so no thanks.

 

[Cheex]

D2:LOD plays perfect for me on my 8800GTS 320MB using the 162.18 drivers and all that I used before that.

 

[Zenoth]

^
Oh well ...

Then what could cause the problem ? I re-installed the latest version of DirectX 9.0c, and then I re-installed 162.18 (removed 158.22 in Safe Mode with Driver Cleaner, plus cleaned the Drivers.cab files). All of my other games play perfectly well. I don't get it. It's only D2, and it's not my internet connection since everything is stable and running at maximum capacity according to some broadband tests I've done, and my ISP is reporting no errors on my local server.

Everything was fine with my X1800XL ... it makes no sense ...

 

[brxndxn]

I would guess the CPU is throttling down due to heat... There is no way in hell a game like Diablo 2 should ever slow down a modern computer.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: brxndxn
I would guess the CPU is throttling down due to heat... There is no way in hell a game like Diablo 2 should ever slow down a modern computer.

actually, it would. Diablo2 was built around 3dfx's Glide API, not openGL or D3D, so it is possible, though unlikely. my voodoo5 will still run diablo2 faster than any 8800 ever will

 

[BFG10K]

Then what could cause the problem ?

Have you run your system at stock speeds?

actually, it would. Diablo2 was built around 3dfx's Glide API, not openGL or D3D, so it is possible, though unlikely. my voodoo5 will still run diablo2 faster than any 8800 ever will

This is totally false. Diablo 2 has a Direct3D renderer plus the game is limited to 800x600. If the framerate is dropping then it's a system problem. There's no way any card made in the last ten years would have a problem with such a light load.

 

[invidia]

Unfortunately for top end computers, you have to turn off d3direct or whatever it's called and go to the lowest graphics settings. I had a similar problem where my comp will slowdown to <10 fps.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

Then what could cause the problem ?

Have you run your system at stock speeds?

actually, it would. Diablo2 was built around 3dfx's Glide API, not openGL or D3D, so it is possible, though unlikely. my voodoo5 will still run diablo2 faster than any 8800 ever will

This is totally false. Diablo 2 has a Direct3D renderer plus the game is limited to 800x600. If the framerate is dropping then it's a system problem. There's no way any card made in the last ten years would have a problem with such a light load.

it has *support* for d3d and opengl, but if you notice, running glide using a vooodoo will get you a constant `120fps, d3d maxes out around ~70. trust me, i've used both d3d on my X850XT and a voodoo

glide also has much better special effects.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: invidia
Unfortunately for top end computers, you have to turn off d3direct or whatever it's called and go to the lowest graphics settings. I had a similar problem where my comp will slowdown to <10 fps.

Have you tried a glide wrapper?

 

[jbass]

The 800x600 limit has always sucked.. i love Diablo but the graphics were dated the minute it was released. Still a fun game to play though. I too have problems with frame rates when a lot of monsters are on screen.

If you like Diablo and want more eye candy check out Titan Quest. It is nearly identical to Diablo with beautiful graphics and supports wide screen (1680x1050). I was skeptical, but I gave it a try and it is just as good if not better than the Diablo series. I am sure the updated graphics help sway my feelings.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: jbass
The 800x600 limit has always sucked.. i love Diablo but the graphics were dated the minute it was released. Still a fun game to play though. I too have problems with frame rates when a lot of monsters are on screen.

If you like Diablo and want more eye candy check out Titan Quest. It is nearly identical to Diablo with beautiful graphics and supports wide screen (1680x1050). I was skeptical, but I gave it a try and it is just as good if not better than the Diablo series. I am sure the updated graphics help sway my feelings.

I heard about Titan Quest from a friend who was researching games in preparation for an upcoming deployment. I've been playing it constantly for about 3 days now--great game. Absolutely wonderful Diablo-type game that I've been searching and hoping for for a long time.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo

Originally posted by: jbass
The 800x600 limit has always sucked.. i love Diablo but the graphics were dated the minute it was released. Still a fun game to play though. I too have problems with frame rates when a lot of monsters are on screen.

If you like Diablo and want more eye candy check out Titan Quest. It is nearly identical to Diablo with beautiful graphics and supports wide screen (1680x1050). I was skeptical, but I gave it a try and it is just as good if not better than the Diablo series. I am sure the updated graphics help sway my feelings.

I heard about Titan Quest from a friend who was researching games in preparation for an upcoming deployment. I've been playing it constantly for about 3 days now--great game. Absolutely wonderful Diablo-type game that I've been searching and hoping for for a long time.

i played the TQ demo.. just didn't quite have the diablo feel, not sure what it was that didn't sell me, because i thought the game was made quite well :thumbsup:

 

[MrWizzard]

So have you tried running the game in different display modes? Running the little video config utility in the game directory?

EDIT: A shot in the dark but have you messed with your CPU affinity while playing?

 

[Zenoth]

Originally posted by: MrWizzard
So have you tried running the game in different display modes? Running the little video config utility in the game directory?

EDIT: A shot in the dark but have you messed with your CPU affinity while playing?

How do I change the CPU affinity ? I'd like to try that since nothing else worked (yes I also tried the video config utility in the game's directory, it passed all tests and I selected D3D, plus it did detect my GTS properly).

Do I need to change it while the game is running ? Cause I tried like that, by opening the Task Manager, clicking on the Game.exe process (right-click) and then I clicked on "Affinity" but then it showed some error window telling me that the process could not be terminated.

 

[wahoyaho]

Originally posted by: pontifex
has anyone ever made a mod to make it player in greater than 800x600 or whatever low resolution it was normally at?

Actually..
http://edgeofnowhere.cc/viewto...225ce4bf82262fd4740efc

 

[Zenoth]

I'm getting tired of those slow downs really ...

I tried everything I could, except the CPU affinity, which for some unknown reasons cannot be changed for Diablo (Game.exe), it just refuses to, gives me error windows, but everything else can be affinity-changed without problems. I just don't get it. I also un-installed my AMD X2 drivers, still no go. I installed the Dual-Core hotfix, no go, I re-installed 162.18 for the 4th time, no go. I un-installed and re-installed my sound drivers, no go. It's really starting to piss me off.

 

[MrWizzard]

Originally posted by: Zenoth
I'm getting tired of those slow downs really ...

I tried everything I could, except the CPU affinity, which for some unknown reasons cannot be changed for Diablo (Game.exe), it just refuses to, gives me error windows, but everything else can be affinity-changed without problems. I just don't get it. I also un-installed my AMD X2 drivers, still no go. I installed the Dual-Core hotfix, no go, I re-installed 162.18 for the 4th time, no go. I un-installed and re-installed my sound drivers, no go. It's really starting to piss me off.

hey Zenoth Im gonna try it on one of my machines that is closest to yours when I get home. I am running one that has a 4800 X2 with a 8800GTS on it so I'll test it out and get back to you.

I am running xp sp2 also so hopefully I can recreate your problem. It'll probably be in about 8 hours though. I'll post back in a bit.

In the mean time have you tried putting your overclock back to normal?

EDIT: oh are you running anything extra like LOD and what version are you on now? what places or how many enemies?

 

[MrWizzard]

Ok I tried it but had no problems at all, I am running the 158.19s though. I doubt that's it though you could try them.

But as I was playing I remembered back in the day I had the same problem on (2 machines) as you did the exact same problem. This was back in the P3 and voodoo days though.

Anyway it drove nuts and I almost stopped playing because of it. But I ended up fixing it. It ended up being a program that ran in the background. I think it might have had to do with my sound card actually. Sound blaster.

Try changing your sound cards accileration in the DirectX control panel to basic and playing too.

Also try starting up your computer with the bare basics running. You can do that easily with MSCONFIG.

Let me know if it still does not work. I have a feeling its not your video card at all maybe.

 

[Zenoth]

Alright, so it might be three things ...

1) Background process affecting the game's performance
2) Graphics Card drivers
3) Audio Card drivers

Ok, well thanks a lot for the input MrWizzard, I'll take a look at them all and I will report back.

As for the performance drops it always slows down as soon as there's too much going on on-screen, either too many enemies, too many visual effects or just too many architectural details in certain map locations all across the five Acts of the game, two examples out of hundreds I've found would be right at the Kurast Town exit in Act III where you see the Wanderer slowly walking and then transforming, and at the Frigid Highlands waypoint in Act V, more precisely just south of the waypoint where you have to cross some sort of a wooden passage which leads to Shenk and his minions. There's tons of such places where even without a single enemy around the game will slow down to a crawl.

I'll post screen-shots to show you guys what I mean. And to answer a question asked earlier in the thread, yes I've tried with all stock frequencies, but no go.

EDIT:

Ok, I tried the following so far ...

* Un-installing 162.18 for 158.19's = No go
* Un-installing and Re-installing my Audio drivers (Sound Blaster Live! 5.1) = No go
* Reducing Audio Acceleration in Windows = No go
* Re-installing the game itself and re-patching it = No go

Next thing to try ...

* Try running the game without RivaTuner running in the background
* Try running the game without NOD32 running in the background

I will report back later.

 

[Zenoth]

WOW ...

Ok, I've made a very interesting (and uninteresting at the same time) discovery ...

If I disabled the "Perspective" video option in-game, then the slow down will be almost all gone (there still is some, but much less often).

Look at the top-left frames-per-second counter guys ... I think I don't need to say more ...

With Perspective On: http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/3735/31836895rn6.png
With Perspective Off: http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/1826/75108394gs0.png

I just DON'T get it ... I ... I really can't guys. WHY in the great HECK was my Radeon X1800XL 256MB NEVER had ANY issues whatsoever with Diablo 2, and that all of a sudden a two-to-three times better new GPU CAN'T couple with effects that the previous could ... it's just beyond me.

At least I can play my 3D games ! And, also, WHY are others around here telling me that it's "playing fine" on THEIR GTS ? Hummmm ? WHY ?! Then what could it be ? CPU ? Memory ? But then why can I run ALL of my other 3D games fine ?! It's really JUST a problem in Diablo 2 for God's sake. It's REALLY driving me NUTS right now ...

 

[MrWizzard]

Let me know what the outcome was, I was running SB live 5.1s in the old machines too.