KOTOR Troubles

[JonnyStarks]

Ok, so I finally got the guts to build my own system and it went off without a hitch. Woo!

I just picked up Knights of the Old Republic and it was pretty smooth for the first bit, but later in some bigger environments with a little more action (more NPC's, grass swaying, etc), things slow down to an almost unplayable level.

My specs are in my sig, and I've turned off everything and turned down everything (graphics = low, no AA, no AF, no shadowing, no grass movement) and things dont get much better.
My videocard drivers are to my knowledge up to date, and barely anything is running in the background.
Is there anything else I can do to get the framerate back up to playable levels?

Thanks

 

[wkabel23]

hmm, I have a similar system and I can play KOTOR perfectly...

Perhaps you have a virus or something? Also, did you have another graphics card in the system before you put the 9800 in? If so, you might need to use Driver Cleaner.

Also is the molex power connector hooked up?

 

[PrayForDeath]

I've heard that ATI cards are bad with OpenGL apps, and I also heard that ATI will impore their drivers' performance with Cat 4.7, you just have to wait for the new drivers to arrive and hope they increase OpenGL speed.

edit: now I am confused since wkabel23 was able to run it smoothly on is rig, try to do what he said.

 

[JonnyStarks]

Just did a complete system scan, and I'm virus-free, and the 9800 is the only card thats been in there.

And as I said... it's my first build... but the molex connector is the extra power connector that runs from the proc to the motherboard right?
If so, that is connected

 

[Looney]

Your system should be running SMOOOOOTH. I ran it smooth with no AF/AA on a 1.6Ghz with a Radeon 8500LE. On your rig, it shouldn't even hiccup.... and i had on grass movements and shadowing.

 

[ShawnD1]

Try using Catalyst 3.10 drivers instead.

 

[Brian48]

Download this OpenGL driver. After you un-zip it, dump it in the same directory as the game's swkotor.exe and then try running the game again.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
Try using Catalyst 3.10 drivers instead.

Bullsh!t.


Did you have an nvidia card in there first? If so, it could be a conflict. Try uninstalling ATI/Nvidia drivers and then running Driver Cleaner to get the remaining files out of your registry.

Then reinstall the Catalyst 4.6's .

 

[DrMindbender]

Did you check the website for the game? I remember their being a patch or a fix for Ati users that have a 9600 and above.

 

[DrMindbender]

The game is more demanding anyway on intel/ati computers.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
Try using Catalyst 3.10 drivers instead.

Bullsh!t.

......

Then reinstall the Catalyst 4.6's .

I asked this forum which Catalyst drivers to use, and BFG10k told me to use 3.10. I changed from 4.6 to 3.10 and my frame rate literally trippled in Neverwinter Nights. As we all know, KOTOR uses the same Aurora engine as NWN; therefore, better performance in NWN means better performance in KOTOR.

 

[JonnyStarks]

A heh....
Total false alarm there... guess my drivers weren't quite as up to date as I thought they were...

Thank you for all of your help though!

 

[imported_Amuro]

If you had visited Bioware's KOTOR forums, you'd know that this is a known issue with the ATI Catalyst 4.4/4.5 drivers, the 4.6 driver fixed it, and before that the best driver for KOTOR was the 4.2 which had no performance issues whatsoever.

 

[gryfon]

sorry a little OOT, but IIRC the KOTOR uses Bioware Odyssey Engine, not aurora.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: gryfon
sorry a little OOT, but IIRC the KOTOR uses Bioware Odyssey Engine, not aurora.

correct, Aurora is the name of their level/map/mod editers for their various games.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: gryfon
sorry a little OOT, but IIRC the KOTOR uses Bioware Odyssey Engine, not aurora.

Odyssey is a modified version of Aurora. Comparing Odyssey to Aurora is like comparing Half-Life to Quake; they are slightly different but basically the same.