TSL: ATI driver issues and Dantooine Lag Fix

[j3di_sean]

The guides are very useful, thanks!

 

About the patch, Acleacius, define "soon" ... (can't wait!)

[stingerhs]

good work Acleacius in finding the guides. i'll post them at the top of both sticky's.

[Kiwegapa]

The path is coming...Obsidian has hinted that it's finished or nearly finished testing.

 

Obsidian sent it to LucasArts a week and a half after the game was released, on the 24th of February. Since that time, the patch has been in testing and has been updated several times.

[stingerhs]

good news with the Omega drivers. i think it'd be best if i just refer you to the update on his main page:

 

the link: http://www.omegadrivers.net

[MasterIbis]

so how does the 5.4 omega's hold up in TSL?

[stingerhs]

quite well, actually. i'm gettting an average of about 5-12 fps more than with the standard 5.4 Catalyst drivers on my overclocked R9700 Pro.

 

but don't think that will be universal. i've chosen the Omega drivers over the OEM drivers because it runs better on my machine. to see if the Omega's run better on your machine, i'd suggest doing some benchmarking to see how they hold up.

 

for Kotor & TSL benchmarking, i load up a save where my character is fighting a lot of enemies at one time for the high particle count test, a save on Dantooine for the, umm, Dantooine benchmark (that module has its own problems), and finally a module with relatively nothing in it (an empty module i saved in my modules folder). then i use FRAPS to log and calculate my framerate scores.

 

its not the most accurate way of benchmarking the Kotor games (since its not rendering the exact same thing each time), but it does give you a general idea if any modifications that you just did are having any effect on the framerate.

[MasterIbis]

lol the highest fps i ever get is in menu screens... (non game) at 215 yay while actually playing ( I loaded several different saves in different areas and surroundings) and not once did I hit over 40, and in alot of areas I hit 8-15 rather consistently which of course sucks... 30-40 is ok... its not great but it beats the pants offa 10

 

but my comp sucks anyway

 

p4 2.4, R9200 128MB, 512 ram.. I'm using the 5.4 cata with the 4.11 OGL in the kotor2 directory as well as the vertex buffer=1 bit.

I haven't overclocked my card due only to the fact that if I damage it I won't be able to replace it for at least a month

 

I'm grabbing another 512 ram and a geforce 6600 GT in august.. damn my broke self

[stingerhs]

what, your not gonna go for and RX850?? wait, they don't offer that in an AGP 8x slot, do they? [/sarcasm]

 

but ya, i'd have to say that money is always an obstacle. still, if you're worried about damaging your card while overclocking, try using the ATI Tool. it has a nice feature that will safely overclock your card (by finding the 'sweet spot' between performance and too much heat). it might hold you over a bit till you get that new card.

[MasterIbis]

ty for the tip, I'll check it out

 

**edit** I got ATItool and was playing around with it. seems ok to me, I've OC it a little bit. I'll see whatI can get out of it

 

**edit2** default clock 250/200, the max I got without any artifacts was 290/220, this resulted in an avg increase of approx 10 fps in all my games with the exception of kotor2

 

is it really too much to ask for a consistent 30 fps?

[CTOAN]

Just a FYI-

 

I tried the Omega Drivers based off of the 5.4 Catalyst release and that seems to have resolved a lot of the graphical issues, especially the brightness. I would recommend anyone with ATI cards to try it and see the difference.

 

You can get them here

 

[j3di_sean]

Just for the fun of it I tried doing the same thing for Kotor1, for example. I have Catalyst 5.4 installed but I put int the 4.7atioglxx in the game folder. It has no effect on the game, meaning there ain't no glow...

 

I just downloaded the omega drivers and am going to check it out afterwards.

[zac84eg]

i am having a similar problem as the above mentioned gamma problem, but it is in game. when ever i start the game or go to a cutscreen the screen gets very dark, though the gamma slider dosnt move. i can fix it manually each time by moving the slider a bit, but this is a very annoying bug...

 

i have tried editing the swini to set it higher, which worked the first time, but it still went dark at cutscreens and the next time i started the game

 

my specs:

windows xp pro

intel pentium 4 2.8ghz

1gig ram

radeon 9600 256mb

 

thanks for any help you can give

[A-Dark-Power]

Thanks for this guide! I had problems with my ATI Card and the Dantooine Planet and now they both work fine. Thanks once again

[theeautomator]

2.) Edit the "swkotor2.ini" file

 

"Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1" works for more than just Dantooine lag while using ATI cards. I was experiencing a slightly different kind of framerate drop in all areas of KotOR2:TSL. The Dantooine lag on KotOR1 was much more severe for me, and it only happened on Dantooine. The framerate drop I experienced in KotOR2:TSL was not as severe, but it happened in every single area of the game up to Telos, and I was able to fix it while in-game. This problem even happened during the minigame racing.

 

I'm using an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. I was running KotOR2:TSL on highest resolution, AA, and AF settings very smoothly. I'm using the latest Omega Driver.

 

Problem: I ran the game just fine, but every time I loaded a new area, my framerate dropped (No matter what settings I was using). This applied to any area change - in and out of a small room, or in and out of a large opening. The size of the area did not seem to affect the severity of the lag.

 

The way I dealt with this problem in-game was by:

 

1. Going to the in-game graphics options.

2. Making some type of graphics change. Any change - it didn't matter. For example, changing AF from 16x to 8x or vice versa.

3. Pressing OK, and resuming game.

 

That completely removed the frame lag. For some reason switching my graphics settings back and forth solved the problem, but I had to do ths every single time I loaded into a new area - very annoying. I don't really understand why that happened, though. This problem only happened this way in KotOR2:TSL. In KotOR1, when I attempted to change my graphics settings in game on Dantooine to remedy the lag, there were no good results.

 

You may want to include in the original post that changing the swkotor2.ini file completely fixes this specific problem I was having, not just on Dantooine. Also, if anyone knows the cause of the problem I was having, I'd like to learn what it is.

 

Edit: I re-read and realized my last paragraph wasn't very clear. This problem I was having was on Peragus and Telos, I didn't even make it to Dantooine before I fixed it. "The Dantooine Fix" title was misleading to me, and I'm sure to many other people who aren't very familiar with this game or forum if they are experiencing similar problems as I am. Basically, editing the kotor2.ini files fixes a lot of issues, as you just mentioned. That's not detailed in the original post though, which causes confusion to anyone who doesn't read past the first page.

[stingerhs]

actually, i've never heard of that problem. in my own personal testing on my machine, i've never encountered that problem. i do know that the Lag Fix gives me a 6-7 fps boost on both games which is why i use it.

 

as far as my own personal diagnosis, well, it sounds like the game wasn't re-applying the graphics settings everytime you loaded a new module. so whenever you went and changed something, you forced the game to re-apply all the graphics settings, and thus return your framerate to normal. either way, its a great all around fix for the graphics, and apparently fixed an odd problem on your system.

 

and in case your wondering, my specs are:

 

Athlon 3200XP

Radeon 9700 Pro (oc @ 365 core & 340 mem)

1 GB DDR333 RAM

Audigy2 sound card

[Drinking Sith]

Im stuck at dantoine i cant get out of the Ebon Hawk the screen just go black i have tryed Reinstalling putted the congfiguration on its lowest downloaded latest drivers Nothing works!

Guess my game is ****d up

[MasterIbis]

5.9 cats, if you don't know they've been released and are claimed that they fix the dantooine lag Finally. hey guess what they're right it does. woot. but also.. I'm one of those people who've had major problems with terrible framerates everywhere, however in a lot of areas nbow (after 5.9) I'm getting much more tolerable fps. in some areas I was getting 15 or so fps and now I'm getting on average 25, some places still slow too a crawl but they are few and far between now... finally I can play kotor2 and actually enjoy it for a change

[stingerhs]

yeah, the 5.9 cats are supposed to be a bit more 'streamlined' than the previous drivers. my understanding is that you should see a bit of a performance boost in almost every game you own just by upgrading the drivers. i have yet to test them as i've been busy with school, but i'll get around to the testing probably sometime this week. if you want updates, i'll let you know.

[MasterIbis]

hey stinger, you use the omega's right?... I know they released the 5.9 omega's so check em out when you get a chance and post up on em

[CTOAN]

hey stinger, you use the omega's right?... I know they released the 5.9 omega's so check em out when you get a chance and post up on em

 

I tried the Omega 5.9's today with KOTOR; KOTOR runs great in Dantooine now. I'll check TSL later if I get the chance.

 

[Ice88]

All the new ATI drivers have had the fix done which should mean the Omegas and Starstorm drivers should all work

[The Doctor]

Ok, now I have a problem. Whenever I try to start TSL, right when the tutorial should play the screen goes black. I can't download the ATI driver, as it says I don't have the software installed! BUT I DO! IT'S REALLY PISSING ME OFF!!!!

[stingerhs]

when all else fails, install the Omega Drivers. they'll give you better performance, better stability, and you don't have to worry about wierd software bugs like the one you have.

[The Doctor]

This is going to sound stupid, but all I can do there is buy actual graphics cards. Where can I get the drivers I need from that site?

[stingerhs]

goto the quick menu on the left, and click on the 'ATI Radeon Omega Drivers' link. in the next page, choose your OS from the top list (either Win. XP/2000 or ME/98). from there, you'll get a page listing the mirrors that you can download the drivers from.