X3 Performance Issues

[gigabyte]

Hey folks, I have been having some issues with performance off and on with X3, so I have done some research, and found a few nice little mods that seem to help very nicely.

I have only tried a couple of the suggested mods so far but the improvement has been noticeable. I am running with the Low Poly Asteroids Mod right now and it solved the screen freeze in the DDTC mod, it is still slow when I am in a large battle but I have not tried the Combat Mod yet. You will have to play with these depending on your set-up but the Low Poly Roids and the Shader enhancement mod both seem to improve my game very nicely.

Here is the link to the main page - http://www.universesearch.co.cc/x3tc/

[harleyman]

Cool...As of yet I have not been in battle..but all else is great besides the ocassional brief pause....

[Lionheart]

Thanks Mike.

I have had 'some' performance issues, but mainly only after a long battle or very long game play (like 1 1/2 to 2 hours), where then, if I just reboot, its gone.

My main performance factor was the max setting on the shine filter setting, (if thats what it was called). Lowering it to Medium put me back into fast frame rates.


I think my issue is that I have 20 freighters out doing AI freight runs, making money. Each vehicle is in Sectors, making money, flying, etc in Universal Trader mode, so the entire fleet is being calculated as well as the sector graphics I am in, and all those Xenon blowing up.. Man.. So much debris they donate to the local junk yards...

:d



Bill

[gigabyte]

Thanks Mike.

My main performance factor was the max setting on the shine filter setting, (if thats what it was called). Lowering it to Medium put me back into fast frame rates.

I think my issue is that I have 20 freighters out doing AI freight runs, making money. Each vehicle is in Sectors, making money, flying, etc in Universal Trader mode, so the entire fleet is being calculated as well as the sector graphics I am in, and all those Xenon blowing up.. Man.. So much debris they donate to the local junk yards...

:d
Bill

Bill check out the Shader and Civillian Traffic mods, they could very well help your situation. I did D/L the Traffic Mod and will try it on my DDTC game it has the biggest problem with speed, what that one does is lower the number of civillian ships so your CPU has a lighter load which should help if you have allot of ships trading.

I did give the Shader Mod a quick look, but I have not had time for a good comparison yet, it lloked ok in the short time I played. I am currently running at fairly high graphic settings and have not dropped them (I like the eye candy) so I will report back once I have compared a few sectors with the mod on and off.

[Marlin]

Ahhh, very good Mike!

I have had times when things go spastic for a lack of better words. When I hit the roll, the roll rate is multiplied by about 10X. This usually occurs after a battle with lot of ships that are near by. But like Bill said, a reboot usually takes care of this problem.

I still might have to check out the, God forbid, the low poly ROIDS. :icon_lol:

Thanks for the heads up!!!

[gigabyte]

Ahhh, very good Mike!

I have had times when things go spastic for a lack of better words. When I hit the roll, the roll rate is multiplied by about 10X. This usually occurs after a battle with lot of ships that are near by. But like Bill said, a reboot usually takes care of this problem.

I still might have to check out the, God forbid, the low poly ROIDS. :icon_lol:

Thanks for the heads up!!!

Just an FYI on this one, I compared the Low Poly Roids and the unmodded Roids, and to be honest I can't tell the difference, there is not the kind of detail in the asteroids that is in ships and stations so you don't loose any eye candy and I would guestimate I got a 20% + improvement in performance in normal operation and in "Busy" situations my studder is gone.

[GT182]

There's a free application called Game Booster v1.22 by IObot Technologies that shuts down things on your computer to free up memory. I wonder how helpful that would be to give more FPS in X3.

I've got stutters in my modded X3TC, not bad right now but that could change. I've got GB but have to install it. I'll try it out and report back later on.

[GT182]

Just gave Game Booster a try and it seemed to help. My computer's temps did drop and isn't running as hot as before with X3 and all those processes running at the same time. Tho when you quit out of GB it will take a few minutes for GB to restart everything. I like it... so far. ;)

Others have said it helps with running FSX too.

Just my 2cents worth. Your choice.

Here's the link... http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html?Str=download
This takes you to the IObit site for v1.3, but you get a popup first from you antivirus that blocks it saying it detected threats.... it was my AVG doing the blocking. I just continued on with click here at the bottom and got the update... no problems I could see.

[Lionheart]

Thanks Gary for the heads up.

:ernae:

I'd like to hear how it does on your computer.


Bill

[GT182]

I did try it Bill and it seems to help a bit. Stutters weren't as bad as before and things just seemed a bit smooter ingame. Plus my mouse movement was smoother too. Plus my computer's temps dropped a good 8 degrees Celcius from before without GB..... 46 down to 38. I like it so far.

[Lionheart]

Ahh... Awesome!

Dang.. Temps would explain why its slowing down on my rig. I could be heating up the rig quite a bit.


Bill

[Marlin]

Mike could you please repost the link above? It doesn't seem to be working for some reason.

Thank you.

[gigabyte]

Mike could you please repost the link above? It doesn't seem to be working for some reason.

Thank you.


Here is the link I used, it just worked for me - http://www.universesearch.co.cc/x3tc/

This is the link for the main page - http://www.universesearch.co.cc/ from there just select Downloads.

[Marlin]

That link worked, thanks.

The bottom end ROIDS don't look to bad, and if your getting that much of an increase I'm all in.

Now to figure out how to use the script editor gizmo. I do have the cypro (spelling?) cheat manager installed if that means anything.

I know you posted how to add stuff somewhere :mixedsmi:

Thanks for the heads up and fixxing the link too!

[Lionheart]

That link worked, thanks.

The bottom end ROIDS don't look to bad, and if your getting that much of an increase I'm all in.

Now to figure out how to use the script editor gizmo. I do have the cypro (spelling?) cheat manager installed if that means anything.

I know you posted how to add stuff somewhere :mixedsmi:

Thanks for the heads up and fixxing the link too!



Marlin,

If its a SKP (Script) download, you just turn on your X3 Addon Manager and select Add, select the new Script, and hit OK.. Loads it right up. Just place the Script in a good known seperated location, like a folder called new script downloads, and load it from there. Then later you can delete it (with X3 Addon manager) if you need to.


If adding CAT/DAT files, you can add them into the main game folder of X3, renaming them next humber up, then in the mini boot screen, click on the 'load Mod' button and select it. You can only run one Mod at a time though, so if you have multiple mods, then only one shows at a time.


Bill

[gigabyte]

Marlin,

If its a SKP (Script) download, you just turn on your X3 Addon Manager and select Add, select the new Script, and hit OK.. Loads it right up. Just place the Script in a good known seperated location, like a folder called new script downloads, and load it from there. Then later you can delete it (with X3 Addon manager) if you need to.


If adding CAT/DAT files, you can add them into the main game folder of X3, renaming them next humber up, then in the mini boot screen, click on the 'load Mod' button and select it. You can only run one Mod at a time though, so if you have multiple mods, then only one shows at a time.


Bill


Bill there are 2 ways of doing the Cat/Dat files, you are kind of combining both here... If you add the cat/dat files to the main X3 folder as the next number in line that is the false patch method and there is no need to select them in the X3 Launcher, they are loaded as a patch with the game. That is what I do for a mod that I am going to use all of the time such as the Cockpits. If you want to test a mod and want to turn it on and off on demand you add the cat/dat files to the "Mods" folder inside the main X3 folder then it appears in the Launcher and if selected it is loaded if not selected it does not.

Marlin the quickest way to test that mod is the Mods folder (I find it easier for testing purposes than the script editor or plug in manager). Just follow these instructions;

1-Unzip the files to any location.

2-Locate your main X3 folder (c:\Program Files\Ergosoft\X3 Terran Conflict - or something close to that)

3-Look for a folder named "mods" if it does not exist create it.

4-Copy the cat and dat files you extracted into that folder.

5-Start X3 normally, at the Launcher screen (that is the first screen - see pics attached)

6-Select the "Select Mod Package" Button - note this button is greyed out if the mods folder does not exist or is empty.

7-Highlight the Mod you want to use and click OK.

8-You will be returned to the Launch screen and now click Start.

The selected Mod will remain active on future starts until you go back in and select the "Original" Button to turn it off.

This is what I have been doing to test, then if the Mod works and I like it I rename the 2 files to the next number and copy these numbered files to the main folder and make sure to turn off the mod in the Launcher.

You can do all of the above with the plug in manager, however I have been having some problems with it (perhaps it's Win 7) so I have been sticking to the manual method.

In the attached pics I have selected the AMS Mod as the example but whatever files are in your mods folder will appear.

The last shot shows the "Fake Patch" applied as patch # 11. The game should have Cat and Dat files numbered from 01.cat/01.dat to 10.cat/10.dat, so to add a fake patch just rename your 2 files to the next number in line and place them in the main folder as shown in the 3rd picture, that's it they load every time no messing with the Select Mods button and this allows you to add several mods plus have one for testing.

I started (and maybe posted) a quick version of this before, but I will clean it up and post it with the pics for everyone so it is handy.

[Marlin]

Phew, even in my still amped up mood I can understand that. (Pirates are bad as when they come in large numbers and heavily armed :gameon:)

My Mod box is not highlighted at the moment, but I have no fear that we can overcome that small problem.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. You guys are the best as is this little spot in WWW. Cheers to all you all.
:ernae::icon29::ernae:

[Mobayrasta]

My I7 and NVIDIA 285 run this game so fricking awesome it is GREAT! I have not regretted this computer yet. Have not found one thing I can throw at it (except FSX) that I can't crank to the max and have it run great. Heck FSX is very very close to being maxed out and I can maintain smooth flight even in big cities.

X3 is such a beautiful game with all the options maxed. It might be an addiction but it is a beautiful addiction.


Chris

[Lionheart]

X3 is such a beautiful game with all the options maxed. It might be an addiction but it is a beautiful addiction.


Chris



I hear yah Chris.. Sometimes its cool to just come into the game and look around.

Last night I caught myself looking at a planet. I was just dropping off people, and detaching from a dock and went to turn and I am close to this planet, and I see the clouds moving accross the land. Im' like 'whoa... check that out.' I parked a moment and just watched it, wondering what Earth must look like from orbit..

Good to hear on your computer. Glad its working great for you.

Bill