Dual/Quad Core CPU Fixes

[teews08]

My specs are pretty similar to yours. I also was experiencing the problem and was able to fix it by doing this:
1. Right click eqgame.exe
2. Select "Properties"
3. Go to the "Compatabilty" tab.
4. Check the box next to "Run in 640 x 480 screen resolution"
5. Hit "Apply" and "Close" and your done.

Start up eq again and hopefully that will fix it. You will have to change your resolution in game, but other than that everything runs fine. Good Luck, hope this helps.

Aeonite

[Bellos]

so if we get secrets of fawdwayer (sp) eq emu will work again?

[vales]

EQEmu has always worked.

I just installed the Titanium client again, and it works perfectly fine (aside from small flickers - but I blame SLi for that). SoF worked fine with no issues since I'm assuming the client version is more optimized for recent hardware. Since the Titanium client can't be patched, it has it's flaws. But you get more functionality out of playing. SoF is getting there, but there's still some work needed. I'm sure given the time, the SoF client will surpass Titanium since there a lot more information to get from it plus better client support right out of the box.


But to answer your question, I would just get Secrets of Faydwer since Titanium is very difficult to find. You can get both for under 10 dollars if you're lucky. If you don't get it now, you may never be able to since they will be releasing it via digital download from now on. SoF is the last client you will be able to buy as far as retail releases go for EverQuest. It's only 5 DOLLARS with FREE shipping via newegg.com.


Just think of it as this:

1.) Titanium has more playability, but is difficult to find a retail copy since SoF pretty much replaced it. Supports older hardware just fine, but newer hardware may have some issues.

2.) Secrets of Faydwer client is more optimized for newer hardware but lacks in functionalty as far as playing goes. Think of it as the Titanium client when it was first supported. Lots of OPCodes still need to be coded in, and some may encounter bugs with skills, spells, etc. It's minor though, and completely worth it. Some older zones have been completely replaced, so zoning may cause some issues.


So I'll post this just so everyone understands.

1.) If you're using Vista, you DO NOT need to install the Dual Core patches for AMD CPUs. Vista already has them installed.
2.) If you're using Vista and a Dual/Quad Core CPU, Titianium and SoF work right out of the box. No need to change the affinity for the CPU.


For the record, I'm running SoF and Titanium clients on Vista64 perfectly fine. No CPU patches or affinity switching.


Although I can't say if it's specifically a Vista64 thing, I still see people having issues with the game running fast, etc. Assuming that they're NOT using Vista32 or 64-bit, that might be the issue. I'm not saying to go out and switch to Vista (especially since Windows 7 is right around the corner), but if you're running Windows XP, you're going to have to work a little harder to get things to run fine.

Windows XP is at the end of it's life expectancy anyways and was supposed to be phased out by Vista, but since people are pretty vehement to upgrade their hardware, they stuck with XP. XP support will be completely gone by 2014, and Vista retail will be phased out starting in 2011 - being replaced by the much better Windows 7.

Whatever the case, it doesn't matter anyway since the world is ending in 2012.

[pfyon]

Alright I'm about at wits end trying to get my client connected without the stuttering.

I've been having the symptoms similar to the ones posted in this thread, the client running perfectly for a few seconds then freezing everything (client, mouse, other windows) for 10-30s. The char select screen runs just fine, but I assume that's because it's newer code and programmed for multicore processors (maybe?).

I should note that mobs aren't agroing even though they're kos, and I assume this is because the maps on the server are different than the client, but that shouldn't effect anything else than the eq client right?

The system:

Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (2 cores @ 2.2GHz)
2 x 1GB DDR2 Corsair @ 333MHz
NVidia GeForce 7600 GS
WinXP Pro SP3

Things I have tried that have not worked:
- Used Process Explorer to force affinity for 1 core.
- Updated directX (was already 9.0c, but apparently there was an update available)
- Updated video drivers
- Installed the AMD Dual Core Optimizer
- Disabled Cool'N'Quiet by setting power settings as above
- Played with the maxFPS directive in eqclient.ini (set anywhere from 10 to 5000 fps)
- Installed most of the other updates though windows update (not all, one nvidia network one caused permanent bluescreens on bootup)

Updating the CPU drivers (from 1.2.something to 1.3.2) seemed to have a small effect. Instead of getting one frame every 30s or so, I would get one every 15-20s.

Does anyone have any suggestions or a similar situation where they managed to fix it?

[trevius]

Have you tried changing your compatibility mode as suggested? That seems to work right off of the bat for a lot of people.

[pfyon]

Hmm, I could have sworn I tried that before. Maybe I tried win95. Anyway, setting it to compatibility mode for win98 helped a lot, now it only lags up every 2-15 mins for 10-15s at a time. Still not perfectly smooth, though.

[synthavana]

Okay, have an AMD dual core processor, running it on Vista. 1.6 Ghz, 1GB RAM, Geforce Go videocard, notebook, etc.

Cannot seem to fix this basic problem:

Perhaps 50-75% of the time, in short 15 second intervals, the game switches from running at normal speed to exactly half speed. Chatbar is at normal speed (get hit and get the messages at the same rate), but song bar is at half. Bard songs ALWAYS seem to "go off" with the UI bar showing half the time remaining (that's how I know it is exactly half speed). Models run at half speed, and I run at half speed, making my selos make me run at normal speed =/ Then, it will return to normal and rapidly alternate back and forth. Changing compatibility mode does not work. Set affinity does not work. Reinstalling updated drivers does not work. Fresh install does not work. Changing CPU throttling does not seem to be an option, as when I right click on desktop, there is no "Properties" in the menu (only "Personalize"). I am at my wits end and have tried a great deal.

Odd thing is that this game used to work on this notebook about a year ago, but--I did get many of my computer parts replaced at the shop, and I may have been using XP at that time.

Interestingly, I did benchmarks, and they all came back normal except the RAM test. RAM allocation in large quantities seems to be going at about half the speed of comparable note, but is normal at all other quantities. Most standard benchmarks give me a high benchmark on RAM, however. I have the notorious tendency to overanalyze, especially if I get stuck in a rut. So it probably is a non-issue.

Please help.

[blackdragonsdg]

The next time you have Everquest running launch the task manager and watch your processor and memory load. You may have another program running that is causing your problems. In Windows XP and also sometimes in Vista the OS will start running background tasks while you are in the middle of doing something like playing a game which can cause performance issues.

It is very possible that you may just need more ram. Running Vista with 1GB of memory is not a good idea.

[pfyon]

Well, I've done some more testing and looking into this problem for me.

As I said in my earlier post, it's still not working perfectly. Also it seems that it depends on the zone and, to an extent, the direction the camera is facing. Older zones lag up a lot more than newer ones (unrest, freeportw are unplayable, kael isn't horrible, and pofire it rarely lags up at all). Despawning all the mobs in freeportw really helped, so it seems it might be related to the character models and/or the number of npcs. In skyshrine, facing towards yelinak's door from yelinak caused unplayable amounts of lag, but turning towards the back of the room was mostly fine.

I tried turning off texture caching and texture compression just to see if it helped, no difference. Updated my sound card drivers, no help there either.

Considering I've done all the fixes suggested (I think), I'm thinking this time it's more a video issue than the processor issue, but who knows. For people who have encountered this problem, is it just EQ that locks up or the entire system?

The only other thing I can think of is updating my bios.

[pfyon]

In case anyone has a similar issue, I think I've fixed it. Here's what I did (in addition to above):

Turned off IM programs (msn and trillian)
Turned off Progress Quest
In advanced video options in game, turned off 'new water'

I'm testing this in previously unplayable areas and it seems to be running just fine. Not sure exactly which one of those fixed it, but it's something to try.

[cubber]

This works on gentoo linux using SoF or Titanium client under wine 1.1.12, and will probably work fine for all other linux distros and wine versions.

create a file called start in your eq installation directory.

The contents of the file should look like this:

taskset -c 0 wine eqgame.exe patchme

This will bind the process to your first CPU (CPU0)

make sure you set the file as executable by running:

 chmod +x start

then run it with

 ./start

to start the game.

[majorheadache]

I had the same problem when I first tried to join about a week ago now, and reloaded EQ 3x thinking it was definately just an install issue. The one thing that many of us returning to EQ1 from a comfortable run on say Vangaurd, is the resolution capabilities!! My main (middle) LCD is a 24" and even my desktop used to be run 1920x1200, this same issue would happen until I lower resolution on my desktop to 1280x960. Clicked on my new EQemu shortcut icon on the desktop, and presto!! After all the reloading and updates on everything you caould imagine, it was aggrevating that I overlooked the little stuff..... and I make a living as a Networking Engineer for a major ISP/Phone Company..... we strive on starting the troubleshooting at "Layer 1". Leave it to me to bypass the 'rules of the road' on my own gaming PC.

Major Headache
- another nOOb returns to ye ole best original MMORPG !

PS - Great work from what I have seen so far! Excited to have been turned onto this recently.

[majorheadache]

^^^^ Sorry this was meant to be a direct reply to Issac922's post on the 1st page of this thread... i didn't realize there was a 2nd page yet

[Bellos]

Hey, i cannot play on my new pc, it is hardware related and i cannot fix it. I get disconnected no matter what. Do you think linux will run it if i cant on XP

Im gonna be installing a version of ubunto(sp) linux i got. I may try it out, i miss playing EQ 1 SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!

[Bellos]

Originally Posted by Bellos

Hey, i cannot play on my new pc, it is hardware related and i cannot fix it. I get disconnected no matter what. Do you think linux will run it if i cant on XP

Im gonna be installing a version of ubunto(sp) linux i got. I may try it out, i miss playing EQ 1 SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!

Oh just for info. I just did a fresh install of xp pro and of EQ titanium. No go. Im downloading SP 3 at the moment. I tried setting affinity it doesnt work. I tried compadibility mode, doesnt work either. I I get disconnected anytime i try to connect to a server. Do i have to disable execute disable bit in my bios or somthing. Im using Asus p5q pro, intel e8600 cpu and new ram. I dont know what else it could be, its driving me mad... lol i have no money atm to get the new expansion atm whos to say it would even work either. Oh well if anyone has a similar system and can play lemme know.

Also is it possible my ISP is blocking ports on their end? Or My IP address was globally banned from all servers?