cRPG Ultimate Optimization Pack - Updated 1/8/2012

[Socrates]

It doesn't look pretty because it was designed for people already running everything low. If you guys want you could just install the LODs by themself and not the textures. And screenshots added then in two parts for comparison. DX9 Everything High and DX7 Everything Low.

[Oberyn]

This seriously looks like Die by the Sword...1998 game

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[Socrates]

More optimization set up right now try it and tell me more results!

[Christo]

Sound optimization? o.o?

Nice, I'll give it a go. But is there a quality loss? 

[Socrates]

Not exactly Christo. I found this nice topic on TW's explaining it. By Xenoargh on Taleworlds!

I've been testing what's been causing so much lag, frustrating lockups, and other problems in Warband under DirectX 9, especially when playing mods like mine.  This has been a constant complaint by players of most of the big mods forever, and solutions haven't shown up in terms of engine patches.

As some of you know, I'm a bit of a performance nut; I've done all sorts of things to try and make Blood and Steel perform as well as possible.  My mod was one of the first Warband mods to make LODs for practically everything, for example, and lately I've been doing shader optimizations and other fun tricks.

While all of that improved people's framerates, it didn't stop people, including myself, from having horrible problems with seemingly-random lockups that would halt the game state.

After many tests, I am fairly confident that I've pinpointed the problem and have found a solution.  It turned out that problem isn't graphics at all; HERR_BUFFER_LOCK errors were a symptom of CPU lock states happening, not the result of running out of VRAM.

The real lockup issue appears to be sounds.  In particular, the sound format.

I found this out after doing several tests with sounds off.  This pretty much solved my problems with lockups and lag, which I found intriguing.  Since I didn't want to play Warband without audio, I looked at this issue further, and found that Warband supports multiple audio formats, like a lot of modern engines that are using various sound loader systems.  It also became apparent that the early engine builds were developed to use WAV, and that OGG support was added much later.

So I tried something simple; I converted all of the OGG files (including all of the Taleworlds sounds) to 16-bit 22kHz mono WAV (note that there are a few Taleworlds sounds that are WAV- leave them exactly as they are), then changed all of the Module System code to point to the WAV files instead of the OGG files.

The results have been extraordinary; thus far, I haven't had a single HERR_BUFFER_LOCK error.  Period.  Considering that I had this problem to the extent that I was very lucky if Warband didn't completely lock up during every battle (it was so bad that I was used to hitting ALT-ENTER at least once a battle, and sometimes even that didn't work) this is amazing, and may resolve a lot of players' problems with your mods.

In short, please try this out, especially if you're a modder whose hardware has also had trouble with Warband.  I think you will find, like I have, that this resolves a great number of issues.

very nice! thank you

is it stable? no CTDs?

Not that I have ran into everything seems to run smooth.

[Digglez]

It actually does work wonders...
On a ridiculously under-powered system (e350 dual core 1.6 ghz, 4 gb ddr3 1333 ram - 512 mb of the ram for the onboard gpu. mainboard) that manages to run a even more ridiculous config (Ubuntu 11.04, Ubuntu Classic Session, Wine) this is actually the first time I get playable framerates - something that didnt happen with the old low-res pack.
Screen:

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About 15-35 fps @ 1024x768, might be better on smaller servers (thats on eu2 with 100 guys)

holy crap, that looks like Quake

[Christo]

Amazing!

I'll try this then, right now in fact!

Cheers Socrates. 

[Joelturuz]

I actually like this look. I'll give it a shot for the kicks.

EDIT: Lack of mipmapping looks nasty, but otherwise nice, nostalgic look

[Leshma]

Looks like shit.

I hate so called pro players who lower all details just to be able to see enemies easier. I consider it cheating and looks like shit. Only good thing I can say about consoles is that they don't have that shit in their games (which also means no mods...)

Why don't you remove all the trees while you're at it. Widen the FOV so you have fish eye effect so you can always see who's comming from behind. Only silly people do that and I don't like them.

DX7 should be removed from Warband. People who have crappy PCs can spare 300 euros on new PC which can play games properly.

my2c

Edit:

Epic stuff Spleen. Playing game with more than 100 people on server on Brazos netbook, via Wine on Linux. You couldn't make it any more complicated than that

[Joelturuz]

I don't think it changed the brushes or trees, other than making them low in size (kb).
Why hate him for bringing people more options?

[Leshma]

Things like these are mostly used to give certain players unfair advantage against others (normal people who like shiny graphics). They say they make it for people with crappy PCs but that's not true.

[Socrates]

I don't use this at all. I have 2 copies of warband and can easily run it fine on high with extra HD mods or whatever you call it. I just made it for those who need better performance. And without this you still can easily remove trees/bushes by just deleting the textures of them. They're not even altered in this mod.

[dynamike]

Hi Morphling, you look good even in DX7 

[Braeden]

This is awesome.  My laptop can now actually play when the server fills up.  And yes, Leshma has a point, giving framerates of over 20 to people used to fighting at 15-18 is a bit...wait, no, can't find the point.

[Digglez]

This is awesome.  My laptop can now actually play when the server fills up.  And yes, Leshma has a point, giving framerates of over 20 to people used to fighting at 15-18 is a bit...wait, no, can't find the point.

without standardized and uniform settings, drastic changes like these are no different than wallhack (see thru heavy cover/smoke), glow pack (see enemies in low light conditions), skin changers (enemies appear super bright and vivid to stand out) used to cheat in FPS games.

kinda dumb the mod doesnt enforce a certain hashsize for different texture files