Technical Hardware Question

[Stellar]

Well, I've been playing on ps2 the last 2-3 years and during last night's update, my ps2 died... Since finding the old model PS2's can be difficult and finding the hdd just as hard, i've decided to try and play the game on pc instead.

My issue is the gameplay on my pc seems a little slow/laggy compared to my ps2, especially during actions like WS's or bard songs and i'm curious what the best way to resolve this would be.

My system is...

P4 2.6ghz
1.0 gig ram
plenty of hard drive space
Geforce 5500 250mhz 256mb vid card

I've turned all the settings on ffxi down.. i'm running non-windowered 800x600 with 1024 background resolution (512 was horrid). Have turned all weather effects off, clipping plane down, etc etc.. I'm not really content with having to turn everything off like this and its still not playing as smooth as i hoped. If I could purchase some better hardware and be able to turn the settings up more I would do it.

So... I guess my question is.. Do I need an uber video card or is there something else i am missing (pc tweaks?) to run the game how I want?

Any tips or info is very appreciated...

-Peace

[byrdclaw]

better video card and a good cleanup of all the crap bogging your current system down would probably do wonders. If you're picky up your ram to 2 gigs but it shouldn't be necessary.

[Sigi]

check out your startup in MSCONFIG... I use http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk for the program lists. Also check what services are running on your system. You can find out the services by going to control panel, administrative tools, and services. Try paring down Windows memory footprint to 128 MB or less.

Also, try running a defrag on your harddrive.

[Matricide]

it's funny how a PC has to have high speed cpu, a shitload of ram, and an 'awesome' video card (all of which dont really help) to make this unoptimized game run somewhat smooth. if the game relied on your damn video card..

[Kross]

it's funny how a PC has to have high speed cpu, a shitload of ram, and an 'awesome' video card (all of which dont really help) to make this unoptimized game run somewhat smooth. if the game relied on your damn video card..

If you got trojans, viruses, adware etc. the gameplay will be slow no matter the specs. That is my guess because youhave a pretty decent computer man, you should be playing 1200x1024 lol.

if you have a big hard drive(you didn't specify lol), with 2 partitions, copy your FFXI folder onto the partition which doesn't have the system files. Format your windows partition and reinstall and I guarantee your game will run 100%

[Stellar]

I think I only have one hard drive. I'm not very computer savvy, so wouldn't know what to do, to partition it.. I shouldn't have any trojans or virus's.. maybe spyware from porn sites .-. I know i'm being really picky because i primarily play ninja and lag can cause death if i miss something important...

Thanks for the input so far

[Charla]

lolpartition

but yeah, try to cut down on some of the adware/other crap trying to run constantly, and defrag. That's about all that will make a difference really, your hardware is fine.

[Paralyzed]

Newer Geforce cards with newer drivers seem to have trouble with some of FFXI's effects it seems. Newer being after the Geforce4 series.

You can try using Omega Drivers which have always helped me get less lag from fire spells and BRD songs.

[aurik]

The game wil never run very well on PC compared to PS2, because it is basically a poorly done port.

[Mikeal]

The game wil never run very well on PC compared to PS2, because it is basically a poorly done port.

1) Start > Run > dxdiag

Check and see if you have all the direct X settings running properly with acceleration

2) If not running acceleration right, go look for new drivers on nvidea's website

3) Disable AV scanning of FFXI directories. FFXI likes to do a decent amount of file access and AV programs like to scan the file each time we use it.

4) Check computer bios to make sure your AGP port has the right multiplier for acceleration. I'll assume you have AGP because of your P4

If your running dual monitor, it hurts i've noticed.

I have ran 1600x1200 with less then what you have no problem before. Your going to lag in high model area's no matter what... 120 ppl in a zone is just to much drawing for it. Reducing character models displayed or I think windower has a drawing distance restriction you can add that helps.

anyways, hope that helps you out.

~Mikeal

[solsovly]

Newer Geforce cards with newer drivers seem to have trouble with some of FFXI's effects it seems. Newer being after the Geforce4 series.

You can try using Omega Drivers which have always helped me get less lag from fire spells and BRD songs.

QFT
I'm running a 7800GT and I still get huge drops in frame rates with Spells/BRD songs. I can run just about anything decently, Prey, FEAR, Oblivion and getter better frame rates than this trainwreck of a port (but I still love it).

[Awoir]

Am I the only one who lags horribly from the Tachi:Yukikaze animation? Like I drop to .5 FPS during that WS...