Huge loadtimes and performance decrease

[Guest poor]

Hi

 

So I installed an almost complete Stratagems 2. I have a rather old machine(athlon xp 1200MHz, 768RAM) and I experience a huge increase in loading times. Especially when it is an area with a large number of NPCs. The ilithid city took a full 2 minutes to load. Also every time an enemy is being spawned or teleported, the game freezes for a couple of seconds.

 

The other thing is that the overall performance decreases and I get FPS drops and severe stuttering, again if there is a large number of NPCs in the area.

 

Even though I've had slight performance problems even before that, it changed rather drastically after I installed stratagems. Any ideas what the problem may be or which components in particular may cause this so I can fix/uninstall them?

 

I fear that it is the improved AI components that are doing this and would be very sad if I had to remove them, because they are the main reason I installed the mod in the first place.

[Jarno Mikkola]

...

Well, there's several other factors that can contribute to the slowdown, but the SCSII AI enhancements adds into this... but you should first check all those out.

[Guest OP]

...

Well, there's several other factors that can contribute to the slowdown, but the SCSII AI enhancements adds into this... but you should first check all those out.

Yes, I had done all the general and game specific(like ambient sounds off) fixes to increase BG2's performance on that list, except the end biff thing. So I did it and it changed nothing.

 

The reason I am posting this is because the difference with and without the mod is just too big and I was hoping that there was a specific solution to it.

 

By the way I also encountered a bug. That east room in the ilithid city where there is an endlessly spawning mind flayer that you are supposed to dominate to open the door to the exit - the mind flayer did not respawn. As i killed the one that is originally there, he had a morale failure and started running. The dimension door animation for the next mind flayer played, but the creature itself never came.

[phordicus]

SCS may have pushed the game's memory footprint over the edge but may not be a/the major contributor. post your weidu.log?

[Ardanis]

I have notable (up to one minute) loading times on NPC-inhabited areas, as well as freezings when a wizard spawns in. No lags or FPS drops, though. PC is 2.4GHz, 512 RAM.

 

SCS' wizard AI often exceeds 1MB, so no wonder it slows down things so much.

 

Hm, how much for the chance that Ascension will code direct SSL support?

[Miloch]

SCS' wizard AI often exceeds 1MB, so no wonder it slows down things so much.

Yes, this is almost certainly a problem with Smarter Mages on an older machine like that. I had the same issue 6 years ago (both load times and stuttering). Though DavidW made improvements in the scripting since then, it is still huge, so you could try it without that component.

Hm, how much for the chance that Ascension will code direct SSL support?

Why should it? I think Gaider had a fairly lean vision on how he wanted to improve the existing scripting. If it achieves its goal, why mess with it (except to fix bugs and such of course)? Edit: eh, nevermind... I'm guessing you meant the man Ascension64 not the mod. Though perhaps along the same lines: why should he? I think the bigg also offered to put it in WeiDU but I'm not sure it belongs in either, since it seems to be a standalone scripting language. Also it seems to add to install time quite a bit, which would be justified if it solved issues like the OP's but apparently not.

[Ardanis]

Yep, I meant Ascension64

Also it seems to add to install time quite a bit, which would be justified if it solved issues like the OP's but apparently not.

It's the same problem - unfolding SSLs into monstrous BAFs during installation and loading same-monstrous BCSs during the game.

Now, if IE could read it directly, there'd be no need for the pain.

 

PS 6 years? Are you writing from the 2012?

[Guest OP]

Reinstalled it with the same components without smarter mages and smarter clerics. Seems to be fine now. Smarter mages seems to be the culprit on this one. Not sure about clerics. It just takes so long to install, and I've done it like 3 times already.

 

Managed to delete my save folder in the process, losing 4 unfinished games, but eh

[phordicus]

glad it's fixed. if you wanted to get into the nuts and bolts, you could modify the trigger blocks of smarter mages. they wouldn't be the near-prescient challenges they are fully loaded, but still far better than vanilla.

[Miloch]

PS 6 years? Are you writing from the 2012?

Eh, half-orcs can't count. Plus I tend to overestimate anything having to do with time, because invariably anything occupies more time than I would otherwise estimate (still boggles my mind that was nearly 5 years ago though).

[DavidW]

Hm, how much for the chance that Ascension will code direct SSL support?

Why should it? I think Gaider had a fairly lean vision on how he wanted to improve the existing scripting. If it achieves its goal, why mess with it (except to fix bugs and such of course)? Edit: eh, nevermind... I'm guessing you meant the man Ascension64 not the mod. Though perhaps along the same lines: why should he? I think the bigg also offered to put it in WeiDU but I'm not sure it belongs in either, since it seems to be a standalone scripting language. Also it seems to add to install time quite a bit, which would be justified if it solved issues like the OP's but apparently not.

 

As far as I know, there's no currently-coded WEIDU version of SSL, so I'd be interested to know the reason for thinking it would increase install time. (I'm not saying it wouldn't, I'm just a bit surprised.)

 

Does it "belong" there? Maybe, maybe not, but the "standalone language" argument isn't convincing. The WEIDU .d format is a standalone language, after all. (Indeed, that's normally my metaphor to explain SSL: it does for scripts what the .d format does for dialogs.)

[Miloch]

As far as I know, there's no currently-coded WEIDU version of SSL, so I'd be interested to know the reason for thinking it would increase install time.

I meant using SSL to assemble scripts increases the install time of the mod. I don't know how it would increase the "install time" of WeiDU since it's a standalone executable. Though it might inflate the size of WeiDU.exe quite a bit, unless it's a plug-in library or something (which would make more sense probably). And as I said, that increased install time would be justified if it solved the loadtime/lag problem, but apparently it does not.

(Indeed, that's normally my metaphor to explain SSL: it does for scripts what the .d format does for dialogs.)

I'm not sure I'm buying that metaphor, as I think it'd be closer to say .baf is to .bcs what .d is to .dlg. But I'd also be more interested in solving the poster's problem than in debating metaphors. I thought the goal (or at least one goal) of using SSL to assemble scripts is to tailor them to the recipient, so they needn't be monstrously large? It seems to me the mage scripts need only address what spells each mage might actually be able to cast, not all conceivable spells.

[Ardanis]

SSL drastically (a hundredfold) reduces the size, which results in a smaller download package.

Also, shipping SSLs instead of BAFs helps in trouble shooting.

 

I'm not sure I'm buying that metaphor, as I think it'd be closer to say .baf is to .bcs what .d is to .dlg.

D is more sophisticated than BAF, it includes complex functions like CHAIN, etc.

[DavidW]

Coming to this late, sorry.

 

I thought the goal (or at least one goal) of using SSL to assemble scripts is to tailor them to the recipient, so they needn't be monstrously large? It seems to me the mage scripts need only address what spells each mage might actually be able to cast, not all conceivable spells.

It does (basically, anyway). I don't quite tailor to the individual mage's spells (too much hassle) but I do have separate scripts for each speciality school and level of mage. There's probably a theoretical saving to be had by tailoring even further, but I doubt it's more than 10% (whereas going over to this model from my previous one-size-fits-all model was probably a 50% saving on average). Ultimately, though, even tailored scripts end up pretty large, just because BAF is a horribly inefficient format to code AI in.

 

SSL drastically (a hundredfold) reduces the size, which results in a smaller download package.

 

More, if anything. The BAF files constructed by SCSII "smarter mages" weigh in at 97MB uncompressed. The SSL sourcecode is about 500kB.

 

Also, shipping SSLs instead of BAFs helps in trouble shooting.

And helps with maintenance. And (this was my original reason for deciding to ship SSL rather than BAF) allows the script to be customised to your install, so that (e.g.) any mod-added magic items are allowed for.

 

I'm not sure I'm buying that metaphor, as I think it'd be closer to say .baf is to .bcs what .d is to .dlg.

D is more sophisticated than BAF, it includes complex functions like CHAIN, etc.

 

Yeah, that's what's driving the metaphor. WEIDU does a ton of processing to turn nice elegant constructions like CHAIN into horrendous tangles of .dlg code, just as SSL does a ton of processing to turn nice elegant targetting instructions into dozens of blocks of BAF.

[phordicus]

ssl is a bleeping godsend.