Performance, memory tweaks and a few encountered bugs

Post here if you need help getting started with Daggerfall Unity or just want to clarify a potential bug. Questions about playing or modding classic Daggerfall should be posted to Community.
VitaminZeth
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2018 12:26 am

Performance, memory tweaks and a few encountered bugs

Post by VitaminZeth »

Hey guys, i have a decent PC build:
i7-7700HQ 2.8GHz
1050ti 4GB VRAM
16GB RAM
Daggerfall installed on an SSD

But with all the settings at their highest (For unity), the highest settings for mods (Real time refections, distant terrain, post processing and all the other graphics mods) and the HQ texture packs, my pc struggles to keep up and the game has a tendency to crash alot. Sometimes on start up, fast travelling and when applying the mods on current save games.

I believe it may have to do with the size of the game and how if im in Wayrest for example, there is alot of sprites and such the game has to render and setup. Which is understandable, But what makes no sense is how im able to run 45FPS on an Ultra Graphics Overhauled Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim on my setup yet Daggerfall Unity struggles. Perhapes im over estimating the power of my build.

Thats why im wondering if DFU is using all 16GB of my RAM to its advantage or the VRAM my GPU has. Like in minecraft for instance, you can manually setup the RAM usage and such in the launch command line. Is there something similar for DFU? Or is there like a very well explained guide or discussion for a proper settings setup with the majority of the mods on the workshop? If there is i would love to read it or test settings out for i do want DFU to look beautiful, but actually run and be playable.

Also, comming from Elder Scrolls Arena, i know you can use an enchanted item even if the effect isnt known. But for some reason, my enchanted Iron Warhammer and Braclet cant be selected to see what they do. Like the Enchanted items menu doesnt show up for me. Is there a way to fix this or has someone ran into this problem as well?

Another bug is with the spell book. I cant organize spells that i have nor can i save them to the actual spell book. If it is saving them, it still says it has no spells when i check the info in my inventory.

Also, after sending the letter to the necromancer for the Princess of Wayrest (main quest) my log book didnt update and i actually cant scroll down the pages using the arrow keys or clicking the arrows with my mouse to see if it even logged. The log book was working just before i finished that quest, but again, it didnt seem to log what she said about the ex queen of daggerfall i need to talk too. And now im stuck.

And another bug, is tbat the notebook button doesnt work. I cant open the notebook at all. Is this normal? Or is there something im missing?

Very sorry if i sounded odd or offensive in someway, i just would love to see the graphics potential of DFU like in this video: https://youtu.be/ESWQYUxSs6Q and experience it myself.

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pango
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Re: Performance and memory tweaks

Post by pango »

Hi VitaminZeth, welcome to the forums.
Do you enable "Compress Modded Textures"? It significantly reduces memory requirements in my experience...
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VitaminZeth
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2018 12:26 am

Re: Performance, memory tweaks and a few encountered bugs

Post by VitaminZeth »

I have before, but there then begins to be a flickering of the NPC's when using KoW - Daggerfall Remaster 3.0 texture pack with it enabled and it is sorta worrisome knowing that the villagers go invisible on some frames.

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Interkarma
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Re: Performance and memory tweaks

Post by Interkarma »

Welcome to the forums. :)

Your PC is more than adequate for Daggerfall Unity, but maybe not for all the mods you have running. Each mod comes with their own unique set of requirements, and the more you combine the higher the specs required. We have some control over mod performance but not as much as you might think.

For runtime performance, I think distant terrain and realtime reflections will have the biggest impact. For startup and loading, the loose texture mods will increase load times the most. Most of the performance issues stem from needing to load and cache thousands of small files at runtime. I'd like to see improvements to this over lifetime of project, but I can't guarantee any level of mod performance as there are too many variables.

But I can give a few general tips that might help now. If you've adjusted TerrainDistance higher than 3 in settings.ini, try dropping this back to between 1-3 and see what effect it has. If you're outputting display at UHD resolution, try dropping this back to 1080p or 720p and see what improvement you have. Can also slightly reduce the Unity quality setting From "fantasic" down a notch or two.

Also try disabling mods one at a time until you find which have the greatest impact to play. Loose file mods (e.g. KoW's excellent texture pack) require a slower loading process than .dfmod packages (e.g. AlexanderSig's hand-painted models). This is because .dfmod packages are "pre-processed" into a Unity-specific asset format and can load much more quickly, whereas loose texture mods have to be processed at runtime which slows everything down.

I believe in the video you linked, GalacticChicken (a.k.a. Midknightprince here on forums) has a fairly high-end PC, and he has issues occasionally as well. If he sees this thread, hopefully he'll chime in with his own suggestions for improving performance.

All the best!

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Interkarma
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Re: Performance, memory tweaks and a few encountered bugs

Post by Interkarma »

BTW, I'm happy to address your questions around potential bugs, but please read the Bug Reports guidelines for some tips on how these are to be formatted.

https://forums.dfworkshop.net/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=313

I like to see one report per post, and specifically mention the build you're running (and whether 32-bit or 64-bit). Thank you. :)

VitaminZeth
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Re: Performance, memory tweaks and a few encountered bugs

Post by VitaminZeth »

By the nine divines, that reply really shook me, not gonna lie. Ill see the formatting and provide the necessary information as requested. That seriously was very informative and I will do the setting tweaks as mentioned! Thankyou kind sir!

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Interkarma
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Re: Performance, memory tweaks and a few encountered bugs

Post by Interkarma »

No worries, I really appreciate the time taken to ask questions and test the game. It just helps to split things out so I can track them individually. :)

By the way, one of your bugs around not seeing enchanted items sounds like something fixed in most recent builds. If you haven't already, make sure you're up to date from 14-Oct builds on Live Builds page. There's a lot of small bug fixes in this round of builds.

I don't think spellbook "Info" or "Use" in inventory UI has been linked up to actual spellbook yet. The item is just for show. Spell ordering isn't implemented yet either. I'll get these done before 0.5 stable. Just open the spellbook from keyboard for now (Backspace is default key).

The Notebook button does nothing, it doesn't do anything in classic either. Who knows what it was supposed to do. We might find a use for it later. :)

The quest issue sounds like a bug. If you can sling me a save game to reproduce, I'm happy to take a look.

VitaminZeth
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2018 12:26 am

Re: Performance, memory tweaks and a few encountered bugs

Post by VitaminZeth »

Thanks for clearing that all up about the spell book and such! Seriously, an implementation of a Note Book for this game will be hella awesome and I'm quite stoked about the Roadmap and reading more into your goals and such for DFU.

I honestly just saw the recent update and am gonna run the build to see if the problem persists. In the meantime, ill make a post about the Log Book Bug for there hasn't been another post about my experiences with it yet.

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Interkarma
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Re: Performance, memory tweaks and a few encountered bugs

Post by Interkarma »

Cheers. If you can include a zip of your save with the bug report, I'll take a look today. Check the Bug Reports Guidelines I linked above for where to find saves on each platform.

VitaminZeth
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2018 12:26 am

Re: Performance, memory tweaks and a few encountered bugs

Post by VitaminZeth »

For sure! Will Do Right away!

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