NWN on a Tablet PC

Blakey · Post by **Blakey** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 4:24 pm

Hi,

I have a Tablet PC (Motion M1400VA) and yesterday installed NWN on it. It runs but its so incredibly slow and laggy (even in single player locally - no internet connection) that its not funny. I can get it to play in 1024x768 mode and it looks great like that but runs slow. Or I can play it in 800x600 mode which looks pants and still runs quite laggy.

Okay, so tablet PCs don't have graphics cards in them, they have an onboard graphics chip. I updated the chip drivers yesterday to the absolute latest. Didn't help. I also have 2GB RAM in the Tablet (maxed out) so I can't do anything more on that front.

Can anyone recommend a group of settings (either through the in-game control panel, or the *.ini file) which will allow me to play in 1024x768 mode whilst getting some smooth speed out of the game?

I'm not fussed about amazing graphics at all. I don't care if I can't see water rippling, or the rain falling, or shadows or whatever. I just want a sharp image (1024x768) and a fast game.

Many thanks all!!

Cheers
Blakey

darthmullet · Post by **darthmullet** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 4:27 pm

Did you change the graphics settings in game? Turning down all teh sweet stuff, really helps

Blakey · Post by **Blakey** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 4:29 pm

darthmullet wrote:Did you change the graphics settings in game? Turning down all teh sweet stuff, really helps

I guess that's my question: what "sweet stuff" do I need to turn down? I have no idea what it is that will hammer the game's speed?

Thanks for the swift reply!

Darkfire · Post by **Darkfire** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 5:31 pm

Im not at home, so I cannot say the exact names...

but; shadows, and envirmental things (( grass, water, etc )) would help the most. All i can remember right now

darthmullet · Post by **darthmullet** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 5:33 pm

yep...go to the options by either hitting esc, or pushing "o" while in game and turn down all of the video settings...all of them. That should help a bit.

Blakey · Post by **Blakey** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 7:10 pm

Okay, I have managed to get it to work in absolute minimum graphics mode. Slight shame perhaps but still, its running at a respectable rate now which is good.

Thanks for the help
Blakey

darthmullet · Post by **darthmullet** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 7:30 pm

Np...and welcome to Avlis!

rshampshire · Post by **rshampshire** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 7:57 pm

Glad to hear you got it working. Although it's an old game NWN is quite graphics heavy.

When I first started playing it (almost as soon as it was originally released) I only had an nVidia TNT2 graphics card and that stuggled in large 16x16 city scapes.

Blakey · Post by **Blakey** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 9:33 pm

darthmullet wrote:Np...and welcome to Avlis!

Cheers! Although as you will see from my join date, I'm actually an old player of Avlis. Just stopped playing computer games a few years ago and haven't been on the forums/servers for some considerable time.

Might well see if its possible to resurrect my old dwarven paladin, Fenodyree soon though!

Cheers
Blakey

Hert Snyder · Post by **Hert Snyder** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 9:41 pm

Welcome back, and come find Hert ingame if you want to get your pally back in the Order of Gorethar!

Just as an aside... as I understandit, it's not so much that NWN is a graphics-intense game... just that it's got pretty primitive code for optimizing the graphics. I have a 256MB nVidia card, and it still freaks out some in the Seven Heavens, or anyplace with lots of sparkles.

-spool32

darthmullet · Post by **darthmullet** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 9:53 pm

Blakey wrote:
darthmullet wrote:Np...and welcome to Avlis!
Cheers! Although as you will see from my join date, I'm actually an old player of Avlis. Just stopped playing computer games a few years ago and haven't been on the forums/servers for some considerable time.

Might well see if its possible to resurrect my old dwarven paladin, Fenodyree soon though!

Cheers
Blakey

Hah, my bad...I looked at post count...oops.

Welcome back then!

Tigg · Post by **Tigg** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 10:32 pm

I get a definite performance increase by turning off the sound... I think the one you click is called "Miles 2d audio" or something like that, and then I also put the slider all the way on 2d. (unfortunately you have to reset the slider every time you open up NWN). And, of course, all graphics turned to 'fastest', no music, no environmental stuff, no shadows/shiny water/etc... I am determined to milk every last drop of utility out of this computer before I buy a new soon-to-be-obsolete machine.

Just look at it as an excercise in your imagination, heheh. But whatever you do, don't torture yourself by looking at it with the full settings on. It makes me sad when I do that.

There's also an animation-revert download out there that will give you another % or two. At some point the animations changed a little and the new kind are slightly more draining on your computer and/or a bit more liable to crash. Probably just start out with the other stuff, though... I can dig up the animation-revert link if you or anyone else really wants it.

pstanton · Post by **pstanton** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 3:27 am

In the tablet I'm typing on, I have a Nvidia GeForce 6200....

Anything is better then onboard graphics! If you have to take apart the casing and rebuild it, do it! Onboard graphics chips are useless. You could also check your CPU, it may be running a bit slowely although I'd still say your graphics is the problem

Themicles · Post by **Themicles** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:05 am

Yeah, the biggest thing that'll kill low end graphics cards are the environment shadows. In a lot of cases, just turning that off can save you the performance troubles.

I get to try and get NWN working on a tablet PC myself sometime soon. Getting one handed down to me, and it'll be great for coding and toolset work on the road.

Worst case, I'll still be able to code, as I don't use the toolset to do scripts, but use TextPad with an NWN syntax plugin instead, and use clcompile.exe from BioWare to compile.

pstanton · Post by **pstanton** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:29 am

Themicles wrote:Yeah, the biggest thing that'll kill low end graphics cards are the environment shadows. In a lot of cases, just turning that off can save you the performance troubles.

I get to try and get NWN working on a tablet PC myself sometime soon. Getting one handed down to me, and it'll be great for coding and toolset work on the road. Worst case, I'll still be able to code, as I don't use the toolset to do scripts, but use TextPad with an NWN syntax plugin instead, and use clcompile.exe from BioWare to compile.

Sound very sweet! Now you can work your ass off coding new stuff for us!

*Imagines all the Avlis coders receiving top-of-the-line Tablets from the Bill & Melinda Gates Philanthophic Foundation and slaving away 18 hours a day coding new stuff for Avlis*

*cackles demonically* yessssssssss... Work harder slaves! mwahahahahah!

jaythespacehound · Post by **jaythespacehound** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:41 am

mmmm laptop with an x-700

Runs nwn on top settings mwuhahahahaha
(and yes very useful for coding)

Blakey · Post by **Blakey** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:52 am

pstanton wrote:In the tablet I'm typing on, I have a Nvidia GeForce 6200....

Anything is better then onboard graphics! If you have to take apart the casing and rebuild it, do it! Onboard graphics chips are useless. You could also check your CPU, it may be running a bit slowely although I'd still say your graphics is the problem

Which tablet pc are you using and how on earth do you add a graphics card inside such a small format??

I got it all up and going last night. Will try switching off sound to improve performace a tad more as well. It was cool sitting in my lounge, lazing in the armchair with my tablet perched on the cat (who was sat on my lap), with no wires anywhere, playing NWN with a pen. Fab stuff!