[MisterCookie]

I just switched to the PC version of FFXI, and I'm having problems getting more than about 25 FPS. Basically, my game chugs like crazy whenever anyone else is on the screen, and especially when there's weather on screen. I scored about 3500(VT) on the benchmark on high resolution, and disabling weather effects has helped a bit, but I'm still getting that slowdown whenever someone else is on screen.

Current settings are:
MIP mapping on
Bump mapping off
Overlay Res: 1280x1024
Background resolution: 1024x1024

Specs:
2.13 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo 2 MB L2 Cache
1 GB RAM
nVidia 7300 LE(DX9 supported)

[Jei]

Weather usually don't improve much frame rate for me. Except the snowing weather, that thing can hit my fps really bad.

Another thing you really should look into, also from the in game menu, is the Effect graphics.
It has choices filter things like magic casted by you, by party, by anyone else, etc. Anything done by others to others, it's a good idea to filter them all out.
This usually improve a lot of frame rate to me. You probably don't want to see Brd song effects on 6 other people you don't even care about.

Few more things you can turn off from the ingame menu.
- Shadows
- Foot step
- Clipping distance
- Character display on screen
- Animation rate
All will help perfomance.

[MisterCookie]

I tried filter settings, but those don't help that much. Its generally not combat that's a problem, its things like the flapping of a Wyvern's wings, etc., that really slow the game down. My best guess is that its caused by my CPU and FFXI not utilizing dual core appropriately.

I'm sort of upset, since I run all of Valve's Source games with a pretty good framerate, and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion runs fine on this machine.

[Feba]

check the POL site for officially supported drivers. FFXI is rather fickle with drivers.

[Jinz]

I'd have to say that having only 1 gig of ram could be hurting you a bit too, the best overall option would probably be to lower your resolution, also play with camera angles a bit and if there is one, the distance with which things will load on your screen. The less you have loading continuously the better off you'll be. Those filter options for the text may and may not help, but something I used to do back in the day when I played and ran a lesser machine, was I'd keep the camera zoomed decently close, and during fights and things I'd try to keep a birds eye view (that'll keep the minimum of things on your screen at any given time).

[Feba]

1GB of RAM should be fine for FFXI... especially considering this is much closer to nVidia graphics card lag *coughballandeffectcough* than a RAM shortage.

[Effedup]

I second the 1GB of RAM is enough, I played FFXI for a year with only 1 gig of PC3200 DDR Memory, and if you've got a dual-core proc than you probably have DDR2, meaning your memory is more than adequate. 2 gigs certainly won't hurt anything, and you'll prolly want to consider it if you plan on using the computer for gaming for years to come, but for FFXI you're already kicking the PS2's ass hardware wise.

Is your video onboard or is it a 3rd party card? Onboard video always sucks, in my opinion, and I've had even lesser spec'd 3rd party cards perform better than higher spec'd onboard. Regardless, your video card isn't exactly a screamer (not necessarily a big deal, just saying) so picking up a better video card might help a bit, and also give your system some more life as gaming goes.

A dumb question, maybe, but I'll ask anyways: What do you have running in the background? If your PC is store-bought and you haven't already cleaned house, I promise you there is 50 billion unnecessary processes and programs running in the background. Also, are all your drivers up to date?

Some other things that could have a minor effect on framerate is the sound quality, it's not a problem nearly as much anymore as it used to be (back in the good 'ol Pentium 2 days ^^), but I managed to squeek out a few extra fps on Age of Empires III for my sister-in-law by turning the sound quality down a touch. Can't remember what FFXI gives you for that option, so it might not even be something you can do anyways...

Good luck, and be sure to post back if anybody's suggestions helped out. This kind of info is good for anybody to have ^^

[robinkle]

FFXI for PC is sorta lame, cuz its a silly converted PS2 game, but still looks best on PC. either way, cuz of this silly convertion this game relys mostly on the CPU. Still both your processor and grafics card is better then what I HAD. and it run smooth to me. I've noticed that chipset drivers for the motherboard can help. Try that out.

[Arctic Wolf]

Ffxi for PC lame? Hmm.


As for a way to reduce lag. I personally disabled FFXI Sound. You can do that in FFXIConfig. This will disable any sound effect, even <call>'s and such. I did that personally because of the lags, but because I often want to hear music loud on my computer while playing FFXI. A <call> effect while your music is loud is very annoying. Other than that, when you turn your speaker volume up high, and ingame, put all volume buttons as silent a spossible, you still hear the FFXI sound. I find it very annoying. But besides the sound problem, if you disable FFXI sound, it should help a great deal of lagging and fps problems. This is only, if you even want to turn off all sound. Getting it back is just as easy though.

Oh, I haven't read if this already been said, but try to turn down Background Resolution down one level. Should help too.

[Effedup]

Originally Posted by robinkle

FFXI for PC is sorta lame, cuz its a silly converted PS2 game, but still looks best on PC.

Wait, why's it lame? Not trying to flame or anything, just curious why you think that...

I can't play on a PS2 to save my life...tried a few times but after using a keyboard forever I was lost.

And yes, it certainly does look a billion times better on the PC ^^

Out of curiosity (and slightly off-topic) does FFXI lag on the PS2 like it does on the PC? One would think that because the graphics are lower and it's a dedicated gaming system it wouldn't, but I've never spent the time playing on the PS2 to really experience it, so I'm just wondering...

[Feba]

It's lame because instead of making it a proper game, it's still a PS2 game. Hell, i've heard some people claim it basically EMULATES the PS2, although you'd have to screw around pretty deep in FFXI's code to see that.

[MisterCookie]

It's lame because instead of making it a proper game, it's still a PS2 game. Hell, i've heard some people claim it basically EMULATES the PS2, although you'd have to screw around pretty deep in FFXI's code to see that.

Its no secret that SE has to have some of the worst coders on Earth. Remember the myriad bugs in FFVII? Or the horrible ports of FFV and FFVI in FF Anthology?