Large FPS drop during naval combat when cannons fire

[Out_of_rum]

Hi everyone

I seem to get this huge FPS drop from 60 fps to 20 during naval combat as soon as ships start to fire at me.

Some specs on my laptop are:

• Nvida GTX960M 4GB
• • 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD
• Intel Core i5 (6. Gen) 6300HQ / 2.3 GHz (3.2 GHz)
• Windows 10

I tryed some solutions in this thread to try and lock the fps to 60, but it did not help:
Solved - Windows 10: Low Frame Rates Despite (BECAUSE OF!) Good Hardware

I have also tryed without the ENB graphics and at the lowest possible screen resolution, but that did not make a difference.

Have anyone else had this problem?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Do you keep your camera very close to the particle effects?
I have a faint memory of the game slowing down for me then as well.

The fog on the Black Pearl is the best example, I think.

 

[Out_of_rum]

No, it is there even when i zoom out.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That sounds a bit over-the-top, really.

@Grey Roger or @Hylie Pistof, does this ring any bells for you?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

This was an issue some years ago, but it was the smoke from your ship that causes the fps drop. One cure was to just look away from the smoke till it cleared. Other ships were not a problem.

Anyway I found where to adjust it. Go to Your POTC install ->program -> internalsettings.h -> open it with notepad and scroll down to "logs, looks, and effects" towards the bottom. There you will see this line "#define USE_PARTICLES_CANNONS " and it should be set to "1". Change it to "0", save, and exit. 0 is stock POTC and is as weak as it gets.

 

[Out_of_rum]

Thanks, i will give it a try

 

[Out_of_rum]

I tryed to change the #define USE_PARTICLES_CANNONS to 0, but it did not help, i still get the low FPS
It is actually worst when other ships fire at me.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Did you save by clicking on "file" in the top left corner and then clicking "save"? If you did, then even stock POTC is too much for you graphics. Sorry.

 

[Out_of_rum]

Yes i did

 

[Out_of_rum]

Found a solution

it was the "#define SHIPHIT_PARTICLES" that had to be set to 0 (stock game), combined with the "#define USE_PARTICLES_CANNONS set to 0".

Now i get 44 FPS from this close up broadside, and the game is much more playable

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Good job solving your problem, @Out_of_rum!
Especially by yourself when all of us here didn't have much of a clue.

And second compliment for your celebratory screenshot.
Very stylish picture. Nice ship and flag too.
Plus... any particular reason why the date is exactly 1 day after my birthday...?

One trick you might like to use in the future: The F9 button hides the on-screen interface.
You can use that to make your screenshots look even more scenic.

 

[Out_of_rum]

Thanks Shame it isn't my ship, i was just starting the assasin play through, and sailed out to find the nearest ship to test the naval combat of course graphics arent as nice now, since it is stock game effects, but atleast the game is playable during naval combat

 

[Grey Roger]

Plus... any particular reason why the date is exactly 1 day after my birthday...?

Checking "PROGRAM\Storyline\Assassin.c", since the screenshot is from that story:

   sl.(sn).start.date.day = 8;
   sl.(sn).start.date.month = 10;
   sl.(sn).start.date.year = 1662;

The "Assassin" storyline starts on your birthday.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Ah! Yes.
Now that you mention it, I probably did that myself.

 

[DavyJack]

Hi everyone

I seem to get this huge FPS drop from 60 fps to 20 during naval combat as soon as ships start to fire at me.

Some specs on my laptop are:

• Nvida GTX960M 4GB
• • 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD
• Intel Core i5 (6. Gen) 6300HQ / 2.3 GHz (3.2 GHz)
• Windows 10

I tryed some solutions in this thread to try and lock the fps to 60, but it did not help:
Solved - Windows 10: Low Frame Rates Despite (BECAUSE OF!) Good Hardware

I have also tryed without the ENB graphics and at the lowest possible screen resolution, but that did not make a difference.

Have anyone else had this problem?

Hmnn..that's interesting. Your system specs are quite good and should not be a problem with POTC. So I reckon you've tried RivaTuner? That's what I'm currently using on mine and it's what helped me to make the game playable from the start. If you haven't and this one works for you, you have to start it every time before you start the game but there is an option there where it will auto-start every time you restart your computer.

 

[Out_of_rum]

I tryed rivatuner aswell, but that didn't help.
I do have a integrated Intel HD graphics card, but i made sure the game uses the nvidia one and I tryed to make some tweaks to better the performance.
I also run dgvoodoo to fix the intel graphics water crash.
The game is playable for me now tho, but its a shame that the "more direct sail encounters" causes to many crashes on my pc.