Technical question

Magelord648 · Post by **Magelord648** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 7:23 am

I recently got the PC version of morrowind (GOTY) but it is really slow and jumpy. Is there anything I could do to fix this problem. It must be cheap as I don't have a lot of money.

Loredweller · Post by **Loredweller** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 7:44 am

First set Real Time Shadows under Options Video tab to 0. See if you couldn't decrease View Distance there without harming the game too much. AI distance under the Prefs tab has an impact on resources. too. Try to make the right guess, where is the problem in first place - is it in the video system or in the computing power (as it's easy see, the first two suggestions are regarding video, the last more address computing). Defragmented disk also helps a bit.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 9:35 am

I would also suggest turning off the music, lowering the footsteps and situating the master sound slider to the halfway mark or less. Also, turn off any other programmes that don't need to be running. The easiest way to do this is by simultaneously pressing the keys, Ctrl, Alt, Delete.

I would additionally suggest checking out this web page, which has all kinds of tweaking advice:

http://www.tweaktown.com/ttg/ttgdocumen ... ide&dId=17

Red_X · Post by **Red_X** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 11:28 am

Tweak Town Is definatly a good place to go. I went through and tweaked my entire system and It made Morrowind a lot less choppy and the load times are a whole lot faster. Definatly go to tweak town as well as lowering the graphic settings

Magelord648 · Post by **Magelord648** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 12:41 pm

Thanks Wench and loredweller. I'll go to tweak town. I'll also get my brother to save and close his programs when he comes of the computer. I never keep programs open. @ loredweller. What does defragmenting my drive do and how do I do It. I'm on XP by the way.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 1:01 pm

To open Defrag:

1. Go to Start
2. > All Programs
3. > Accessories
4. > System Tools
5. > Disk Defragmenter

From there it's pretty intuitive

Also..if you have any money at all to spare, I suggest investigating a somewhat upgraded video card. I replaced my ancient card with a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 for around $60 (Cdn. funds). Given the quality of cards out now, this is quite a low level card. But, it works well with my old Pentium 3, and it made a *huge* difference to gameplay.

Magelord648 · Post by **Magelord648** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 2:05 pm

Thanks again. Do you have to send your computer away to get the new video card or can you install it yourself as it is my mums computer.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 2:12 pm

You can do it yourself; on some machines it can be tricky though. If you have computer geek friends, I'd definitely suggest getting one of them to help you with the installation.

REal953 · Post by **REal953** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 7:13 pm

[QUOTE=

Also..if you have any money at all to spare, I suggest investigating a somewhat upgraded video card. I replaced my ancient card with a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 for around $60 (Cdn. funds). Given the quality of cards out now, this is quite a low level card. But, it works well with my old Pentium 3, and it made a *huge* difference to gameplay.[/QUOTE]

My cumputer has an ATI X800 256MB Hyper memory, do you think it will work with Oblivon.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 7:45 pm

@REal,
no idea, I'm not a techie. However, there is at least one thread on system requirements over in the Oblivion forum, if you haven't seen it already.

Magelord648 · Post by **Magelord648** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 1:52 am

[QUOTE=dragon wench]You can do it yourself; on some machines it can be tricky though. If you have computer geek friends, I'd definitely suggest getting one of them to help you with the installation.[/QUOTE]

I have a dell on which I easily installed a floppy disk drive. Would the card be any harder?
By the way real you spelt computer wrong.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 10:21 am

I have a Dell too, they are quite straightforward to open up and work on. So, given that you easily installed your floppy drive you should be fine.

I'd recommend doing a bit of further research for the card though. I did quite a lot before deciding on the card I selected, and I finally chose that model because I figured it would give me a significant performance boost without blowing my five-year-old machine apart.

Plus, like you, I didn't want to spend much money. This fitted the bill nicely.

As it happened, not only did Morrowind improve, but everything got faster. It was a little like suddenly having a new computer.

btw, another thing you might want to do, which involves no expense at all, is to run to some anti-spyware programmes, if you haven't already. Spyware slows down a machine badly. Microsoft (believe it or not) offers a very good free download which is still in Beta. (http://www.microsoft.com/athome/securit ... fault.mspx) It is a lot better than Spybot and Adaware. Another excellent freebie is Spyware Blaster (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/index.html) which doesn't run scans but works to keep the spyware off in the first place.

Magelord648 · Post by **Magelord648** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 11:06 am

We don't have spyware but mcaffee is constantly running. Does that do any thing? Back to the subject of video cards, do I have to buy it from Dell?

Magelord648 · Post by **Magelord648** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 11:31 am

I've just been to dell and couldn't find any video cards. Could somebody give me a link. The site needs to except pound sterling.
Card must run on a DELL dimension 2400 and be cheapish.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 11:38 am

Mcaffee is an anti-virus programme isn't it? Or do you have a bundled version that comes with a complete protection suite? You might want to find out because anti-virus software does not necessarily protect you from spy ware.

Anyway,
no you don't need to buy the new vid card from Dell. Find a reputable computer shop in your area and ask them about video cards. Try to stay away from places like Futureshop and other big chains. Shops that build no-name computers and also repair them are often a good bet. Tell them your computer specs, explain that you don't want to spend a lot of money, and mention that somebody on a gaming forum suggested "X Card."
You can also purchase vid cards online, though I try to stay away from doing that, I prefer knowing that if I have a problem I can easily go in and speak to a real person.

Magelord648 · Post by **Magelord648** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 11:56 am

Thanks. Soon I will be able to spend more than 5 mins on the PC without getting sick of the slideshow and playing it on by xbox.

Greg. · Post by **Greg.** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 12:44 pm

It might help if you turn off the virus scan when you play. Also, there are mods that remove rocks, trees etc from places like Balmora, as the Framerate tends to lag after a while.

Also, any retexture packs may cause problems...

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 1:14 pm

[QUOTE=GregtheSleeper]It might help if you turn off the virus scan when you play.[/QUOTE]

Very good point! Programmes like Mcaffee and Norton are real pigs on system resources. This is why I prefer Avast (beyond that it's free), it's much leaner.
Um, sorry off topic there.

Anyway, Good luck Magelord! And do try all of the advice that doesn't involve spending money, before replacing the vid card.

Greg. · Post by **Greg.** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 2:53 pm

One last thing... In another thread, you said you downloaded mods... Some of these may drastically slow framerate... You may want to consider taking mods like better heads/bodies or the NPC timetabling mods...

Magelord648 · Post by **Magelord648** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 6:47 am

Good point. Do you think I should take of abigales pet shop? It is pretty useless to me as I have guar tamer and all I wanted it for was pack animals.