SOLVED: Windowed Mode = Framerate DROP

  • Thread starter Thread starter impulsiveFF7
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I

impulsiveFF7

Guest
Hey guys, first post here. Lurked these boards for a while now. Anyway, my one and ONLY issue with the mods I'm running is I simply cannot run the game without suffering from a noticeable loss of frame-rate. At first I thought it was some mod conflicting with something, but after reinstalling, and installing all my mods one by one and checking the game after each was installed, I narrowed it down to being in windowed mode via fullscreen = no in Aali's driver config.

No idea how to fix it honestly. It's certainly not my systems performance. Intel I7 2600K/AMD Radeon HD5770/8GB 1866 DDR3 Ram, so pretty sure I'm covered to run 13 year old tech :P

Now, I apologize if the issue has been solved already, and I'm being daft. I could be completely blind here, but I looked for about an hour before I decided to make this post. Does anyone have a fix for this? The game runs absolutely fine without any drop in frame-rate whilst in full-screen mode. Now, I'm pretty new to modding FF7 so all these things certain logs and stuff, I do not know how to obtain them, so I would need someone to tell me how to go about it if you request for me to post them. My graphics drivers are ALWAYS up to date with the latest drivers. Sometimes so new they are still betas. I currently updated my driver last night to a driver that was released this week for my ATI card. Maybe it's with the ATI cards themselves? I'm wondering if anyone has suffered from "lag" when trying to run the game windowed. I'm trying to record it, and with the way FF7 runs on well, windows 7 at least, it doesn't pick it up when running in full screen. It kinda always appears to be running in the background even when I've got it selected and I'm actually viewing the game. Example: I'll be playing and 15m later my screenssaver will go off and I'll have to move the mouse and re-log back into windows, when clearly I've been making key-presses for the last 15m :). If I could get around that, I could be recording the game in full screen instead of windowed mode. I like the recording software I have a lot. Very good quality. Nice features like a built in record timer so I don't have to watch a clock to keep video length approriate. Records both primary and secondary audio. Records in AVI/Not as big a file as fraps would have, not nearly but quality is identical. So I hope I don't have to switch to fraps again, because that in itself would make me scrap this whole idea of "let's playing" this game finally.

So, if you can help me get the game running at the right speed whilst windowed, I'd be extremely happy.  :lol:
 
Post first ~10 lines of app.log from windowed mode then first ~10 lines of app.log from fullscreen mode.
 
K Here is windowed mode...

Didn't know exactly how much you'd need. I know you said first 10 lines, but figured I'd show what I had.

INFO: FF7/FF8 OpenGL driver version 0.7.9b
INFO: Auto-detected version: FF7 1.02 US English
INFO: ATI Technologies Inc. AMD Radeon HD 6700 Series 4.2.11554 Compatibility Profile Context
INFO: OpenGL 2.0 support detected
INFO: Found swap_control extension
INFO: Max texture size: 16384x16384
INFO: Number of texture units: 8
INFO: Original resolution 640x480, window size 1280x720, output resolution 1280x720, internal resolution 1280x960
INFO: FBO extension detected, using fast scaling/postprocessing path
INFO: Shader limits: varying 128, vert uniform 16384, frag uniform 16384
INFO: vertex shader compile log: Vertex shader was successfully compiled to run on hardware.

INFO: fragment shader compile log: Fragment shader was successfully compiled to run on hardware.

INFO: main program link log: Vertex shader(s) linked, fragment shader(s) linked.

INFO: FFMpeg movie player plugin loaded
INFO: FFMpeg version SVN-r21874, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
INFO: FF7Music helper plugin loaded
LOCK UNLOCK TEST
MATRIX INITIALIZE
INITIALIZE DD/D3D END
ERROR: could not open file C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\ff7input.cfg
initializing sound...
creating dsound primary buffer
reading audio file
loading static sounds
sound initialized
set music volume: 127
set music volume: 127
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF CREDITS!!!
INFO: L:\FF7\Movies\eidoslogo.avi; truemotion2/pcm_u8 320x240, 15.000000 FPS, duration: 10.133333, frames: 152
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=60
INFO: L:\FF7\Movies\sqlogo.avi; truemotion2/pcm_u8 320x224, 15.000000 FPS, duration: 14.533333, frames: 218
END OF CREDITS!!!
Entering MAIN
set music volume: 127
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
WM_CLOSE
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Field Quit
UNINITIALIZE DD
END UNINITIALIZE DD


---------

FULLSCREEN


INFO: FF7/FF8 OpenGL driver version 0.7.9b
INFO: Auto-detected version: FF7 1.02 US English
INFO: ATI Technologies Inc. AMD Radeon HD 6700 Series 4.2.11554 Compatibility Profile Context
INFO: OpenGL 2.0 support detected
INFO: Found swap_control extension
INFO: Max texture size: 16384x16384
INFO: Number of texture units: 8
INFO: Original resolution 640x480, window size 1280x720, output resolution 1280x720, internal resolution 1280x960
INFO: FBO extension detected, using fast scaling/postprocessing path
INFO: Shader limits: varying 128, vert uniform 16384, frag uniform 16384
INFO: vertex shader compile log: Vertex shader was successfully compiled to run on hardware.

INFO: fragment shader compile log: Fragment shader was successfully compiled to run on hardware.

INFO: main program link log: Vertex shader(s) linked, fragment shader(s) linked.

INFO: FFMpeg movie player plugin loaded
INFO: FFMpeg version SVN-r21874, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
INFO: FF7Music helper plugin loaded
LOCK UNLOCK TEST
MATRIX INITIALIZE
INITIALIZE DD/D3D END
ERROR: could not open file C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\ff7input.cfg
initializing sound...
creating dsound primary buffer
reading audio file
loading static sounds
sound initialized
set music volume: 127
set music volume: 127
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF CREDITS!!!
INFO: L:\FF7\Movies\eidoslogo.avi; truemotion2/pcm_u8 320x240, 15.000000 FPS, duration: 10.133333, frames: 152
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=60
INFO: L:\FF7\Movies\sqlogo.avi; truemotion2/pcm_u8 320x224, 15.000000 FPS, duration: 14.533333, frames: 218
END OF CREDITS!!!
Entering MAIN
set music volume: 127
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
WM_CLOSE
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Field Quit
UNINITIALIZE DD
END UNINITIALIZE DD

-----------------------

Anything jumping out at ya? I don't see any differences between them. I didn't change the resolution any. My desktops native resoultion right now is 1920x1080, but I left it at 1280x720 because I tend to record my videos in 720p for youtube. All I change is whether fullscreen = yes/no. As soon as I go into windowed mode, game feels like it's running at half the frames it should be. Very strange.

Running Windows 7 64 with FF7s exe in XP SP2 comp. mode. Didn't know if it would make a difference so I changed it and just left it. Makes no difference. Would you have any idea why on windows 7, when FF7 is running, it feels like the game is just running in the background even when viewing it? Like it's not like a normal program is. If I goto record the game running in fullscreen, it records nothing for some reason. It doesn't register it as being the main program running on my screen when it should be. I don't know if that makes a lot of sense. Example would be that my screensaver would kick on while playing the game fullscreen every 15 minutes like it should because the system thought I was idle, yet I was definitely making tons of keystrokes, etc. It's almost as if when the game is running, windows has no idea it actually is. I don't get it. Is this just how it is for everyone? I don't remember it being this way on my older computers. I've had my copy for like 7 years but the discs were so badly scratched I made them images so I wouldn't have to worry about it should I ever wanted to play again. Maybe it did act like this, and I just don't remember. I mean, if I could figure this out, I wouldn't need windowed mode, but I'm trying to capture recordings, and it won't pick it up unless im running windowed and I tell my recording software what part of the screen I want to be recorded. Then it records great, but again - slowdown. Can't win honestly. :(

Edit: I'm only logging in for about 10 seconds, taking a few steps, then quitting to desktop and taking the app from doing that. If for some reason you need me to be in-game longer, let me know and I can do that. You be the expert :P


UPDATE: Went into the config, and just for kicks decided to turn OFF vsync, and as I suspected, game runs fine. BUT -- I lose my battle-swirl(Obviously way too fast) and some bits just feel sped up. That's tolerable, I mean..not having a battle swirl, but I know others have recorded the game just fine with this driver running. Then again that was with fraps most likely, and I just don't want to run fraps unless absolutely necessary. Sure, I have 1TB of space available, but I hate splicing together clips in movie maker. I use bandicam(look it up if you've never used it) and it shares many features with fraps, plus many more. Quality is identical. File-size is also smaller to some degree. Usually.  I bet that's gonna break the mini-games too though if I leave that off. Bout to give up the ghost on this lol.
 
Last edited:
Win7 tip: turn off DWM when recording games windowed. I haven't tested it with FF7 in specific, but it's helped with any number of other applications.
 
You just won the lottery. Wow. Thanks Covarr. That FIXED it. I had no idea that process was even running. When I switched to 7, I jumped straight from XP, and I never had that process as I believe it started with vista(did a little bit of research). Turned it off, game runs great when windowed now.

Thanks again dude, you really saved the day. Looks like I can start playing again :)
 
Tip 2: DWM has its uses. Don't just turn it off altogether; instead, right click on your game, hit properties, and disable desktop composition in the compatibility tab. This way, it'll turn off only when that app is running.
 
Will do, thanks again. Honestly, I would of never guessed it would've been a process of all things running in the background making that much of a difference, and when I looked at it I was like "No way, it doesn't use up THAT much memory...it can't be" sure enough it was lol.
 
It's not related to how much memory it's using. It's because it affects the way the screen renders. It causes issues with graphics-related things, specifically.
 
Ah yes, you're right. I didn't look into it much so I figured it must of been related to memory. Had no idea that it was actually handling how each window you have open is rendered individually... and that windows sort of consolidates multiple windows into one before it is displayed via your monitor. At least that's sort of the gist of it. Not to mention it's responsible for all the pretty windows 7 taskbar effects, and other things of that vain. Like transparency, etc. Found that out when I disabled it, and my taskbar turned solid light grey instead of the transparent blue that it was. Like it better this way anyway  8-).

Well I hope this helps anyone else that was having this issue with vista/7. Feel free to close the thread mods as this has been solved. I thank both of you for taking the time to post.
 
Last edited:
Hi impulsiveFF7,

INFO: FF7/FF8 OpenGL driver version 0.7.9b
Click to expand...
you should update Aali's driver => 0.7.11b

   Custom graphics driver for FF7/FF8

Scroll down to the bottom for the newest version.


FIX :  Everything is made of light  (FF7 + FF8)

      

ff7_opengl.cfg :  use_shaders = yes

Download these files and copy them to .\shaders\nolight :  main.frag   main.vert
(overwrite? => YES)
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top