Performance Issues

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TheGrimblade
Posts: 20
Joined: 04 Aug 2017, 01:49

Performance Issues

Post by TheGrimblade »

It is late my time, so I'll be brief now and get performance metrics in the morning.

I had a couple of questions related to performance. I generally have relatively poor frame rate with OpenMW, but due to the nature of this project as a work in progress, I previously shrugged it off. I decided to try out tes3mp today, and while running around I noticed that my performance was really bad. I switched over the regular OpenMW to check my performance with the same mod setup, and got much better performance. I did note, using the F3 metrics that when I was running tes3mp and getting poor performance, the physics value was quite high (70s to 90s). It was still in the 30s to 40s in the same area on regular OpenMW, but there could have been other factors at play. I found an old thread (linked below) talking about a link between physics and frame rate, but from a couple of other threads talking about the same issue, it sounded like the issue should be (mostly) resolved in more recent versions of OpenMW.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3696&hilit=sadrith+mora

So, questions:
Why would physics be spiking like this? For some context, it wasn't in a city, it was actually in the fields near Suran. I know that does matter, and I'll get performance metrics in the morning.
Has the issue discussed in the linked thread been improved upon significantly in recent updates?
Is there a reason why tes3mp might see worse performance than regular OpenMW? I know this is the OpenMW forum, but I know that tes3mp shares this forum and this line of questioning is too long to post in Discord. I am hosting the server on the same computer that I am playing on.

Basic computer setup:
Windows 10
i7-5820k OC @4 GHz **
NVidia GTX 1080Ti 11GB
32GB RAM (couldn't tell you the brand)
240GB SSD boot drive
1 TB WD Caviar Black hard drive (this is where the game is located)***

Basic game settings (off the top of my head:
1920x1080 resolution
Full screen, V Sync on
Trillinear, 16x AA, Max draw distance

**This is the part I find odd. It *is* a six core processor, and my understanding is that OpenMW really only utilizes two cores, but the relatively high speed per core should make up for that somewhat, shouldn't it? I know from reading through the forums that the bottleneck on physics was supposed to be CPU related.
***Typing this out made me realize that I am actually running the server from my desktop, which if I am correct, is technically part of the Users folder, which is on the boot drive. Not sure if that would cause issues, but I could see how it might...

I know you really can't help much without more information, actual metrics, but it really is late and I need to get some sleep.
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akortunov
Posts: 899
Joined: 13 Mar 2017, 13:49
Location: Samara, Russian Federation

Re: Performance Issues

Post by akortunov »

Just for reference, did you alter the "exterior cell load distance" option?
If you did not, you should get a very good framerate with plain OpenMW even with a lot of replacers.
Also make sure you do not have CPU- or IO-hungry processes in background (e.g. Windows Update service or antivirus software).
TheGrimblade
Posts: 20
Joined: 04 Aug 2017, 01:49

Re: Performance Issues

Post by TheGrimblade »

I can confirm that I am not running any CPU heavy background processes.

I do not believe I altered "exterior cell load distance," but I may have. What is the default? If it is a .ini setting I don't believe I modified the .ini.

I don't really see the point in installing graphics mods for Morrowind, so I doubt that would be a problem. Here is my load order:
Morrowind.esm
Tirbunal.esm
Bloodmoon.esm
Graphic Herbalism.esp
Join All Houses.esp
Join All Vampire Clans.esp
More Barter Gold v1.esp
OfficialMods_v5.esp
SpeedandStamina.esp
Tamriel_Data.esm (Tamriel Rebuilt)
Graphic Herbalism Tamriel_Data.esp (Graphic Herbalism Addons)
TR_Factions.esp (Tamriel Rebuilt)
TR_Mainland.esm

Additionally, I am using the Better Dialogue Font mod, which does not require a plugin to run.
I tried to keep it relatively vanilla, and added most of these mods over time to an ongoing playthrough and noticed very little slowdowns.

I've just taken some screenshots, and I will post them in my next response, but before I do, is there anything in particular that you would like to see?
TheGrimblade
Posts: 20
Joined: 04 Aug 2017, 01:49

Re: Performance Issues

Post by TheGrimblade »

Here are the results from some basic testing:
Basic Computer testing:
Computer Startup
Computer Startup
Idle with Some Background Processes
Idle with Some Background Processes
OpenMW video settings:
Video Settings 1
Video Settings 1
Video Settings 2
Video Settings 2
Video Settings 3
Video Settings 3
More in following post.
TheGrimblade
Posts: 20
Joined: 04 Aug 2017, 01:49

Re: Performance Issues

Post by TheGrimblade »

OpenMW with mods; No tes3mp:
Balmora Scene 1
Balmora Scene 1
Balmora Scene 2
Balmora Scene 2
Outside Suran
Outside Suran
Suran Plantations
Suran Plantations
Sadrith Mora Typical
Sadrith Mora Typical
TheGrimblade
Posts: 20
Joined: 04 Aug 2017, 01:49

Re: Performance Issues

Post by TheGrimblade »

continued...
Sadrith Mora "Busy" Scene
Sadrith Mora "Busy" Scene
Sadrith Mora Collision Test
Sadrith Mora Collision Test
tes3mp with same mods:
Running Server Without Game Open
Running Server Without Game Open
Suran Entrance (I can get a more like for like shot if necessary)
Suran Entrance (I can get a more like for like shot if necessary)
Suran Plantation Scene
Suran Plantation Scene
TheGrimblade
Posts: 20
Joined: 04 Aug 2017, 01:49

Re: Performance Issues

Post by TheGrimblade »

continued...
Balmora 1
Balmora 1
Balmora 2
Balmora 2
Sadrith Mora Typical
Sadrith Mora Typical
Sadrith Mora "Busy" Scene
Sadrith Mora "Busy" Scene
Sadrith Mora Collision Test
Sadrith Mora Collision Test
TheGrimblade
Posts: 20
Joined: 04 Aug 2017, 01:49

Re: Performance Issues

Post by TheGrimblade »

Performance Comparison:
Regular OpenMW Suran Plantation
Regular OpenMW Suran Plantation
tes3mp Suran Plantation
tes3mp Suran Plantation
While I don't think this would have an impact on game performance since I am hosting the server and connecting locally, the network utilization is odd to me here. I have Discord running in the background, and at the time of these image captures, people were messaging rapidly. I don't *think* that is the cause for the network utilization, but if you believe that could be an issue, I can recapture some of these tests.
TheGrimblade
Posts: 20
Joined: 04 Aug 2017, 01:49

Re: Performance Issues

Post by TheGrimblade »

I don't think my issue lies with regular OpenMW, and I am fine with the performance I am currently getting on regular OpenMW. My monitor is a 4k 30Hz monitor, so high frame rates don't do much good for me anyway. I've completed several playthroughs of the game, both modded and unmodded going back to the 0.3x versions, and it is consistently playable, with relatively few performance dips. The tes3mp performance is noticeably worse though, and there does seem to be *some* correlation between where I am getting performance dips on OpenMW and tes3mp, so I figured it would be best to share more rather than give too little information. I think this might be a case of multiple issues, and I am hoping that solving my performance with tes3mp might also improve my frame rate in OpenMW or vice versa. Anyway, let me know if there are any further metrics or troubleshooting you would like to see.
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akortunov
Posts: 899
Joined: 13 Mar 2017, 13:49
Location: Samara, Russian Federation

Re: Performance Issues

Post by akortunov »

TheGrimblade wrote: 21 Sep 2018, 17:30 I do not believe I altered "exterior cell load distance," but I may have. What is the default? If it is a .ini setting I don't believe I modified the .ini.
On your screenshots you have very high view distance, what may cause a performance drop. It is not achievable from GUI configurators, so you definely edited a settings.cfg file in your Documents\My Games\OpenMW folder.
Make sure that your "exterior cell load distance" under [Cell] section is 1 in this file.
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