FFXIV Installation Info & Issues - Post here please

[Aeni]

Re: FFXIV Installation Info & Issues - Post here please

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but anyone have tips for helping me get XIV running smoother? I was quite surprised to start it up, crank everything up and get funky FPS.

i7 990x (Not OC'd), 2 GTX590 in SLI (stock clock speeds), 2560x1600. I haven't met much that I couldn't run maxed out, but XIV turns into a slideshow with everything on. I know AO hits hard, but even after turning AO off, and eye-candy down, I'm still not 100% happy.
I hear the windowed fullscreen hack might help, as does various Nvidia CP settings, but I was hoping for some tips from those with personal experience. Anyone have any magic for me?

1. Windowed mode causes more FPS issues than Fullscreen mode. Any "hack" you find requires you to run Windowed Mode, but centers it so that it "emulates" a Fullscreen experience. Therefore, this isn't an ideal solution to your problem.

2. Make sure your graphic settings in the nVidia control panel lets the application decide. Otherwise, you're going to get conflicting settings which always, always causes compatibility issues.

3. Check to see what driver you're running and Google nVidia SLI and Final Fantasy XIV. Certain drivers work the best for SLI mode when running FFXIV. It's not recommended that you always keep your drivers updated.

4. Always keep Ambient Occlusion off. There is no rig out there that can run the game with AO on and not look like shit. Until 2.0 is released, we won't know what kind of tweaks will be developed for the game.

5. There should be a benchmark application on the FFXIV site. Download it and then analyze the performance. Depending on how you score, you can determine where the problem is (i.e., CPU or GPU)

6. What Windows are you running? How much RAM do you have? There's a lot of information you have not given out, including your power supply (model/brand), whether or not your Direct X drivers are squared away and how many devices are drawing from the PSU. All important factors in determining your performance and improving it.

[neenja_jenkins]

Re: FFXIV Installation Info & Issues - Post here please

1. Windowed mode causes more FPS issues than Fullscreen mode. Any "hack" you find requires you to run Windowed Mode, but centers it so that it "emulates" a Fullscreen experience. Therefore, this isn't an ideal solution to your problem.

2. Make sure your graphic settings in the nVidia control panel lets the application decide. Otherwise, you're going to get conflicting settings which always, always causes compatibility issues.

3. Check to see what driver you're running and Google nVidia SLI and Final Fantasy XIV. Certain drivers work the best for SLI mode when running FFXIV. It's not recommended that you always keep your drivers updated.

4. Always keep Ambient Occlusion off. There is no rig out there that can run the game with AO on and not look like shit. Until 2.0 is released, we won't know what kind of tweaks will be developed for the game.

5. There should be a benchmark application on the FFXIV site. Download it and then analyze the performance. Depending on how you score, you can determine where the problem is (i.e., CPU or GPU)

6. What Windows are you running? How much RAM do you have? There's a lot of information you have not given out, including your power supply (model/brand), whether or not your Direct X drivers are squared away and how many devices are drawing from the PSU. All important factors in determining your performance and improving it.

Thanks!
I'll check my Nvidia CP settings, and make sure it's "Let application decide".
I might have to roll back my drivers too, I'm on the most recent version.

Yeah, I left out most of that stuff because I'm fairly certain that those things aren't likely the issue. I take care of my toys, and I have no issues anywhere else. I'm kinda guessing my problem stems from XIV being poorly optimized and still, at least from a technical standpoint in beta. My monitor resolution probably doesn't help either. I'm sure if I was running 1080p things would be fine. Windows 7 professional 64bit. 12gb of DDR3 (1800 I think). 1200w PSU. Direct X is straight too. I need an SSD though, and I'm wondering if that might help the stuttering I see here and there.

Since this post I've gotten things running better. AO is off. Turned everything back down to "standard", AA off, and still tinkering. Shadows still look awful though.

Thanks Aeni!

[Aeni]

Re: FFXIV Installation Info & Issues - Post here please

Thanks!

You're welcome

I'll check my Nvidia CP settings, and make sure it's "Let application decide".

Even nVidia recommends this. When I last perused the GE Force "Club" site regarding optimization settings (they never released an FFXIV version yet) one of the nVidia techheads said that some games default to the driver settings while other games require total control over the drivers. Unfortunately, FFXIV is one of those games and there's numerous articles as well as thread posts that go into detailed technical analysis, but almost always come down to criticizing the way the API controls were being handled (or mishandled) by FFXIV client (in other words, shoddy programming as a result of trying too hard to eliminate 3rd party hacking tools)

I might have to roll back my drivers too, I'm on the most recent version.

Remember to properly uninstall with each rollback. nVidia has a tool on their site to help facilitate this (might require some poking around on their site)

I'm kinda guessing my problem stems from XIV being poorly optimized

Bingo. Hit the proverbial nail square on the head with this one. Fortunately for me, the game runs stable enough without overheating problems, but that's because I'm anal about these things. I use MSI Afterburner to "choke" the game if it reaches or surpass certain pre-configured thresholds in order to protect my GPU.

As for shadows, it's shit no matter what you do, but I find 4x or 8x with high shadows "palatable enough". Will not totally get rid of the annoying "soft cross hash" effect you see from the bad lighting (aka window screen effect)