20 réponses à ce sujet

[REH1967]

 There's room for disagreement as to the exact cause, but many DA:O players have noticed that running the game for a certain period of time (varies depending on system) results in slowdowns and longer lasting load screens.

So, having awaited for a while to see if Bioware would address the reported issue, I got impatient, and I'm going to try out a little free program called Cleanmem. 

Now, everyone knows that memory utilities that free up RAM are steaming hogwash with a side of smoke and mirrors, but Cleanmem is different in both its simplicity and application.

The program's author has a good writeup on his website: http://www.pcwintech.com/cleanmem

It's unrestricted freeware, and can run on Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, & 2008, Windows 7 (32bit & 64bit) You simply install the tiny program, it will add a task to the Task Scheduler that uses  a Windows API to do the work. There are a few optional customizations you can edit as well if you wish, but it's pretty much fire and forget. Cleanmem doesn't run in the background, it runs when the Task Scheduler timer goes off, then closes until the next scheduled event.

So, I'll be trying it on my PC, and wanted to share my intentions with any like minded adventurers out there. 

It can be downloaded here: http://www.majorgeek...nMem_d5993.html

[Selakah]

Make sure to keep us posted.

[REH1967]

Well, after playing for a few days, I feel confident that CleanMem has made a positive difference in smoothing out the game for me. Long load times still occur, but not as frequently as before. More importantly, the slowdowns/slideshows that used to require me to save and restart the game have all but disappeared.



CleanMem is set by default in the task scheduler to run every 30 minutes, I adjusted this way down to every 5 minutes. DA:O simply clutters up the system memory so fast that a higher frequency "flush" was needed.



So, Bioware still needs to fix their game's memory usage, but CleanMem has improved the quality of my play and eliminated my need to constantly restart the game.

[CDay09]

Good find, REH. I fixed my game by reducing my GPU's temperature, so it was more of a hardware thing for me. I'll be trying this along with high temperatures and low alike to better well pinpoint my own problem. Happy playing!

[Zeluna]

REH1967 wrote...

 There's room for disagreement as to the exact cause, but many DA:O players have noticed that running the game for a certain period of time (varies depending on system) results in slowdowns and longer lasting load screens.

So, having awaited for a while to see if Bioware would address the reported issue, I got impatient, and I'm going to try out a little free program called Cleanmem. 

Now, everyone knows that memory utilities that free up RAM are steaming hogwash with a side of smoke and mirrors, but Cleanmem is different in both its simplicity and application.

The program's author has a good writeup on his website: http://www.pcwintech.com/cleanmem

It's unrestricted freeware, and can run on Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, & 2008, Windows 7 (32bit & 64bit) You simply install the tiny program, it will add a task to the Task Scheduler that uses  a Windows API to do the work. There are a few optional customizations you can edit as well if you wish, but it's pretty much fire and forget. Cleanmem doesn't run in the background, it runs when the Task Scheduler timer goes off, then closes until the next scheduled event.

So, I'll be trying it on my PC, and wanted to share my intentions with any like minded adventurers out there. 

It can be downloaded here: http://www.majorgeek...nMem_d5993.html

I'll try this program but I currently use a freeware program from Advanced Systemcare Free called Smartram that sorta does the same thing. Its a part of the total package and can run individually aside from this wonderful AS utility.

http://www.iobit.com/ascdownload.html

Update: ok after reading the readme file for cleanmem it doesn't work like Smartram it works even better!. A very clever lil utility you found there. Very ingenous on the part of Shane to create this API call and run is as a task. My God if every developer used these sort of API calls in their software the world would be a much better place! <3<3<3

Modifié par Yelina, 15 décembre 2009 - 04:07 .

[Zeluna]

REH1967 wrote...

Well, after playing for a few days, I feel confident that CleanMem has made a positive difference in smoothing out the game for me. Long load times still occur, but not as frequently as before. More importantly, the slowdowns/slideshows that used to require me to save and restart the game have all but disappeared.

CleanMem is set by default in the task scheduler to run every 30 minutes, I adjusted this way down to every 5 minutes. DA:O simply clutters up the system memory so fast that a higher frequency "flush" was needed.

So, Bioware still needs to fix their game's memory usage, but CleanMem has improved the quality of my play and eliminated my need to constantly restart the game.

yes, I was more conservative and set mine for every 10 minutes. Also make sure you check out the setting for this task in Windows 7, if you are using this OS, in the General tab of the task to "Configure for: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2" at the bottom as its set for "Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008" by default.

Modifié par Yelina, 15 décembre 2009 - 04:16 .

[REH1967]

Nice comments Yelina, I didn't see that option in the General Tab of the Task Scheduler when I originally opened it up, thanks! I changed it to "Configure for: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2" as you suggested.

[REH1967]

 CleanMem has improved my game, but the loading screens still start getting quite long albeit not as quickly as they used to do before CleanMem...

So, in addition to CleanMem, which is a nifty little app to have on any Windows system, I have taken some advice from this blog:

http://technicallyea...high-cpu-usage/

I did a google search after reading this old post from this very forum. It appears that AUDIODG.EXE may be the culprit in many of the systems that are getting bogged down. AUDIODG.EXE can eat up cpu cycles and would explain why the slowdowns occur. Pagefile usage, especially during loading screen transitions would be very susceptible to a cpu that's been tied up with other tasks, in this case: AUDIODG.EXE.

Blurb from Blog:

"The audiodg.exe file made its appearance in Microsoft Vista, which explains why I haven’t seen this file before. When I viewed the properties of the file, the description stated Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation, which doesn’t help explain what it does.

After doing a little research I found out that the audiodg.exe file hosts the audio engine for Vista, and from what I hear Windows 7 as well. All the DSP and audio processing is performed within this file. Vendors are able to install their own DSP and audio effects into the audio pipeline, which will then be processed by audiodg.exe."

The "fix" is simple, disable enhancements, see the bloggers advice:

"In order to fix the high CPU usage, I disabled the audio enhancements processed by the audiodg.exe file. To disable the audio enhancements, use the following steps:Right-click the speaker icon in the lower right corner.Select Playback Devices from the menu. A list of devices should appear on the screen.Double-click the device that has a green checkmark. The properties windows for that device should open.Click the Enhancements tab at the top.From the list of enhancements, uncheck all of them, or click the Disable all enhancements checkbox.Click the OK button to save your changes and close the window.Click OK to close the Playback Devices window."

So far, adventuring in Denerim, transitioning from one location to another and clearing the Bloodmage's dungeon, this "fix" seems to have improved things for me in a profound way. I alt-tabbed out, without the usual delay to get to desktop, and the task manager didn't have AUDIODG.EXE listed as it usually does.

But, this proves nothing, just throwing this out there for others to consider/comment or discover.:innocent:

Modifié par REH1967, 19 décembre 2009 - 03:54 .

[Rubbish Hero]

Game, needs, OPTIMIZED.

[REH1967]

It does need optimized, but until it is optimized, performance will be much more susceptible to competing memory hogs, less than ideal hardware configurations and any number of other things that add to the over all system load.



So, if eliminating what can be eliminated is enough to help some egt over the hurdle until the game is fixed...well, at least it's something. But, it is a sliding scale, not everyone will be able to surmount the problem by cutting down in other areas.

[Captain Honky]

Got my solution:

Have game running in Windowed mode, click to minimize the game.

Control + Alt + Del opens Task Manager.

Go to daorigins.exe - right click - Set Affinity - Unclick CPU 0.



No more freezing since then for me!

[berelinde]

I am going to try each of these suggestions one at a time. I will send a thousand karma points and my eternal gratitude to whoever's suggestion works.



I'm currently manually updating my NVidia GeForce 6800M GT drivers to see if that helps. As it also involved a BIOS update, I'm rather nervous.

[berelinde]

Unfortunately, none of the above worked. Somehow, I'm not surprised.

[roybm]

berelinde wrote...

Unfortunately, none of the above worked. Somehow, I'm not surprised.

what are your system specs?

[berelinde]

My system:

OS: Vista

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T7500 @ 2.20 GHz

Memory: 3.00 GB

System type: 32 bit

Video card: NVidia GeForce 8600M GT (256 MB)



This link here details the problem I've been having, as well as what I've done in attempts to rectify it. I can add to that list everything that has been suggested in this thread, as well as updating my drivers, reinstalling DirectX, and disabling DLC.

[REH1967]

It's a mixed bag for me. I have improved my load times and decreased slowdowns, certainly they occur far less often. But, they still happen especially in the Sacred Urn and Denerim areas after an hour or so of game play time. Weird part, is when the load screen "hangs" long enough for me to fear a game lockup, I alt-tab and open up Google Chrome and the game comes back to life again and the next area loads up...don't really understand why it works that way.



My most recent experiment is not using the Realtek software, I'm just using Microsoft Windows 7 native drivers for my sound hardware.

[Midnight Dragonslayer]

Ok, call me a noob, I downloaded Clearmem, but I cant find any instructions or explainations on how to use it or getting it to run.I also see no .exe file to click on or a way of forming a shortcut to a file to get it to run????

Im running this on vista guys, which I am new to from xp.

Can anyone please help a noob, as I am having bad occasional slow down issus on a computer that shouldnt have any problems with a game of this spec.

Thanks

Modifié par Midnight Dragonslayer, 24 décembre 2009 - 12:39 .

[whtnyte-raernst]

I installed CleanMem and Rivatuner, then my game started crashing (It was running fine before installing them) I uninstalled both, and my game resumed working fine again.

[Midnight Dragonslayer]

Midnight Dragonslayer wrote...

Ok, call me a noob, I downloaded Clearmem, but I cant find any instructions or explainations on how to use it or getting it to run.I also see no .exe file to click on or a way of forming a shortcut to a file to get it to run????

Im running this on vista guys, which I am new to from xp.

Can anyone please help a noob, as I am having bad occasional slow down issus on a computer that shouldnt have any problems with a game of this spec.

Thanks

**UPDATE**

I have found the Clearmem exe to start the program, however it doesnt start properly. ll that happens is a Black DOS window flashes up for about half a second, then disappeaers everytime I click on the Clearmem exe.

I have never really worked with DOS, can anyone tell me what to do please, and tell me what to do with clearmem to try to solve the slowing issues with Dragon Age, if this program is Dos based.

Thanks.

[Gorath Alpha]

Rubbish Hero wrote...

Game, needs, OPTIMIZED.

I just ran across this complaint.  Something that I have seen from developers many times about any game that is intended to have a construction set included, is that when tight optimization is attempted, it means that the tool set is seriously cramped and only a few end-user Mods end up being usable.   Bioware warned the buyers of NWN1 and NWN2 to expect a "loosly" optimized engine, and NWN2 in particular really "constipates" some high end PCs with its unoptimized code. 

Bethesda has never officially publicized a similar looseness to optimization being needed, but both Fallout 3 and Oblivion do put more strain on the hardware than the results seem to warrant. 

In the case of DA: O, I have tested the game on two systems in the middle area between minimum and reccomended, plus another right at the minimum, and I thought that the engine scaled down to that end very, VERY well, indeed.

Gorath
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