X3 AP now lagging so badly it's Unplayable.

Danny200 · Post by **Danny200** » Sat, 6. Aug 16, 19:39

Ok lets get some things out the way first...

No my computer is not bad it's really good
No I do not need to update drivers
No I do not need to reinstall the game
No I do not use any mods or any scrips
No my firewall has nothing to do with it
(Enter other generic things here)

Anyways when I first played the game everything was fine I was getting around 90fps on full graphics... even with 50 ships fighting at once massive wars still no fps loss...

Now after a weeks play I'm only getting around 5-10fps and around 2fps in heavy fighting sectors.... why?

Again my computer is fine.... If it couldn't run the game I wouldnt of been able to play at the start...

I do have 1 satellite in every sector and all sectors explored could the satellites be causing lag? I also only own 4 ships

Or is it just the longer you play more lag you get and it's part of the game and I should just uninstall now?

Please help

ancienthighway · Post by **ancienthighway** » Sat, 6. Aug 16, 20:01

When I'm on an X3 binge, I'll have the game running non-stop for days and even weeks at a time. It doesn't matter if it's TC or AP. The only game-breaking lag I've experienced was with AP in war sectors before I upgraded my computer.

Is the lag happening in vanilla or are you heavily modded?

Snafu_X3 · Post by **Snafu_X3** » Sat, 6. Aug 16, 21:30

Danny:

Try a test new start (you don't have to save it, so turn autosave off if necessary). If that shows lag then there's a fundamental problem with your config; however, if (as I suspect) it doesn't then it's due to the game being effectively a living /universe/ simulator, for all game assets in all 250-odd sectors.

As more assets are created by the game they will be utilised by the game AI (whether you've seen them personally or not); this inevitably leads to an increasing load on your CPU (due to its running ever-increasing AI scripts etc) & eventually resulting in perceptible lag. Not a great deal you can do about that, unfortunately (although I'm a little surprised you've run into the problem so early)

Have you checked whether the lag is more pronounced in certain sectors (eg nebulae or 'roid fields, or containing lots of stations)?

Unfortunately X3 (& previous X games) is single-threaded so multicore processors won't help: it needs a fast core clock speed CPU to cope with the above. Some CPUs (mostly in laptops) automatically throttle down CPU clockspeed in BIOS to save power by default.. worth investigating? BTW GFX hardware improvements are likewise unlikely to help due primarily to the above (driver updates/changes may well do, but you say you have that covered)

One last thing: if you bought the game from Steam or another online store check that Steam or WHY isn't still running in the background (there's a nosteam .exe available as a free download) as this will impact your CPU some more, stealing clock cycles from the game

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Sun, 7. Aug 16, 12:29

Despite your assurances that it is all the fault the game and not something specific to your system or set-up making it worse than it need be, why not post in Tech Sp along with the game details and a DxDiag so that we can help you to make sure of that?

BTW (if Steam), have you verified both X3TC and X3AP gamefile caches separately since this issue happened?

Post by **Xenon_Slayer** » Tue, 9. Aug 16, 16:42

Moved to the tech support forum.

As Alan said, a DXDiag may still be of some use. I would also suggest hosting a savegame somewhere (or e-mailing it directly to me) so we can see if it's something in-game.

There is a known issue with some missions not cleaning themselves up properly and causing some performance issues. I'd expect it's that.

Cursed Ghost · Post by **Cursed Ghost** » Fri, 12. Aug 16, 01:00

also I'm not sure if it was ever resolved but I'm sure i remember seeing reports from people having issues when they did a lot of generic missions some sort of bug with the mission director

there is some more stuff on that here

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... n+director

MrFiction · Post by **MrFiction** » Sat, 13. Aug 16, 13:58

In another topic the OP is asking about questions about XRM. So it seems you're using XRM?

In my experience the lag is coming from generic missions, check the link of Cursed Ghost. Or you're having a problem with XRM.

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Sat, 13. Aug 16, 16:11

From the OP "No I do not use any mods or any scrips"

Without any further input from the OP, I cannot see this thread going anywhere useful.

vexter · Post by **vexter** » Tue, 23. Aug 16, 21:08

I have played 5 different games through to completion in AP with missions for TC added with mods.

The breaking point for owning stuff is about 300 stations/ships for my games (with mods). My system is using an i5 K running 4.6 ghz.

To combat end game lag I use a resource free station mod to eliminate the need for haulers. I use FDN to eliminate the need for complex and haulers.

I do not use carriers. M7Ms are better for killing everything.

I try to limit myself to the 300 number and this keeps missions like final fury and killing 50 xenon caps doable. However, by the time I get to the xenons, its still a bit laggy.

The game is just old and broken. And unfortunatly, ego invested in rebirth which is terrible. I really fear we are done here, with nothing more too see. I hope Im wrong.

The Q · Post by **The Q** » Tue, 23. Aug 16, 21:20

Cursed Ghost wrote:also I'm not sure if it was ever resolved but I'm sure i remember seeing reports from people having issues when they did a lot of generic missions some sort of bug with the mission director

That's the mission bug Xenon_Slayer mentioned above.

vexter wrote:I have played 5 different games through to completion in AP with missions for TC added with mods.

Have you tried out the workaround to the Mission Diretor bug mentioned in the topic linked by Cursed Ghost above?