Windows Media Player and SWTOR performance increase testing

[sleekit]

ok i know some of you will think i'm insane but bear with me and i'll explain.

the experiment i want you to try is this:

start windows media player (personally i always play a video from my hard disk)
close it.
start swtor.

possible alternative experiment:

start windows media player (with nothing. this is the method from rndmnames post)
play swtor.


post your results.


the theory goes simplistically like this: every time a game starts up it fires off a load of DirectX initialization calls.

Windows Media Player, because its made my Microsoft and is an integral part of the OS and uses DirectX fires them all off perfectly. the game (in this case SWTOR) then piggybacks on those DirectX calls and functions better because its own are not correct.

this has previously worked with other games (including, if i remember correctly, WoW during the TBC patch cycle when the game suddenly developed very bad performance issues) and its discovery by users led to patches which fixed the problem.

im not suggesting for a moment this is all that's wrong with swtors performance (i still get the "memory leak" thing for example) but after being mostly ignored when i've mentioned this trick i've recently began to have people actually try it and see other posts corroborating my experience which i will edit into this post.

notes:

this may be OS specific as there a big difference between how DirectX9 is handled on XP and 7 (im on XP)

it's not due to the processor ramping up as some people suggest. i know about that and my processor doesn't ramp because its ability to do so is switched off and it constantly runs at full whack.

you may have seen similar posts about FRAPS. i'm guessing FRAPS does much the same thing but probably not as well as WMP.

all i ask is that you try it if you're willing and post your impressions


edit - corroborating posts (from the swtor forums)

Ok... ***?? i really wondered what the hell you were talking about there, so made some searches on google... and came across some threads of people talking how running Fraps in the background helped with the framerate, in the same thread someone mentionned running Windows Media Player in the background would do the same...

Well, out of curiosity, i started WMP, started the playback of a video, i paused it (not sure if i had to) and well... guess what... buttersmooth framerate, i could even increase my resolution... I'm playing with a laptop from my job (NOT designed for games obviously). And the game is running great.

We have to let Bioware know about this.

People, try it.

Edit: About 15fps increase. No kidding.

Ah. This is what I read this morning
http://www.swtor.com/community/showt...=180832&page=3

With WMP, it runs noticeably smoother although by how much, I can't say. I did the FarClip adjustment and I don't seem to be getting any benefits from it. Alderaan is still awful. The spaceport will be okay, up until you almost step outside, when it pre-loads the entire area. Tattooine is similar although the time it takes to load the area is lower, so getting to stable framerates (~30) is quicker there.

FYI you get the same performance increase by running windows media player in the background (doing nothing) while playing swtor.

I remember wow had the same thing a while back, until they 'integrated' whatever OS settings these apps were doing in the background into the wow client and then you didn't have to run them to get the higher fps.

edit 2 - link to swtor forums thread http://www.swtor.com/community/showt...=236418&page=2 where currently an eejit is trying to troll me /sigh

[Kassidus]

Gonna give it a try. Although it's almost 3 AM here, and usually since hardly anyone else is on at this time, the game runs like a champ. I'll try it again during peak time too. Here's hoping!!

[GallowsZA]

Interesting. I'll give it a try tonight.

[m3kira]

Tried this when playing WoW and noticed a significant decrease in loading times, was quite handy.

Will try with TOR tonight.

[vizzle]

Don't see a difference. Windows 7 here.

[anewok]

Hmm, seems to have upped my FPS quite a bit, gonna need more than 1 test to be sure its not a fluke, but this could be a pretty decent fix.

[Greevir]

tried this out on my brothers computer with a restart each attempt.

With nothing running - 45.3fps
With WMP (without video, and kept open) running - 43.7fps
With WMP (ran video and closed) running - 44.1fps
With Fraps running - 45.7fps

so basically, not seeing any difference doing this "trick"

Performed on Windows 7 Ultimate 64x

[sleekit]

tried this out on my brothers computer with a restart each attempt.

With nothing running - 45.3fps
With WMP running - 43.7fps
With Fraps running - 45.7fps

so basically, not seeing any difference doing this "trick"

thanks for trying and posting nicely formatted results.

can i ask what OS was used and which version of the experiment (play a vid or just launch WMP) ?

[Greevir]

thanks for trying and posting nicely formatted results.

can i ask what OS was used and which version of the experiment (play a vid or just launch WMP) ?

Edited post with requested details.

[PhearMark]

Tested on my starship (easiest place to get a solid, stable reading)
Windows 7 x64
Nothing: 111.1 fps
WMP: 111.1 fps
Fraps: 111.1 fps

It should be noted I play in Fullscreen (Windowed) mode for easy alt-tabbing. All FPS numbers were grabbed through the in-game measure (Ctrl + Shift + F).

[Deleo]

It's already like that with WoW. Has to have something with directx. I believe it only affects game loading times not the FPS.

[sleekit]

thanks Greevir & PhearMark

now i wonder what's going on.

from what i can work out from comments people that have said it does have an effect are people having low performance to begin with
you both aren't and are running windows 7
those seems to be the only correlations so far.

possibly windows 7 is immune as the Aero interface is DirectX right and so it would presumably already be initialized and running all the time.
it might only have an effect on performance in XP.

[gualdhar]

Eh, I guess it makes sense... but something like DirectX will have such an extensive API that I can't believe experienced programmers will have issues working with it anymore, especially since I think the game is optimized for an older version of DirectX. I'll give it a shot, but I'm not convinced.

[invader]

been fed up of waiting half a day for load screens or another half a day tryin to tab out to google or whatever.. tried this, just had player runnin in background with nowt playin. and hmm MUCH faster response, logged on, run about for few secs, tabbed out took only a few seconds, tabbed back in and again was pretty quick, exited game and yey didnt have to wait and then think fekk it n switch off at mains lol.. so yea works for me, still took a lil while but nowt like it was. cheers

[Butterland]

No change for me. But I run smooth over 100 FPS so probably no problem to fix in the first place.

---------- Post added 2012-01-26 at 04:58 AM ----------

been fed up of waiting half a day for load screens or another half a day tryin to tab out to google or whatever.. tried this, just had player runnin in background with nowt playin. and hmm MUCH faster response, logged on, run about for few secs, tabbed out took only a few seconds, tabbed back in and again was pretty quick, exited game and yey didnt have to wait and then think fekk it n switch off at mains lol.. so yea works for me, still took a lil while but nowt like it was. cheers

SSDs also help a lot in SWTOR with all the textures and stuff.

[Deleted]

And this is why I buy all my games for consoles, no wtf solutions are needed to fix something for some computers.

Constructive posting please... ~Rag

[FlawlessSoul]

I run FRAPS in the background constantly, in case I come across anything I want to screenshot/record (TGA for screenshots).

The Tomb, Belsavis. Everything set to maximum @1920x1200 fullscreen on W7x64.
Normal: 54
WMP: 54
FRAPS: 54

And this is why I buy all my games for consoles, no wtf solutions are needed to fix something for some computers.

Says the guy posting on an MMO forum dedicated to a non-console game. Good work there, mate. Enjoy SWTOR and WoW on your Xbox.

[Hellfury]

I rememnber ppl running wmp in TBC times and it made a diference but at SWTOR for me itdoesnt infact It seems for me Swtor runs better for me after a night of WOW raiding or w/e then after a cold boot