WIN XP /Radeon sluggish

[sniper297]

I recently got a new computer, loaded Morrowind with Tribunal (ver # 1.3.1029) on it. I'm experiencing "stickyness" in the mouse (horizontal movement starts and stops tracking in a jerky fashion) and it also frequently ignores keystrokes, EG hit F or R several times before it responds. It mostly does this indoors, makes for a big problem in combat since it can take over a minute of repeated banging on the keys to switch from weapon to spell and back. I have tried changing resolutions, switching sound from hardware to software, and the Direct 3D troubleshooter that disables cursor acceleration. Again, this also affects the keyboard, not just the mouse.

Current specs:

Gateway something (Ec-6000, I think)
Motherboard: Intel D850EMV2
CPU: Pentium 4 2.66ghz
Video: ATI Radeon 9700 PRO, 128mb (driver 6.13.10.6166)
Memory: 1024mb 533mhz RIMM
Sound: SB Audigy
OS: Windows XP home (5.1, build 2600) SP 1, DX 9

My previous computer:

Motherboard: ASUS A7A-266
Processor: AMD Palomino XP1600+
Memory: 768MB PC-2100 DDR RAM
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 4 Ti-4400 128MB AGP (detonator 40.72)
Sound: Creative SB 512 PCI
OS: Windows 98 Second Edition, build 2222, DX 9

Did not have this problem, ran Morrowind smooth as silk.

[Firestormalpha]

Sounds like mostly the same components I have. Which brings the question, "Are your drivers up to date?" ATI has some relatively new drivers Catalyst 3.9 I believe. Sound card drivers I'm not sure. I'm still trying to find the serial # on mine to figure out exactly which card I have. Its a soundblaster Audigy X Gamer but beyond that I don't know.

Also check the site of you the company that made your monitor. I couldn't figure out why my graphics were so choppy when I realized I forgot to re-install my monitors drivers.

[ 12-17-2003, 06:36 PM: Message edited by: Firestormalpha ]

[Oruboris]

My system is similar, too, and starts behaving [rather, mis-behaving] in much the same way if I've been playing for a long time. I usually have to save, exit and reload. If I don't, it eventually crashes.

Oru

[Firestormalpha]

I never notice any issues graphics wise, though my game doesn't like me to use the mouse wheel. Anytime I try or so much as accidentally move even slightly all of the scroll bars shift to either the up, down, left or right extreme and refuse to stick anywhere in between.

[sniper297]

Thanks, guys. I've been using the old drivers for quite a while, since every few months I bite the bullet and attempt new ones, and then uninstall when they don't work as well as the 6.13.10.6166. The last one I tried was labeled

"wxp-w2k-catalyst-7-95-031028m-011774c",

and Morrowind and Microsoft Train Simulator both locked up on startup with that driver installed. There's a newer version, maybe I'll give that a try.

I do have a Samsung 955DF, with the latest drivers for that, so I don't think that's the problem. This seems to be more of a hardware interupt problem than a video issue, like the program is too busy doing something else to read the input from the keyboard and/or mouse. Again, it's only indoors, and happens in the oddest places - climbing the stairs in a castle tower, for example, I keep running into walls at each turn since it reads the W key but rolling the trackball for the turn is ignored. Or, it reads the trackball perfectly, but ignores keypresses. I don't know where to find an FPS indicator, but the animation outdoors, even in the rain, is smooth and fast (as it should be, considering the system specs!).

I'll also experiment with mipmapping, since it almost feels like the smaller the space I'm in the worse it gets. I ran a search on this forum looking for this, but all I found was the mouse acceleration messages. BTW, Wizards & Warriors don't have this problem.

[Gammit]

I've been having the same problems even with all updated drivers.

WinXP and ATI 9700 Pro

[Radek]

This seems to be a problem of the game, at least partly. I haven't experienced problems with the game itself but I have experienced problems with the editor: suddenly, the editor becomes sluggish, everything lasts for years, and when you try to quit then you don't quit - the computer hangs instead and you get the message "the application isn't responding" in the end. Luckily, if you have saved the mod, then the mod is really saved and you aren't losing anything.
There is something stinking in the logic of the game and the editor. There are more problems with the game:
1. I am often not able to escape the introduction animation. When you are writing a mod then it prepares you for a madhouse rather quickly.
2. It happens often that the mouse is confused after quitting the game. Left click behaves as right click, and you have to right click several times before the mouse resets to a resonable behaviour.
I am patched to 1.02.0722

[shamrock_uk]

yeah, i had a similar problem with almost identical spec...kill all real time shadows...the speed increase i noticed was very large. Also, you can grab the frame rate optimiser from www.morrowind.nm.ru You may or may not want to turn on some of the ingame stuff, but there is one rather handy option to remove mouse sluggishness when browsing through your inventory etc