Opening Map destroy's framerate

[Jaysun]

(Please note I posted this in Tech help 2 weeks ago and nothing..why I am posting here because this is really ruining the gameplay experience for me as we use the map often).

So I am having an issue I do not remember having when I previous played. I am curious if this is a known issue (I looked for an hour) or if someone knows a solution to fix it.

I am getting 200+ FPS (Have a GTX 2070 super) but when I open the map my framerate appears to drop. The larger I make the map, the worst it gets. This also happens when I open multiple UI windows like character/auction house/etc.

The easiest way I can explain it is if you are tabbed out to look at a website and have DDO in the background and have seen your game framerate appear chopping until you tab back over to the game, that is what it looks like when I have the map open.

If I make the map small then the performance issue nearly disappears.

What I think is happening is that DDO UI system is a bit weird and when you open up a map or any UI feature like the store or character page, windows/game is actually like DDO the game is no in the background and is dropping the FPS while you have one of the game UI features open.

So my question is this already know and is there a solution? I have updated drivers, set DDo to always run from my graphics card.

This happens on all three of our accounts (wife and son). Wife and I have the same card/computer, our son has a Laptop 2060 super.

Love someone to know the fix to make my day!

[Jaysun]

Does anyone else get the above effect?

[dredre9987]

I do not

[Mindos]

Does anyone else get the above effect?

Playing windowed? Full screen? Full screen windowed? Cpu, gpu?

[makmakkabab]

Does anyone else get the above effect?

I get the same effect, I just don't expand the map while moving.

[blarhblarhblarh]

You don´t need 200 fps.

Cap it at 60 and you will have less lag on ddo and a more smooth experience.

[YUTANG75]

Yeah the map does that when you make it really big. Can't remember if it ever didn't do that.
I think the issue is just that their code for drawing the map is slow so when you make the map many times larger it slows down *a lot* and becomes apparent.
I've not noticed an issue with having multiple UI windows open though. That said I'm normally not moving when I do and so wouldn't notice.

[Strider1963]

You have to define "slow down" If youre always at 200 fps and slow down is 100 fps dont worry about it. To get smooth video you only need 60fps. The only ques Ive encountered where a faster machine/video card pays off is Yester Hill with all that ridiculous electrical stuff going on. This is an old game with an old game engine so its not optimal for all the special effects etc anyways.

[J1NG]

Given that the map can be used to show active, dynamic stuff on it (players and enemies), and it has layers on it (unrevealed and exposed), I imagine it's being treated as a seperate render at the same settings as the rest of your DDO client, hence it'll chew up VRAM the bigger the window as it's rendering another DDO viewing window by extension (sort of). So reduce as much AA as possible (especially if it's set in driver software and not inside DDO) and resolution used for DDO as a whole, should help reduce the issue.

Your mileage may vary depending on technical factors though (actual VRAM vs shared video RAM, chipset, etc).

J1NG

[YUTANG75]

Given that the map can be used to show active, dynamic stuff on it (players and enemies), and it has layers on it (unrevealed and exposed), I imagine it's being treated as a seperate render at the same settings as the rest of your DDO client, hence it'll chew up VRAM the bigger the window as it's rendering another DDO viewing window by extension (sort of). So reduce as much AA as possible (especially if it's set in driver software and not inside DDO) and resolution used for DDO as a whole, should help reduce the issue.

Your mileage may vary depending on technical factors though (actual VRAM vs shared video RAM, chipset, etc).

J1NG

I mean I guess but the map really shouldn't be causing issues like this. It's a 2D texture of the map, then you apply a mask to black out the areas you haven't explored and overlay any map markers you need.
I was going to say its probably due to how they calculate the "fog of war" to show where you've been. But then I realised that this would suggest it's not laggy if you make the map big in say the marketplace and I have a feeling it does, something to test later.

[LightBear]

I do recognise the chopping down framerate when the game loses its focus.
That has something to do with detect optimal settings under your gfx card's performance plan for DDO.
Even if you have that set, your os still might think it knows better, so just set things for performance there as well under energy plan or where ever it is hiding nowadays.

I play in windowed fullscreen because I have 3 monitors and like to be able to hover out of the game with my mouse pointer on the fly and interact with whatever I have going on monitor 2 or 3.

[Jaysun]

Playing windowed? Full screen? Full screen windowed? Cpu, gpu?

Going to answer multiple questions from about in this reply.

GTX 2070 super.
32 gigs of Ram DDR4 3200
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700 CPU

Playing in 2k resolution (1440p)

I get over 200 FPS normally in full screen or windows...doesn't matter.

When I open the map to be say 1/4 the size of the screen my FPS drops to 120-140. Now while this is sounds like amazing FPS still, in reality it makes my main game start to have a studder while running. It looks like it is dropping below 60FPS..more like around 30fps in performance. I put on Vsyn to lock it to 60fps..and my FPS dropped to around 40 max with the map open..and nothing changed, looked the same with the studder.

I have my graphics card set to performance and maximized for power consumption for performance.

This studder is tied to the map. Prior to coming back I played in 1080p..and I am curious if that is the deciding factor (going to test that now actually). Maybe the map uses less resources in 1080p. No clue. But when I am out in a wilderness area and I open my map to run to a quest....its ruins the gameplay experience for me. I am running to the gold door in Feywild for example..and just this stupid studder that prevents me from enjoying the view. I shut the map and its fine. Its a minor thing but frustrating none the less.

[Rockcrusher99]

(Please note I posted this in Tech help 2 weeks ago and nothing..why I am posting here because this is really ruining the gameplay experience for me as we use the map often).
...

I never leave the map open due to what you mention. I play full screen and with the map up and fairly large, it kills performance. It has been this way for at least 8+ years in my experience.

[LightBear]

Interesting, I do not play above 1080p and have had odd (counter intuitive) behaviour of the fps when fiddling with the max frames per second.
Just like you say, it's plain weird when hard capping the max frames per second to 60 when your graphics card can easily push out way more the frames per second still drop below that.

For the map, on bigger resolutions, it could be tied to every setting that draws objects that are far away and can make some sort of appearance on your map.
(Is it distanced imposters, landscape objects?)

Btw, there was a recent driver update as some games fried the latest graphics cards when opening windows that had nothing to render in 3d, making the framerates for that frame shoot to near infinite which no card could keep up with of course. No idea if that is related.

At the time I fixed my problems by doing a detect optional settings, left my max frames per second alone and set the usage of machine memory higher then in the middle. Been playing from those setting since.

[mutantspacegoat]

Does anyone else get the above effect?

I've noticed this lately. It's only started happening recently. I also now get the same effect in the grand gala in Partycrashers in House P.

[False_Gods]

Yeah the map is screwy and will make your FPS take a nose dive if you make it big. There really is no explanation for it. I also have a top end rig.