WinEQ 2.0 + multicore CPU fix?

[Bombay2]

Hello,

Right now for me I must choose between running WinEQ 2.0 to solve graphical chop, or running Duxa's mutlicore CPU fix to solve slow-motion movement, but I can't have both. I try to manually set CPU affinity for eqgame.exe while running WinEQ, but it doesn't work. Is there a way I can solve both problems at once? This is all new to me. Any help is very appreciated.

[fuelforthehate]

Manually setting the executable's affinity doesn't work or doesn't solve the issue? What version of Windows are you running? And are you using an Intel or an AMD CPU?

This thread (http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3609) might be worth looking through if you haven't already:

[dafier]

I have:
AMD 8350FX processor

I have CHOP ISSUES! WinEQ2 did not fix anything. I thought it did at first, but plain and simple it doesn't.

I tried setting 1 affinity CPU to the executable and it didn't work.

The only thing I can think of left is to under clock my CPU, which is running at out of the box speeds.

That thread fuel linked in his post is a good one, but wasn't helpful to me.

EDIT:

I also have a brand new Lenovo which has a I7 4510 CPU. I have NO issues at all with P99 running on it. Oh, it has a Nvidia 820m.

[fuelforthehate]

Hm. have you tried running WinEQ and forcing its affinity through Task Manager rather than relying on your launch parameters? I've noticed with other older games that I run with my AMD chipset that I have to set the affinity through WTM rather than relying on launch parameters.

That's my only other suggestion :(

[Nune]

When you boot your computer, hit whatever Fkey it needs to go into the DIOS. There's an option called SpeedStep. turn it off. Fixed my slow motion problems instantly. Nothing else fixed them, tried nearly every fix. Some BIOS do not have that option, if yours doesn't then keep on keepin on

[phacemeltar]

try using a custom shortcut with set affinity in the string, also set priority to high

[Bombay2]

Hey guys. Thanks for all the responses and suggestions. I'll give them all a try and report back with what worked. Before I do though I'll have to resolve another unrelated technical issue that's come up.

Manually setting the executable's affinity doesn't work or doesn't solve the issue? What version of Windows are you running? And are you using an Intel or an AMD CPU?

This thread (http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3609) might be worth looking through if you haven't already:

I'm running Windows 7 and Intel. Setting affinity manually doesn't solve the issue. I remain in slow motion.

[dafier]

Hm. have you tried running WinEQ and forcing its affinity through Task Manager rather than relying on your launch parameters? I've noticed with other older games that I run with my AMD chipset that I have to set the affinity through WTM rather than relying on launch parameters.

That's my only other suggestion :(

Late response:

Yes. WinEQ2 + open Task Manager, right click eqgame.exe, select Real-Time, Select 1 of the 8 cores.

I am still having major chop issues. I could try the Speedstep thing in the BIOS like suggested. I'll look for it.

[Rararboker]

I have an 8-core and use WinEQ2, solves my problem without additional changes. Maybe it is something else giving you problems?

[Bombay2]

I have an 8-core and use WinEQ2, solves my problem without additional changes. Maybe it is something else giving you problems?

What are your settings on WinEQ?

[Bombay2]

try using a custom shortcut with set affinity in the string, also set priority to high

I know how to create a shortcut to run a program with CPU affinity, but how would I create one to run EQ through WinEQ?

[dafier]

I have an 8-core and use WinEQ2, solves my problem without additional changes. Maybe it is something else giving you problems?

Maybe I am using WinEQ2 wrong. I start it using the Wineq2 executable. Please help me!

It's that chop. Random but happens often chop! It's terrible! Could you please give me a step by step of what you did? I am pulling my hair out (dealing with it really) trying to figure out what is wrong.

EDIT:
AMD 8350FX (Not overclocked)
16GB of 1600 DDR3
Gigabyte MB
Nvidia 660GTX

[Rararboker]

When I run the WinEQ2 executable it only makes the program appear in my task menu near the clock. It doesn't start the game at all. From there I right click on it and then open the EQ window. That props open the client where I can go sign into the servers.

My settings:

Hide Context Menu: Off
Auto Expand: Off
Lock Gamma: On
EQPLAYNice: On
HIde Memeory Warnings: Off


The General WinEQ2 settings:

Set CPU Affinity: On
Picture-in-Picture: Off
Automatic Tiling: Off

[dafier]

When I run the WinEQ2 executable it only makes the program appear in my task menu near the clock. It doesn't start the game at all. From there I right click on it and then open the EQ window. That props open the client where I can go sign into the servers.

My settings:

Hide Context Menu: Off
Auto Expand: Off
Lock Gamma: On
EQPLAYNice: On
HIde Memeory Warnings: Off


The General WinEQ2 settings:

Set CPU Affinity: On
Picture-in-Picture: Off
Automatic Tiling: Off

This information is valuable to me. I will check this when I get home. I am not following this procedure.

Thank you very much!

[Nune]

Try the speedstep thing I'm tellin ya. I spent 3 days doing every fix cataloged, nothing worked. SpeedStep being turned off fixed everything

[dafier]

Try the speedstep thing I'm tellin ya. I spent 3 days doing every fix cataloged, nothing worked. SpeedStep being turned off fixed everything

YA! So, I went in to my Gigabyte AMD MB BIOS. There is no SpeedStep setting. I believe this is the 'turbo' for the CPU setting. I found it though and disabled it. The setting I am referring to is "AMD something CPU". I can't remember the name of the setting. I'll have to get back to you about it.

[dafier]

Yep, I am correct. Speedstep is Intel....oh I didn't say it in this post. Anyway, AMD has a different name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedStep

Overall I am SURE that I am not using WinEQ2 properly. I'll post again after trying it tonight.

[fuelforthehate]

Maybe I am using WinEQ2 wrong. I start it using the Wineq2 executable. Please help me!

It's that chop. Random but happens often chop! It's terrible! Could you please give me a step by step of what you did? I am pulling my hair out (dealing with it really) trying to figure out what is wrong.

EDIT:
AMD 8350FX (Not overclocked)
16GB of 1600 DDR3
Gigabyte MB
Nvidia 660GTX

All silly questions but: are you using lite or the pro version? Windowed or fullscreen? And all of your drivers are up to date?

I just read that WinEQ2 automatically sets your CPU affinity and cycles them per session. Maybe manually setting an affinity screws this up?

[dafier]

Lite, windowed & drivers are up to date.

I need to check the WinEQ2 settings when I get home. So not sure about that.

[dafier]

When I run the WinEQ2 executable it only makes the program appear in my task menu near the clock. It doesn't start the game at all. From there I right click on it and then open the EQ window. That props open the client where I can go sign into the servers.

My settings:

Hide Context Menu: Off
Auto Expand: Off
Lock Gamma: On
EQPLAYNice: On
HIde Memeory Warnings: Off


The General WinEQ2 settings:

Set CPU Affinity: On
Picture-in-Picture: Off
Automatic Tiling: Off


OK Rar. I made sure my settings are just like yours. It did make a difference in the lihting because of the Lock Gamma change. Actually it's the only change I had to make to exactly mimic your settings.

Didn't work. I STILL get the chop.

Also, I checked AMD's equivalent to SpeedStep. It is Cool 'n Quiet. I disabled that, and it still doesn't work for me. I'm not giving up.

[phacemeltar]

I know how to create a shortcut to run a program with CPU affinity, but how would I create one to run EQ through WinEQ?

my suggestion didnt involve using winEQ2.. ive never tried it before, never thought i needed

[fuelforthehate]

Hm. What are your EQPlayNice settings? (Unless of course you have it disabled)

[dafier]

Hm. What are your EQPlayNice settings? (Unless of course you have it disabled)

EQPlayNice is Enabled. CPU affinity is Enabled. All else is default, I've not changed a thing.

I am not home right now but if you or whoever else doesn't mind listing the exact settings they have (that is working of course) I'll try that.

Another thing I thought of this morning was the AMD Cool 'n Quiet. I disabled it in my BIOS, but there are drivers & application in the OS. I didn't make sure those are disabled as well.

I have a feeling it isn't the AMD Cool 'n Quiet, I really feel there is something up with my WinEQ2. If it works for others then I highly doubt my system is THE exception.

EDIT:

Thank you all for your continual help.

More information:
I have 2 SSDs and 1 mechanical HDD in my system. 120GB SSD has my OS and some apps on it and has like 70+GB free. 480GB SSD has all my games and other stuff. Mechanical is for backup.

WinEQ2 and EQ install is on the 480GB.

I only run MSE (Win7Pro) for virus protection on that box. The boot is pretty clean too. There are a few apps that start up with the OS but not much and if anything the MSE is the biggest resource hog at boot.

However, 8 core 4Ghz CPU, 16GB of RAM and booting from an SSD makes everything fast. I am saying this to down play my 'hog' statement.

[Rararboker]

When you run WINEQ2, what happens? I get a small multi colored box that pops up near the clock next to the volume/USB unmount area in the task bar.

I right click on that and it gives you multiple game options like EQ, EQ2, DAoC. Each one has multiple "profiles" available when you put the mouse over the game title. FOr running p99 I click on the profile that I modified with those settings I mentioned before. When I modified the settings I made sure to rename the profile to something more unique than Everquest Profile 1.


My processor is a FX-8350, 16GB DDR3 Ram, Radeon 7870 and EQ/WINEQ2 are both installed onto a SSD. So we have very similar systems from what I can tell. I didn't have to make any changes to bios or anything else like that. But without WinEQ2 the game will NOT run on my system. And unless I run it exactly like I laid out here, It will not work.

If my instructions suck let me know and Ill make some screenshots of my process. I don't even remember how I figured this out. lol

[Bombay2]

Something odd seems to be happening when I limit my FPS. Either through WinEQ, or without WinEQ just using alt+O. Lowering my FPS cap seems to bring back slow-motion movement. At a 40 FPS cap I'm always in slow motion, at 60 sometimes, and at 90 rarely. This is while affinity is set both through WinEQ and without. Has anyone else encountered this?

[dafier]

When you run WINEQ2, what happens? I get a small multi colored box that pops up near the clock next to the volume/USB unmount area in the task bar.

I right click on that and it gives you multiple game options like EQ, EQ2, DAoC. Each one has multiple "profiles" available when you put the mouse over the game title. FOr running p99 I click on the profile that I modified with those settings I mentioned before. When I modified the settings I made sure to rename the profile to something more unique than Everquest Profile 1.


My processor is a FX-8350, 16GB DDR3 Ram, Radeon 7870 and EQ/WINEQ2 are both installed onto a SSD. So we have very similar systems from what I can tell. I didn't have to make any changes to bios or anything else like that. But without WinEQ2 the game will NOT run on my system. And unless I run it exactly like I laid out here, It will not work.

If my instructions suck let me know and Ill make some screenshots of my process. I don't even remember how I figured this out. lol

I didn't rename the profile at all but I uses the WinEQ 2.0 Default Profile.

That profile reads as:

Name = WinEQ 2.0 Default Profile

Window Title = WinEQ {VERSION} {PLUGIN} - EverQuest (Hotkey: {HOTKEY})

EQPath = D:\Everquest

EQClient.ini = .\eqclient.ini

Sound = ON

Test/Beta Server = Normal

Global activation Hotkey = AUTO

Locale = us (US English)

EQPlayNice settings are as:
General
Auto Expland - Off
FPS Indicator - Off
FPS Indicator X and Y = 5/25

Forground:
CPU/FPS Limiter Mode - FPS Limiter
CPU/FPS Limit = 40
Rendering Limiter Mode = 1 out of x frames
Rendering Limit = 1

Background:
CPU/FPS Limiter Mode - CPU Limiter
CPU/FPS Limit = 30
Rendering Limiter Mode = 1 out of x frames
Rendering Limit = 30

I have an Nvidia 660GTX. I get that multi-colored box as well. Right click that and do preferences or run EQ profile which starts the game.

Thanks and I look forward to your reply.

[Rararboker]

Looks like we have matching settings. You seem to run the game the same way I do. No clue why you would be having issues. Really confusing, heh

[dafier]

Looks like we have matching settings. You seem to run the game the same way I do. No clue why you would be having issues. Really confusing, heh

OK. I really appreciate your time. I am going to mess with the settings now and see if I can come up with a fix.

[Bombay2]

I've worked out a soft fix to my tech problems. It drastically reduces graphical chop and multicore CPU slow-motion from where it was before. My fix was inspired by:

Try the speedstep thing I'm tellin ya. I spent 3 days doing every fix cataloged, nothing worked. SpeedStep being turned off fixed everything

Thank you sir.

I also used this thread:
http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-25327.html

Since my situation is unique in that I run Windows 7 to play EQ on a Bootcamp partition on a 2008 Intel Mac desktop, I couldn't enter BIOS setup and just turn off SpeedStep. I had to compromise, so I created a custom power scheme in my Power Options.

(Control Panel - Hardware and Sound - Power Options - Create a power plan)

I selected High Performance, and left all the advanced power settings on default except for the minimum/maximum processor state which I changed to 50% on both. Doing this meant my CPU wouldn't throttle as often and cause chop or slow-motion. I think. This has been a learning experience. Then named the plan EQ 50/50 and only use it to play EQ.

That solved my bizarre FPS/CPU relation issue, and meant I could run EQ through WinEQ with no problems while having affinity set. Here are my WinEQ settings:

WinEQ2.0 - General
Set CPU Affinity = ON
Picture-in-Picture = OFF
Automatic Tiling = OFF

Everquest - General
Hide Context Menu = OFF
Auto Expand = OFF
Lock Gamma = ON
EQPlayNice = ON
Hide Memory Warnings = Off

EQPlayNice - General
Auto Expand = OFF
FPS Indicator = OFF

EQPlayNice - Foregorund
CPU/FPS Limiter Mode = FPS Limiter
CPUFPS Limit = 50
Rendering Limiter Mode = 1 out of x frames
Rendering Limit = 1

I also set eqgame.exe to compatibility mode for Windows XP SP 2 and to run as administrator. After all was said and done the results were mostly satisfactory. I now hardly get graphical chop or go slow-mo. However if I could I would have just entered my BIOS setup and just turned off Speedstep.

[dafier]

Looks like we have matching settings. You seem to run the game the same way I do. No clue why you would be having issues. Really confusing, heh

Bought a R9 270 video card. Going to try it out when I get it and let you know.

[dafier]

Looks like we have matching settings. You seem to run the game the same way I do. No clue why you would be having issues. Really confusing, heh

I installed my R9 270 I just purchased from Newegg. Still have chop problems, but for some reason they aren't as bad as with my Nvidia.

The Gigabyte motherboard north and south bridge chipsets are AMD:
AMD 990X + SB950

So, as of right now I am running a AMD MB with an AMD FX CPU and an AMD Video card. I thought it might be....for some reason, the Nvidia video card that could be throwing it off, but it's not. It is clear now that the AMD Video Card did cause less .5 sec chops, but didn't fix it over all.

Also I notice in game that sometimes there are NO chops at all. Then suddenly I have consecutive chops in a row.

The last thing I am going to check is GIGABYTE ET6 (Easy Tune). Maybe there is a setting in that app that is causing a cool and quiet feature to activate even though I disabled it in the BIOS. This issue has been extremely annoying.

[dafier]

Last post:

No 'fix' works. I followed all instructions on this site (4 fixes that are posted on the main wiki page) and ones from other users. Nothing fixes my random chop.

I under clocked my CPU, I turned off all power management (AMD Cool and quiet, AMD Turbo). I forced my CPU to boot with 1 processor, I forced my CPU to boot using 1 Compute Unit per CPU (core) in which only boots with 4 cores in to the OS.

I've tried all affinity settings and I've bought a brand new video card (which I love)...

I give up on my desktop. At least I don't have any issues on my laptop. I'll just play mostly on my laptop.

All of you out there who have had the easy fix (Install WinEQ2 and that's all), count your lucky stars.

Cheers and thank you all again for the assistance.