Trouble Running 3 Groups of Characters in EQ

I regularly run 2 groups of characters in EQ, using innerspace. I recently started a 3rd group to add to the mix, but I'm having performance issues. I have no issues whatsoever with 2 groups, but for some reason the 13th+ characters bring my entire pc to a screeching halt. Even getting screenshots of my task manager & open hardware monitor are difficult. I've ran open hardware monitor, as well as watched my resources in my task manager, and my RAM, processors (4 cores), and GPU never really got above 60% utilization except during loading. If I close isboxer and load the toons up manually, I dont have any issues at all, and my pc resources still look the same. Any suggestions on things to try? I've uninstalled/reinstalled both ISBoxer and EQ multiple times. Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated. I enjoy ISBoxer way too much to not get it working for my 3rd group! Thanks again!

ISBoxer Configuration

http://privatepaste.com/ab29922c60

Screenshot of task mgr and open hardware monitor, taken with ~18 chars up in innerspace. Looks very similar when I dont have innerspace open, but my pc and EQ work just fine.

Final 18 Chars.PNG (150.91 KiB) Viewed 19268 times

[lax]

I have a feeling you might be running out of RAM on your GPU. Unfortunately the Open Hardware Monitor screenshot does not cover your available GPU memory, just system memory.

If you run out of GPU RAM before all instances are launched you shouldn't be able to get any more launched because DirectX wont be able to set up the buffers. If you run out after, then DirectX will use system RAM for various things, and it will be noticeably slower than fully using GPU RAM.


You could get better performance by using a different CPU Strategy though. In the pasted configuration, it's set up as round-robin and is not equally distributed between your CPU cores. I would set it to all windows use all CPUs.


Also, what resolution is the game running in when you launch 18 toons without using Inner Space? With ISBoxer you've got it set up at 1536x847 -- which by the way is not a recommended resolution especially because it is an odd number, so none of your other windows can possibly fit evenly and look right. If your windows are 800x600 without Inner Space, they will of course perform faster and use less GPU RAM to operate than a window twice that size (like 1536x847)

Fair question on the resolution. This is actually using an ini file from someone else for troubleshooting purposes, didnt even think to change it. My issues originally started with all my my main character set to 800x600 and my main set a higher resolution. I've booted all 18 toons up without isboxer using this resolution.

I'll try bumping it down again, with some of the other changes I had made to the ini files and see what happens. Also, anyway to check my GPU RAM performance while I have EQ runnning?

Thanks again.

[bob]

Any way to check my GPU RAM performance while I have EQ runnning?

Process Explorer.

[MiRai]

My issues originally started with all my my main character set to 800x600 and my main set a higher resolution. I've booted all 18 toons up without isboxer using this resolution.

If your Window Layout is set to use Instant Swapping(which it is in the profile you linked above), then it's unlikely that the regions in your Window Layout were actually running at 800x600. In the profile above, all of your game clients are rendering at 1536 x 847.

Man you must've really, really asked nicely. They normally don't help you when you're playing on hacked/emulated servers.

Ahh I think your right. Definitely has to do with the resolution on the windows, however I'm having issues changing the resolution window by window. I tried the method here http://isboxer.com/wiki/HOWTO:Adjust_your_game_resolution , but rather than making the windows "grainy", it makes whats in the windows too big for me to do anything with....Im sure this is just my inner noob coming out...

[bob]

Because you are using Instant Swapping, the Reset Region of the swap group defines the size that all windows will render at (despite the display size).

As your Reset Region is region 1, that is the Render size.

The easy method would be to add a new region for the render size you want, then set it as the Reset Region. You can put the Reset region in a different swap group, and disable swapping on that region if you don't want to use it for your normal layout. Although that is pretty much those instructions too. If it hasn't worked, provide a new profile copy so we can see where it has gone wrong.

I also suggest you make sure all your regions end up with the same aspect ratio and one that matches the ratio of the render size.

So I played around a bit and got everything set to 800x600. Link is below. Still having the same issue when I load up unfortunately. The layout isn't ideal, but was more to test the resolution than anything.

http://privatepaste.com/75dad04b2a

Note/Question on GPU Memory...I DL'd process explorer, but it doesnt show and GPU memory being utilized by eqgame.exe....but it does for internet explorer? Doesn't logically make sense...

[bob]

Process Explorer has a few graphs. You simply want the ones right at the top (double click on them or goto View - System Information). This will give you the overall GPU information, which is what you need as you need to know the total of GPU and GPU Dedicated memory that is in use (oh and the GPU system memory too, which may be interesting).

As was suggested earlier, you may want to check out the CPU strategy wizard and not use a dedicated core per instance. You have 4 cores, 18 games, so 2 cores have 5 games, 2 cores have 4 games, and this is not including all the other things running too. As some games will not require the same resources at the same time, you could easily be starving the ones that do - the All Windows/All Cores strategy as Lax suggested would help with this. Also, you have foreground/background FPS settings of 60/30, which is damn hopeful IMO with the number of clients and the hardware you've got. I'd try setting it to 30/20 or 30/15, and then slowly move up the background setting up to 30 if it doesn't choke. This of course will be applicable if your GPU is not showing signs of memory pressure.