BnS Performance Issues

[Atheyana]

This thread is to help reduce the issues people have with Blade & Soul. This won't work for everyone but has helped to get reasonable FPS (latency/ping is a different matter). There are various things that could impact your frame rate and system performance. Latency/Ping is different than your Frame Rate so don't mix the two together. Before we get started with this I will explain some things to help eliminate any confusion people have.

 

Blade & Soul was developed on a heavily modified UE3 engine which gave a 32-bit client and DX9 API structure. This means that the majority of the data is handled by the CPU including graphics. A similar comparison is Civilization V on how it is CPU intensive (Civ V due to the number of instructions being performed not graphics). This means the bare minimum of instructions are sent to your GPU unless they heavily tweaked the DX9 API code (doubtful). 32-bit client also gives a cap of 4GB DDR memory utilized.

 

What does the above mean? The game won't take full advantage of modern hardware after a certain point. Hyperthreading isn't done with this game since it is outdated and offloading to GPU is minimum. Don't even see the added bonus of extra DDR memory unless you have a multiple programs open. No need to focus on top of the line hardware if this is the most intensive game you will be playing.

 

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Now back on topic with the performance improvement aspect after covering what the game limitations are. There are various reasons for why your system is ending up with a bottleneck. They will be listed in a list format

 

• Outdated Drivers (ex: Graphics Driver)
• Hardware incompatibility (certain brands don't mesh well together)
• Ensure you meet recommended specifications and not minimum (can exceed recommended but good benchmark)
• Higher IPC CPUs work better with DX9 games
• Check Taskmgr.exe to ensure that no program is using excessive amounts of CPU resources (will give an example later)
• Keep Windows fully updated
• Adjust settings in game to get a good Frame Rate (ex: turning effects slider down to 1)

 

These are things to ensure proper performance long term. The example of excessive resource usage for CPU is Norton's Internet Security with Backup. There was an update patch for this program that glitched some systems into hitting around 99% CPU usage. If this scenario happens uninstall the program if possible. Reinstall and update fully before opening any other program. Once done restart system and check to make sure the CPU usage has indeed dropped to a proper level to use. 

 

The symptoms of the above issue starts as stuttering and escalates to game freezing longer than it should for loading screens and such. Freezing during intense fights while dungeon running. There is also the issue of other programs wanting to seem like they are going to lock up on you.

 

In essence people should take ownership of monitoring their systems on a regular basis and check to see if there is a problem that needs to be addressed/fixed. If there is something odd performance wise dive deep and look into issues on your end because it may be some random problem not directly caused by the game client.

[Vau]

how to run BnS

 

1. look at system requirements

2. build something 100 times better than that. 

3. enjoy 20 fps in SSP :P