"How-to's": "Voice Chat" - "Improving Video Hitching, Glitching.."

[Fernelf]

Edit by Mirthgar: These are the merged "Voice Chat" and "Improving Video Hitching, Glitching, Stuttering" How-To stickies use those links for quick navigation.

** Originally POsted by Tiggs!**



To set up voice chat in game:


Before using voice chat, you must first make sure that your microphone is set up in correctly in Windows, and then turn on the correct settings in-game:

• Check that your headphone and microphone jacks are plugged in correctly – on most headsets and soundcards, the headphone jack is light green and the microphone jack is orange.
• Check that your headset’s external volume control (if present) is turned up.
• Check that your headset’s external microphone ON/OFF switch (if present) is turned ON.
• Go to Start >> Control Panel >> Sounds and Audio Devices.
  
  • On the Audio tab, click on the Volume button in the Sound Recording section. This should open up the Recording Control window.
  • Check that the Microphone option is checked. If you don’t see the Microphone entry, select Advanced Controls from the Options menu.
  • Close the Recording Control window and click on the Volume button in the Sound Playback section of the Sounds and Audio Devices control panel. This should open up the Volume Control window:
  • Check that the Mute checkbox under the microphone slider is checked.
  
  
• Open up the Windows Sound Recorder. You can find it by going to Start >> All Programs >> Accessories >> Entertainment >> Sound Recorder.
  
  • Click the Record button (red circle) in the lower right-hand corner of the window and speak a few words into your microphone. Hit the Stop button and then the Play button to play back your recording. If your microphone is set up correctly in Windows, you will hear yourself speaking.
  • Close the Windows Sound Recorder. You do not need to save your sound file.
  
  
• Log into LOTRO.
  
  • Open up the Options panel and click on the Audio button.
  • Click on the Mic Test checkbox and a volume meter will appear. Speak into your microphone – if your microphone is working correctly in LOTRO, you will see the volume meter go up while you are speaking. Turn off the Mic Test when you’re done.
  • Next click the Enable Voice Chat and Hands Free Voice checkboxes to turn on voice chat.
  • To enable a keybinding for voice chat click on the keybindings tab
  
  

Using Voice Chat
Now that you’ve completed your setup, you’ll probably to start using voice chat. In order to do this, you simply need to find a party that is using voice chat, or start one of your own.

Please make sure that you have voice chat turned on before you join the party – otherwise it probably won’t work right. If you want to turn on voice chat while you’re already in a party, you should leave the party, turn voice chat on, and join the party again. If you forget to do this and your voice chat breaks, logging out and logging back in again should fix the problem.

Voice chat options are turned off by default.

[typtoes]

Disclaimers

***** IMPORTANT ***** TURBINE does not support or take responsibility for any changes you make to your system, this post is stickied just for reference for those that are familiar enough with their systems to make some of the suggested tweaks. If you are not very familiar with your system we do not recommend that you do some of the actions listed in this post - seek the help of a professional.

***** IMPORTANT ***** The AUTHOR does not consider that he is the all knowing, all powerful Oz, on the gaming video topic of this guide. What the author does strive to do is a very good job at researching the data, collect the info, and cleanly scribing the guide in a concise collection of helpful information. Many of the sources are in this forum from other users feedback; so please don’t shoot the messenger. If you see something that needs improvement please post it in this thread so it can be discussed then adjusted in the guide. Thank you!


Document Intentions

This document intends to help reduce or eliminate the video glitching that so many are plagued with. This guide should be useful to both SLI and non-SLI setups. It is designed to be a complete walkthrough make it easy for all to use.

This guide most likely will not fix these type of issues; network congestion, other installed software, game engine design, or hardware issues, which also may be causing time delayed interruptions.


Definitions

Video Hitching, Glitching, Stuttering, etc

This is where continuous video will have a random moment (but also could be rhythmic) when it freezes. This is the frame rate dropping to the point where it is quite noticeable by the eye. It seems that all control is also frozen but after the frame rate increases commands entered during the freeze will have actually executed; hence the question, “Suffern-succotash - why did I just fall off that cliff?”

Page Tearing

This is a phenomenon in computer and video games where a previously rendered frame overlaps a newly rendered frame, creating a torn look as two parts of an object - a wall, for example - don't line up. Page tearing can also take place outside of gaming, for example a normal Windows 2000 or Windows XP desktop could experience page loading while the system is busy with other operations.
Source: Wikipedia - Page Tearing

Frame Rate

This is the measurement of the frequency (rate) at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems. Frame rate is most often expressed in frames per second (FPS), or simply hertz (Hz). If you want to monitor your frame rate during game play, Fraps is a very useful utility that will overlay it right on top of any DirectX or OpenGL program.
Source: Wikipedia - Frame Rate

Vertical Synchronization (v-sync)

This refers generally to the synchronization of an event with the vertical blanking interval. Generally video displays are refreshed sequentially and on older CRT based displays, a short delay is required between updating the lowest horizontal line of the display and returning to refresh the highest. This delay, which is preserved by more modern display equipment, gives an opportunity in computer graphics to alter the contents of a frame-buffer without visible graphical errors such as partially redrawn graphics or page tearing (when the top part of the display shows part of one frame and the bottom part shows of another).
Source: Wikipedia - Vertical Synchronization

Triple Buffering

This attempts to provide a speed improvement over double buffering. In real life applications, this often involves trying to abstract the graphics drawing operations from being synchronized with the monitor's refresh rate. Typically this involves frames being drawn at a rate lower than or higher than the monitor's frame rate (a variable frame rate) without the usual affects this would cause (namely flickering, shearing and tearing). Due to the software algorithm not having to poll the graphics hardware for monitor refresh events, the algorithm is free to run as fast as possible. This is not the only method of triple buffering available, but is the most prevalent on the PC architecture where the speed of the target machine is highly variable.

Another method of triple buffering involves synchronizing with the monitor frame rate, and simply using the third buffer as a method of providing breathing room for changing demands in the amount of graphics drawn. This is the use of a buffer in the true sense whereby the buffer acts as a reservoir. Such a method requires a higher minimum specification of the target hardware but provides a consistent (vs. variable) frame rate. On video cards with lower memory it might not help as much because it can reduce the amount of loaded textures which also could cause more glitching when it has to pull in new textures.
Source: Wikipedia - Triple Buffering

Full Screen Mode

Full screen mode is where the windows desktop is hidden and no longer does graphical updates. Some programs create a fake full screen “windowed” mode by removing the window borders and maximizing the program over the desktop. This does not really hide desktop so it has to be maintained which uses CPU, GPU, and memory resources. One of the signs of using a fake full screen mode is when you switch windows; you might see the window shrinking animation to the Start bar. A fake full screen mode is mainly done so you can switch between the Windows desktop and the program window smoothly and quickly. Because most systems used for LORTO are quite fast, the fake full screen mode is not really a necessary.

Scalable Link Interface (SLI)

It is a brand name for a multi-GPU solution developed by nVidia for linking two (or more) video cards together to produce a single output. SLI is an application of parallel processing for computer graphics, meant to increase the processing power available for graphics. With SLI, it is possible to theoretically double the power of your graphics solution just by adding a second video card with an identical GPU. If your looking for much more detailed information on SLI check out The Unofficial Hardware and SLI Reference Guide over at the SLI Zone forum.
Source: Wikipedia - Scalable Link Interface

CrossFire

This is a brand name for ATI Technologies multi-GPU solution, which competes with its rival nVidia's Scalable Link Interface (SLI). The technology allows a pair of graphics cards to be used in a single computer to improve graphics performance. Although only recently announced for consumer level hardware, similar technology known as ATI Multi-Rendering has been used for some time in professional grade cards for flight simulators and similar applications available from Evans & Sutherland. Note ATI was acquired by AMD recently.
Source: Wikipedia - ATI CrossFire

Alternate Frame Rendering (AFR)

This is a multi-GPU rendering mode where one video card renders even-numbered frames while the other renders odd-numbered frames. This mode usually works best for both supported and some unsupported games and applications since it is has a fairly solid track record with both, considering it isn't as algorithmically intense like SFR. AFR has two modes, aptly named Alternate Frame Rendering 1 and Alternate Frame Rendering 2. AFR2 can be considered a "safe mode" version of AFR in the sense that some games may be able to use AFR2 instead of AFR1, although it can produce better frame rates in some situations when both modes work.
Source: SLI Reference Guide - Alternate Frame Rendering

Split-Frame Rendering (SFR)

This is a multi-GPU rendering mode usually reserved for games and applications with official SLI profiles and support due to the way the load is distributed amongst the processors. SFR draws a line where half of the visual information lies on the screen and allocates one half per GPU, hence the name "split-frame." The only problem with this rendering mode is that the visual workload cannot be holistically divided, that is, it cannot be divided equally without a specific profile for the application, meaning than an official SLI profile must be in place for it to work correctly. Because of this, it should be used as a "last resort" of sorts.
Source: SLI Reference Guide - Split-Frame Rendering

How To Guide

Step 1: System Driver Updates

It is suggested that you make sure that all your drivers are up to date before doing any tweaking. Also having all your drivers updated when others are trying to help troubleshoot your system will give more consistent results because everyone is on the same page then.

First go to Microsoft Update and (install, reboot, install, reboot, etc) until all updates, yes everything is installed, you will see all zeros in the final scan. Want to skip installing something like Internet Explorer; I wouldn’t skip any item because Microsoft has fix patches that you can’t get unless you move forward, so patch all of it!

Next use the Driver Agent website that specializes in drivers to scan your system, because they catch old drivers even “Microsoft Update” misses. At their website you can run the online scan. Click the Scan Now button, install their plug-in, and reboot. The return there, launch the driver scan again. Fix any red X driver issues; by either do internet searches and find the drivers, or signup for the Driver Agent service and download them directly from them.

Step 2: Add nVidia “lotroclient.exe” Profile

***** WARNING - nVidia SLI Setup Only ***** Please skip this step if you do not have two nVidia video cards and are using SLI mode with them.

Open the nVidia applications file (nvapps.xml) in a text editor, I used Notepad. Go to the bottom of the file. Just below the last </PROFILE> tag, and just above the </PROFILESET> tag, add the four lotroclient.exe lines. These four lines tell the graphics card to use a “nVidia recommended SLI” mode for LORTO, but only if SLI is enabled on your system.

File: \windows\system32\nvapps.xml

<PROFILE Label="Lord of the Rings Online: Shadow of Angmar">
<APPLICATION Label="lotroclient.exe"/>
<PROPERTY Label= "multichip_rendering_mode" Value="0x02000009" Itemtype="predefined"/>
</PROFILE>

Why use this tweak and how was this setting produced; It looks like that nVidia is starting to provide the default setting of Value="0x02000009" in the profile file which is "Alternate Frame Rendering 2" with nVidia compatibility flags “03 and 17” set which now will be the guide recommendation. So this step for some would be just more for information and verification purposes. Also please note that Nvidia has used a non-plural form of the “Shadow() of Angmar” part of the name for their predefined profile.

Here is another suggested setting that you might try which was cloned from the Dungeons & Dragons Online nVidia profile entry. The Value="0x02400009" sets SLI mode as "Alternate Frame Rendering 2" with nVidia compatibility flags “03, 22, and 25” set. The LOTRO uses the same core Kynapse game engine as Dungeons & Dragons Online so it is logical that this also might work well.

If you’re interested in playing with the nVidia profiles further, there is a powerful little utility called nHancer that edits the profiles much easier than the nVidia video driver. Do remember though about tweaking the video driver LOTRO profile further than just the one predefined SLI option above, is that you may override LOTRO game settings that are going to be done in the next steps below.

Step 3: Reset The Game Display Settings

Launch the LOTRO game launcher and open the options window. Select the repair tab and set the “Reset the game display settings” option. Continue to login and startup LOTRO and agree to the popup about resetting the game display settings.

Since it is hard to tell what has been set on each system it is wise to do a clean start on the graphics options. A good thing to remember is that the “Reset The Game Display Settings” option is also useful when trying to figure out crashes and lockups.

Step 4: Refresh Rate

In the LOTRO options window, under the “Adv Graphics” options area, change the Refresh rate from "Auto" to whatever your refresh rate is for you monitor. 60 Hz is what most LCD displays default to and is what this guide is going to use.

Step 5: Sync To Refresh (v-sync)

In the LOTRO options window, under the “Adv Graphics” options area, toggle ON the “Sync To Refresh” option. This option should synchronize the Frame Rate with the Refresh Rate. Turning on the in-game "Sync To Refresh" is making the “SLI Visual Indicators” disappear so this may indicate that SLI is not in use when this setting is on.

Step 6: Triple Buffering

In the LOTRO options window, under the “Adv Graphics” options area, toggle ON the “Triple Buffering” option. This options should give the video card some headroom to get another frame ready before drawing it to the display. This is a “mileage may vary” type option that if it makes a setup worse it can be turned back off.

Step 7: Maximum Frame Rate

In the LOTRO options window, under the “Troubleshooting” options area, set the maximum number of frames per second to 60 frames to match the refresh rate. With setting the “Sync To Refresh” the maximum frame rate should not apply but just in case lets just set it. Also setting this a few frames below the refresh rate (example: 58 frames) can help when there is page tearing issues.

Step 8: Fake Full Screen Mode

Exit LORTO. Open the LOTRO configuration file in a text editor, I used Notepad. Search the file for the line “AllowFakeFullScreen”. Then change the option to False. This is the most important option change that will give you the biggest improvement for glitches.

File: \My Documents\The Lord of the Rings Online\UserPreferences.ini
Edit: AllowFakeFullScreen=True --> AllowFakeFullScreen=False

***** WARNING - Possible Lockup On Exit ***** For some reason occasionally the LOTRO full screen mode does not always like to exit the game gracefully. It may cause a blank screen but will not completely exit to the desktop. So periodically you may have to restart your system after this lockup. Without this tweak their may be more glitching because this is one of the big fix steps, (exit lockup vs glitching) tough choice.

It has been reported that if you get the "lockup blank screen" wait for your hard drive to stop, then push Enter. That will send an error report and gracefully land you back to your desktop. It's important not to push anything else aside from enter though. Otherwise you could lose the focus of the hidden dialog box.

Another user reported that the shutdown lockup happens sometimes because LOTRO might be conflicting with the system's DEP (Data Execution Protection in "advanced system settings"). While he wouldn't necessarily advocate telling anybody to completely bypass their system's DEP, but there is the ability to add just one program exclusion at a time. So once he added the lotroclient.exe to the list of exception items (not monitored by DEP) his crashes/freezes upon exit greatly decreased.

Step 9: Crank It Up

Now re-launch LOTRO. In the options window, under the “Graphics” options area, first set the “Full Screen Resolution” and “The Windowed Resolution” to your displays native resolution (example: 1600x1200). Then turn up the “Overall Graphics Quality” to what your system can handle, hopefully “Ultra High”.

From time to time there may be low frame rates when hitting areas with lots intensive graphics effects to process. This can be tuned further by adjusting down the “Overall Graphics Quality” more.

Step 10: Fine Tune It

There are adjustments beyond the “Overall Graphics Quality” option than can be tweaked that will not affect the game visual impact very much. They give the video card more headroom to work with which will also help in reducing glitching. These are “mileage may vary” options but many users have said they cannot tell much difference visually when adjusting these settings below.

Texture Cache - In the LOTRO options window, under the “Adv Graphics” options area, adjust the “Texture Cache” slider zero.

Player Crowd Control - In the LOTRO options window, under the “Adv Graphics” options area, adjust the “Player Crowd Control” slider zero.

Game Engine Speed - Another trick is the Game Engine Speed setting in the Troubleshooting tab of LOTRO. Turn this down one notch. In theory, if this fixes the issues, it could be left that way, but remember this is a hack for all intentent purposes. All it's doing is masking a real problem. However it's a good troubleshooting step, since it does show there is a problem.

Repeatable Step: Reboot System

Another good idea is restart your system before playing if it has been running for a while giving the game a cleaner system memory to work with.

Hardware

Video Card Heat

Heat. Heat,heat,heat,heat. HEAT.

This game drives equipment very hard. Heat can make things run slower, and hitch, without doubt. Just because you can play WOW or Unreal or any darn thing else means absolutely *nothing*. Your stuff is getting hotter; yes, yours.

1. Clean everything. Clean it again.
2. Ensure fans are working and at proper speed. Use ATITool or Coolbits, for example, to ensure your fan speed curve is right.
3. Applying better heatsink goop can go a long way. Artic Silver, period.
4. Investing in a better HS/Fan for your GPU can be a very cheap, yet drastic improvement. You get a better HS/Fan for your CPU, right? GPU needs loving too.
5. The thing about heat is that it may not be something you can get a direct reading of temperature on. It could be an ancillary component near a heat source getting too hot. This can be very hard to find but you must bear it in mind.

Rules of thumb to go by:
Nvidia: 5000,6000,7000 cards, you want to see no more than about 60C loaded. 8000 series cards, you want to see less than 70C loaded.
ATI: Up to 1900's, I'd say 55C and we'll want to take a look at cooling issues. 1900/1950, oh, keep her under 65C. 2900's....I'd go with 8000 series numbers, and be wary at 70C or higher.

Want to argue about these above numbers? Think your card can go higher and not have a problem? There are hundreds of case files in this forum alone that prove the above numbers are a decent starting point. Sure, your card MAY be able to handle a higher temp, possibly without issues even. Guess what...you are still hurting that card and its lifespan. Every 10C you can lower it is quite literally *months* of extra service. Take my advice, or don't. I'm not the one dealing with an RMA; you are. I don't mean to sound harsh, but, that's just how it is, friend.

Video Card Voltage

Voltages

Wow, you got an 8800 Ultra, good for you. What's that? You have a 350w power supply?? It's only a 70% efficiency unit? Hang on a minute....

*quietly laughs*

I'm back now, sorry about that. You used a splitter to power that thing? Your hard-drives are also on that same rail? Oh, uhmmmm, BRB!

*snickers softly*
/compose (Self);
/straighten (Tie);

Sorry. Back now. In order to find out if you have a voltage problem do a load analysis on all the parts you have installed and compare it against the effective watts coming out the PSU. Divide the effective percentage by 100 to get a decimal value, and multiply that by the rated watts. 70% becomes 0.7, times 350w equals 245 effective watts. Not so beefy anymore, is it? Now, add up the loads. Find the watts used for every single item in your rig. Fans, HD's, everything. Add it all up. Compare that against the effective watts from the PSU. If you do not have at LEAST 50 watts to spare, you need more go juice.

And, don't forget, give that video card *its own rail*. Don't know what that means? Frankly, you shouldn't be doing this, friend. Find a local guru. How does this relate to hitching? If you are giving a brownout condition to that video card due to an underpowered PSU or because you aren't giving it a pure rail to itself....welp! Let me ask you this: how do you feel when your pantry is bare and you're half starving to death? Not very motivated, {Lewis Black voice} AREEEE YOUUUUUU?????

/randomly points his index finger around

What to Expect

Now you should expect most of the time smooth graphics in LOTRO as long as the data is loaded. There will still be some occasional lag glitches or graphics glitches whenever a heavy amount of data is being handled all at one time in areas like in large towns, crossing the “seamless” zone lines when running along for a while, or doing a 360° all of the sudden in an area where you have not looked behind you before.

Happy gaming!

[openedge1]

This is actually a nice guide. But several notes here..

Step 5: Triple Buffering

In the LOTRO options window, under the “Adv Graphics” options area, toggle ON the “Triple Buffering” option. This options should give the video card some headroom to get another frame ready before drawing it to the display.

When I enable this (as I have in the past)...the game starts to get sluggish after a while. When it is off...the game runs ok...This may just be an option only for certain cards, and your mileage may vary. Try it, and if the game starts to get stuttery or slower, just disable for more speed..

Step 6: Maximum Frame Rate

In the LOTRO options window, under the “Troubleshooting” options area, set the maximum number of frames per second to 60 frames to match the refresh rate. With setting the “Sync To Refresh” the maximum frame rate should not apply but just in case lets just set it.

I notice no difference doing this...but again may vary. Whether I am on full max or 120FPS or 60...lower of course makes my FPS...uh...lower...lol
Test and change if it helps.

File: \windows\system32\nvapps.xml
Remove: <PROFILE Label="Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar">
Remove: <APPLICATION Label="lotroclient.exe"/>
Remove: <PROPERTY Label= "multichip_rendering_mode" Value="0x00000001" Itemtype="predefined"/>
Remove: </PROFILE>

This was my favorite option...I think this helped immensely...but this was only after about 30 minutes...I plan to test this further later on, and see if there is improvement..but right now, this gets my vote...
I had read somewhere before that this option was limiting people....wonder why? Wonder what it does? Time for a little research..

Thanks for the great guide..
Huzzah!

[typtoes]

Thanks! I have seen lots of these type guides on other forums so I thought I would give it a try myself and give others a hand. Especially the new LOTRO users that come along don't want to search and read all over the forum just to find all the settings they need.

Yeah I liked the nVidia application profile game entry when I first tried it but later on somehow it got set to "SLI render only on one card" and I could not unset it. With this I was getting horrible frame rates so the only way I could get all the settings right was to remove it and do all options only in the LOTRO configuration. I will do more testing too.

[Dietche]

Yeah I liked the nVidia application profile game entry when I first tried it but later on somehow it got set to "SLI render only on one card" and I could not unset it. With this I was getting horrible frame rates so the only way I could get all the settings right was to remove it and do all options only in the LOTRO configuration. I will do more testing too.

I *believe* it's because you deleted/removed this line:

<PROPERTY Label= "multichip_rendering_mode" Value="0x00000001" Itemtype="predefined"/>

That's setting multichip rendering to 1, turning it on, or more to the point, allowing it; and, by removing that line you've set it to 0, disabling it, utterly, if I'm not mistaken.

Caveat Emptor, aye.
--Dietche

[typtoes]

Oops Typo: I had the wrong value line that you also quoted...
<PROPERTY Label= "multichip_rendering_mode" Value="0x00000001" Itemtype="predefined"/>
It should say this...
<PROPERTY Label= "multichip_rendering_mode" Value="0x02000009" Itemtype="predefined"/>

I will retest this with the right value and see if it works now.

[typtoes]

Ok I retested the SLI mode and it works so I have updated "Step 1" to include using this tip.

[schone]

THANK YOU!

This is a great tutorial and has eliminated all obvious hitching that I had! I did up my texture caching to 0.65 as I'm in Australia.

But this is amazing, thank you so much, I'm still tweaking but I only really have lag issues and the occasional hitch here and there - but nothing is perfect!

I also thought you might want to add that rebooting before playing has worked wonder's for me too.

This def. should be stickied!

THANKS!

[typtoes]

Thanks! I will add a note about rebooting your system before playing.

Also I sent a note requesting a sticky to Costomer Support so lets hope they are listening.

[typtoes]

I cleaned up some of the verbiage and some other small updates.

[Westend]

Hi,

I see hitching, but it only lasts for a micro second every 4-5 seconds. In fact its hardly noticeable.

However, my post is with regards to setting the SLI option. It was my belief that a long long time ago only games that had profiles set specifically set for SLI would use SLI. The drivers that have been around for at least the last year will use the default SLI setting for all 3D apps that do not have specific profiles. Hence creating a profile for that app via this method is not required. I also thought that you can create new profiles from within the Nvidea Control Panel. I remember doing this for BF2 and BF2142 when they were first released.

Best regards,

[Kulraz]

Hi,

I see hitching, but it only lasts for a micro second every 4-5 seconds. In fact its hardly noticeable.
Best regards,

I found this to also be true...it's a tad annoying to me because its new, but damn is it FAR better than a sudden stop, decrease in FPS to 1, then an increase, only to find my party members died while I was hitched.

Thanks for the info!

[typtoes]

I have done some more updates:

Added info about some extra settings in the new "Fine Tune It" step.
Added note about updating device drivers.
Added Definitions SLI, SFR, and AFR.
Updated notes in the SLI step with new info and the nHancer utility reference.

[Gennie]

My Game hasnt excited gracefully since I followed this guide. It always stops at blank black page. What step do I reverse to get rid of this?

[typtoes]

I have not heard of any of the other steps causing any issues, but if your system keeps locking up on exiting the game you can undo the AllowFakeFullScreen step to fix it. But it may cause you more glitching because this is one of the big fix steps, (exit lockup vs glitching) tough choice.

Step 8: Fake Full Screen Mode
Exit LORTO. Open the LOTRO configuration file in a text editor, I used Notepad. Search the file for the line “AllowFakeFullScreen”. Then change the option to False. This is the most important option change that will give you the biggest improvement for glitches.

File: \My Documents\The Lord of the Rings Online\UserPreferences.ini
Edit: AllowFakeFullScreen=True --> AllowFakeFullScreen=False

For some reason occasionally the LOTRO full screen mode does not always like to exit the game gracefully. It may cause a blank screen with a moveable mouse cursor but will not completely exit to the desktop. So periodically you may have to restart your system after this lockup.

[Dietche]

A few more things to consider:

1> Heat. Heat,heat,heat,heat. HEAT.

This game drives equipment very hard.
Heat can make things run slower, and hitch, without doubt.
Just because you can play WOW or Unreal or any darn thing else means
absolutely *nothing*. Your stuff is getting hotter; yes, yours.

a: Clean everything. Clean it again.
b: Ensure fans are working and at proper speed.
Use ATITool or Coolbits, for example, to ensure your fan speed curve is right.
c: Applying better heatsink goop can go a long way. Artic Silver, period.
d: Investing in a better HS/Fan for your GPU can be a very cheap, yet
drastic improvement. You get a better HS/Fan for your CPU, right? GPU
needs loving too.
e: The thing about heat is that it may not be something you can get a
direct reading of temperature on. It could be an ancillary component near
a heat source getting too hot. This can be very hard to find but you must
bear it in mind.

Rules of thumb to go by:

Nvidia:
5000,6000,7000 cards, you want to see no more than about 60C loaded.
8000 series cards, you want to see less than 70C loaded.

ATI:
Up to 1900's, I'd say 55C and we'll want to take a look at cooling issues.
1900/1950, oh, keep her under 65C.
2900's.... I'd go with 8000 series numbers, and be wary at 70C or higher.

Want to argue about these above numbers? Think your card can go
higher and not have a problem? There are hundreds of case files in
this forum alone that prove the above numbers are a decent starting point.
Sure, your card MAY be able to handle a higher temp, possibly without
issues even. Guess what... you are still hurting that card and its lifespan.
Every 10C you can lower it is quite literally *months* of extra service.
Take my advice, or don't. I'm not the one dealing with an RMA; you are.
I don't mean to sound harsh, but, that's just how it is, friend.

2> Voltages.
Wow, you got an 8800Ultra, good for you. What's that? You
have a 350w power supply?? It's only a 70% efficiency unit?
Hang on a minute....

*quietly laughs*

I'm back now, sorry about that.

You used a splitter to power that thing? Your hardrives are also on that
same rail? Oh, uhmmmm, BRB!

*snickers softly*
/compose(Self);
/straighten(Tie);

Sorry. Back now.

In order to find out if you have a voltage problem do a load analysis on
all the parts you have installed and compare it against the effective watts
coming out the PSU.

Divide the effective percentage by 100 to get a decimal value, and multiply
that by the rated watts. 70% becomes 0.7, times 350w equals 245 effective watts.
Not so beefy anymore, is it?

Now, add up the loads. Find the watts used for every single item in your
rig. Fans, HD's, everything. Add it all up. Compare that against the
effective watts from the PSU. If you do not have at LEAST 50 watts
to spare, you need more gojuice.

And, don't forget, give that video card *its own rail*. Don't know what
that means? Frankly, you shouldn't be doing this, friend. Find a local guru.

How does this relate to hitching? If you are giving a brownout condition
to that video card due to an underpowered PSU or because you aren't
giveing it a pure rail to itself.... welp!

Let me ask you this: how do you feel when your pantry is bare and
you're half starving to death?
Not very motivated, {Lewis Black voice} AREEEE YOUUUUUU?????
/randomly points his index finger around

3> Another trick is the Game Engine Speed setting in the Troubleshooting
tab of LOTRO. Turn this down one notch. If things improve, well... good.
In theory, if this fixes you, you could leave it this way.

But, remember, this is a hack, for all intentent purposes. All you are doing
is masking your real problem. However, it's a good troubleshooting step,
since it does let us know you -do- have a problem.

Take care, all;
--Dietche

[TerrorStar]

Im having trouble already and i cant complete step 2,

"Step 2: Add nVidia “lotroclient.exe” Profile (SLI setup)
Open the nVidia applications file in a text editor, I used Notepad. Go to the bottom of the file. Just below the last </PROFILE> tag, and just above the </PROFILESET> tag, add the four lotroclient.exe lines. These four lines tell the graphics card to use a “nVidia recommended SLI” mode for LORTO, but only if SLI is enabled on your system."

What nvidia application? where do i find it? and the SLI,isnt that only for nVidia cards?

[Dietche]

Im having trouble already and i cant complete step 2,

"Step 2: Add nVidia “lotroclient.exe” Profile (SLI setup)
Open the nVidia applications file in a text editor, I used Notepad. Go to the bottom of the file. Just below the last </PROFILE> tag, and just above the </PROFILESET> tag, add the four lotroclient.exe lines. These four lines tell the graphics card to use a “nVidia recommended SLI” mode for LORTO, but only if SLI is enabled on your system."

What nvidia application? where do i find it? and the SLI,isnt that only for nVidia cards?

SLI is only for Nvidia, yes. Crossfire is ATI's version. If you only have one video card in your system, then totally ignore this step
--D

[typtoes]

I added a warning to Step two that its only a nVidia SLI setup step.

[Zumlin]

<PROFILE Label="Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar">
<APPLICATION Label="lotroclient.exe"/>
<PROPERTY Label= "multichip_rendering_mode" Value="0x02000009" Itemtype="predefined"/>
</PROFILE>

Why use this tweak; the Value="0x02000009" forces a certain SLI mode for LOTRO to use which is "Alternate Frame Rendering 2" with nVidia compatibility flags “03 and 17” set, and these distinct setting are most likely not your system SLI global defaults.

I'm an advanced user and have been making my own custom SLI profiles for two years now, when LOTRO came out I made my own SLI profile by cloning the Dungeons & Dragons Online Nvidia profile as clearly LOTRO uses the same core game engine, this profile has flags 03, 22 and 25 enabled and the value is 2400009.

How do you know what flags to use with LOTRO? You recommend on this guide flags 03 and 17 but why exactly?

My profile is a clone of DDO but I do not know what the compatibility flags do, I do however know my game has worked perfectly stable (with Texture Cache set to 0) since March using those SLI settings.

[typtoes]

This setting is not me it was just gleamed from other posts here on the forum from other users and I have only done a small amount of research just to document the bits but not really prove its accuracy. I have been trying to search for a solid answer why and would love to verify the correct nVidia profile settings so help me understand a bit more...if you (or any other in the know) can help me find more info about this it would be great.

As for what each nVidia bit is...this is what nHancer docs say...

Compatibility flags
nVidia is using a 32 bit number to define the SLI mode. The first 4 bits are used to set one of the four modes listed above. The other 28 bits are used in combination with one of those four modes, to tell the driver how to circumvent certain problems these games are causing if SLI is active.

Unfortunately, the exact meaning of all these flags is not documented. The only hint we have are the official profiles provided by nVidia, where these flags are used for certain games.

The list contains all 29 compatibility flags (enumerated from 3 to 31). The games for which these flags are used in nVidia's profiles are listed next to each entry.

The field at the bottom of the list shows the hexadecimal representation of the combination of all compatibility flags. It's the same value that's also used in the nvapps.xml file. You can share this value with other people who can then easily try your set of SLI compatibility flags.

If you happen to come across such a SLI compatibility value, you can just enter it in that field to activate it.

Some suggestions for how to determine which compatibility flags to use:

Many games don't need any compatibility flags at all, so at first you should try one of the three (AFR, AFR2 and SFR) SLI modes without any additional flags.

If you know that the game uses the same engine as another one where you already have a profile for, you can try to use the same SLI settings for the new game. That doesn't always work, since the engine might still do some things differently that before, but it's a good starting point.

If you still have trouble with a game, you can try to enable often used compatibility flags (i.e. flags with many games listed next to them). Try different groups of flags. If the behavior of the game changes, you can try to narrow down the flag that is responsible for the change.

An example: Gothic 2 worked quite well in AFR mode. But as soon as the player entered a room or a cavern with torches, the game slowed down to a crawl. After checking the usual compatibility flags, the overall performance was down, but the problem with the torches vanished.

The next step is to disable each flag one by one, until the one flag that solved the torch problem is isolated (in this case bit 23). Now we have a Gothic 2 profile with an optimal performance and no slow downs whatsoever.
http://www.nhancer.com/?dat=d_sli

I am but a humble data researcher, info collector, and scribe for the guide.

[typtoes]

This is what I have found for game engine guesses so far...

LOTRO uses the G3 engine made by Turbine, an updated version of the G2 engine used for Asheron's Call 2. This does not mean that LOTRO will be like AC2: the engine itself is a generic toolset to build the game and contains no concepts (as best as possible) for a specific game rule set, form of combat or look-and-feel. Also tools like Maya for 3D modeling , Photoshop Pro (textures), Worldbuilder, MS Visio and even MS Excel are used.

Turbine is also a listed user of Havok, an engine to create realistic physics, and "Granny", a tool for creating avatars, but we do not know if they are used for LOTRO.
http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/index....splay&ceid=100

and found this...

LOTRO and DDO to use Kynapse for Angmar and Stormreach
Posted Dec 13, 2006 at 01:46PM by Jex H.

Listed in: News, Dungeons & Dragons Online, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
Tags: Lord of the Rings, Stormreach, NPC, Landscapes We have just heard news that Turbine has inked a deal with Kynogon to use the company's unique AI engine, Kynapse, for Lord Of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar and Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach.

For those who don't know, Kynapse is an A.I. engine offered by Kynogon which allows NPCs (or Non Player Characters) to move around in any 3D dynamic world and understand their environment in an uncannily realistic way. And with this deal with major MMORPG publisher Turbine, not only will this rake in tons of cash for Kynogon, it'll also help Turbine improve their games a lot by having an intelligent AI system.

Chris Dyl, Turbine's CTO, says:

Choosing Kynapse was a strategic decision for Turbine. We required an AI middleware solution that could be easily integrated into Turbine's state of the art MMO game engine. The solution needed to be flexible enough to support both the large, seamless landscapes found in The Lord of the Rings Online and the fast-paced, action-combat of Dungeons and Dragons Online.

Well there ya have it folks, so you can say goodbye to NPC AI woes with the knowledge that two of your favorite MMORPGs are in good hands with Kynapse. We will keep you posted for more LOTRO and DDO updates so stay tuned.
http://mmorpg.qj.net/LOTRO-and-DDO-t...g/49/aid/76139

and I continued to search for more "LOTRO game engine" info and found this chart at Kynogon's website...

http://www.kynogon.com/customers/titles/index.html

So I am happy with the idea that LOTRO engine equals Dungeons & Dragons Online engine. I will work on adjusting the guide.

[Dietche]

cough KynapseNeedsWork,NoLie cough
=]
--D

[typtoes]

I updated the nVidia profile step to this...

<PROFILE Label="Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar">
<APPLICATION Label="lotroclient.exe"/>
<PROPERTY Label= "multichip_rendering_mode" Value="0x02400009" Itemtype="predefined"/>
</PROFILE>

Why use this tweak and how was this setting created; the Value="0x02400009" forces a certain SLI mode for LOTRO to use which is "Alternate Frame Rendering 2" with nVidia compatibility flags “03, 22, and 25” set, and these distinct setting are most likely not your system SLI global defaults. Since the LOTRO uses the same core Kynapse game engine as Dungeons & Dragons Online it was logical to clone the SLI setting from that game. The older Value="0x02000009" that used to be suggested here has now been retired.

[Hurin]

Wonderful thread. Very organized! You're a very skilled technical/instructional writer!

One possible issue though. . .

Regarding the SLI settings: Recent nvidia drivers already have a profile entry for LotRO. It is set to 0x02000009.

Your instructions say to add lines rather than replace the existing ones. Will this not create two entries for LotRO? In which case, we won't even know which one is being used (assuming having two causes no other problems).

I'd also wonder whether these "improved" SLi settings are in fact necessary since nvidia themselves have provided a profile whose settings differ from those recommended here.

This isn't a dig, of course. We're all just winging it here and your efforts at bringing all this disparate informationg together is greatly appreciated!