Ok, I went out and bought a Radeon 9200 128 MB so I could actually run the game and it works like a beauty.

Most of the time.

It's quite random, but sometimes it goes all choppy while and the framerate really lags along with the sound and I basically end up on opposite sides of the map or room by the time it unchoppifies. It's not restricted to particular areas or open spaces - it happens randomly both indoors and outdoors in both large and small areas, and those areas all run fine at when the problem doesn't exist. And sometimes VPU Recover will kick in and say that 3D acceleration had failed so they're resetting the graphics driver, and after that another message will say that the card has switched to software rendering because hardware rendering could not be restarted, and that I have to restart my machine to fix it.

If it happens and it freezes and sometimes refuses to unfreeze, I have to task switch to windows and then switch back, and then it's unfrozen usually, but only for a bit. Even if I exit the game during this period of choppyness and go back in, the fast framerates don't last long. The entire choppyness problem usually takes about 1/2 hr - 1 hr to resolve itself - example: it was HORRIBLE in Taris uppercity, lowercity when fighting the Black Vulkars, fixed itself in the sewers and Vulkar base, got choppy again after that, then I went thrugh the whole of Dantooine wtih no problem, and then Tattooine was half choppy and half not.

I've got 256 MB RAM, a p4 1.7 GHz, and 80 gig HD, WinXP... anybody have any ideas what I could do to fix this? It's extremely annoying sitting there waiting for it to fix itself...

thanks.

Hi,

I have a Radeon 9200 as well. Most of my problems were solved by updating my drivers, but it might very well be your chop-problem isn't video card related: it's memory related.

I upraded to 512 to make it work like a charm. What you are possibly experiencing is virtual memory storage: when your 256 megs run out, the PC starts using your hard drive for swap files to compensate for lack of memory. This takes up resources, and could resort in sudden choppyness.

Thanks,

~Tom

After reading around about this problem on various KOTOR forums I believe the problem is actually Sound. Try forcing hardware in the advanced sound options, or disabling sound in the config tool, it should provide some alleviation.

I run KOTOR with 768 hardware memore, 5 gigs of VM, a radeon 9800 pro (128), 60 gb hd, and a crappy motherboard and a crappier sound card. I have experienced this lagging issue as well, even when I had a geforce 2 mx 100. So, it could be drivers, but probably not, It is also possible that it is sound, but I have narrowed the problem down: It happens (for me) mostly on Taris, and if you just save, and restart KOTOR, it seems to get all fixed. I don't know, it could be an engine issue--it always happens when an area not loaded before (in the save) loads.

I'm not understanding that last bit, can you clarify please?

PS. Going to go and try his suggested fix of saving and exiting, let you guys know soon.

I'm experiencing the same problems, only it ONLY happens (so far) on Dantooine, in the wide open plains. My computer is nearly top of the line, too.

I'm running an AMD 64 3000+ PC with an ATI 9800 128mb Radeon. Solid motherboard too, and a Soundblaster Audigy 2 that requires almost no system resources to run. Every other game & app I run (Jedi Academy, Madden 2004, Unreal 2004, etc.)has NO slowdown. Only thing I can think of is that I only have 512 MB of DDR ram, I might buy another 512 stick and see what happens.

I've been able to run the game in 1280x1024, 6x Anti-Aliasing, full shadows, etc. and it ran fine all through Taris and the Jedi Academy. I just finished Dantooine last night and had to turn off Anti-Aliasing and shadows just to make Dantooine playable, and it was still a little choppy.

~Vince

Try downgrading drivers to Catalyst 4.2. I've had chopiness problems with the later drivers on a Radeon 9800 pro but using 4.2 eliminated it completely.

My problem is similar to this. Only a little more extreme. The game gets really choppy only in certain areas. Some areas, for example, are any apartment on Taris (the actual complex, not just the rooms), some rooms in the Sith Base on Manaan, some rooms on the Leviathan, and a couple other places. And I will use Taris as my main example. I try to run, but it waits like 4 seconds then shows another frame and I am on the other side of the room, and once I finally reach a door and can get out of the apartments, I save, quit, then restart the game and it works fine from there. But I still recieve the choppyness in the places stated above. I don't have the recommended RAM, but I have played it on my friend's computer when he had 256 and it was fine. And I am running a GeForce 4 MX (I know, I know, working on a new one). Any suggestions to make my gameplay a little more....playable :confused:

Originally posted by mxsuprastang
I don't have the recommended RAM, but I have played it on my friend's computer when he had 256 and it was fine. And I am running a GeForce 4 MX (I know, I know, working on a new one). Any suggestions to make my gameplay a little more.... playable :confused:

You should definately get some more RAM, 512 is pretty much the modern gaming minimum.

You should also see if your video card's chipset is supported with KOTOR. If your chipset is supported then update your drivers.

I have the problem but in one spot so far. Its on Taris in teh cantina. Everywhere else it runs good, but inside there its pretty bad and I dont get it. I disabled sound put everything on low. Nothing makes a difference. Hopefully it wont be like this anywhere else. Gonna try to get dif drivers see if it works. Any thoughts guys???


P4C 800 deluxe
P4 2.6
1024 kingston hyperx pc 3200
Radeon 9800 pro 128 4.1 cats
SB Audigy 2 zs latest drivers

Well I upgraded my drivers to 4.6 and now my problem is fixed! First time for me a driver actually really fixed an issue. :) But now the shadows in thief 3 r all screwy! :(

i just bought this game and i HAD that problem i have a geforce2MX 32 meg and 256 ram with all the graphics on minimum and it was still doing it, i patched the game (which took forever, 56er=me :() and now i can have all the graphics on high and all the extras shadows, grass etc. and no lag at all, ever, and my computer usually could be described as, pile of ***t (are we allowed to swear here?) i never thought my comp could run this nice, dude if you haven't yet PATCH it helped me!