Graphics Help

Hello All,

Hoping to get some help getting FFXI running again after a long hiatus. I have been doing extensive research online and many recommended fixes have not worked for me.

Quick version: Using a high end Laptop (Alienware) with dedicated 4 gig video card. Always stuck with a 15 fps rate, no matter what I change in the game settings. So far, I have tried:

- forcing the game to run using the GPU (in the InVidia settings menu)
- forcing the settings to run in maximum performance mode (as opposed to power saver)
- turned off all cores except one (as recommended on YouTube)
- Tried using dgVoodoo to emulate DirectX but did nothing

My latest suggestion was to try and force POL to run using openGL over DirectX but I do not know how I would do this. I have poked around POL to try and see if there is a setting but have not seen one.

If someone could provided some guidance, I would greatly appreciate it. I've tried to doing research but am not getting anywhere. My last resort may be to create a Windows 7 partition...

Thanks in advance from an old, returning player.

DGvoodoo. Also, disable the intel gpu thru bios.

http://dege.freeweb.hu/

take another look at dgvoodoo, theres alot of settings you can tweak that most people overlook. also make sure 'Video Card' is on DGVoodoo Virtual 3D Accelerated Card and not your actual gpu.

and make sure its installed in the right place.

First, I appreciate the responses. I will take a better look at DgVoodoo tonight.

Question: Where should I specify that Video Card is on DGVoodoo? In POL itself, or somewhere in the DGVoodoo settings?

Thanks again

Here's the installation info for DgVooDoo:
http://balanceffxi.wikia.com/wiki/DgVoodoo2_%26_Reshade_Setup

If you are also using Windower, unlock the framerate to 60 FPS, by typing in //config FrameRateDivisor 2 (that exact syntax with the upper case).

As an update, disabling the Integrated Graphics on my laptop has crippled POL Viewer - it crashes on launch now.

I may restore it try the DgVoodoo method

(Ever feel like there is some invisible force trying to cripple your every move? I feel like that's what's happening here :(

Update: Restored the integrated graphics and POL works....

Try it without disabling the Intel GPU. You don’t need to do this. I didn’t do this and mines works just fine.

That means playonline is starting on the integrated. go into graphics settings (not nvidia settings, i think) and make sure it's using dedicated graphics, and not intel. this is a common issue with laptops.

If you want to achieve better performance without a charging cable you can go to power settings and choose power plan, then select high-performance.

If you want to use gpu all-the-time, i found similar situation with nvidia, it says:
From NVIDIA Control Panel
3D Settings->Manage 3D Settings
Tab "Global setttings"
Preferred Graphics Processor
Select : High performance NVIDIA rocessor

Open dgvoodooCpl.exe thats in your playonlineviewer folder

Under Direct x is 'Videocard' with a drop down menu. Select
DGVoodoo Virtual 3D Accelerated Card

VRAM 1024mb

Filtering: Force anistropix 16x

antialiasing (MSAA): App driven

Uncheck watermark. save settings.

then just start windower and log in like normal

It is recommended by one of the Windower Devs to avoid using the ddraw.dll file with playonline as it can cause issues with it.

Disabling it where though? Device manager or through the bios? Setting your laptop bios to the dgpu only shouldn't cause any negative side effects unless your dgpu drivers aren't installed properly.

* Most consumer laptops won't allow you to do this

Unfortunately, this seems to be the case. There is no option that I can see in the BIOS that is letting me disable the integrated graphic card. I originally disabled the onboard card through device manager (not knowing any better)

If anyone has a work-around through the BIOS I would be very grateful for the advice.

As a further update dgVoodoo does not seem to be working for me. I had a hell of a time copying the d3dcompiler_47 file into the sysWOW64 folder. After finally making that work, I've followed the instructions given but the watermark is not showing when I run POL. Still working on it.

Again, very grateful for the active community help - something I have missed about this game...

It won't run when you run POL only XI (if you didn't copy the ddraw.dll).

Also I don't recall having to copy anything into the syswow64 directory...

If the bios/uefi doesn't have the option then all yould do is hope an update may add it, most likely not. It's one of the odd perks of business grade models where a lot give you the option, downside is most don't have gaming graphics, lol...

Further update:

Eureka! The game seems to be working well under DgVoodoo now (beautifully actually - it's very rewarding to see the game with modern textures).

I'm going to play around with the graphics settings now.. And then slowly figure out how to play the game again.

I'm very grateful to the support and help - I would never have been able to do this on my own. Thank you!

Well thank God and DG for this..
I have tried everything and nothing else worked.
My GPU is now tearing away on my laptop.
Thank you!