Larian Studios Forums General Chat RPG Chat Morrowind question thread

Thanks for pointing it out though Neo, I would have just assumed it was being used otherwise. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Edit: Ok, when I set the L2 Cache to 512 I notice I get slightly jerky graphics in Morrowind, not "slowdown" jerky, just a kind of twitchiness that made playing disconcerting. I backed it off to 256 and the result is much better.

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Onto the subject of RAM. XP eats up a lot of RAM. If you only have 256MB of RAM, you only have so much left over for games, so the computer has to compensate by using the Hardrives swap file. This results in lots of hard disk access and slower performance. If you have 512mb RAM the computer can store more of the game there, and has to use the Hardrives swap file much less. Thus, faster perforamance <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Windows will automatically know how much RAM you have BTW, its not something you have to set up seperatly in a tweak program. So if you buy more, they will just plug it in, and when you start your computer, XP will automatically take advantage of it.[/quote]

Makes good sense. Now let me ask you this: I have a dual 98/XP setup. Granted, I would get more RAM for the game in Win98; so I should reinstall there? My experience has been that performance is actually better in WinXP, but then, I'm also using games like <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> and Sacred which aren't memory hogs (or should I say, which aren't turned into memory hogs by those of us who are mod-crazy).

Morrowind is terribly optimized, they didnt make any effort at all as far as I can see. Ummm, it might run better in 98 but it might be more stable in XP. Not much help really. Neo, any ideas here. Oh. 98 or XP, buy more RAM. It helps a lot.

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You got that right about optimization!

My "fresh" install proved un-runnable. I kept crashing in Seyda Neen, couldn't even get through the sign-up procedure. TESTool was used, but didn't find anything. I'm going to give it one more try, this time backing up, installing and loading 10 mods at a time, then trying a new game. If I can make it through 15 minutes without a crash, I'll quit and move on to the next mod batch.

Definitely going for that extra RAM, but it'll be a few weeks before it can happen. Thanks for the suggestion, guys. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

The most common reason for an invariable crash in the very beginning was lack of the latest sound card or video drivers, particularly sound card drivers.

I couldn't get anywhere in the game with out replacing all sound and video card drivers.

Have you checked yours?

there was another gimmick under the advanced sound options that I no longer remember but could check.

Okies apart from the official game and its two expansions I could not live without:

Giants
Wilderness Mod
Morrowind Addidtions
Supper Adventurers
Better Heads

Those I consider the essential bare minimum. The new NPC graphics, a bunch of new critters and some balancing.

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Yes, before I even loaded Morrowind. My soundcard is old--a SoundBlaster Live Value, with a 2001 driver(!)--but the 2003 update doesn't touch the drivers, and only updates other features.

Okies apart from the official game and its two expansions I could not live without:

Giants
Wilderness Mod
Morrowind Addidtions
Supper Adventurers
Better Heads

Not Better Bodies?

Win98, especially Win98SE is one of the most stable operating systems I've ever dealt with, second only pure, old-school DOS. However, it seems Morrowind was built to take advantage of the NT/2000 architecture used by XP. I STILL have random CTD, even with the XP gaming patches, but have no memory problems. Win98's biggest flaw was its memory management. 50% of RAM used per application never clears, causing very rapid RAM loss without proper third-party software, making memory-intensive software (3D rendering software and games for example) nearly unplayable witout planning ahead when building the entire system and extensive OS tweaking. Also, due to 98's age, it has a ceiling to how much RAM and HDD space it supports, as well as the fact that its 32-bit support isn't as refined as XP's.

In short, stick with XP for Morrowind, and use 98 fr the better old-school games <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Your analysis of Win98 is spot on; hell, I used to do extensive memory management pieces on DOS and Win98. (Remember QEMM? I loved tweaking that thing.) I still use Memokit to free RAM in Win98, though Mandrake's suggestion about Cacheman might be better for games.

In any case, I think Tiffin may have been onto something. I did a vanilla install of MW and its two addons, and two out of two times, the game crashed on me during the Seyda Neen registration process. I haven't played many games, but it has also happened in Sacred and <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> . I'm now thinking that there's something seriously wrong with my XP setup. The drivers are uptodate, but something else is messed up.

I'm writing this from the Win98 side of my 98/XP system. I've done a clean install again, walked through, and had no problems at all. Yes, I have no doubt it will be slower to load areas--I don't think Win98 can really use 256 MB RAM effectively. But. It's. Stable. If I hold off on the visual eyecandy, like MW Texture Pack, I think I'll be alright.

I'm still considering Landscape Remix, which Mandrake suggested, or Brash's Land Textures. Has anybody taken a look at these, for comparison? I'm just curious whether we're talking 512x512 with either, or still less. The Texture Pack is 1026x1026, and that explains why my memory was probably spooling to the hard drive.

Hmm, strange,. for me, I have had the worst EVER Xp with Millineum edition, and Win98 weird..

If changing your drivers cannot help--I would try it if I were you--then try changing "hardware acceleration" from full to none. This enabled me, on my ancient computer, to get past the opening. Once I had fully entered Seyda Neen, I could change it back.

I have to be clicking to answer a question, or save the game, for the thing to crash. If I'm simply moving around, there's no problem. That implies something other than hardware acceleration, as I understand it...though I could be wrong.

Heh, sounds like you're trying to push back the idea of a fresh install of XP <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />



Problem there is that you have ME. That OS is heralded as the worst of Micro$haft's creations. ME is known to leave traces even after a full FDISK/FORMAT. I've even seen it withstand XP's partitioning processes. I'm not even going to go in to all of the problems with ME; it'll take me 12 hours of typing.

Heh, sounds like you're trying to push back the idea of a fresh install of XP <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Two months old! The install is two months old! Having it go into the Twilight Zone now is early even for Bill Gates' pet monopoly. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> I have to wonder if it's not something else, first, like a hardware setting. Unfortunately, that's yet-another area in which I have zero expertise. Whoever said that ignorance was a weapon should try using it in a situation like this. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

Hmm... Where in BD does the CTD happen? I know nothing about Sacred, so I won't ask. From my own experience and study, most XP CTD and BSD (blue screen of death, yes, Micro$haft lied, they still happen) are caused by graphical problems and invalid memory calls, though the latter are mostly caused by shoddy programming in whatever program called that memory address...

Bah, sometimes I feel like Telemain when it comes to computers (If you've never read any of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, don't ask, and look for books by Patricia C. Wrede IMMEDIATELY <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />).

The problems can literally occur anywhere, provided I'm doing something besides moving my characters. A few times, it occurred simply because I scrolled the screen away from their location. Several times, it happened when I clicked to open a barrel or chest, or when clicking on an NPC. These were often but not always repeatable; the same situation would not necessarily trigger that result. Which first led me to suspect that something in my XP setup was causing this.

This may just be a caffeine-induced haze, but it sounds like one or both of what I mentioned above. Did you get your up-to-date video drivers directly from the manufacturer website or from Windows Update? Also, did this start after you started running Cacheman on XP? Wonderful program, granted, but I've read and experienced many problems using cache and RAM optimization programs under XP. Just a consideration...

I got the drivers from ATI. Wish I could say otherwise, as that might save me some hassles. And the problems have been occuring in Sacred and <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> for weeks before I became drawn once more into Morrowind, courtesy of Mandrake and you. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Was just covering all bases on that one. I'm leaning toward a, somehow, corrupted installation of XP. You may or may not be able to answer this one for my, but are you running multi-partition FAT32/NTFS, or full FAT32?

*Hits fable's problems with a big stick* That'll learn em

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