Particle effects and massive slowdown

[PizzaTheHut]

PC limitations.

[Yekyaa]

I could've sworn PS2 limitations were the fault of the 30fps cap considering most games on PS2 ran at 30fps. Also, pretty much all actions and animations are based around the 30fps timer. It's assumed you're running AT MAX 30fps, otherwise animations get glitchy by going too fast... aka speedhacking as the only way to get higher than 30fps is by using a PC and adjusting your system's time while you're playing.

Please excuse yonder 'wall o text'

[Stromgarde]

There is a workaround, it's just stupid. You can substitute non-special models for the ones that are causing problems, and there have even been certain player-released avatar models with the glow effects stripped out so that newer rigs didn't strobe out at 5 fps at certain points in, say, Dynamis-Windurst. This is not a viable alternative for confluxes, which have their own unique particle effect tied to their skeletons, and last I checked there were no fewer than 3 different identical-looking flavors (WoE, gateway to abyssea, and inside abyssea). This is not something we should have to take into our own hands, considering that any computer built in the last 4 years or so is going to have these problems.

[K0D3R]

I could've sworn PS2 limitations were the fault of the 30fps cap considering most games on PS2 ran at 30fps. Also, pretty much all actions and animations are based around the 30fps timer. It's assumed you're running AT MAX 30fps, otherwise animations get glitchy by going too fast... aka speedhacking as the only way to get higher than 30fps is by using a PC and adjusting your system's time while you're playing.

Please excuse yonder 'wall o text'

The 30 FPS Limit is there to keep faster machines from running the game too quickly. For instance if you were to install an old DOS game on a Windows XP machine, it would process the data much faster than was intended, which would make people run faster, essentially becoming a speed hack. While I can see the issues around the particle effects and crag crystals, all that should need to be done is a re-modeling or removal of some of the effects that are causing the bottle-neck, since they don't always display properly to begin with.

[Kennocha]

The 30 fps is actually a ps2 limitation and game engine issue.

PAL/NTSC both use 30 fps.
The game engine uses 30fps for timing of events.

If you have more than 30fps you run faster etc.

[K0D3R]

event timers are not based off of visual timers

[Stromgarde]

event timers are not based off of visual timers

What Kennocha said is, at least in part correct. Incorrect clock speeds can cause you to run faster, as crazy as that sounds.

[Kennocha]

No but a lot of things are, like how fast you move, how fast some stuff is rendered etc.

Proof of concept:

Load the game and start walking around
Use an overclocking program to increase your cpu speed
Start walking again.

You will find yourself moving faster than normal because of the timing. There was a project that got XI working at 60fps but never made its way out to us.

[K0D3R]

The 30 FPS Limit is there to keep faster machines from running the game too quickly. For instance if you were to install an old DOS game on a Windows XP machine, it would process the data much faster than was intended, which would make people run faster, essentially becoming a speed hack.

apparently it wasn't read.

[Yarly]

For whoever is wondering, I'm using ATI/AMD Catalyst 11.2 drivers with an ATI Radeon HD3850 and the slowdown for the maws is much less than when I used anything from 9.5 to 11.1

Prior to switching to Catalyst 11.2 I got fairly decent results with Catalyst 9.4 drivers. Give it a shot if you have an ATI/AMD card.