Struggling to get 30FPS on modern laptop

[Nefario]

Intel i5-4210M @ 2.60GHz
4GB Ram
Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M

Post Edit:
I also have an integrated intel4600 on the laptop, and when i disabled that, PlayOnline refused to launch. Just got the 'Stopped working' message and crash every time i tried, so i double checked and yes, the game is running off my integrated card instead of my good card. Meep. x_____x

It's not unplayable, but it's perplexing.
Just clawing up to 25-30FPS is as best as i have been able to do ...
I'm hoping maybe someone here has more of a clue than i do on how to fix this? Thanks.

[BobbinT]

I've just recently installed the game on my new laptop and have about the same problem you have. Kinda wish there's solution for this. I even have tried setting all executable files it uses to Nvidia control panel along with FFXIMain.dll and still the same.

Other than that, the game were natively plays around 25-30 fps and 30 is the fps cap for it anyways.

Guess you could try desktop PC, or get a gpu-dedicated laptop.

btw, I'm using this ASUS ROG laptop with 8gb RAM & 1050 GTX. CPU's i7 but i forgot the series, laptop at home & I'm still at office. ^^;

[Nyarlko]

It's due to the DirectX8 requirements of the game. Because FFXI relies on an old version, it's basically unable to "see" the modern graphics cards. There's a help thread on the BGwiki forum that might be able to help you tweak your system to improve your frame rates at least. I haven't tried anything myself since I'm stuck on a laptop with only integrated graphics. ><;;

[Nefario]

You'll see a lot of stuff on the web saying there's no solution to this problem, but in fact there are two fixes. Both became available in the last year, which is why all the conversation you read from 2015 and backwards saying there is no fix is valid ... for that time.

One fix came out earlier in 2016 and was not for FFXI specifically but for all Dx8 Optimus conflicts. The other came out April 2017 and was made by a FFXI player FOR FFXI. It is by far the better of the two for that reason, although both work.

Since i don't know where the rules tread on all this, i won't provide links or names or suggest that you do or do not consider using said fixes. Just, if you're having this issue, and are reading this, know that the fix does (technically) exist. A little google/bing searching can lead you to the answers you seek with regards to wrapping Dx8 for Dx9.

[BobbinT]

While my search through net did find me some answer and which were claimed to make the game felt super smooth, this might be considered ToS breach. Even if any should risk going through this, the setup IMO are quite a hassle and not something that many would find it easy to get it working, and there's ppl reporting glitches using these unofficial fixes.

I just wished SE would patch this issue, especially since Windows 7 already being unsupported by Microsoft, leaving Win8 and above plus having Win10 making it a bit challenge to set up these fixes quite significantly (MS kinda force us in a way to upgrade to Win10 anyways ), not to mention console support has been terminated. ^^;

Or maybe NVidia side should give their own solution as well. Their control panel did offer ability to setup individual programs to force using dedicated GPU which should work on problematic games that still like to using integrated ones, and yet... it fails to do so since the game still ends up running on quite terrible frame rate.

If this keeps going on, it shouldn't be player's fault if they decide to venture on these unofficial fixes that might get their games banned, just because SE still delaying the solutions for this major annoying problem, unless SE somehow purposely trying to make FF11 dying/phased out in favor for their newest MMO iteration(s).

BTW, I might have to take back what I said about desktop PC having better performance, ever since Windows 10 (kinda forcefully) installed on my rig, FF11 does having quite significant performance issue. We would like to keep using older OS version, but as many can see... M$ kinda being a bit forceful lately to make users replace their old OS with Win10, something that SE cannot advice to keep using old OS/rig. ^^;

tldr, since M$ did kinda force users to switch to their latest OS, does SE wanna try to comply with M$ new compatibility system? or SE did want to try phasing out FF11 after all? -_-

[Nefario]

tldr, since M$ did kinda force users to switch to their latest OS, does SE wanna try to comply with M$ new compatibility system? or SE did want to try phasing out FF11 after all? -_-

It feels a bit like they've spent recent years turning FFXI into an offline iteration that is still currently online. I can't imagine SE ever allowing any flagship title to 'cease to exist', so i suspect that it will always be playable in some official capacity.

It does feel a little bit like a missed opportunity though. I mean, looking at how much interest this game still draws from free login campaigns. Also, any time it ever comes up in discussion among players who moved on to FFXIV, it is this game that widely is supported as being the superior title. Even in cases where a player feels it is not, almost certainly, there is an undying love for it. For me, i think that a 'Free' model with Cash shop and properly getting the word out about how soloable the core game is now would establish a good player base for many years ... but if SE feels that subscriptions are necessary to keep the game online at all, that's their prerogative.

Nevertheless, the process of reinstalling is too complicated, and between that and the incompatibility (which many players may not even understand), no matter the model, is flushing potential players away. If i had a dollar for every time i upgraded or bought a new computer for online FF's i'd be rather rich. As it is, i'm poor. This issue had me thinking hard about if i should buy a new computer ... for a 15 year old game ... but most people would not have that level of patience.

With regards to the ToS, as you mention, no existing methods of making the game playable on your machine can be considered as valid solutions. They can't be recommended or used. Even were someone to choose to do so at their own risk, most casual players coming in to check out the game are unlikely to even understand the issue, let alone reach the point of considering their options. What does seem to be the case though, is that a fix for this is not terribly complicated to create, at least specific to FFXI. We may never see the playonline client upgraded, but a fix for this issue specifically, could be created and added into a future patch file without needing an army of devs to do it. Just someone on the team who knows what they are doing and can dedicate some time to it.

[BobbinT]

haha

I guess you're right. FB member told me that the recently opened free trial campaign already closed. Kinda strange IMO for an old MMO.

IMO, installation wasn't really that complicated, except maybe the part where you had to also enter your POL securities which might confuses common ppl. And patching was quite slow. But... there's still someone like me who still got attracted to this old gem albeit being showered by AAA games and their fancy graphics.

Anyways, I'm still hoping for performance upgrade for this old tool. I know this can be done, but only if SE do feel like sharing little of their time making it so. I mean... you can't really turn blind eye these days that there's already substitutes that can be found over googling. Even FF14 has more cheaper subscription plan compared to FF11, another thing I also find weird (although that's hardly a reason why I'm spending more time over FF14). ^^;

(btw, you can just buy cheap-used laptop below $100 and I bet they can play FF11 just right, having hardware requirements not overwhelmed by today's standard... lol )

[Nefario]

Anyways, I'm still hoping for performance upgrade for this old tool. I know this can be done, but only if SE do feel like sharing little of their time making it so. I mean... you can't really turn blind eye these days that there's already substitutes that can be found over googling. Even FF14 has more cheaper subscription plan compared to FF11, another thing I also find weird (although that's hardly a reason why I'm spending more time over FF14). ^^;

(btw, you can just buy cheap-used laptop below $100 and I bet they can play FF11 just right, having hardware requirements not overwhelmed by today's standard... lol )

I've seen you over on the 14 boards. Yeah, i love both games, but this one will always hold the key to my heart.

Great art stands the test of time. Playing FF12 on emulator with the wide screen and upscaling looks gorgeous, as i'm sure the official HD upgrade will too. Eve is a curious example because that game actively upgrades its graphics over time, replacing textures and so on. I don't know what SE plans to do with this game, but i can't imagine them letting it die. A Realm Reborn was about more than just an apology to the fanbase ... it was a commitment to not letting a numbered entry in the series fail.

Anyway, i'm just glad to be back. I've been on and off over the years, but i think i'll stick around a while this time. The game has this new breath of life in it thanks to the introduction of trusts and RoE, yet the old sense of community isn't gone either... everywhere i've gone this last week people have been helping each other and working together even when they didn't need to. I met someone in Delkfutt today who was after the same NM, so we grouped up and shared it, then bumped into a another pair going through the main story and suddenly we were a party going through missions together ... and though we easily could have done it with trusts instead of with each other.

I love XIV, but as much as anything sometimes i am frustrated that they don't take so many chances/risks. Naturally, with 5 million purchases, they are doing it right in a sense ... can't argue the pure numbers ... but FFXI as it is today is a great example of how the new MMO (casual solo style) can work in synergy with the old style (open world, co-operation, community).

I'm still a little unclear about what i read in a recent interview by the devs though on this game ... they seemed to suggest that they are still developing the game on PS2 dev kits because the process of converting it into pure PC development proved insurmountable ... i guess this game was originally built with the PS2 in mind. I wonder just how much that plays into everything. Were this game already humming along on a PC based engine, would things be noticeably different today? I suspect so. I just hope it is an issue that can be overcome in the long run.

[bungiefanNA]

So there are some problems with newer hardware that gives FFXI specific trouble. For one, most Intel laptops with nVidia graphics now use a setup called Optimus, which uses the Intel integrated GPU for old DirectX calls, if the nVidia GPU no longer has compatibility. DirectX 8 and 9 were dropped years ago from hardware compatibility, and so are emulated on a CPU core. Second, FFXI's application is actually a DLL file, so you can't override the game to run on the nVidia GPU with it's control panel, as that only works with EXE applications. Only a third-party tool can override that, and the name cannot be mentioned on this forum. Third, FFXI was made before multi-core processors were common for home computers, so it can only use a single core. Cores now are much slower than they were in 2005, and moreso in laptops. FFXI ran great on a 4 GHz Pentium 4 with a graphics card with DirectX 9 and 8 support. Now your CPU cores are often under 3 GHz, often under 2 on laptops. Add to it that FFXI isn't really running on the GPU anymore and is pushing all graphics calls to the CPU for emulation, all on one core, and you max out one CPU core running the game because the CPU has to do all graphics and the game itself on a single core. You will not run the game on max settings at normal 30 FPS under those conditions. You have to turn down some settings and look into ways to actually use the nVidia GPU in your setup.

Systems with AMD graphics seem to have better performance with this game. You cannot turn off the Intel GPU in Optimus setups, because the video feed is piped out through the Intel chip with how the system is built. Turn off the Intel and you turn off all vudeo.