MQ2 CPU reduction NOT working

Azum · Post by **Azum** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 10:14 pm

My CPU useage is back to 100% at all times now since going from MQ1 to MQ2 today. I have the mq2fps plugin loaded and running. The CPU reduction worked quite nicely in MQ1, definitely not doing anything now though.

ml2517 · Post by **ml2517** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 10:28 pm

When you first get in game on your character try setting your maxfps backround speed again. Like:

/maxfps bg 5

I've noticed that sometimes when you first start up if you don't do that it won't kick in properly and switch to your backround speed while in the backround.

Lax · Post by **Lax** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 11:01 pm

The CPU limiting is doing its job, just slightly differently. Whereas before it always gave up enough to speed up the rest of your system and didn't care about the real FPS, it's now calculating the FPS. If the maxfps is set to 50, and you never reach 50, the FPS limiter is never going to be limiting the CPU usage. It does always force EQ to play nice, meaning it gives up CPU time so that if other applications are running and need the CPU it will happily give up as much CPU time as the other application needs. Try setting your maxfps to 30 or 40 instead of 50. Also, if maxfps is set to 0, it will always give up only enough for the rest of your system to function properly.

Hope this helps you understand, it is doing its job :)

ml2517 · Post by **ml2517** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 12:08 am

Actually Lax I just noticed something.

To set this up here are my settings/specs:
Windows ME
MQ2 (latest build)
EQW (latest build)

I launch EQ and get in game. My fps is around 50fps. I issue the following commands:
/maxfps fg 20
/maxfps bg 5

This actually works fine *until* I launch genbot. As soon as that is up and running my fps shoots back up to around 45 fps. It seems like when macros are running the fps limiter doesn't seem to be functioning.

It basically hovers around 45/20

Azum · Post by **Azum** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 12:25 am

Tried that, setting fg fps to 40, 30, or 20 isnt making any difference. Neither is changing the bg fps. Regardless, I'm always at 100% CPU useage. Shrug, I liked it better the way it was before... because now it just doesn't seem to be doing anything.

Edit: I had unloaded the fps plugin and reloaded, which made it come up as 50/0 on the fps indicator, and no matter what I set /maxfps at, didn't seem to matter. Reloading the game with the plugin up and trying again.

gnome001 · Post by **gnome001** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 12:48 am

double posts sux

gnome001 · Post by **gnome001** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 12:50 am

well, its working like you say for me lax.. but i from what i can tell i prefer the old way better.. i liked to run eq in the fg and other stuff in the bg but still have them use quite a bit of the cpu..

i'm averaging 26 - 25 fps in most zones and i don't really wanna limit myself to anything below 20 fps in order to get stuff to run efficiently in the background like i was just a week ago..
(i had no clue i had such shitty fps until i tried out mq2 btw.. i'd expect a bit more with p4 1.8 ghz 1 gig ram , geforce 4 ti 4600 128megs.. running in eqw with no sound, low texture quality, no socials, all the mem saving shit on in options, only 3 new models (the ones i need for horses))...

edit in... i turned off my mq enabled ui and gained about 10 fps on average.. i'd suspected that i was having a bit lower fps using it, but never had proof until i watched the fps numbers skyrocket up as soon as i turned it off.. i i wouldn't think adding a few display items such as target distance, class, lvl, guild, mana cur/mana max, and buff timers would slow it down that much... my quesiton.. should it be making this much of a difference?

Lax · Post by **Lax** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 1:20 am

When you run a macro, the FPS limiter has to work differently -- most notably when #turbo is used. If #turbo is used, the FPS limiter will always sleep for the minimum amount of time, otherwise macro performance would be horrible.

Azum, if the fps indicator says x/0 it means the limiting part is set to 0. This means it's always going to give up the minimum amount of time. The /x part will always show what it is currently being limited to. For example, if you /maxfps fg 30, and /maxfps bg 20, then it will show 30 while it is foreground and 20 while it is background (when you hit ctrl+alt+del to check it, it will be limiting to 20 and use different CPU time than when it was foreground). So if it's showing 50/0 EQ will be using 99% cpu time, only giving up time when the system requires it.

I run a very similar ship to yours gnome001, and in most zones 20-30 is pretty accurate. The old FPS limiter when set to /maxfps 50 would drop me down to a maximum of 30 fps in the nicest areas. If you limit to 25-30 you should get decent rates and give up some time for your system.

As far as determining if it is working, type /maxfps fg 1. If the FPS indicator says 50/1 then something is wrong. If it says 50/0, nothing is wrong. If it says 50/50, nothing is wrong. If you type /maxfps bg 20, and when you switch to background it does not show /20, then something is wrong. Also, I can guarantee you that your background programs can freely use CPU time. For example, unload the MQ2FPS plugin and go load up internet explorer. Slow slow slow. Then load MQ2FPS and do the same thing. Fast.

Anyway, I'll make it an option to use the static sleep method or the calculation method to make people feel better

Lax · Post by **Lax** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 1:23 am

gnome001, as far as the ui labels go.. the macro parameter parsing system is HORRID and I had to really strain not to fix it up. Where it should be doing one to two comparisons to determine exactly what it should be getting (look up hashing), it's doing lots of comparisons in the main parsing and then lots more in the actual macro parameter functions. I wouldn't think it would cause 10 fps difference but it doesn't surprise me that there is a performance hit

Azum · Post by **Azum** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 1:26 am

I had done a /plugin mq2fps unload, then a /plugin mq2fps and it was displaying 50/0... sometimes 60/0, etc. No matter what I typed (/maxfps fg 10, or /maxfps fg 20) it'd always display 50/0. Possible bug with unloading and reloading plugins? Shrug

I reloaded EQ and Mq2, and now it seems to be working better. With /maxfps fg 30 I'm getting around 35-40% cpu useage with EQ in the foreground.

gnome001 · Post by **gnome001** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 2:41 am

thanks for your work Lax. /cheer. and thanks for answering my questions about the ui stuff. makes me feel a bit better about my system overall and what i should expect from it.

Lax · Post by **Lax** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 4:02 am

11-26 updated

- MQ2FPS now has a /fps command that can change some other settings. Selecting "absolute" mode will switch to "cpu limiter" style, while "calculate" mode will switch to "fps limiter" style. FPS limiter is default. The same command will allow you to reposition the FPS indicator display.
- MQ2FPS display now shows a * if using absolute mode, and will show /MACRO if a macro is being executed that causes the limiting to be minimal