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Best Sonic Generations Settings for 2009 Laptop?

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by Kharen, Dec 29, 2011.

  1. So, I took advantage of the sale on Steam and bought Sonic Generations for my PC for ten bucks. It took forever to actually download, but it finally finished. Now I hit a problem.

    My computer was a present from when I graduated high school, back in 2009. It's a laptop that worked fairly well playing Portal 2 a while ago, so I figured it would be able to handle Sonic Generations. I'm currently getting about 10 frames per second, it seems like. The animation is insanely choppy, like watching a fairly quick slideshow presentation rather than a video game. I already have the shadow and reflection detail set to low, and antialiasing turned off.

    Will turning down the resolution of the game speed things up any? Also, what is VSync and would the game run better with it on or off. When I turned down the detail and antialiasing, I also turned it off, so that might be an issue as well. I don't see a way to play the game in windowed mode, I'm only given widescreen and letterbox for options, and I don't think changing it to letterbox will make a difference. Correct me if I'm wrong.

    I've really been looking forward to playing this game. I don't have a PS3/360, and cannot afford buying a new gaming system along with another copy of the game. I would really like for this one to work. Please help me with this.
     
  2. Spanner

    Spanner

    The Tool Member
    Could you provide the specifications of your laptop on here? Are you sure it meets the minimum specifications?
    Generations is a lot heavier on things compared to Portal 2, so basing that it would work because of another different game entirely isn't a good idea.
     
  3. SeanieB

    SeanieB

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    Turning the resolution down will indeed help.

    VSync is a feature that synchronizes the game to your computer's screen refresh rate. Turn it off if you're experiencing slowdown, it's an intensive feature.

    I would play in whatever aspect ratio your screen is.
     
  4. Here's what I've got...

    Processor: AMD Athlon Dual Core QL-62
    Memory (RAM): 2 GB
    Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8200M G
    Gaming Graphics: 895 Available Graphics Memory
    Primary Hard Disk: 94 GB Free (222 GB Total)

    Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
    Model: Compaq Presario CQ60 Notebook PC
    Total Amount System Memory: 2.00 GB RAM
    System Type: 32-Bit Operating System
    Number of Processor Cores: 2
    64-Bit Capable: Yes

    Display Adaptor Type: NVIDIA GeForce 8200M G
    Total available Graphics Memory: 895 MB
    Dedicated Graphics Memory: 256 MB
    Dedicated System Memory: 0 MB
    Shared System Memory: 639 MB
    Primary Monitor Resolution: 1366x768
    DirectX Version: DirectX 10

    Any information I'm missing? It took a little bit to figure out where this information was.
     
  5. Josh

    Josh

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    I haven't heard of any way to mod Generations' settings beyond what the config allows you to do. I was able to turn on antiscopic filtering in my Catalyst settings, so maybe you could go through a similar tool and try to force some things off? Turn everything down as low as it goes, try playing in a smaller resolution... that's about the best you can do.

    And since people always seem to recommend this (though I've always noticed very little difference), try turning the processes' priority up to highest in the task manager. Couldn't hurt,I s'pose.

    Generations is VERY graphics-intensive. It's the only game I've been able to throw at my new computer that DOESN'T run perfectly at the highest settings, so I can only imagine what it must be like on a laptop.
     
  6. Dissent

    Dissent

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    Game runs fine for me until the shader effects start to happen from gaining speed. It's not a huge fps drop, but then when it's happening near waterfalls I absolutely plummet to 5fps range until I get out of the area or stop moving fast.
     
  7. Well, I have absolutely everything on the lowest possible settings under the Video tab, and I don't know if it's wishful thinking to the point to a placebo effect or not, but turning off the setting for the data-gathering upload thing seemed to get me just enough of an FPS that it's not so much a rapid slideshow as much as a slow guided tour of the levels. You know the level design is really good when you're still enjoying a casual stroll through the levels instead of blazing through them like normal. My first Sonic game was Sonic CD for the computer, and it didn't run at the correct speed. I never noticed this because I had never played a Sonic game before and didn't know how fast he was supposed to be running. I had thought the game just played like an unbelievably massive Mario clone, and enjoyed it as such. This game is nostalgic now for more reasons than the developers intended. The "bad" graphics aren't even a turn-off either. I don't have a system more advanced than a Wii or PlayStation 2, and this is still better than anything they can play (for the most part.)

    So far, I've finished Sky Sanctuary, and need to get the challenges complete to obtain the boss key. The speed's nearly tolerable, so I'm still having a fairly good time. I haven't been replaying levels, though. I think I'll save that for when I get a better computer. (I'm a college student, and eternally broke, so fat chance on that happening anytime in the near future.) Steam lets you install the game on more than one computer, right? It would really suck to have to re-purchase the game just to be able to play it the correct way.

    Still, if anybody knows any more settings I can set to squeeze a few more FPS out of this, whether it be from a 3rd party tool or anything, I would really appreciate it. I wouldn't mind getting a bit more excitement out of this rather than just nostalgia kicking in really hard. (God, I love Sky Sanctuary!) My only complaint is that there should have been more boss battles. I wouldn't mind a revisit on Eggman's normal mechs/weapons as boss battles for the individual Zones. It's weird having played through three of them and not getting to kick any ass yet.
     
  8. Josh

    Josh

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    http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

    Give that tool a try. I had some good luck with it on TF2 when I was on my old laptop.

    And yes, you can install and play any game you've bought on any computer. Many, Generations included, have "Steam Cloud" synchronization, meaning in this case that your save file will automatically transfer over, too.
     
  9. Um... Problem.

    I downloaded the program you recommended, turned it on, and it didn't help at all. When I was done, it turned off, and then EVERY SINGLE background process it shut down for me came up, not as background processes anymore, but as a massive flood of windows. After turning them all off, I noticed that my WiFi connection was turned off as well, and (here's the issue), it wouldn't come back. I had to completely restart my computer, and even then, it took about three to four times longer to reconnect, to where all my typical programs that use the WiFi connection (Steam, Skype, etc.) started complaining that there was no internet.

    I had downloaded the recommended computer-care package that came up when I downloaded the game booster, and ran that beforehand, so I'm not sure if it was one of the two or even which one. Has anybody else had the same problems with the program?


    *NOTE TO MODERATORS*
    I apologize that this topic is starting to turn into more of a computer care/maintenance topic rather than a Sonic one. I simply want to figure out a problem that came up from trying to get my Sonic Generations game to work. I swear, this is as far off-topic as this thread will go, so please don't get upset with me for this.
     
  10. Dissent

    Dissent

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    Whoa. I can confirm that turning off the Analytics fixed my framerate issues when running past waterfalls. WHY THIS MAKES SENSE I DO NOT KNOW.
     
  11. If I had to guess, I would have to say that it's sending information in real-time while you're playing the game, so having it turned off lets the computer focus that little bit more on actually working the game rather than dealing with additional information and sending it in. I am kind of curious as to what kind of information it's sending, though.
     
  12. Biofrost

    Biofrost

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    There is not much else you can do with the FPS I'm afraid. The 8200M is very low end for laptop graphics card s and is not really meant for gaming but more for web browsing. My best suggestion(besides saving for a new pc or laptop) is just turn off as much stuff running in the background as possible.(When looking for a new laptop be sure the graphics card is in the 200m-500m as those are for gamning and other graphic intense programs)
     
  13. Well, it's playable at any rate. My only concern are brief periods when it gets so bad that it can't process some of my button presses. Sometimes, I'll try to use a Homing Attack, Sonic won't do it, and I'll fly right past my target into a bottomless pit. Honestly, the only really difficult time I had so far was the Perfect Chaos "boss fight" (At least, I didn't think of it as a boss battle so much an a glorified extra stage). I lost at least 7 lives just because Sonic wouldn't home in on the springs and launchers.

    At least I have something to look forward to. Once I get something with a good enough graphics card that I can up the detail and the antialiasing, and still get good FPS, this game's going to feel brand new. Add in my DS's homebrew wireless PC controller program, and this is going to be absolute gold. Unfortunately, by then the next three or four Sonic games will have come out.
     
  14. Mad Echidna

    Mad Echidna

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    It runs brilliantly on my laptop, never dropped frames except for the well known CPZ lag. Weird thing is though, when I try to record my gameplay with FRAPS the video ends up being like 2 fps even though when I'm playing and recording it looks fine.
     
  15. SeanieB

    SeanieB

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    Might have something to do with the laptop hard drive, Try turning on FRAPS' half resolution setting and scale it up in a video editor.

    Also, FRAPS video takes a huge amount of horse power to play, the video might actually be harder on your machine than the game was if you play it back on something that doesn't use the GPU to play it.
     
  16. I'm honestly too drunk to read the entire topic but I just wanted to say that an 8200m isn't going to cut it for Sonic Generations, you need a new laptop to play this game at all. That CPU could probably handle it but you didn't specificy the clock speed which could make a huge difference.

    In general, if you're having problems you want to lower the resolution, turn down the detail on shaders and texture quality, and if possible for some games even use hacks to lower the quality on things you can't adjust through normal settings. The less memory you make the game use usually the better. Of course there is always that breaking point where the game simply won't run on your hardware, and I feel like you've reached that point.

    Mobile series GPUs are almost always weaker than their desktop counterparts so that's something to consider when shopping for a new laptop. Take a look at the specs and upgrade the minimum a few notches for a laptop. I run the game fine on a 460 GTX with a dual core processor but that's a desktop

    Also FRAPS uses a considerable amount of CPU I think, so I wouldn't try to run FRAPS unless your specs are well past what the game needs to run. Ideally you should be getting the game and Steam overlay to work and nothing else really matters. Things like FRAPS are just gravy
     
  17. Ayla

    Ayla

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    I was about to say this if you hadn't. Your GPU is ancient (they get outdated ridiculously fast it seems). If gamebooster isn't working (I use it for just about everything and my GPU was the best NVIDIA had only a year ago), your only option is to turn every possible setting on the game down and use the lowest resolution. Try updating your GPU drivers if you've never done so.

    I recently went through this whole parade with Skyrim recently (before I knew it had lag issues period) and finally got the lag manageable about two days before someone released a lag fix (oh well).

    I wish you the best of luck either way!!
     
  18. Yeah, I finished the game at 5 fps at good points. My plan on dealing with the slowdown was to constantly hold down the boost button, and just make sure it didn't run out. Pretty much, the way to deal with slowdown in a Sonic game is to play it like a Sonic game! When the boost was going, it felt almost like playing a Mario game, just with very pretty graphics. (Yeah, I already had absolutely everything on the lowest settings. Still looks better than any of my other games.) When I get a new computer, I'll copy it over and play it again at the normal speed.