Driftmoon is a great game and very low on system requirements, I think (it even runs on my netbook), but with my PC setup being as lame as it is at the moment (onboard graphic card and whatnot), the movement in the game is still a bit laggy for me - well, maybe not laggy but there's this slight stuttering all the time. It's just a minor nuisance and doesn't make the game unplayable, but it would be more enjoyable for me if I could reduce it to a minimum.

So far, playing at the lowest setting (1024x768) and disabling V-Sync got me the best FPS (14-25 in the village, 22-34 in the well), but I don't notice that much difference in the stuttering movement. Any ideas for reducing it or do I just have to make do with it if I don't want to wait for a new PC before I play it?

Oh, and btw, is it possible to run in Driftmoon or are you walking slowly all the time? Thanks!

EDIT: Hm, the game actually runs much faster on my netbook, the characters move three times as fast compared to running the game on my desktop PC. Weird. That's a great advantage over the desktop PC, but at the same time on the netbook the game is a bit laggy in other aspects (e.g. combat). And the movement isn't perfect either, the NPCs seem to quickly jump around instead of walking ...

Copy of my post in the release thread, since it's probably related to this problem :

"As said here :
http://www.gog.com/forum/driftmoon/suggestions_on_improving_the_framerate_slight_stuttering_issues_on_old_pc

I've got also these strange stuttering while moving in the world.

I've got a pretty good gaming laptop (i5 3210m, gtx 660m, 4Gb ram) and a solid 60 fps (Fraps tested).

Tried to restart after install, patched to 1.001, still no clue.

Playing at 1920 x 1080 + vsync, also tested on 1024x768 with no vsync. Any idea or tips will be welcome !

Oh, and last but not least : AWESOME game. (and, in fact, it's because it's awesome that I want to play it on the best conditions :-D)

EDIT : As an owner of a laptop with optimus tech, I tested both with the integred HD4000 and nvidia videocard, both with no fancy options AND with AA and AF activated."

Hi Leroux and Satellite!

First to both Leroux and Satellite: For feedback, we're most likely to notice your feedback / question, if you send it through the game by pressing the letter F while playing. GOG is good too, but it would be a shame if we didn't notice the question. :)

Would it be possible to send us a log from the game? Here's how: Start the game. Choose a location from the game where the problem is apparent. Play for a while (30 seconds or so), and close the game by pressing Alt + F4. After that we'd really like to see the latest log file under My documents/ Driftmoon/logs. The log should incluse some information on the performance of the game on your computer. That may help a bit, if you don't mind going through the extra work...


Leroux: Unfortunately the framerate is really quite low, so the stuttering is a result of that. One thing you could try to help with the framerate, would be to change the view back to top-down, with Page Up, and play quite zoomed in.

(Driftmoon used to run on even slower computers than currently, but some of the changes we had to make to enable the tilt unfortunately also had an effect on the framerate on older computers.)

Upping your agility makes you faster in the game. ;) (Also, be sure to use the Minimap to quick travel to locations! You'll get it early on in the game)

Satellite: It's new to us to hear the game might stutter on such a solid FPS, so I'm afraid I don't have an instant solution.. In addition to the performance log (described up above), if you want, you could maybe consider using Fraps? If you're very enthusiastic about getting to the root of the problem, sending us even a 10-20 second movie with that Fraps might help us figure it out. (But I can easily understand that sending the Fraps may be a bit too much of a bother...)

Let's hope that some of the above will prove to be helpful! :)

Sorry for that! I posted it here to hear from other players first, as I didn't think this was something you should be concerned with right now, since it's probably a minority issue and more due to my weak computer than your programming skills (after all the desktop PC is 6 years old and even lacking the low-end graphic card that came with it in 2007, ever since it died on me, so I can't expect every new game to work on it). Point taken though. :) I just sent you a logfile per e-mail (to Ville's address). Hm, that's what I feared when I heard about the changes, but I don't blame you since the new perspective is worth it. It would explain why I had more fun running the demo on my desktop PC last year than playing the release now. As mentioned above, apart from the stuttering, the characters now move very slowly on my desktop PC compared to my netbook (but on the netbook it feels as if they're moving too fast, and more like jumping - probably due to a lag caused by low performance of another type).

Zooming in very closely doesn't quite work for me as I'd like to know where I'm going and who's around the next corner ... ;) But changing the camera back to top-down does help a little, thank you! I haven't made up my mind though whether I should play Driftmoon this way or put it back on my virtual shelf until I can afford a better PC, so that I'd be able to really enjoy the game like it was meant to be enjoyed.

In any case, thanks a lot for your help! :)

Cheers for pointing out the log. I have Nvidea Optimus, and because of the logs I found out that Driftmoon defaults to the Intel GPU. If anyone is using Optimus, you need to force Driftmoon to run on Nvidea's GPU, if you prefer it to do so.

(though I only noticed minimal performance differences, the Intel one was fine enough...)

Thanks for the quick answer, I also send my log to Ville's mail.

About Optimus, I always test my games on the two modes, since the autoselection is quite buggyon old apps. I am not a mod creator, but I love to mod my old games, and the modifications are sometimes quite demanding ^^

The game is playable, but as I already said, there is this strage micro stutter who furiously reminds me those you encounter in streaming games like GTA San Andreas when you drive a fast car.

Obviously, I also tried to defragment the Drifmoon directory, and activate then deactivate any form of AA, AF, triple buffering, etc, etc.

Won't prevent me from playing, nonetheless :-D

Thanks for the log Satellight! I've identified one issue that could be causing stuttering on your computer. If you have the time, I'd be very glad if you could test to see if the new fix helps. I'll be in contact by email.

With Satellight's help we managed to make a fix that helps at least in the type of lag that he was experiencing. The game was streaming the trees that come into view in a way that wasn't optimal for some types of hardware. In case anyone else is suffering from the same stuttering problem, we'll try to make a new version available soon.

And thanks for your log Leroux, apparently you aren't suffering from that same problem, but I'll see if there's anything to be done here as well.

My pleasure, thank you for your quick answers ! Going back to play now ^^