Win7 64bit
Intel i5 2500K 3.4ghz quadcore
8gb DDR3 1333mhz
Gainward 'Goes like hell' (stock overclocked) 560TI 1gb
Drivers up to date, computer kept in very clean proper check at all times. Been playing games and building computers for 15 years.
I just had a medium-large sized battle quite early in the campaign (invading bedford) with 5-10 fps when the camera is above 1 of the 2 armies. Note, above, so high that the units are actually rendered as sprites, not 3d models. Swooshing the camera a tiny bit to the side, the fps goes up to 25 (max it ever reaches), and zooming down close enough to see a battle it goes down to 5-10 again.
And the worst part is that my CPU temps went up to 80 degrees, when it never reach 70 degrees no matter what other game is being run.
This after the patch. Turning off Ambient Occlusion has a big difference on the campaign map but next to no difference in the battles, same with soft shadows, smooth animations or even antialiasing that still only semi-works on half of the edges/objects (i'm never turning that off, it is a basic core need of any 3d game that games have managed since the 1990's, if a modern game has such preformance issues with it perhaps they should rethink their technical priorities).
I will say that turning the unit detail slider to the below the middle setting did improve framerate somewhat, but even with most units displayed as sprites, it still runs worse than Shogun 2 at max details and 4x transparency supersampling (forced). Something is obviously very wrong. It is as if the units have no LOD models what so ever, either they are full-on, lagging the system to bits, or they are sprites, and still lagging the system..
I also find this quote from the FAQ thread to be cute;
"We (Paradox producers) have managed to improve framerates by 25%-50% by using the above mentioned options on a number of rigs. Please share your experiences with the settings so that others with similar hardware specs can find their "sweet spot" sooner."
The above method being to reduce graphics to medium and turning off antialiasing, soft shadows and ambient occlusion.
Is that not quite obvious, that framerates improve when turning down the graphics? The problem is that when you have 5-10 fps in battles, a 25% increase isn't worth much.
I adore the campaign map, i adore the story and rpg elements. But when left with autoresolving every battle to keep my sanity, i feel like i miss half the game.
I give up. *starts a new Roma Surrectum 2 campaign*
