Sakura Wars

[Jinnai]

Was seeing if anyone had some ideas to speed this up. For most of the game it runs fine, but in menus and when timed event choices occur things slow down, especially menus. I've used the 1.5x hack and it still runs slow as hell. I've yet to make it to a battle so I don't know how bad they'll be.

System:

AMD Phenom II x4 945 @3GH
ATI Radeon 780G (internal)
4GB Ram
currently running 1888 beta w/ March 10th plugins.

[jadariin]

I have no experience from playing this game but you could try turning off the 8-bit textures in gsdx. This also happens in menus of FFXII when 8-bit textures are ticked on. Worth a try.

[CKL]

Actually, for Sakura Wars 5( I don't have the first 4 for ps2 cause I have the dreamcast version, so if its the others, my guess may not apply), checking the 8-bit textures may improve the performace. When I tested mine, checking it, my GPU usage was around 40%, and unchecking it, the usage went up to around 60%. The fps on both setting was around 220% on my machine during the first timed choice. My guess is the GPU, "ATI Radeon 780G", being not powerful enough to handle the game. Also, there is no such GPU called ATI Radeon 780G, and it should be something like hd 3200 or hd 4200.

[Jinnai]

Actually, for Sakura Wars 5( I don't have the first 4 for ps2 cause I have the dreamcast version, so if its the others, my guess may not apply), checking the 8-bit textures may improve the performace. When I tested mine, checking it, my GPU usage was around 40%, and unchecking it, the usage went up to around 60%. The fps on both setting was around 220% on my machine during the first timed choice. My guess is the GPU, "ATI Radeon 780G", being not powerful enough to handle the game. Also, there is no such GPU called ATI Radeon 780G, and it should be something like hd 3200 or hd 4200.

Listed as 780G under Catalyst, but doing some research looks to be HD 3200. I may also look to overclocking the GPU which should help.

EDIT >:( My bios won't let me overclock, Catalyst won't let me overclock and I cannot find a version of XPC Tools that'll support my system, Shuttle SA76G, even though it is suppose to be relatively easy to overclock...

[CKL]

Overclocking that GPU is not going to help significantly, so no point risking it. Checking native resolution may help, but if does not, there is not much you can do other than getting a better video card something like 8800gt or the equivalent. You can also try running it in software mode setting 3 threads instead of 1. You might get better speed that way in your situation.

Anyway, try to get to the battle and see if you have any slow down like that. If it occurs only in those timed choices, I guess it is ok to live with it(well you have more time to make your choice).

[Yojimbo108]

I would like to bump this and ask if anyone has a particularly good config / setup for Sakura Wars.

[CKL]

Setting everything to default run just fine. The game doesn't require any special kind of setting if you have the recommanded spec. If you don't , I can't help because you have not stated your spec and no way I can guess.

[Yojimbo108]

That sounds promising anyway. I'll be running it on my laptop, the specs are

Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz (Detected up to SSSE3)
2GB RAM
Nvidia 8600M GT
Windows 7 32bit

Will be getting the game soon-ish. Any recommended speed ups necessary for battles etc?

Thanks

[CKL]

Well, check the 8-bit texture and play using native resolution. If it is still slow, start turning on speedhacks(Note: having to many may break the game). Your spec doesn't meet the recommanded spec, so If you still don't like the speed, you are better off playing using ps2.

[Jinnai]

Overclocking that GPU is not going to help significantly, so no point risking it. Checking native resolution may help, but if does not, there is not much you can do other than getting a better video card something like 8800gt or the equivalent. You can also try running it in software mode setting 3 threads instead of 1. You might get better speed that way in your situation.

I need to find one that fits in my PC. I have a shuttle PC because I move it around a lot so I need to find a half-height card that doesn't have a huge heatsink (problem with video card i originally tried). It's also on my list below a wireless router (hope to pick that up soon), a TB HD, and Windows 7 Pro.