Lag Problems

From FFXI Wiki

There are many, many factors that can cause lag. The most common cause of lag is outdated or incompatible drivers, but lag can also be caused by a weird mixture of new graphics cards with an ancient FFXI graphics engine.

Due to some mishap in FFXI coding or incompatibility with newer graphics cards, many players experience a debilitating slowdown when near Confluxes or teleport crystals. There are two ways to fix this, updating drivers to a copy that happens to be compatible with FFXI, or .dat swapping the offending structures out for something else.

Updating Drivers

First, check this link to see what SE thinks is the best driver for your card. In general, the community seems to agree that you want:

  • At most Catalyst drivers 9.1 with ATI
  • NVidia 266.58 for newer NVidia cards

If you have a laptop, it's entirely possible that you will be unable to obtain the proper driver for your graphics card. Mobile cards and mobile driver updates are generally left to the OEM (who you bought your computer from) instead of the main company, and OEMs are notoriously bad about keeping an updated and comprehensive driver library. Instead of waiting for something that will never happen, you should consider looking around online for an unlocked version of the drivers. They aren't particularly difficult to find, but installing unapproved drivers may void your warranty (if they're noticed and the tech working on your computer cares, which they probably won't).

Replacing .dats

Move the offending .dat elsewhere on your computer for safekeeping, rename it based on its file path, and replace it with the .dat of a structure that you do not have problems with.

Conflux Addresses:

  • ROM1/240/111.dat
  • ROM5/8/92.dat
  • ROM5/8/93.dat

Popular alternatives:

  • ROM1/3/56.dat - Moogle
  • ROM5/6/107.dat - Nothing

Example:

  • Copy 111.dat from ROM1/240/111.dat into a new folder, "Rejected dats," somewhere else on your hard drive and rename it ROM1_240_111.dat
  • Copy ROM5/6/107.dat (dot on the ground), paste it (so it's named "Duplicate of 107.dat") and move it into folder ROM1/240/.
  • Rename it "111.dat"
  • Repeat for the other .dats

Next time you load FFXI, you will have replaced the Confluxes with dots on the ground and eliminated your lag.