Hello everyone.
I have no idea what is going on, so I'll try to explain it as best I can, but I really need some help. (And please bear with me, I'm computer savvy, but I'm no expert.)
I bought this computer less than 2 years ago, it has the potential to run Mabi (and any other game) without issue. But for some reason starting around late last year - early this year, it began to run Mabi horribly laggy. My computer is still running every other game I play on it fine (ex. skyrim on ultra settings with countless mods), only Mabi seems to be affected. Its definitely my lag, because its framerate lag and stuff like slower loading screens.
A few months ago I did a complete computer restore back to factory settings, attempting to fix the issue after all other methods failed, but even that did nothing.
It doesn't lag all the time. Some days I will start up Mabi and it will run perfectly (ex. I could take a scroll through Belvast with in-game recording on and not skip a frame, Tara loads in about 10 seconds), other days I will have horrible framerate lag, to the point where I can barely function in combat or crowded, laggy places (ex. In Belvast ch1 I would barely be moving frame to frame if I tried to walk across the town, Tara takes upwards of 20-30 seconds to load).
I have no idea what determines how the game runs, I have tried to see a pattern and play around with what I have running in the background, ect. Nothing seems to match up.
The only thing I do notice is that I can instantly tell upon start up whether or not the game is going to be laggy, because when its not laggy, the "initializing pleione engine" bar at the bottom right of the screen will load very quickly and will be done before I can even type in my login info. When the game will be lagging, the bar will load fairly quick enough up until its just about full, then it will stop there for 30+ seconds before finishing.
I have no idea what this means or what it has to do with why my game is laggy or not, I just know that like clockwork, if the bar loads fast, the game is fine, if the bar freezes for a bit of time at the end, its laggy as hell.
Once I get in game and its not lagging, it will stay that way for days, as long as I don't close mabi, no matter how many other things I open or close.
I've tried asking everyone I know, I've tried looking up the issue multiple times. I've tried many things.. and nothing seems to fix it. Hell I'd even be fine with learning how to trigger the laglessness. :l
I've had a lot of people try to tell me its my internet, or the game itself.. but that all doesn't really make any sense because at some points my computer runs the game perfectly fine, so I know it is capable of doing it and that it is possible. And, at one point months ago the computer ran the game perfectly fine every time I launched it all day every day, so obviously something changed that has nothing to do with the game or its engine or my internet..
I'd really appreciate it if anyone has any ideas on whats happening, because I can't keep playing the game when its lagging horribly like this..