Saints Row 2 PC Mod

Despite the performance issues and the general dislike for the poor Saints Row 2 PC port, I still love and enjoy playing the game at a respectible 35-45+ fps rate at maxed out settings 8X AA, 16X AF. I also use the Cheat Engine to deal with the Windows 7 speed (too fast) issue.

I just noticed this Mod that I have never heard of before called Gentleman Of The Row

The list of additions and fixes are really too long so I suggest looking at the link.


Edit: I have just read through the entire list of changes and I am completely astounded, there are so many great additions, fixes, improvements and extra features it is simply amasing!

It reminds me of the TTDISA GTA SA Mod a bit in terms of the vast list of improvements. Even though this SR2 Mod is a compiled collection, I still underestimated the sheer number of changes



There are 2 versions of the Mod, a v1.6 - Standard version for keyboard and mouse users and a v1.6 with Onscreen 360 button prompts for 360 controller users.

I am using the latter and it is really nice to see the correct Xbox360 Controller prompts (shame on the Devs) in game. The Mod download is just over 4MB but extracts to over 46MB+, it is very easy to install and you can simply rename the 3 files that it replaces to go back to your original or you can use Steam to verify integrity.

I recommend that you backup any saves in the C:\Users\**YourName**\AppData\Local\THQ\Saints Row 2 just in case.

 

Did the performance get patched up? And what exactly is the w7 issue? I may grab this and give it a shot on my m11x w/ that mod.

 

As far as I know, only one patch was released back in 2009 that addressed performance and removed a fps cap but people still experienced terrible performance and other issues. The problem some get with the game on Windows 7 X86/64 is that it runs like some one pressed a fast forward button regardless of settings. So it was out of sync and needed to be slowed down.

The performance is great for me but I don't know about others.

 

This "speed bug" is also present in Red Faction: Guerilla. I was disappointed by this because I quickly bought it during one of those Steam deals. It's like everything is on speed.

 

Yeah most of the reason i dual boot my rig(Win7+Vista64) is to play those 2 games without issues.... Support on both games has been a joke but i enjoy them enough to go through the trouble of running 2 OS's...

 

i got this game for free with dow2 chaos rising.
its my slowest game so far and the graphics are kinda ugly for a modern game.
th story looked cool but it was just unwieldy to play...

 

I bought gta4 and I was so pissed of I brought it back to the store and nearly got in a fight with the clerk because he wouldnt take back that POS of a stutter bugged game.

I got the steam deal THQ thingy because it had saints row 2 in it, thinking I could stilll get my GTA game like experience.

And the performance was so horrid, I mean, HORRID i just laughed it out like a maniac and promised myself that from now on, before i dish out any cash in a game, I would try out their online "Arrgg Piratee Demo"

Conlcusion, dont advertise this game in anyway to people, someone might actually buy this POS because of your post! bad...evil you

 

The Cheat Engine speed hack works perfectly for me with SR2 and it will probably owork with Red Faction as well.

 

There is an official patch for RF:G coming that solves the Windows 7 speed issue. One of the reps from Voilition posted today on their forums that the patch has been submitted to Microsoft's GFWL crew for approval.

 

I'm the creator of the Gentlemen of the Row mod, and saw this forum post while googling for my mod. I just wanted to let you guys know that there is a way to mitigate, and even eliminate the performance issues with SR2 PC if you have enough RAM.

The biggest problem with the port is how it handles usage of the hard drive, and how it interacts with Windows prefetching. i.e. it stubbornly will not prefetch at all unless there is nothing else competing for memory. The trick to get a smooth frame rate is to have at least 2Gb of free memory, and force it to prefetch. So, basically close down all other apps, empty your prefetch folder, and restart the superfetch service. Run the game, and confirm that it created a .pf to the sr2_pc.exe in your windows\prefetch folder.

The Performance section of my OP on the Penny Arcade forums has all the details.
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=100919

OR I have detailed this fix on the Volition forums:
http://community.saintsrow.com/forums/topic/43379

Also, I just contacted the author of the RFG speedup patch, and we bought him a copy of SR2 so that he can port over his patch:
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?p=14087129#post14087129

He expects to be done shortly, and we'll start testing. This will be a much more elegant solution than cheat engine which has the unfortunate side effect of desync'ing cutscene audio.

Hope this helps anyone who is fighting with performance. You can reach me directly on Steam if you have any questions or need help:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/idolninja

Happy gaming, glad to see some people enjoying the new 360 button version mod!

 

@ IdolNinja

Really good to see you posting here and such great news hearing about the speed fix, I can't wait for that to be released.

I checked the Windows 7 superfetch and mine was already doing that correctly. That must be partly why I get such good performance, my 6GB of RAM surely helps too. Next time I play I will check how much is being used, I have Rivatuner displaying RAM usage in game on the OSD amongst other things.

I had to patch SR2 to support my 1600 x 900 resolution, again a third party solution had to be used. It is a shame that the original Devs have abandoned it but we are so lucky to have a great community to keep on improving it with Mods and fixes.

I think the game is so much fun and many have missed out due to the shoddy portmanship.

Edit:

Total RAM while running Windows 7 X64 Pro and Saints Row 2 so far is over 2.9GB. GTA IV beats it by using over 3.8GB, so much for recommended requirements haha

Edit After playing for a lot longer, I notice RAM usage is now way over 3GB so I am assuming it will use more the longer I play.

 

Well, it really was one of the worst ports I've ever seen. A lot of that can be attributed to CD Projekt who did the porting job, but it's still pretty sad that Volition decided to just give up and stop supporting it completely. Like you say though, the sheer fun of the game far outshines its problems if you can find a way past the issues.

One thing I did want to clarify is that even if SR2 is prefetching correctly with a created .pf in ..\prefetch, it is still not aggressive enough when it runs. What ideally should happen is that Windows should kill other prefetched apps in memory that are sitting there idly in standby just in case you need them, and give this memory to SR2 to use. This doesn't happen, so SR2 struggles with caching a lot to the hard drive.

In your situation though, your 6Gb of RAM is more than enough to prefetch everything you run, and still have 2+ Gb completely free with no other apps competing for it. For someone with, say, 3-4Gb of RAM, it becomes much more important to empty that c:\windows\prefetch\ folder and restart the service so SR2 doesn't have to compete with the other cached apps for mem.

Weird, huh? I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't seen it in my own tests, and gotten 100% positive improvements for our entire Steam SR2 group.

 

played a good 15min or so of the game with the mod installed and i see its potential.

hopefully idolninja and the other dudescome out with that speed patch and some stability fixes to make it more playable.

 

Do you play it at full HD on your laptop? What settings and fps?

 

One quick question: so with this patch zhich game do you think is better, GTA IV or Saints Row 2?

 

Even with them both being modded, neither are better or worse because of how similar and different they are. GTA IV has better physics, more realism, less fast pace, better graphics and a more serious tone but due to this lacks much of the over the top fun that we got in GTA SA.

Saints Row 2 still looks great but the graphics are not as realistic and are more cartoon like, the pace is much faster and driving is arcade style, the game is over the top outrageous, not at all serious and due to this has the fun aspect that GTA IV lacks. Both games cover areas that they both individually lack.

 

CALLING ALL WINDOWS 7 USERS WITH SPEEDUP ISSUES!

A fix is in progress and some info is needed about what OS and CPU users have with the issue. If you currently have the speedup bug, would you please list the following info here in this thread or by PM so I can pass it along:
1. CPU (model and speed) Example: Core 2 Duo 8400 Wolfdale 3.0Ghz
2. OS - Example: Windows 7 Pro x64bit
3. Cheat Engine value to correct the speed - Example: .84

Here are some history and details of what exactly is going from my Penny Arcade post:

Vortex2050 on the Red Faction Guerilla forums was able to identify and fix the same speedup issue in RFG which turned out to be a bug in how the speed of the CPU was identified. The launcher he coded runs as a background process and corrects the speed issue without affecting audio sync of the cutscenes:
http://community.redfaction.com/forums/topic/7712

I emailed the author, at his personal site asking if he would consider porting his launcher app over to SR2 which suffers the same problem, or possibly release his source so I could attempt to port it. I also offered to purchase SR2 for him if he didn't already own it:
http://www.withinwindows.com/

I heard back from the author who readily agreed to port his fix and release the source.

Woggle had an extra copy of SR2 that he received from the Dawn of War preorder, and happily donated it, which the author accepted this morning. The author has also joined the Gentlemen of the Row group as well which should make it easier to work with us and test the fix.

While the speedup bug doesn't affect me personally on Vista, it is something that has greatly troubled many of the Windows 7 users in the group. I'm incredibly happy I could facilitate getting this fixed. Woggle should also be commended for his selfless act of donating his extra copy even though the bug doesn't affect him either. I'll keep everyone updated on status, and we'll soon need volunteers on Windows 7 to test who are having the issue.

EDIT: Just heard back from Rafael:
Rafael: Cool, at least the RFG fix works almost flawlessly in game

 

@ IdolNinja

You won't be able to send or receive pms until after 5 posts

Check this out too, I am sure they will be very glad to hear of your news about the fix

My details regarding the speed issue are:

CPU: Intel®Core i7-820QM CPU

I also experienced this issue on Windows 7 X64 Home Edition with the Q9000 mobile Core2Quad. For some reason, when I upgraded that Q9000 to the QX9300, the game went back to running at the normal speed.

OS: Windows 7 X64 Pro

Cheat Engine value to correct the speed: .76

Edit: A basic tip to mitigate the out of sync cutscenes when you use Cheatengine is to enable subtitles.

 

Thanks for the head's up on PMs. I'm sure I'll have 5 soon enough.

The CPU issue seems to be tied to clock speed. The closer the CPU is to the xbox 360 3.2 Ghz CPU, the lesser the deviation in cheat engine. So, 3Ghz CPUs seem to be the ones that work ok in Windows 7 from all the data we have gathered so far.

I'm also coding up a mod that does some timed race tests to get some additional data from testers.

 

It's looking like 3.2Ghz or 3.3Ghz is the sweet spot for Windows 7 users where SR2 runs without speedup problems.

We still need a lot more data on how different CPUs handle timing with SR2 though. There are many anomalies in the data that we still have to account for to make this fix work perfectly. I'm opening up testing to all SR2 PC players regardless of speedup or OS.

Please consider taking a few minutes to run the test and getting me the results.

I just uploaded a new version of the speed test that has instructions which you can do at your own leisure without my interaction and email me the results. The test, at most, only takes 10-15 minutes to complete:
http://finalack.com/Idol/SR2_Speedup_Stopwatch_Test_v1.1.rar

I also have a theory that the huge timing variances may also been responsible for the multiplayer disconnect issues we were seeing in the lobby for strong arms games. So, getting this corrected may also contribute towards fixing the multi issues as well.

EDIT:
One of our testers was being a goofball with the slow test bezier race and recorded this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S9sjcGXSLo

 

yeah full hd everything on high but no aa and no vsync
didnt moniyor the fps tho

 

@IdolNinja

I sent you a pm with my results. I was just playing Saints Row 2 and I don't know if I am imagining this or not but I seem to get better performance if I disable the in game AA but enable it in the Nvidia Control Panel instead. I have it set to 8QX and I am still getting 45 fps. I wonder if anyone else can test this out and see.

 

Quick update:

We're testing an alpha build of the Windows 7 speed fix right now with a couple guys from the Gentlemen of the Row group, and it's mostly working.

There are still a couple of serious issues to resolve though before the beta releases. Mainly a coop desync issue if the speeds are too far apart, and also audio issues where sound seems to cut out then cut back in at times.

More news to come.

 

I love Saints Row 2. I really didn't have any problems with it. Performance was more than acceptable, imo. What's this Win7 speedup bug? Does it only affect final retail/oem? I never saw anything weird with it on the RC.

 

I love it myself.

Most users on Windows 7 have a problem with the game running too fast. The speed it runs is faster and faster the further away a cpu frequency is from 3.2Ghz (the xbox 360 cpu speed.) There is currently a clunky fix using an app called cheat engine which slows the game back down, but it has an unfortunate side effect of also desync'ing the cutscene audio.

The fix we're working on is a replacement for cheat engine and solves both the speedup and desync issue. It also has quite a few more extra utilities (most of which are of interest to the modding community like toggling onscreen debug messages, and coordinates, etc.) It's shaping up to be a pretty great release.

 

Thought you guys might dig this new NPC Outfit mod. Out soon in the new v1.7 release:
http://finalack.com/Idol/album/main...ics_misc/mod_pics_misc/npc_outfit_collage.jpg

 

@ IdolNinja

Thanks for the update, I can't wait for the release of the fix and the other extra features sound great.

Edit: The other day I noticed that my Red Faction Guerrilla updated itself on Steam and in the list of changes was a speed fix. It is a shame it took them so long. I wonder if they would have even bothered if the unofficial one didn't exist.

As for Saints Row 2, the devs have clearly abandoned that title so I expect no more patches. Luckily it runs almost perfectly on my laptop, usually over 45 fps maxed out with Nvidia enhanced AA.

 

Mainly what I do now days is just fly around in a helicopter.

Does it happen if your CPU is slower or faster (GHz number) than the X360 CPU? I run at 2.8GHz and, like I said, I never noticed the issue on W7 RC.

 

It would run faster both below and above that frequency (as crazy as that is) so 2.8 would run faster, at the same increased rate as a cpu @ 3.6.

I have heard of some people on the win7 RC that were okay, so you may just be lucky. Being that far off the mark, you would know something was definitely wrong. Search on youtube for Saints Row 2 Fast Forward, and you'll see what it looks like. It's especially noticeable in coop because your partner phases/teleports in and out.

 

Weird. Yea, I've never seen any behavior like that. I never played multiplayer either, though.

 

Does running the game in compatibility mode solve the problem?

 

A couple of people in our group said that it did, but then they did the speed test mod I released and found that it was all in their heads. They were still running too fast. Good old placebo effect strikes again. The only two ways that actually work are:
* Use cheat engine to slow down the engine. The further way your cpu is from 3.2Ghz, the lower the value will be to use.
* Overclock your cpu to 3.2 Ghz

Or just wait for our fix to be released which will take care of all that.

 

The Windows 7 Speedfix alpha is working and tested successfully with a couple of users. An email went out to all testers who got me their info with a link to the alpha. If you did send me your results but didn't get an email, just pm me and I'll get you a link.

The public beta will be released shortly pending positive feedback from the testing group on the alpha.

 

I have had the opportunity to test the alpha build and I have to say I am very impressed. All of my cutscenes were in sync, the speed of the game was exactly how I wanted it to be and I played for hours with no issues. The fact that the speed is completely user configurable is very flexible. Any value that worked for you when you used the Cheat Engine will work for you with this fix.

It is great to simply just run your game without thinking, no messing around with loading processes (that change name) with Cheat Engine, no worries about forgetting to start Cheat Engine and getting a game that is too fast or having out of sync cutscenes. This is a set it and forget it fix just like the one in Red Faction.

Edit: Due to this fix I find myself playing SR2 a lot more now. I didn't realise how much having to go through the bother of setting up the Cheat Engine and then using Hot keys to slow down the sync for every custscene effected my motivation to play the game.

 

After an overwhelming amount of positive feedback and rejoicing among the testers, Rafael and I are both proud to announce the public beta release of SR2 Powertools rev 5 which contains the Windows 7 speedfix and other modding and debugging utlitities:
http://saintsrowpowertools.com/

In addition, I've relaunched my website for updates and information on SR2 modding and game dev:
http://idolninja.com

NOTE: We have had a small number of testers with an issue where the game crashes when alt+tab'ing when in fullscreen mode. Most testers were just fine though and able to alt+tab without a problem.

 

Gentlemen of the Row SR2 Super Mod v1.7 is out!
IdolNinja's Saints Row 2 Modding and Game Development

donhonk has also made an awesome trailer for the mod:
YouTube - The Gentlemen of the Row Super Mod

Volition has also published a feature about the mod including an interview with me:
Fan Spotlight - IdolNinja + PC Modding Community | Saints Row Community

Enjoy!

 

Great release! I have been waiting for this one, so many excellent additions, bug fixes and so much fun. I will be starting a completely new game with this one. Add to that the speed fix and the Xbox menu on screen and I really couldn't ask for much more. Thanks to all involved!

Edit: Be sure to check out the Video review of SR2 linked in IdolNinja's very interesting interview thread, it is one of the funniest game reviews I have ever seen period. Had me in stitches, of course it depends on your sense of humor but give it a try.

Edit: The direct link to download the 360 onscreen version of the mod does not work, it must have something wrong in the name or something. I could download fine by navigating to the actual directory.

Edit: The direct link to the sticky cam version does not work but downloads fine when navigating to the actual directory.

 

Thanks for the head's up. The 360 link is working now.

Also, a new v1.7.1 bugfix release is out that correct a problem with the Barrio hitman list target descriptions. (A test list we used to test the 25 character description limit was accidentally left in v1.7.)

You can get both versions at
IdolNinja's Saints Row 2 Modding and Game Development

There is also an experimental sticky cam version up too if anyone uses kbam and wants to try it out. It basically leaves the camera in place while driving and doesn't snap back and recenter. Other than that, it's exactly the same as v1.7.1:
http://finalack.com/Idol/Gentlemen_of_the_Row_Saints_Row_2_Super_Mod_v1.7_stickycam.rar

 

While I was playing Saints Row 2 the other day, I noticed a Drunk pedestrian stumbling around but when I went near them, they launched into a barrage of strikes in the drunken martial arts / drunken boxing style made popular by jackie chan in his films, anyone else ever seen a pedestrian do this in SR2?

 

Just a note to anyone who may be interested. I noticed peformance differences in relation to certain speed settings. If I used 0.70, I was getting fps of 15-22 and quite a bit of stuttering and lagg during driving but when I set this to 0.74, the fps was 30-40 fps with barely any lagg at all. I get the feeling that quite a lot of Saints Row 2's performance issues are sync related.

 

I have a question. I run the install.cmd as administrator, i get the DXfreezer.dll or smth. And tweak the powertools.ini. I start the game, and when i'm about to enter a cutscene the game crashes. I've had this problem and tryed tweaking it back to 1.0 but it still crashes. When i delete DXfreezer.dll . The cutscenes play normally. Can some1 help?

 

Check this post.

 

Ok i did that, and it isn't crashing, but powertools is weard. I tweak at 0.81 and it is slow as if i tweaked at 0.54. And i can't change it, whether i try to change it , it stays the same, i dunno what to do.

 

Powertools is for slowing the game down. If your game is as slow at 0.81 as it is at 0.54 then it sounds like you are not experiencing the Windows 7 fast forward bug?

 

Like the look of the Zombie Uprising at the mall bit there. Shove zombies into any game and I am tempted to give it a look. All the extra content in Gentlemen of the Row seems great too.

 

I am still experiencing the speed up. And what i meant is that it awfully slows down the cutscenes when i tweak at 0.81 , as if it was at 0.54 for ex.

 

Have you done the speed test to figure out what times you should be using?

Also take a look at this post.

I recommend you use the Cheat Engine to figure out what looks like a normal speed and then use that as a base to test with the stop watch speed test, assuming you haven't already done this.

 

Ok i just sent an email to idolninja.. What should i expect as a reply?

 

When you do the speed test, you look at results that are closest to the correct time and then you use that value to set or tweak from. There is no need to email idolninja the results if that is what you were referring to.

 

Don't forget the new zombie gang type where they follow you around with ak-47s.

I'm also still working on trying to get them to jump on and om nom people as your followers.

You can check out some zombie pics from the mod here:
http://finalack.com/Idol/album/main.php?cmd=album&var1=SR2_pics_misc/zombie_mods/

Also, I got an email from Keki11 about his issues, that I'm trying to help him with.

EDIT:
Just got a response from Keki11. He was trying to use Powertools with a cracked exe which resulted in the cutscenes being slowed down too. For everyone's benefit, the Powertools will only work with the legal encrypted Steam exe and not anything else.