Getting the Game to run on a weak rig (again)

[Kosake]

Okay guys, here's the thing. I have an old laptop that I use when I am out of house for a week or more. I know, that thing is ancient (2012) but last time I had to use it, KF2 still ran on it. Had to scale it down to basically Doom 2 graphics, but hey, it worked.
Right now, if I start the game, after the publisher-developer videos I end up with the background music from the main menu and a black screen. Windows says, the game does not respond after this point. Anyone has a bright Idea how to get it to start up again? As I said, a couple patches ago it worked. Ugly-Mode, long loading times but it worked.

Basic Rig Information:
Win7 64bit
GeForce GT 630M
i5 3210M @2.5 GHz
8 GB Ram

 

[simplecat]

Standard procedure would be deleting (temporary) config files from Documents / My Games and let the game recreate them from the scratch to see if config files are actually the reason.
Also make sure that you actually start the game with 630m and not Intel HD.

 

[Kosake]

Okay, small update. After patching the game to the current preview and deleting the config from /My games/ I geet the game to start propperly. However, it also resets to the default settings which are way too high for my rig to handle in actual game. It runs, but very laggy.
Once I disable all the fancy anisotropic raytrace texture depth of bloom filtering and try to restart the game, I am back at the blackscreen menu.

 

[simplecat]

What exact option causes that? I guess you have to try turning them off one at a time.

 

[Kosake]

Pretty much anything. I tried disabling the fancy stuff and it no longer worked, I tried just reducing Texture and Model quality - now that shouldnt be a problem, right? Except it is. Heck, I am not sure if I can actually just reliably start the game several times.
Once I delete the My Games-Files, Game crashes on first start with a bugsplat, then enters menu on second start. I change settings, restart, blackscreen. So even without hte fancy options, just Textures and Models, I get blackscreen on third start.

 

[simplecat]

Can you reliably start the game multiple times with defaults settings (ones you get after deleting config files), without changing texture or model details at all?
And again you sure you start your game with 630m?

If you can, what would be the results if you replace texture settings manually?

In your fresh default KFSystemSettings.ini, under [SystemSettings] block find strings that start with TEXTUREGROUP_ and replace all of them with

Spoiler!

TEXTUREGROUP_World=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=2,MinMagFilter=Linear,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_WorldNormalMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=2,MinMagFilter=Linear,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_WorldSpecular=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=2,MinMagFilter=Linear,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Character=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=3,MinMagFilter=Linear,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_CharacterNormalMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=3,MinMagFilter=Linear,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_CharacterSpecular=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=3,MinMagFilter=Linear,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Weapon=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Linear,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_WeaponNormalMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Linear,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_WeaponSpecular=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Linear,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Vehicle=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_VehicleNormalMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_VehicleSpecular=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Cinematic=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Effects=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Linear,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_EffectsNotFiltered=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Linear,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Skybox=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_UI=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Linear,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Lightmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Shadowmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=1,MinMagFilter=Linear,MipFilter=Point,NumStreamedMips=3,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_RenderTarget=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_MobileFlattened=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_ProcBuilding_Face=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=1024,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_ProcBuilding_LightMap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=256,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Terrain_Heightmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_Terrain_Weightmap=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Aniso,MipFilter=Point,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)
TEXTUREGROUP_ImageBasedReflection=(MinLODSize=256,MaxLODSize=4096,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=aniso,MipFilter=linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_Blur5)
TEXTUREGROUP_Bokeh=(MinLODSize=1,MaxLODSize=256,LODBias=0,MinMagFilter=Linear,MipFilter=Linear,MipGenSettings=TMGS_SimpleAverage)

These is the lowest quality texture preset, although it can be tweaked even further i belive, given that it would work in a first place.

 

[Kosake]

I can not start the game anymore at all. Tried deleting the /my games/ stuff, deleted the shader cache-files and did the local files validation, from now on all I get is blackscreen.

I set the game to use the GeForce chip in the NVidia Settings and got the latest (2016, lols) drivers for it. I'll try your tweak next, see how that works.

*EDIT*
Nothing works, game wont start. I guess it's moot to ask for a sort of safe mode in 2020 and I understand that the devs want to get the game lookin good and not optimize for performance on electrical coffee-grinders. Still, I wish I'd get my fix of KF2. KF1 just doesn't do it for me.