cityofheroes.exe runs at Below Normal in Task Manager. Is there a way to bump it up to at least Normal?

[TorontoSunshine]

This is a problem I had when I was on Live (Virtue Server) but back then I had a gaming desktop so it really didn't matter: I had the horsepower for it back then. I'm now on a middle of the road laptop that runs Homecoming CoX (HCoX) fine....when I run nothing else. When something starts running, HCoX lags behind like a sullen child on his first day back to school after the summer vacation's over. Even when my Chrome browser loads a web page, the game slows down.

 

The reason this happens is not because of specs, but because of task priority: HCoX runs at Below Normal. I've tried to change the priority of cityofheroes.exe in Task Manager to at least Normal but it won't stick, even under an Administrator account.

 

Any suggestions? 

Edited April 28, 2021 by TorontoSunshine
Sh???y grammar.

[Arc-Mage]

42 minutes ago, TorontoSunshine said:

This is a problem I had when I was on Live (Virtue Server) but back then I had a gaming desktop so it really didn't matter: I had the horsepower for it back then. I'm now on a middle of the road laptop that runs Homecoming CoX (HCoX) fine....when I run nothing else. When something starts running, HCoX lags behind like a sullen child on his first day back to school after the summer vacation's over. Even when my Chrome browser loads a web page, the game slows down.

 

The reason this happens is not because of specs, but because of task priority: HCoX runs at Below Normal. I've tried to change the priority of cityofheroes.exe in Task Manager to at least Normal but it won't stick, even under an Administrator account.

 

Any suggestions? 

Computer Make, Model and Specs will probably be needed to answer this question.

[Faultline]

3 hours ago, TorontoSunshine said:

The reason this happens is not because of specs, but because of task priority: HCoX runs at Below Normal.

 

This is most likely not true, unless you have a program in your computer messing with proces priority or taking focus away from COH yet somehow letting you control it -- gaming overlay maybe?

 

COH sets itself to Below Normal when it's not the foreground application, so whenever you check Task Manager, it will of course be with COH in the background and appear as Below Normal. If you go to the Details tab and add a Priority column there, then swap to COH, you will see it switch to Normal whenever it has focus, and Below Normal when it doesn't.

 

You can use the slash command /priorityboost 1 to make COH run at Above Normal while it has focus, but again, as soon as it is put in the foreground it will drop back to Below Normal.

[UberGuy]

Are you monitoring the game's priority when another window has focus, such as the task manager itself? When the game window does not have focus, it's priority drops. 

 

Edit: Sniped!

Edited April 29, 2021 by UberGuy

[TorontoSunshine]

13 hours ago, Faultline said:

You can use the slash command /priorityboost 1 to make COH run at Above Normal while it has focus, but again, as soon as it is put in the foreground it will drop back to Below Normal.

 

Is this a parameter I pass to cityofheroes.exe?

To answer your question about overlays, no I don't use one. I don't even use process hack as someone suggested yesterday I should use.

Edited April 29, 2021 by TorontoSunshine
Reference to process hack.

[TorontoSunshine]

15 hours ago, Arc-Mage said:

Computer Make, Model and Specs will probably be needed to answer this question.

 

It's an Acer Aspire 7, Nvidia GTX 1050Ti with 16GB RAM

Edited April 29, 2021 by TorontoSunshine
I had a memory lapse and forgot to add the memory specs.

[TorontoSunshine]

13 hours ago, UberGuy said:

Are you monitoring the game's priority when another window has focus, such as the task manager itself? When the game window does not have focus, it's priority drops. 

 

Edit: Sniped!

That is correct. I was trying to find a way to speed it up a bit as it lags sometimes and while going in Task Manager I discovered that.

[Faultline]

47 minutes ago, TorontoSunshine said:

Is this a parameter I pass to cityofheroes.exe?

 

You type it in the chat window. If you want to add it to the client parameters, use a dash: -priorityboost 1

 

Once again though: in the Task Manager (with the avanced view on, with extra tabs) go to the Details tab, then edit the columns to add a Priority column there. You wil most likely see that the game runs on Normal priority (or Above Normal, with priority boost) as long as it's the foreground window.

[TorontoSunshine]

18 minutes ago, Faultline said:

 

You type it in the chat window. If you want to add it to the client parameters, use a dash: -priorityboost 1

 

All right, I added a column in the Task manager to show priority and then added -priorityboost 1 to the launcher. I've seen no change to the priority status (Below Normal) in Task Manager and when I type /priorityboost with no number in the chat window, it shows a value of 1. 

 

Apparently I can enter any number with no error message because entering /priorityboost 999 in chat returns a value of 999 when /priorityboost is entered without a number..

 

I have a suspicion that Windows 10 might be intervening. 

Edited April 29, 2021 by TorontoSunshine
clarification to 999 reference

[Faultline]

If you are looking at the task manager while the game is on the foreground (that is, run the game as a window, have Task Manager next to it and then click on the game) it really should show you the priority changing to Above Normal. It will always show Below Normal when it's not the foreground task.

 

If you are 100% certain that Task Manager shows Below Normal while the game is your foreground window, the next step is to use something like Autohotkey to determine what is the foreground task. But I can't think of anything that would do that outside of gaming overlays or something else that wants to draw on top of the active window.

[TorontoSunshine]

2 minutes ago, Faultline said:

If you are looking at the task manager while the game is on the foreground (that is, run the game as a window, have Task Manager next to it and then click on the game) it really should show you the priority changing to Above Normal. It will always show Below Normal when it's not the foreground task.

 

If you are 100% certain that Task Manager shows Below Normal while the game is your foreground window, the next step is to use something like Autohotkey to determine what is the foreground task. But I can't think of anything that would do that outside of gaming overlays or something else that wants to draw on top of the active window.

 

All right, let me work on that. I'm looking at other options like re-installing HCoX on SSD storage: I just ordered a 512GB flash drive and waiting for it to arrive.

 

Thanks for your help.

[UberGuy]

Mostly running it from SSD will ensure that it loads faster, which can help a bit with things like zoning. It really shouldn't improve the overall in-game experience. (It's not impossible, but the things I can think of that an SSD would help with would involve your computer being under severe memory stress and having to swap in-memory things in and out to disk constantly.)

[Arc-Mage]

8 hours ago, UberGuy said:

Mostly running it from SSD will ensure that it loads faster, which can help a bit with things like zoning. It really shouldn't improve the overall in-game experience. (It's not impossible, but the things I can think of that an SSD would help with would involve your computer being under severe memory stress and having to swap in-memory things in and out to disk constantly.)

This. If your computer came pre-loaded with bloatware from the manufacture you may have to do some digging and find out what "features" you can uninstall. You may have pointless programs running in the background that only benefit the manufacture and are preventing CoH from running as you wish.  

[WanderingAries]

On 4/29/2021 at 12:41 PM, TorontoSunshine said:

I've seen no change to the priority status (Below Normal) in Task Manager and when I type /priorityboost with no number in the chat window, it shows a value of 1. 

 

You can set the Task Manager to "stay on top" btw. Doing this, you Should be able to test the above, but I wouldn't recommend playing that way unless it's on another monitor or you have enough screen space (higher resolution than 1080p).

[SSR]

Has anyone else had a problem of running 3 windows and they load one at a time instead of instantly together?  When I first built my PC they used to all load together and now it loads one at a time slowly and I'm pretty sure my rig has more than enough power to run like 10+ instances....

[WanderingAries]

On 4/13/2025 at 8:04 PM, SSR said:

Has anyone else had a problem of running 3 windows and they load one at a time instead of instantly together?  When I first built my PC they used to all load together and now it loads one at a time slowly and I'm pretty sure my rig has more than enough power to run like 10+ instances....

 

IDK the recent issue you're seeing, but I can confirm that I once ran like 7 instances at once for a benchmark / stress test and was limited really just to RAM and FPS. I think that's before I had 32 Gb on this 3770k. 😛

[SSR]

17 hours ago, WanderingAries said:

 

IDK the recent issue you're seeing, but I can confirm that I once ran like 7 instances at once for a benchmark / stress test and was limited really just to RAM and FPS. I think that's before I had 32 Gb on this 3770k. 😛

Did you try loading the toons in to different zones at the same time?

 I was running 3 and they would zone one at a time and before I was able to load all 3 at the same time.

Edited April 15 by SSR

[WanderingAries]

9 hours ago, SSR said:

Did you try loading the toons in to different zones at the same time?

 I was running 3 and they would zone one at a time and before I was able to load all 3 at the same time.

 

IDK, probably not as I was just stress testing the game / laptop at the time and this was like 15+ years ago. 😛