No cloud casted shadows & other questions

[Squid]

1. I am not getting cloud shadows on the ground on FC. Enabled advanced haze and all planar shadows.

 

2. is there a fly-by camera (F3 only?) or Fly-by camera option to change the camera position automaticaly after each fly-by pass to the next fly-by position in the planes route? Also editing the distance of the fly-by camera or the focal length / zoom?

 

2. what are your fastest nvidia drivers recomendations for 7800GTX ? (I am using for many months now the 84.56)

 

3. which is the proper procedure of patching to make XP optimized for AMD dual core CPUs ? (which drivers and MS patches should be installed and in what order?)

 

.

[Squid]

- ok i dont know what happened with the cloud shadow, now its fixed ... (?)

 

- What are the 1.12a config default values for those ?

 

ShadowDensity

FogParam1

FogParam2

ObjectFogMultiplier

 

Is there a sample default 1.12a config file around?

 

- what is the best tweak / setting (if there is) to elliminate the explosion caused freezes (example, as soon as my rounds hit something the game literally freezes to draw the effects, even if its just plain empty ground hits)

[VMFA-Blaze]

I may help if you use medium settings for water.. But to optimise the settings for your specific configuration, it best to start with the lowest settings and then work upward until you begin to see issues .. then adjust accordingly.. It seems like a lot of work but that will give you the best overall settings..

 

~S~

 

 

Blaze

[Squid]

• i have water on medium almost always.
  
• effects medium
  
• lights usually none
  
• blur on
  
• scene medium
  
• no traffic
  
• 100% preload
  
• visibility range medium (and this is killing me, i have another thread about it here)
  
• 1024*768@32
  
• shadows all planar
  
• haze sometimes advanced usually basic
  

[Squid]

- I have though FC 1.12a already and i want to install separately elsewhere 1.02 now again, can i do that safely or will that mess with eachothers registry entries ?

 

- is there maybe a chance that the explosion and hit effects are read from the hard drive thus freezing the flight like that? (and when its done rendering the effects you are a hole on the ground) If thats the case is there a way to preload all that to ram instead?

[VMFA-Blaze]

Please list all of you're PC componants.. Something doesn't sound right...

 

~S~

 

Blaze

[Squid]

• Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (939) @ 2.5
  
• 7800 GTX PCIE 256 @ 470 / 1200
  
• 2GB DDR 400 @ 450
  
• ASRock 939SLI32-eSATA2 (ULi 1697/1695)
  
• 2 x 80GB maxtor dmax 9 PATA133
  
• Hiper 480 Type-R PSU
  
• PCI Audigy 2 Value
  
• Forceware 84.56
  
• Feb 07 DX 9.0c
  
• Win XP SP2
   
  

[VMFA-Blaze]

Don't worry Squid help is on the way...

 

~S~

 

Blaze

[VMFA-Blaze]

Ok I've contacted one of the more knowedegable guys here to look into your problem...

 

But I just notice one thing ...

 

Your running a 7800 GTX which is somewhat respectable, but using Force ware 84.56.. Why not try out some newer drivers like 97.92.. this might help..

 

But Lock On is more CPU dependent then GPU, so I don't expect to much here..

 

I think the issue ly's some where in the way that your CPU is set up, so hopefully we'll get you sorted out soon enough.. :thumbup:

 

Blaze

[Squid]

Thanks :)

 

i have tried newer drivers at some point but aside from not liking their new control panel after a research i've done came to the conclusion that these are of the fastest more stable and light ones ... i will give a try new ones though again as soon as possible. Although i dont think thats a forceware issue ...

 

i believe my 7800 GTX should be quite capable handling very decently lockon since i played with almost the same settings lomac for the first time with a 9600XT on an Athlon XP 2700+ .... (and i think the difference between the two cards is lets say chaotic ...)

 

The thing is though that since then what i gained with my current rig is a LOT more fps on parts of the game that the old rig was already doing ok (lets say went from 35/40->75/100 fps) But still has almost the same hard time at the parts where the old rig was having one too, with actually minimal fps increase. For example i still dont dare use high range visibility especially approaching urban areas.

 

indeed maybe its CPU related.

 

Now an insightful guide maybe as to how to set up properly a dual core AMD could be beneficial maybe

[VMFA-Blaze]

I PM'd Kuky about your issues about 2 hrs ago.. He said that he was going to check out your specs some time soon, so you should be in contact with him some time today.. I guess its early in the morning over there..

 

So don't worry to much Kuky's one of the best...

 

~S~

 

Blaze

[Kuky]

there there Blaze, don't over do it now ;)

 

Squid, first I have to tell you, don't feel bad if you can't use high scenery and default high visibility range... no one can do this so far (unless maybe someone's got something like Core 2 Duo CPU's overclocked to 5GHz :D) These settings are just too much even for best CPU on sale today.

 

From my personal experience I find that best playable settings (if you have a decent system) is to use default high settings in game, you can even use high scenery... but leave water, effects and visibility range on medium... then go into graphics.cfg file and cutom tweak the visibility ranges and density. This is what most of us do anyway... including myself.

 

If you have a clean install of v1.12a start off by going to lockonfiles website and download a few mods. I recomend you install "No pop up trees" and "FPS mod". This will help with yuor frame rate.

 

Now those freezes you're getting are, I think, shaders issue. On original lock on forums there was one guy who tried to rewrite them and he's some a few. I've tried them myself and to be honest I did not notice any difference.

 

Another mod I really recoment, or you can even do it yourself, is to reduce the file size of the overcast images (in overcast folder). I think they are 512x512 by default, and I've reduced mine to 256x256. All you need to do is open the files with some imagins software are just resize them. You do gain bit of framerate and the visual difference is really not noticeable. You can go even lower to 128x128 but at this resolution I do notice degradation on image quality but again it's not really that bad. If you want to try this make a backup then just test and see what you preffer and what your system can handle. I think on 256MB cards overcast with AF enabled gives quite a big framerate hit.

 

Also, I have found that PCI latency setting (which you might adjust in BIOS) also has quite a large impact on stutters and pauses in game. Experiment with these also. I personally use 190 value (this is on Creative X-Fi Gamer version) and I also noticed the Creative Audigy I had previously actually gave me but of stutters also.

 

There is really tons and tons of stuff when it comes to tweaking your system and finding out what settings work best,a dn they really vary from system to system, even those using similar hardware. 1 different component can still require slightly different settings.

 

I find every time I do some hardware change my previous settings no longer apply and I have to experiment again to see what works and what not.

 

I use ATI x1950xtx card and I haven't used nVidia for a few years now so I'm no longer knowledgable about them any more and I'm not up to date with their drivers either so I can't help you much in this department.

 

Please do some testing, check lockonfiles and get some FPS mods. Mmost definitely get Modman also and install these mods through Modman. This way you'll be able to revert back to previous easily, but be aware it can happen that some mods share some files which can make them interfere with eachother.

 

How about do some testing and record your framerate with Fraps... then come back and tell us what actual framerate yuo get in certain scenarios. Numbers actually tell more then personal opinions I'm afraid :)

[Kuky]

When I get home after work I'll copy/paste my settings for visibility rage from graphics.cfg so you can see what I use with 3GHz Core 2 Duo and x1950xtx and I still get as low as 10FPS over cities :)

[Kuky]

oh, and I forgot to say... unless you've already done this there is an AMD patch for Windows XP for multi core CPU's... I recomend you get that but you before you do you can just do a quick test to see if yuo will get any benefit from running the game on 1 core only (most of do actually benefit from it... not framerate wise, but game stability and less or no stutters).

 

Start lockon... then before you go start a mission ALT/TAB and in Windows Task manager locate lockon.exe and set processor affinity to one core only (I suggest 2nd core). See if this helps in any way.

 

if it does, there are some nice utilities which you can use to do this for you every time you start a game.

[Squid]

oh, and I forgot to say... unless you've already done this there is an AMD patch for Windows XP for multi core CPU's... I recomend you get that but you before you do you can just do a quick test to see if yuo will get any benefit from running the game on 1 core only (most of do actually benefit from it... not framerate wise, but game stability and less or no stutters).

 

Start lockon... then before you go start a mission ALT/TAB and in Windows Task manager locate lockon.exe and set processor affinity to one core only (I suggest 2nd core). See if this helps in any way.

 

if it does, there are some nice utilities which you can use to do this for you every time you start a game.

 

 

Thanks Kuky for the extensive insight here :) grande mucho appreciated :)

 

Now regarding the affinity , it was i think this guy can't recall his callsign now, who works on that technology , cant remember what now GOSH my memory cells are realy dying on me LOL that posted somewhere around in here that he found out the second core was busy running the graphics card drivers while the other core was fully occupied with lockon, and that by not editing anything regarding the affinity - if i got it right, which sounds at least, like better usage of dual core even though lockon is not optimized for multicore processing

 

And another question for you please if i am not overdoing it :) (theres still more to come from me later here :blush:)

 

What is it advised more of the two:

 

- running LOCKON 1152x864 or even 1280x1024 on my 19" CRT with lowered AA

 

- or stick to my usual attitude of running always @ 1024x768 and maxing out IQ settings as much as possible?

 

 

And :

 

- Theres no HDR In FC 1.12a right? (if it is, is there a way to toggle it off?)

- Whats the highest pixel shader model # FC is compatible with? (is there a way to config which one to use?)

 

 

.

[Kuky]

I use 4xAA and 4xAF running 1680x1050 resolution on 22" LCD. I think even 2xAA is pretty alright (visually) and I believe LockOn is optimised for 1024x768. If you were running an LCD I'd recomend using native resolution of the monitor but since you'r e on CRT I think 1024x768 with 4xAA and 4xAF would be alright, but again this is your personal preference. LockOn still depends on CPU primarily so having lower visibility range would be a must. What ever graphics setting you can run higher you do so.

 

If I am guessing right this HDR would be newest ligting effects used in games like ArmA? If so, LockON doesn't use this.

 

And I think pixel shaders used in LockOn are v1.1 (someone please correct me if I am wrong on this)

[VMFA-Blaze]

Kuk:

 

I just wanted to say thanks for helping Squid out.... You The Man :thumbup:

 

~S~

 

 

Blaze