Improving FPS

[franx]

Fellas, I wonder if anyone can suggest any additional ways to improve FPS. My setup is an AMD Athlon 64 3800+, 1 gig RAM, nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX, Windows XP Home SP 3. I do the usual precautionary things: page-defrag and defrag the drive every startup; end unneeded processes; turn off anti-virus.

 

I run at 32 bit, 1280x1024, full screen. I have all graphics settings on low. I've also edited my options lua file to put "water" and "haze" at 0. I'm also experimenting with dropping "effects" from 3, to 1 or 2. In my nVidia control panel, I've forced off v-sync, anti-aliasing and anistropic, and turned on bilinear and "high performance" for quality.

 

After I edited my lua file, I got a 6 to 8 FPS improvement. Over open ground, I now average in the low 40s. Over cities, it drops into the low 20s. But I continue to get irritating gameplay hesitations or hiccuping, including a very brief freeze just before a crash.

 

I know that part of my problem is CPU speed. Can't do much about that. I'll add another gig of RAM sometime next month. But in the meantime, would running at 1024x768 and 16 bit make any real difference? (I tried briefly -- it doesn't seem to.)

 

Has anyone else tried reducing the quality number on "effects" in his options lua file? Any advice from your experiences would be helpful.

[V1Rotate]

I think ram is going to help you a lot. Its so cheap right now as well.

[franx]

Thanks V1Rotate. That's my next priority purchase. Any idea what the "effects" do or mean in the lua file?

[Groove]

First you should go for 2 GB of RAM, next step would be a faster CPU.

[Legolasindar]

Set Haze to 0 you view night very bad, and lights no run well. Keep Haze in normal set.

[franx]

Thanks Groove, and I'll reset Haze to 1 Legolaslindar and see what it does to FPS.

[GregP]

Even on my system I'm seeing hiccups, so I'm not sure that CPU speed or RAM amount really has anything to do with it. I'm still trying to figure out what's causing it.

[franx]

GregP, I'm away from my gaming computer until tonight, but try fiddling in your nVidia control panel with the number of pre-rendered frames. I haven't tried this yet, but it will probably be set at 3 by default. Check out your performance when you set it at 2, and compare that when you set it at 4 or 5.

 

I read somewhere that higher end systems may run better at 2, whereas low end users (like me) might benefit from tweaking the number upward.

[GregP]

GregP, I'm away from my gaming computer until tonight, but try fiddling in your nVidia control panel with the number of pre-rendered frames. I haven't tried this yet, but it will probably be set at 3 by default. Check out your performance when you set it at 2, and compare that when you set it at 4 or 5.

 

I read somewhere that higher end systems may run better at 2, whereas low end users (like me) might benefit from tweaking the number upward.

 

OK, so I gave this a try tonight. Set up a simple flight from inland starting from a hover to over a coastal town; I benchmarked the flight using FRAPS. My graphics settings are 1920x1080, water high, vis distance high, 16xAF, 4xAA. The 'maximum pre-rendered frames' was at the default 3 before I changed it to 1 and then 5.

 

You can see that once the '5 frames' case smooths out (around 85 on the x-axis), with '1 frame' I was getting spikes but to higher framerates. Although at the end, the min, max, and average framerates were almost exactly the same between the 1 frame and 5 frame case. I guess the spikes to higher rates makes sense based on the description of what this option does in the Nvidia control panel:

 

"Increasing this value can result in smoother gameplay at lower framerates."

 

So it seems that for my system, at least, setting it lower will help smooth things out.

 

[Lib]

hi,

 

sorry for my bad english, i'm french.

 

I'm not sur, but it seems that i have the same problem with Black shark.

But i have a "bigest" computer : core 2 duo E6850, 4Gb ram, 8800GTX and Windows Xp.

 

I don't realy have problems with FPS witch are approx 40/50, but i've got a lot of "micro-freezes" witch are very irritating.

I play on a 22" screen, 1680x1050, but when i play in 1280x1024, i still have the problem. My Nvidia settings are the lowest as possible, and my BS settings are all in medium.... i realy don't understand why i can have "big" FPS and such a lot of freezes ! :cry:

I tried your tests, but it didn't change anything.

I was under Vista and having the same problem, that's why i came back to XP.....

If someboby has an idea please tell it, i don't know what to do now. :(

[GregP]

Have you tried toggling your core affinity between 1 and 2 cores?

[Peter22]

Hi guys I will like to know what differences makes the use of aspect 3:2 or 16:10?

Also resolution of cockpit display from 256 to 1024??? whats the difference?

 

shadows : active planar or full????

I am running an nvidia 8800 gts pretty decent system However this numbers dont say alot to me. If anyone wil like to clear this out for me I will really appreciated that

Thank you and sorry for the ignoance :(

[GregP]

Peter22, have you downloaded the GUI manual? These settings are described on pages 16 and 17. http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/index.php?end_pos=2199&scr=products&lang=en

 

Basically 1024 cockpit display and full shadows will give you lower framerates but more detail.

[Lib]

Have you tried toggling your core affinity between 1 and 2 cores?

 

yes i have, and the problem is the same in both cases.

[GregP]

yes i have, and the problem is the same in both cases.

 

How about the 'maximum pre-rendered frames' option I talked about above? That seemed to smooth it out for me.

[franx]

OK, some good news. I spent some time last night tweaking all the variables on my computer. As I said at the beginning of this thread, I'm running an AMD Athlon 64 3800 +, 1 gig RAM, nVidia 8800 GTX, Windows Home XP, SP3; 1280x1024, 32 bit.

 

I know I need more RAM, but even with everything set at low, I was getting barely 18 FPS over towns and the low 30s over open terrain, with lots of hiccups and brief freezes.

 

Now I'm getting in the low 30s over towns and as high as the low 50s over open terrain; I still get the occasional glitch or microfreeze, but much less frequently. Here's what I've done:

 

I turn off sound acceleration. I set all in-game graphics options to low. I edit my options lua file to set water and haze at "0." I terminate all unnecessary processes and turn off anti-virus. Then, in my nVidia control panel, I set the following values:

 

Anistropic filtering = OFF

AA - Gamma correction = OFF

AA - Mode = OFF

AA - Setting = NONE

AA - Transparency = OFF

Conformant texture clamp = USE HARDWARE

Extension limit = OFF

Force mipmaps = NONE

Maximum pre-rendered frames = 1

Multi-display/ mixed GPU acceleration = SINGLE DISPLAY PERFORMANCE

Texture filtering - anistropic sample optimization = ON

Texture filtering - negative LOD bias = ALLOW

Texture filtering - Quality = HIGH PERFORMANCE

Texture filtering - trilinear optimization = ON

Triple buffering = ON

Texture filtering - anistropic mip filter optimization = ON

Vertical sync = USE THE 3D APPLICATION SETIING

 

I'm still not sure whether a high or low pre-rendered frames setting is better for my (low end) CPU, but "1" seems to do better than "5" or "7" in minimizing the hiccups.

 

Anyway, these settings really do seem to improve the game experience on my machine. Just FYI for fellow sufferers.