ABRIS and FPS loss

[159th_Viper]

In responding to a previous request, I deemed it prudent to post a new thread due to the fact that, in attempting to answer said question, a disappointing problem has manifested in my installation and I'm hopin' someone can shed some light on the issue:

 

;730978']Yeah, I would definitely want to know your specs and your minimum FPS on the Panzer midget server (lol?)

Pick Viper and check FPS inside the cockpit at the start, then turn 180, where there's lots of units, FPS?

 

Please post the results.

 

Thanks!

 

Asus Rampage Extreme

E8600 @ 3.8GHz

Kingston RAM DDR3 4GB

Coolermaster 1000W

Velociraptor 300GB

Asus ATI 4870x2

 

In Cockpit and Spooling: 40Min - 60Max

 

Spawn as Weasel #1: Turning Head to face Units drops FPS to about 40.

 

At Take-Off and Ingress average around 40-60.....VSync seems forced whether I disable in CCC or not.

 

However

 

Herewith lies the problem, and the first instance that I encounter said behaviour - manifested after patch installation:

 

 

ABRIS

 

 

Once ABRIS booted and switched to 'Map', it costs an instant 15FPS.....Minimum FPS drops immediately to 25. Switch off the ABRIS and the FPS jump back to 40.

 

Attempted to duplicate in the Quick-Start mission. Spawn in-flight and FPS at 60. Switch ABRIS to 'Map' and FPS drop to 45. Switch ABRIS back off and jumps back to 60.

 

Options for 'Res of Cockpit Displays' set to 1024. Results as above if set to 512 - No Difference.

 

Also note that the actual ABRIS map takes a lot longer to load than pre-patch. Whereas before it was almost immediate, now it is almost as if the screen loads in 'stages', evident from the following media file: (Edit: Have captured a fifteen-second clip with FRAPS, but it is 144MB....:huh:).

 

Any ideas what might be causing this abhorrent behaviour? And any ideas as to how I can reduce the size of the .AVI file?

 

Ta

[Distiler]

Also note that the actual ABRIS map takes a lot longer to load than pre-patch. Whereas before it was almost immediate, now it is almost as if the screen loads in 'stages', evident from the following media file: (Edit: Have captured a fifteen-second clip with FRAPS, but it is 144MB....:huh:).

 

I noticed that to. I first thought ED might have simulated the 486DX running the abris lol

[dawestsides]

same observation here...and I'm sure it's not hardware related (look at my specs below)

[Panzertard]

Ah, interesting observation. That reminds me of a test I need to perform - regardin ABRIS NAV mode and crashes.

Large MP mission, units not hidden, Enable ABRIS/NAV = MP Client Crash

 

I wonder if they have tried to fix a problem in the ABRIS NAV (rendering of threats / units / fonts) - but that we instead may see some FPS loss.

[159th_Viper]

 

I wonder if they have tried to fix a problem in the ABRIS NAV (rendering of threats / units / fonts) - but that we instead may see some FPS loss.

 

A 3-5 FPS loss I would understand, but 15 is really beginning to Hurt............Has a direct influence on the trajectory of the Midget-Toss and as a consequence the probability of a successful sortie or an early demise. Personally I favour the former!

 

Would like to get to the bottom of this :joystick:

[=SCoRPioN=]

Yeah, I noticed the slow map loading on ABRIS since the patch.

It seems like they put it on a lower priority than the rest of the scene, to free up the resources for other real time calculations, that's probably why we see a better overall FPS since the patch.

 

The vertical sync is off by default, but it might seem like it is on if your FPS is high enough, or close to your refresh rate.

 

When I force sync on, it gives me framerates which are a fraction of the sync rate which is 60Hz on my 22" LCD @ 1680x1050x32.

So, I either get 60, 45, 30, or 15 fps. And not in between.

 

I recommend setting 16X AF outside the game, so all the textures are more crisp. On my system it doesnt affect the FPS at all, but improves the graphics.

 

I run the screens at 1024 Every Frame. If not set to that, the Shkval is lagging behind the overall FPS, which is not acceptable in a fast combat environment.

 

I'm on XP Pro SP2 32-bit, and the affinity sets to all 4 cores now, but after testing, it doesnt affect the FPS, the CPU usage randomly jumps from one core to the next. But when set to just CPU0, it uses 100% of it most of the time.

 

So, I'm thinking of trying it out on Win7RC1 soon.

There are some benchmarks posted on this forum comparing DCS on XP to Vista to 7. And from the results, it clearly shows a huge 2-3x increase in Min FPS, but max FPS is the same. Still, it's definitely a big difference.

 

The guy had his Min FPS on one scene @ just 7-10 on XP, and 25-30 on Win7.

Edited August 12, 2009 by [SCoRPioN]

[EinsteinEP]

And any ideas as to how I can reduce the size of the .AVI file?

Fraps videos are uncompressed. Import the clip into Windows Movie Maker (or any movie maker utility) and make it into a movie, using a compression option.

[McClane]

I also have a frame loss with the abris, and I loose even 10 frames more if someone flips his anti-collision beacon on. On Panzertards server I get only 20 fps on ingress. Sometimes less.

I disabled water effects, lightnigs effect and have medium visibility. Res is 1680*1050 on an AMD Phenom 2 X4 955 @3,2GHz and a ATI Radeon 4890.

Its not flyable under 20fps and there wasn't really action yet. And its not a very slow PC I think.

The games don't even use all of the CPU power. I think it could be smoother as it is now.

[=SCoRPioN=]

I also have a frame loss with the abris, and I loose even 10 frames more if someone flips his anti-collision beacon on. On Panzertards server I get only 20 fps on ingress. Sometimes less.

I disabled water effects, lightnigs effect and have medium visibility. Res is 1680*1050 on an AMD Phenom 2 X4 955 @3,2GHz and a ATI Radeon 4890.

Its not flyable under 20fps and there wasn't really action yet. And its not a very slow PC I think.

The games don't even use all of the CPU power. I think it could be smoother as it is now.

 

I have a similar system with GTX 285 instead of ATI.

And on Panzer I get just over 30 fps at the start, but it gets slower when I turn towards all the mountains with units behind them, as low as 17fps I saw earlier.

 

The problem is NOT the hardware, but the OS. Win XP just doesnt use multicore CPUs properly. Guess it's time to switch to Win7... coz Vista is a joke, even though it does run the game faster than XP.

 

The WATER has 4 settings in the ..\Ka-50\BlackShark\data\scripts\options.lua

From 0 to 3.

In-game settings there's only two: Normal and High. The latter halves the FPS, coz it literally has to render the whole scene twice mirrored in the water, even when it's not there, because it's always there at the Sea Level under the ground and it wastes CPU and GPU cycles to render it anyway.

 

Solution: Set ["water"] = 0

This just forces a basic blue texture, but in turn, it fixes the Sea Level Water bug, for elevated lakes/rivers, that have it wrongly rendered.

It also improves the FPS.

 

I dont understand why there's no Low setting for water like in LockOn. I can only image how much of a pain it can be to run the sim on a slower gfx card / computer with Normal water.

 

But then again, maybe these performance issues are not as evident on Windows 7...

Edited August 12, 2009 by [SCoRPioN]

[joey45]

get it here too.. its a right pain.

[Panzertard]

(I use most medium settings - a lazy setup really)

Oh, and vsync enabled (I dont have the nasty "cloud shimmering problem" as some people describe).

 

As for the ABRIS effect:

- Looking straight ahead at the farp - ~40 fps

- Enabling ABRIS NAV, ~38-39 fps (no big loss)

 

Altough I do notice that the ABRIS draws the map slowly the first time it's booted.

After a couple of crashes, it draws the inital map "at expected speeds".

 

So I'm not sure if this is the same effect you had, Viper?

 

EDIT:

- Intel Core i7-940 (4 native cores, 8 w/HT)

- Asus P6T Deluxe X58 2XPCI-E

- 6Gb Kit / 3 x 2Gb OCZ

- XFX GeForce GTX 295 576M 1792MB

- TrackIr 4 Pro, Saitek x52 Pro, Saitek Pro Rudder Pedals, SideWinder x6 Keyboard, Generic Logitech Mouse

- Windows 7 x64 Enterprise, ENG (RTM).

- DirectX 11 (+DirectX 9 installed, lack of DX9 redist may cause issues in W7)

Edited August 13, 2009 by Panzertard

[=SCoRPioN=]

When quoting FPS, please mention your hardware, settings, resolution and mainly OS.

Thanks.

[159th_Viper]

After a couple of crashes, it draws the inital map "at expected speeds".

 

So I'm not sure if this is the same effect you had, Viper?

 

Have not bothered to check after a coupla crashes yet - will do that as soon as time permits.

 

Worrisome that the FPS hit is so large.....I am fortunate in that it is still playable - just - on my system. Others will have the FPS dropped into the 'Unplayable' if saddled with a 10-15 FPS hit upon toggling the Map. You're lucky that you're not getting hit as much :)

 

Very Irksome atm............

[104th_Crunch]

Viper, I believe you if you create a free acoount at Youtube then uplaod your video, Youtube will compress and format it for you.

Edited August 19, 2009 by Crunch

[McClane]

I am on Windows 7 x64 already.

Water = 0, Lights = 0, Scenes = medium, Textures = high, no mirrors, Res Cockpit 512, Heatblur = 0.

I would like to know what kind of system stays above 30fps in that mission all the time with moderate settings. At the moment it is no fun at all.

[159th_Viper]

I am on Windows 7 x64 already.

Water = 0, Lights = 0, Scenes = medium, Textures = high, no mirrors, Res Cockpit 512, Heatblur = 0.

I would like to know what kind of system stays above 30fps in that mission all the time with moderate settings. At the moment it is no fun at all.

 

Before the 'ABRIS' debacle, mine. See Post #1 for system specs.

 

Ta Crunch :)

[dawestsides]

I am on Windows 7 x64 already.

Water = 0, Lights = 0, Scenes = medium, Textures = high, no mirrors, Res Cockpit 512, Heatblur = 0.

I would like to know what kind of system stays above 30fps in that mission all the time with moderate settings. At the moment it is no fun at all.

 

Look at my sig :music_whistling:

[Panzertard]

I am on Windows 7 x64 already.

Water = 0, Lights = 0, Scenes = medium, Textures = high, no mirrors, Res Cockpit 512, Heatblur = 0.

I would like to know what kind of system stays above 30fps in that mission all the time with moderate settings. At the moment it is no fun at all.

 

- Intel Core i7-940 (4 native cores, 8 w/HT)

- Asus P6T Deluxe X58 2XPCI-E

- 6Gb Kit / 3 x 2Gb OCZ

- XFX GeForce GTX 295 576M 1792MB

- TrackIr 4 Pro, Saitek x52 Pro, Saitek Pro Rudder Pedals, SideWinder x6 Keyboard, Generic Logitech Mouse

- Windows 7 x64 Enterprise, ENG (RTM).

- DirectX 11 (+DirectX 9 installed, lack of DX9 redist may cause issues in W7)

[McClane]

So, is this an AMD related problem? I don't have numbers, but I think it was better with my Core2Duo @3 GHz.

[dawestsides]

- Intel Core i7-940 (4 native cores, 8 w/HT)

- Asus P6T Deluxe X58 2XPCI-E

- 6Gb Kit / 3 x 2Gb OCZ

- XFX GeForce GTX 295 576M 1792MB

- TrackIr 4 Pro, Saitek x52 Pro, Saitek Pro Rudder Pedals, SideWinder x6 Keyboard, Generic Logitech Mouse

- Windows 7 x64 Enterprise, ENG (RTM).

- DirectX 11 (+DirectX 9 installed, lack of DX9 redist may cause issues in W7)

 

Any OC for this nice setup?

[Panzertard]

Any OC for this nice setup?

Not at all - FPS solved by brute force = consuming very little time, frustration and a moderate wallet.

Edited August 14, 2009 by Panzertard

[bumfire]

Yup, same happening here, once abris is switched to map the fps takes a huge dip and have also noticed that when first switching to map mode it takes a few seconds before the entire area of the map is displayed, it starts off blue and then gradually fills up with the surrounding area.

[159th_Viper]

Any response/suggestions/explanation from the Devs as to this issue, or do we take it on the Chin........:)

[goldfinger35]

I have tested it:

I get 45 fps when Abris is switched to something else and 39 fps when Abris is switched to map.

Also, when map is zoomed in, I get 44 fps.

My sys specs are in my sig.

[=SCoRPioN=]

I get little to no difference in FPS between ABRIS on or off.

SHKVAL on the other hand does take a hit on FPS.