FC2 FPS and stutter

[viper3two]

Hi

I have Black Shark, FC 1.12 and just purchased FC2. I have an I7-960 overclocked at 3.6, 6gigs Corsair dominator and an Evga GTX-295. Black shark usually runs in the mid 90's to 100's in the pit depending on what is going on. Loaded up FC2 and best I can get is around 40 or so, usually hanging in the 30's. I also notice a LOT of freeze/pauses ect, kinda like stuttering. Anyone else having this or any advise?

Thanks

[EvilBivol-1]

Hi Viper,

 

It's very difficult to diagnose such issues. In many cases, the stutters may be related to specific OS or hardware settings and drivers. You can also try changing the MaxFPS value in the graphics.cfg file and matching it to your VSync video card setting.

[viper3two]

Thanks EB for the reply. I will give that a shot and see how it goes. Question for ya, I have always ran vsync off, or rather force it off..is it better to have vsync enabled? Probably smoother gameplay maybe? I will post back once I get this set and see how it goes. Thanks again.

[LawnDart]

Vsync OFF results in some shearing, since your monitor can't keep up with your video card. Sync'ing your video card to your monitor eliminates this and should give you more stable frames (albeit lowering the FPS to a level your screen supports).

[topdog]

Re: lower FPS, it really does two things specifically.

 

1) Prevents your FPS from going higher than your monitor refresh (which is OK, anything higher is not seen anyway).

 

2) Prevents half-frames from being drawn, so you never have lower 'completed frames' ps, you just lose the torn ones.

 

Not as bad as it sounds, and should probably be turned on forever except under two specific conditions - troubleshooting a fault, and benchmarking for system bottlenecks. Those people who found their refreshes (on an e.g. 60Hz screen) wouldn't output anything between 60fps and 30fps or lower, are those I'd categorize as 'troubleshooting a fault' because that isn't normal.

[viper3two]

Thanks lawndart and topdog for the replies. Now that I understand it, I have vsync enabled :-). It seems smoother with vsync on, not quite as jerky as before. I changed the maxfps to the vsync value as EB suggested and I got a few more fps, around upper 30's on average. Still a little in the basement, but it got a little bit better. Appreciate it and thanks for the help.

[Lightning]

I quote from a readme file which is in the main directory of Flaming Cliffs 2 (ReadMe1.2_EN.txt) :

 

 

" If you experience poor frame rates in the game, please try the following steps:

 

OPTIONS – SYSTEM – GRAPHICS:

- Check that WATER set to normal.

- Turn off HEAT BLURE

- Decrease VISIB RANGE

- Decrease SHADOWS

- Decrease TEXTURES

- Decrease SCENES

- Decrease resolution of game

 

OPTIONS – GAMEPLAY:

- Turn off MIRRORS

 

Access your video card configuration options to decrease or turn off antialiasing and anisotropic filtering values.

 

Programs such as ICQ, web-browsers, voice chat programs can negatively impact the speed of multiplayer game. Disconnecting these programs can increase the general performance."

 

 

I hope this helps a little bit

[viper3two]

Settings are at medium, no mirrors or anything. AA set to 16x, if I drop it down to 8 or 2, it gets worse. Nope, don't have icq, browser or voice chat going at all, not doing MP yet. Black Shark, with settings maxed except water at normal, is getting 90's. Mirrors on it drops to around 70's. BTW, I like that both interfaces are the same, pretty cool. Still don't see why FC2 is in the basement with the frame rates. Well at least it is playable at 30fps so far, just laggy compared to BS. Thanks

[Lightning]

As an adition you can change the Resolution of Cockpit Displays to 256

( lowest resolution )

 

Flying near or over big cities cause a general fps drop ( sometimes i get drops to 20 fps , but that is the absolute minimum fps )

 

When in standard cockpit view, my frame rates are slightly higher than yours (between 40 - 50).

( I have an Core i7 920 @ 3800 Mhz, 6 GB RAM and XFX HD5870 )

Details on High ( except water ), mirrors on, Resolution of Cockpit Displays 512, Graphics driver : Catalyst 10.3, 8xAA, 8xAF, Vsync enabled)

 

Zooming out maximum causes fps drop to 35, zooming in max causes raise to >100.

 

It should not bother you as long game runs fluid.

[sisifos]

There are some of us who have problem with low fps when the mission has cloudy weather.

Try a mission with an absolute clear weather (like the first A-10) and then try one with clouds. If you will see a big difference at your fps then try the solution from here http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=51536

[Distiler]

FC2 should run faster than BS in most of the situations.

[McDaniel]

Hey Viper3two, maybe I can help, because I was shocked with the stuttering on my rig (the stuttering was not from the FPS, they where good).

 

So I also have a 295 GTX, and I found out that I had much different results with different SLI settings! :thumbup:

 

I use Nhancer, in the SLI Tab I have choosen 4-way AFR and checked the box 6,19 and 22. Try and tell me .......

 

I know guys, FC2 or BS are not SLI programmed, but those settings make a huge difference in smoothness for me.

 

McDan out!

Edited April 3, 2010 by McDaniel

[McDaniel]

FC2 should run faster than BS in most of the situations.

 

:megalol: but not when you turn on shkval in SU25T :lol:

[viper3two]

Hey guys thanks for the replies. I will give the cockpit res and nhancer a shot tonight after work and see how it goes. Appreciate it!

[Straferj]

Has anyone found a fix for this yet? It is about to cause me to uninstall both FC2 and BS. Very frustrating indeed. I've tried everything - name it, I've tried it. I have a 260GTX C2D@3.16Ghz 4GB memory WinXP 32bit. All other games smooth as silk.

 

It would be nice to find a magic cure - is there a way to set the mode to the old DX8 settings like original LOMAC? It was smooth.

[Distiler]

Has anyone found a fix for this yet? It is about to cause me to uninstall both FC2 and BS. Very frustrating indeed. I've tried everything - name it, I've tried it. I have a 260GTX C2D@3.16Ghz 4GB memory WinXP 32bit. All other games smooth as silk.

 

It would be nice to find a magic cure - is there a way to set the mode to the old DX8 settings like original LOMAC? It was smooth.

 

Your cure is Vista or W7, huge boost of fps for those games. I'm not gonna get tired of saying this XD yes you can find myriads of benchs and charts about it in the forums.

[Mugenjin]

Actually dx9 should be faster than dx8.

 

Win7/Vista 64bit is gonna get you a long way.

[Straferj]

Your cure is Vista or W7, huge boost of fps for those games. I'm not gonna get tired of saying this XD yes you can find myriads of benchs and charts about it in the forums.

 

So, does that mean the others who are having the same glitching and stuttering are also using WinXP? My framerates are 60+ fps almost all the time - the problem is not low fps. Is there not a dev here who can identify why this pausing and stuttering exists on some PC's?

[Lange_666]

So, does that mean the others who are having the same glitching and stuttering are also using WinXP?

I have them too on Windows 7 so it's not XP related.

[Distiler]

Stutters are often related to not having updated motherboard drivers, specially chipset and SATA. Go to your motherboard vendor website and download the latest ones, don't rely on the ones Windows automatically install. Do the same with integrated sound and network drivers. But, in any way, Vista or 7 will give you a 20% to 50% boost of fps vs XP with multicore cpus.

 

Having different partitions for Windows, games and even the swap file (virtual memory), all defragmented, also helps with stuttering.

Edited April 4, 2010 by Distiler

[Lange_666]

@ Distiler: don't think everytime everybody is rookie...;)

[Distiler]

@ Distiler: don't think everytime everybody is rookie...;)

 

I always reply for everybody who reads the thread. You're welcome.

[Lange_666]

Fair enough...

[Squid]

Stuttering has been a Lockon issue for me since the frist beta of LockOn ever released. I changed several systems since those days and various forms of stuttering has always been here with LO/FC1/FC2. In the best case, stutter would be "micro-stutter" apparent when you look at close distance flying-by scenery. Scenery at longer distances wont look stuttered.

 

There are things that haven't changed since the first release of LockOn (when was it ? 2002?) like: the jaged full shadows, way of reproducing overcast, majority of 3D models, and in one way or the other or degree, stuttering.

 

LO/FC was supposed to be an abandoned story, and ED with DCS series in their minds and hands we maybe should consider ourselves lucky we got this new LO upgrade. I dont know though what are the ED plans for LO from now on ... Personally although i bought this, for me its not like something wow or that would make me erase from the map FC1. I was ok with FC1 as it was comparing to FC2. Actually i miss anything related to gunfire especially of the Avenger comparing to FC2, from gunsmoke effects, trace effects, etc to effectiveness modeling. Too bad there wasnt a demo to try before i buy it .....

[Distiler]

Stuttering has been a Lockon issue for me since the frist beta of LockOn ever released. I changed several systems since those days and various forms of stuttering has always been here with LO/FC1/FC2. In the best case, stutter would be "micro-stutter" apparent when you look at close distance flying-by scenery. Scenery at longer distances wont look stuttered.

 

There are things that haven't changed since the first release of LockOn (when was it ? 2002?) like: the jaged full shadows, way of reproducing overcast, majority of 3D models, and in one way or the other or degree, stuttering.

 

LO/FC was supposed to be an abandoned story, and ED with DCS series in their minds and hands we maybe should consider ourselves lucky we got this new LO upgrade. I dont know though what are the ED plans for LO from now on ... Personally although i bought this, for me its not like something wow or that would make me erase from the map FC1. I was ok with FC1 as it was comparing to FC2. Actually i miss anything related to gunfire especially of the Avenger comparing to FC2, from gunsmoke effects, trace effects, etc to effectiveness modeling. Too bad there wasnt a demo to try before i buy it .....

 

I don't have stutters btw, never had. I suppose it's my attitude.