Balance and Quality

[manfrez01]

Lords

 

I'm trying to find the configuration of my new board to achieve performace and quality. If anyone has this bb perhaps they can help me with some advice on configuration.

My specs are evga gtx 460 1gb, 4gb DDR2 800MHz in dual chanel a couple. I'm currently with 1x16 pci-e slot, which lost 2% and bottleneck for not using a pci-e 2.1. CPU (Core 2 Duo E6750 2.6)

For now FC2 runs well but as I explained it is best achieved between 30 and 40 FPS, as the human hojo not detect changes over from the 30 PFS and therefore can make some quality.

 

Greetings and thanks

[KillaALF]

I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean to do, but I can tell you that with a GTX 460 you are severly CPU bound in LOMAC. Of course this also means that any quality settings like antialiasing and anisotropic filtering are essentially for free.

 

as the human hojo not detect changes over from the 30 PFS

 

That statement is just .... wrong.

 

http://www.boallen.com/fps-compare.html

[manfrez01]

I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean to do, but I can tell you that with a GTX 460 you are severly CPU bound in LOMAC. Of course this also means that any quality settings like antialiasing and anisotropic filtering are essentially for free.

 

 

 

That statement is just .... wrong.

 

http://www.boallen.com/fps-compare.html

 

Interesting point.

I was wrong in my observation.

Basically what I want is a Control Panel settings on my videocard for quality and performance.

Thanks in advance:thumbup:

[combatace]

I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean to do, but I can tell you that with a GTX 460 you are severly CPU bound in LOMAC. Of course this also means that any quality settings like antialiasing and anisotropic filtering are essentially for free.

 

 

 

That statement is just .... wrong.

 

http://www.boallen.com/fps-compare.html

 

Even at 60 I can make out the lag. But that just depends on the speed of the motion, for flying a plane and not moving your head much will be OK at 30 or 40fps but while dog fighting you need 60 at-least.

[EtherealN]

Well, from what I have understood on that, you will perceive a rock steady 30FPS as more fluid than the same application hopping between 40 and 60 FPS. So in some cases you can improve perceived performance (as opposed to "real" performance) through limiting the MaxFPS variable in the configuration files to something like 30.

 

To the OP, there are several things you can do to improve your performance, including non-standard edits into the configuration files (make backups, and use Notepad++, not regular notepad).

 

Further down you also have some LandLOD and such things that you can play with. Once again though (and this really is important, since ending up breaking your install is not fun): keep backups of any file you edit.

 

For example, \BlackShark\data\scripts\options.lua (don't be fooled by the BlackShark thing there, this is for FC2):

 

   ["graphics"] = 
   {
       ["multiMonitorSetup"] = "1camera",
       ["color"] = "32",
       ["heatBlr"] = 1,
       ["scenes"] = "high",
       ["water"] = 1,
       ["fullScreen"] = true,
       ["visibRange"] = "High",
       ["aspect"] = 1.6,
       ["textures"] = 2,
       ["shadows"] = 2,
       ["effects"] = 3,
       ["width"] = 1680,
       ["lights"] = 2,
       ["height"] = 1050,
       ["civTraffic"] = 1,
       ["resolution"] = "1680x1050",
       ["haze"] = 1,
   }, -- end of ["graphics"]

 

This tidbit of code is basically where the options screen saves to, and here you can see the settings I use. The thing is you can use text editing here to "shut off" things to make them run below what's really supported, for example through changing the number after "water" to 0. This can actually improve your performance even if your GPU isn't saturated, since the GPU does rely on commands from drivers etcetera and that runs on the processor. (As opposed to stuff like AA and AF which mostly reside almost completely on the GPU itself.)

 

You can also look at \config\graphics.cfg

 

Camera
{
   current = "Medium";
   Low
   {
      near_clip = 0.2;
     middle_clip = 5;
     far_clip = 140000;

 structures = {30, 2000};
       trees = {1000, 3000};
       dynamic = {300, 20000};
       objects = {3000, 80000};
       mirage = {3000, 20000};
       surface = {10000, 50000};
       lights = {50, 10000};

       lodMult = 1;
       lodAdd = 100;
   }
   Medium
   {
     near_clip = 0.2;
     middle_clip = 5;
     far_clip = 140000;

       structures = {40, 4000};
       trees = {1000, 6000};
       dynamic = {300, 20000};
       objects = {3000, 80000};
       mirage = {3000, 20000};
       surface = {14000, 80000};
       lights = {100, 30000};

       lodMult = 1.5;
       lodAdd = 0;
   }
   High
   {
     near_clip = 0.2;
     middle_clip = 5;
     far_clip = 140000;

       structures = {60, 6000};
       trees = {1000, 9000};
       dynamic = {300, 20000};
       objects = {5000, 80000};
       mirage = {3000, 20000};
       surface = {20000, 80000};
       lights = {200, 80000};

       lodMult = 1.5;
       lodAdd = 0;
   }
}

 

Unfortunately there is some caveats on this there - not everything in that file is actually used, and there's two identical files (oops). But the general idea in the marked section is that the numbers for structures and so on handles the LOD for objects at various distances, and it is possible that making them smaller might make things easier for your CPU. But, again, my memory fails on if that was actually the file that would "take effect", so to speak. Worth a try though. :)

[KillaALF]

Of course. Also note that I never said that 30ish fps is not enough for sims to feel fluid, I just take offense at that age old misconception that the human eye cannot see more than 30 fps.

 

Very true about the speed of motion - the faster the game, the more fps you want, nay need, for it to still feel fluid.

 

@EtherealN: My guess is that the OP wants to know how he should set up the quality options in the Nvidia control panel, can't help there as use Ati/AMD myself.

Edited December 6, 2010 by KillaALF

[EtherealN]

I just take offense at that age old misconception that the human eye cannot see more than 30 fps.

 

Aye, I used to buy into that one before as well, but reality has a way of being more complex than we thing. For some things 25/30/whatever is enough and anything above will not be noticeable, but for other things that will be real choppy.

 

I think the key thing is how interactive what one is doing is. Watching a movie isn't all that interactive, so you can live with a "low" framerate because the brain can fill in the gaps fairly well - as an aside, our brain actually works a LOT in the future, so to speak. Since there is a computation delay from the eyes registering light and the brain having interpreted it and made it into a picture, it does a bit of "prediction" in order to make what we see be temporarily in the "now". This is why it's so easy for a slight-of-hand magician to trick your eyes and brain into thinking that he put the card/coin/ball/whatever in his other hand, etcetera.

 

But this breaks down when we start getting interactive, because then we have way more lines of information as well as different expectations.

[KillaALF]

Movies also have motion blur because of the shutter speed of the camera, whereas the frames in a computer game are always discreet (non-blurred) images. Even so, some movies exhibit quite some stuttering when the camera pans around, at least to my eyes.

[EtherealN]

Good point and very true. As for stutters in some movies, do they happen to be newer? Was thinking if they were shot with CCD cameras and therefore do not technically have a shutter in the same way as traditional equipment?

 

Though, we are deviating into the OT territory...

[manfrez01]

Thanks to everyone for the tips.

This is the result without manually editing files FC.

I must say that it feels a little noise when the card will load the graphics, I think I said that's normal evga plates.

Regards:thumbup:

 

PS: some advice...

[Cali]

Might as well turn civ traffic on, also try mirrors on and see who that does.

[manfrez01]

Is normal to hear a noise during playing the sim.

 

Do i must change my video card?

This are my numbers

BOX

UPC code ............same

PArt Number ..............same

Serial Number 1012521370001500

 

 

Video card

 

UPC code ......................same

PArt Number ....................same

Serial Number 1012521370001499

:cry:

Edited December 8, 2010 by manfrez01

[EtherealN]

Define "noise". Depending on what kind of noise it is it might just be vibrations populating through the socket and making some random cable vibrade against the case baseplate or something like that. (I was almost driven crazy by a molex behind the baseplate that would start cavitating whenever my video card spun up :P )

[manfrez01]

evga 460 gtx making "noise".

 

noise:the noise is when you load the sim and throughout the flight.

is very similar as when the cpu works in excess, are rare but have read on Guru3D, it is a normal noise.

Until that point, well, I really do not know.

 

Thanks all for response:thumbup:

[Cali]

Are you talking about the GPU fan?

[manfrez01]

Are you talking about the GPU fan?

 

I think, my friend, that is exactly my problem.:huh: