5 frames per second, unplayable.

[ShuRugal]

so, doing the medved II campaign, and on the second mission i am getting 5 frames per second sitting on the pad, 3-4 in the air. turned all my graphics options to minimum, no improvement.

 

running an HP DV7T-1000

Core2 Duo 2.0GHz

4GB DDR2

nVidia GeForce 9600m GT w/ 512 MB

 

anyone got some advice on how i can get better framerate out of this?

 

and no, upgrading hardware is not possible as i am currently between jobs. I should be employed again monday, but even then, it will be several months at least before i can blow a grand on putting together a new gaming rig.

[PeterP]

Well, you named it already... your system is not well equipped for this task.

On what OS are you ? - If you are still using a 32bit operating-system you should have a look at the following links:

 

Crashes, Glitches in a 32bit OS (Applies even if you only have 2gb.)

Mustang's Win 7 \ Vista 32Bit 3GB Hack Here

Mustang's XP 32 Bit /3GB Switch Here

 

But much better: Upgrade to Win7 64bit.

 

Also switch of all power-saving/CPU throttling settings.

You may have to check the Bios for doing this.

So you are sure that your systems is always in High-performance mode wile running DCS - and will not throttle down - I know - this sounds ridiculous , but it happened to some other fellow simmers!

 

As a last resort you should check what exact CPU is in your system - and see if you are able to over-clock it .

(don't forget to clean up the cooler from any dust before you try this - so the cooling is as efficient as it can be !)

 

 

But I know that these campaign is meant to be played on 64bit system for better performance - there is a very huge* battle going on - so don't expect any miracles!

 

 

*standing up and spreading my arms as wide I can!

Edited April 13, 2012 by PeterP

[Pikey]

My guess is your CPU is the bottleneck. Using the 4GB RAM with a 64bit OS properly will help a lot if you have that option still in hand. Also with XP 32bit you are likely paging on that laptop hard drive and thats just going to be horrible on a 5200rpm spindle.

 

Tab out right at the start of the campaign and bring up task manager. Go to processes, filter by CPU and verify that its only DCS thats taking the CPU, in case you have something else hanging (i found a system "help" process once hogged 50%).

 

Assuming this is still correct and there is nothing else you can trim off, it's not great news for campaigns or missions with lots going on...best advice, delay takeoff until they've killed each other a bit more and the FPS settles ;)

[ShuRugal]

running win7 x64, i'll check bios throttling options. Not willing to attempt overclock, cooling on this laptop is a PITA.

[EtherealN]

With Black Shark 2, you are pretty much right on the minimum requirements (probably slightly lower on the CPU, since the laptop C2D's are weaker, generally speaking, than the desktop ones - though it was a long time since I looked over their specs). Something you can do to hopefully help yourself out a bit might be to go to this file:

 

C:\Games\DCSBS2\Config\terrain\low.lua

 

Change your file path as appropriate to your install. Also make a backup copy of this file.

Inside it, there's a lot of variables with numbers associated to them - generally speaking, a higher number is "better", but also taxes the computer more. Most variable names are pretty self-explanatory, you can change them up and see if you can "buy" some performance that way.

 

I'd also suspect that the graphics card you use will be extremely sensitive to AA, AF and HDR settings. Make really certain these are turned off, and that they are not secondarily forced through the driver suite. (If they are, you might be turning them off in the game but the driver will still force them to be active.)

 

There might also be some tweaks in files regarding lights configuration that could probably save you some, but I don't recall where those things are off the top of my head. You can also go to

 

C:\Users\XXXXXX\Saved Games\DCS Black Shark 2\Config\options.lua

 

In there, ensure that heatBlr, water, Haze, shadows, lights, effects and MSAAA are zeroed. Same for HDR etcetera - as always, lower numbers are generally easier on performance - though there are some numbers there that you might not want to play with - like aspect. TransSSAA is something you definitely want to set to false. That one at on might have a very tangible impact on a GPU like the one you have.

 

As always - make a backup copy of the file before doing anything to it.

 

I do suspect that you'll have much more fun with Black Shark 1 on that machine though. I played it on a similar laptop myself at first (a C2D 2GHz, 2GB RAM, 256MB GTX8600) and it ran just fine even on that.

[Nate--IRL--]

I've found that Anisotropic filtering in my GPU settings has quite an impact on performance.

 

Nate

[ShuRugal]

With Black Shark 2, you are pretty much right on the minimum requirements (probably slightly lower on the CPU, since the laptop C2D's are weaker, generally speaking, than the desktop ones - though it was a long time since I looked over their specs). Something you can do to hopefully help yourself out a bit might be to go to this file:

 

C:\Games\DCSBS2\Config\terrain\low.lua

 

Change your file path as appropriate to your install. Also make a backup copy of this file.

Inside it, there's a lot of variables with numbers associated to them - generally speaking, a higher number is "better", but also taxes the computer more. Most variable names are pretty self-explanatory, you can change them up and see if you can "buy" some performance that way.

 

I'd also suspect that the graphics card you use will be extremely sensitive to AA, AF and HDR settings. Make really certain these are turned off, and that they are not secondarily forced through the driver suite. (If they are, you might be turning them off in the game but the driver will still force them to be active.)

 

There might also be some tweaks in files regarding lights configuration that could probably save you some, but I don't recall where those things are off the top of my head. You can also go to

 

C:\Users\XXXXXX\Saved Games\DCS Black Shark 2\Config\options.lua

 

In there, ensure that heatBlr, water, Haze, shadows, lights, effects and MSAAA are zeroed. Same for HDR etcetera - as always, lower numbers are generally easier on performance - though there are some numbers there that you might not want to play with - like aspect. TransSSAA is something you definitely want to set to false. That one at on might have a very tangible impact on a GPU like the one you have.

 

As always - make a backup copy of the file before doing anything to it.

 

I do suspect that you'll have much more fun with Black Shark 1 on that machine though. I played it on a similar laptop myself at first (a C2D 2GHz, 2GB RAM, 256MB GTX8600) and it ran just fine even on that.

 

i'll give those tweaks a try.

 

If there is any way to get FreeTrack working with BS1, i'm game to give it a shot.

[Mustang]

I've found that Anisotropic filtering in my GPU settings has quite an impact on performance.

 

Nate

 

Indeed, never ever force any AA or AF settings from your display cards control panel, always leave on app preference for DCS :)

[Rusty_M]

It looks like your system is similar to mine when I first played Flaming Cliffs 2. Again, I couldn't play missions with anything more than a handful of units. Unfortunately, my only solution was to save a large proportion of my income for 1/4 of a year and upgrade.