Howdy,
Took off from A1, cruised over to A17, and engaged drones.
While cruising to location Frame rate would drop off from 22 - 27 to Zero and remain so for several moments. Pressing Auto Level Key combo saved the flight.
Engaging drones produced identical random reductions of Frame Rate.
Finally I set the auto pilot and cruised north to sector 13,11 and the mountains there. While enroute my Frame Rate would again, pretty much at random, (from what I could observed which is admittedly very little), drop down to Zero from a nice playable 22 - 33.
I noticed also that for me the game engine is unflyable in 1024X768 screen resolution. My Frame rate on the spawn point is zero. The above problems are occuring at 800X600 screen res.
I have updated all video drivers for my card, (All-In-Wonder Radeon 32 meg). And, I do not wish to go through that mess again, as it requires a complete unstallation of the drivers first, a rather labor intensive chore if you do a complete uninstall.
This frame rate issue makes further testing of the flight engine by yours truly completely impractical, and I am forced to discontinue my flight tests. I can still do some ground vehichle testing.
The main problem seems to be a vast increase in the amount of eye candy tha this engine entails. Never having been a fan of eye candy at the expense of performance, I can say that I am not impressed at all. This product is not ready for beta test, and I say that as a preson who spent several years as a software tester. For it to be beta capable it should not have what are essentially fatal errors in it, such as these wildly fluctuating frame rates.
I will give you credit for trying to make the ground look more realistic. But, for most of us bombing along at 300 MPH really just how much detail are we supposed to notice anyway? However, I am sure that the mud movers will love this. I did notice several buildings that you could drive into and use for cover.
I am still amazed that a game calling itself Aces High is moving more and more towards a game about ground combat, with actual flying becoming more and more of a secondary concern.
FYI these frame rate issues are not noticable from the M-3 half track I was driving around in. In fact I could easily play the game in 1024 X 768 screen res if all I wanted to do was drive around in a half track.
Sorry to be so bothersome.
