Author Topic: I am sickened (Read 5015 times)

Baine · « **Reply #135 on:** April 20, 2005, 08:33:38 PM »

Scuzzy, You said the reporting of video memory usage seems to be incorrect, what's up with that? Knowing nothing about game design or programming I ask: Is that a common problem or an AH thing? (AH is the only game I've ever played that displays it) Is there anyway for people to determine what true usage of video resources is?
I ask because one reason I haven't updated my vid card is because it's always showing me I'm using only about half my onboard vid memory. I couldn't see the point of getting a card with twice or quadruple my current memory only to have most of the additional memory sit unused. Does what you're saying mean that I should break out the plastic and retire my old 64mb for something bigger and better? Is there a chance I would see a benefit?
Thanks

Elfie · « **Reply #136 on:** April 20, 2005, 08:37:38 PM »

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As an example, you cannot run 4X AA @ 1280x1024 with 1024 textures and skins enabled. It will kill your frame rate. The video card would need over 1GB of ram to do that.

If you know that will kill the frame rate.....why allow those settings?

Skuzzy · « **Reply #137 on:** April 20, 2005, 09:46:07 PM »

Lot of questions.

1) We cannot force AA off if the user decides to force it on in the video control panel.
2) 1024 textures are useable, but without AA, and a caveate in a second.
3) We only report the memory used by the video card as it is reported by the video card driver. We have no control over what they are reporting.

AA still requires a frame of data for each level. Some cards do indeed disable it if the video card memory is running low. Some do not. It is a driver control issue.

1024 texture size is perfectly useable. But, you cannot combine it with AA as video cards simply do not have enough video ram to handle the enormous amounts of texture memory we need.
Take note, skins are a large resource. Over 270 skins available right now and the number is growing. Nothing is free. It takes a lot of memory for all this.
Even a system with 1GB of ram cannot preload all the textures into memory any longer without suffering swapping when using 1024 textures.

The options are there to allow the user to better tailor the game to his/her system. In that flexibility is the issue which allows a user to over-extend thier system.
Quite frankly, you have all the control you need to make the game playable. You can choose to do many things and pick what you want to live without or with, instead of us doing it for you.
What works for one system may not work for another. What one user wants to give up, may not be what another user wants to give up.
I have a very high end system at home. I choose to run with AA @ 1280x960 resolution. So, I give up using 1024 texture sizes and settle for 512. Not that it is settling for anything.
My system could run 1600x1200 just peachy with 1024 texture sizes and no AA. Performance is virtually the same, but I prefer how I have it configured.

Due to the inaccurate memory reporting from the video cards, it makes it very difficult for us to come up with a program to tell you what is best. We also cannot know exactly how fast a video card is. For us to take back all the flexibility would mean settling for the lowest common denominator.

If the performance is not up to where you want, then make an adjustment. You cannot hurt anything and everything can be undone if you do. You can choose what you want to see and how you want to see it within the restrictions of the resources you have in your system.

Elfie · « **Reply #138 on:** April 21, 2005, 06:43:55 PM »

Skuzzy, I run a clean system, I shut down all unnecessary processes and I have dumbed down the game as far as possible. Yet I still dont always get satisfactory performance from the game with a system that is twice as fast as the min req's. Why?

Maybe you could come to my house and set up my comp and the game for me?

*edit* ooops, forgot this. Skuzzy that is an outstanding answer in laymens terms that some of us puter tards can actually understand.

JB73 · « **Reply #139 on:** April 21, 2005, 08:40:14 PM »

thank you sir that explains some.

Baine · « **Reply #140 on:** April 21, 2005, 09:16:45 PM »

Maybe I'm lazy, but I've never discovered anything that really gives me a full explanation of what all the options I have are regarding my video settings.
Right now it seems my two options are set things so I don't see stuff like trees, get good framerates but then see them get porked as soon as I get close to the ground, or _ even worse yet _ run the risk of flossing with a pine tree when it suddenly appears 100 or so yards in front of my plane.
I realize in AH we have a variety of options available to us when it comes to tweaking our video settings _ maybe too many.
The one thing I have never found, and this might be because of my earlier stated tendency to sit on my duff, is a good, comprehensive explanation of how to use the variety of video settings available. It's out there, in bits and pieces in various posts, but do we have a single guide somewhere that I can plow through at times when my employer thinks I'm constructively working to put their offspring through college?
Without such a thing, all the options in the world are pretty useless. Remember, gravity seems pretty self-evident now, but without Sir Issac Newton explaining it to us there'd be a lot of us believing that the only reason we don't go sailing off into space is because fairies are gripping us by the heels.
If such a thing is unavailable (a guide, not heel gripping fairies) because of the complexity of multiple hardware and system configs, then can one of our future patches include a minimum frame rate setting, where AH will start automatically shedding stuff to keep us in a playable range (I'm thinking about 25 fps)?

Baine · « **Reply #141 on:** April 21, 2005, 09:30:06 PM »

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Looks like most of the one's complaining have been here less then a year, and therefore don't have a clue about about much HTC care's for and listen's to thier customers.

Maybe Flit can explain how HTC is going to listen to their customers if their customers don't voice their concerns?
I wonder how asking HTC to listen to my concerns is somehow bad for the game? It might not be what you want to hear, but you're not buying groceries with the $15 I send HTC every month. If I were the person buying Coco-Krispies with the money that flows in from the beautiful southern NJ shore on the 15th of every month, I'd rather hear about, and try to correct those problems then to see that cash flow suddenly dry up with no warning or explanation. At least then I'd be able to decide if I wanted to listen or if it _ and the breakfast cereal it represents _ wasn't worth my time.
That's what this is all about, not trying to tear HTC down, rather letting them know when problems arise.
Or were these bulletin boards set up for the purpose of blowing smoke? Only good posts allowed?
If I were in their shoes, I'd push the envelope until customers started crying "Uncle" and then take a look at what was going on and maybe make some changes, big or small.
Consider this me crying "Uncle."