Author Topic: Smoke and Flames (Read 1096 times)

Darkish · « **on:** May 04, 2005, 11:57:38 AM »

Are there any ingame settings I can change to help reduce the fps hit caused by burning aircraft. I've tried the level of detail and detail size sliders, texture sizes,
screen resolution, preloading, AA settings all to no avail. Ground smoke is fine; a completely porked base affects fps v little - but a burning plane chops it in half.
p4 3.06, ati 9800 with omega's based on cat 4.12 (latest release made no difference either)
Couple of pics:

StarOfAfrica2 · « **Reply #1 on:** May 04, 2005, 01:35:36 PM »

My guess is you are overloading the video card's memory. You've probably been playing with the right settings, just not in the right combinations.

Also, I'm not sure how much my advice could help since the only ATI card I ever used was an old Rage Pro 10 years ago. Still, your system should be kickin mine's rear and its not, so maybe something I got can help you.

First of all, basics. Driver install/uninstall. Uninstall your current driver. Completely. Reboot and let Windows detect the card as a generic VGA Compatible. Install your new drivers for the card. Reboot again. Reinstall Direct X just to be safe. Run the Direct X Diagnostic and make sure everything is working properly. I'd use the 4.12 drivers, because I know those are safe. If you want to experiment with newer ones be my guest. Just follow the directions above every time you change drivers to prevent Windows from getting confused.

Go into your BIOS at startup and make sure your AGP Aperture setting is high enough (it normally is by default, and you have a GB of RAM; I doubt this is an issue but it doesnt hurt to check). With a GB of RAM you should be able to set it as high as 512MB. Every system is different on what it likes. They have run so many tests and benchmarks, and no one can come to a really good decision. Best guess for most modern systems is 128MB, but again individual systems seem to sometimes want more or less. Play with it and see what happens. It may be a moot point, you may not even be able to adjust it. Worth a shot though.

Now that you can be sure of your hardware interface being stable, time to play with software. As I said, I'm not real familiar with the ATI interface, so instead of possibly putting my foot in my mouth, I'm going to provide you with some links I have used in the past that helped me setting mine up (most are useful for either ATI or Nvidia).

Nice little tweak utility
http://guru3d.com/rivatuner/

Driver cleaner to prevent any leftovers from gumming up your fresh installs
http://driverheaven.net/cleaner/

The best guides I have ever seen on getting the most out of your stuff are here at Tweakguides.com. I linked directly to the ATI Catalyst tweak guide. Enjoy.
http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_1.html

Skuzzy · « **Reply #2 on:** May 04, 2005, 01:57:22 PM »

The video card is definately over-extended.

Here are some combinations which should work, assuming 1280x1024 or 1280x960 resolutions.

2xAA, 256 maximum texture size, enable skins, no AF
2xAA, 512 maximum textures size, disable skins, no AF
4xAA, 256 maximum texture size, disable skins, no AF
no AA, 512 maximum texture size, enable skins, no AF

With only 128MB of video ram, you will not be able to use the 1024 maximum texture size without the card thrashing.

Darkish · « **Reply #3 on:** May 04, 2005, 10:35:06 PM »

After a reformat/reinstall of xp, upgrade to SP2, installation of updated chipset driver and then graphic/soundcard (Audigy 2 ZS) drivers running the game at 600x480 (2xAA) with 128 texture size and everything loaded to card and system memory; I get this - 25 fps

SkyWolf · « **Reply #4 on:** May 05, 2005, 06:20:49 AM »

Just curious, as I'm dumber than a brick sometimes, but what happened to the Video Memory? 389?

Woof

Skuzzy · « **Reply #5 on:** May 05, 2005, 06:32:37 AM »

You will find most modern day video cards do not perform well when using lower resolutions. ATI cards, in particular, will perform worse at that resolution versus 1280x960 or 1280x1024.

You also do not want to use 128 as the texture size for them. 256 would be fine.

AKDogg · « **Reply #6 on:** May 05, 2005, 08:05:26 AM »

Skuzzy, not to steal the post or anything but I never got a email on what to do with my settings. I sent U the DXDiag file that u requested but never got an answer back.

BTW skywolf, My video card says its 512meg in game,lol. Every other game says its 256meg.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #7 on:** May 05, 2005, 11:58:57 AM »

That means I did not get the email.

AKDogg · « **Reply #8 on:** May 05, 2005, 12:36:19 PM »

Then I guess I will resend it when I get home from work.

mussie · « **Reply #9 on:** May 05, 2005, 01:11:11 PM »

I have a 5700VE and I have found that it runs far better in a higher res 1024x768 than in 800x600

AKDogg · « **Reply #10 on:** May 05, 2005, 06:13:39 PM »

DXdiag sent again to support@hitechcreations.com

fuzeman · « **Reply #11 on:** May 05, 2005, 06:26:28 PM »

Referring to the 9800 Pro and Cat 4.12s, should the ATI 3D settings for Open GL or D3D be at quality or performance, or seeing we use DirectX it doesn't matter on those two settings?
I vaguely recall a previous post saying slide it to performance.

Elyeh · « **Reply #12 on:** May 05, 2005, 11:37:03 PM »

Darkish,
I have a 9700 ATI AIW 128. After a clean re format and the newest Omega drivers I get 100+ FPS

I dont like what the SP2 has so I stay with the SP1.

Did you do a Clean re install? Refreash rate at 80hz

I have a 3.06 p4 512 ram

Turn down the AF and AA to about 4x

Make sure you Uninstall the ATI control panel b4 installing the Omega drivers

Darkish · « **Reply #13 on:** May 06, 2005, 07:14:20 AM »

You get 100 FPS 200 yds off a heavily smoking bomber? Please post a pic, I need to see.

Elyeh · « **Reply #14 on:** May 06, 2005, 07:55:14 AM »

Did I say off a smoking bomber? No... I said my FPS were at 100+. It was in reply to your comment that after you did a re format your FPS dropped even further.

Though I'll go offline and get a bomber smoking and see what I get.