unplayable due to trees

[Overlag]

can i ask how people have set there systems up to allow playable FPS?

I can play this game fine, if im in the air, and "above" the level where the trees disapear. However as soon as trees start popping up, its unplayable.

this of coarse makes GVs impossible to play for me, and im seriously thinking of WWIIOL again.

two main issues with this

1: turn the quality settings down to "dam right terrible 1999 gfx" will give me 15-20fps down on the ground. However I now cant SEE through bushes or trees, so GVs who can just shoot me as if i had my eyes closed

2: turn the quality up so i can now SEE through the trees but results in a fps worse than the early films in 1900s with like 5-7fps... so now i can SEE targets but cant fire at them cos of terrible unsmoothness that makes me sick.


A64 @ 2400mhz
1gig ram
9700pro @ stock
WinXP 32bit.
AH is stored on a stripe raid loads very fast



1280x1024x32 (fixed to TFT res)

FSAAx2 and AFx2 (turning these of results in NO difference at all apart from degraded quality)

256 texture size (again, i didnt really see a improvement in fps, just a massive drop of quality)

GV and the other effects OFF
water OFF

sliders are 1/3 from max quality while in the air.
and ground is set to disapear at about 1/4 from max performance.

perfectly playable in the Air. (once those trees disapear)

so what can i do?

the obvious weak point is a 4 year old part, the gfx card... however i hear most people with much higher end systems cant do it either.

[Overlag]

just tested at 800x600, and the FPS went DOWN

[Skuzzy]

The FPS will go down at 800x600 with that card.  It is not designed for low resolutions.

FPS is not always about the video card either.  Look for CPU hogging processes as well.

You claim turning off AA had no effect.  This clearly indicates the CPU is not delivering the data to the video card fast enough as disabling AA will increase performance on any video card, unless the video card is waiting for data, which would only happen if the CPU could not keep up.

This implies something is hogging up the CPU, or there is some setup/configuration issue with the system.

[Overlag]

ok i just shut off EVERY proccess in the backround. down from 38 to 21. fps went up...well like 2fps so i not sure its that either? although every little helps.

[Overlag]

would there be a chance, in the future for HTC to make a low quality tree set for a option in AH?

as soon as the trees disapear my problems disapear but i really miss the ground war

[StarOfAfrica2]

Are you seeing any CPU usage with AH turned off?  I mean, the 0-2% bounce is normal for a system at idle with nothing hitting the CPU, as I'm sure you know.  Just wondering if you'd checked recently?  I run Windows XP with 11-12 processes to play AH.  Of course, its stripped down to nothing but the bare minimum necessary to boot and run, work my ethernet, video card, and sound.  In Ground Vis mode, all ingame sliders at halfway mark, I get between 25 and 40 fps (depending on terrain and how many fires there are, how many GVs, etc).  I can usually get by in Full Vis mode, and get better fps, but I sometimes miss GVs that way, especially if they hide in the trees.

[Overlag]

Originally posted by StarOfAfrica2
Are you seeing any CPU usage with AH turned off?  I mean, the 0-2% bounce is normal for a system at idle with nothing hitting the CPU, as I'm sure you know.  Just wondering if you'd checked recently?  I run Windows XP with 11-12 processes to play AH.  Of course, its stripped down to nothing but the bare minimum necessary to boot and run, work my ethernet, video card, and sound.  In Ground Vis mode, all ingame sliders at halfway mark, I get between 25 and 40 fps (depending on terrain and how many fires there are, how many GVs, etc).  I can usually get by in Full Vis mode, and get better fps, but I sometimes miss GVs that way, especially if they hide in the trees.

i normaly run seti/bonic so its pegged at 100% now. I also leave this on while playing AH. it has no effect turning it off either, as it has a piority setting of low/idle only (Task manager shows 100% to AH).

however when i turn it off i have 99% idle constantly, ie no massive 50-75% bumps that ive seen before on my familys spyware/virus ridden pc before i clean it monthly lol.

But my point is, you say in ground vis mode with the sliders half way its ok. well it is for me too, but i cant see GV's because bushes that are see throughable at max are now just boxes that you cant see through!

I want to upgrade to a X850XTPE or a X800XL, however as skuzzy sames it still seems to me im CPU limited somehow. Most other games i have its the opposite but theres hardly any proccessing power needed in a "standard" shoot em up. Prove of this is that i can overclock my gfx card quiet alot. this helps greatly in HL2/SH3/Farcry etc however it has no effect with AH!

[StarOfAfrica2]

I really doubt you are CPU limited Overlag, you are running an Athlon 64 3200, I have an Athlon XP 2600.  You could easily benefit from a new video card.  The 9700 has a 128 bit memory bus, the newer ones are 256.  Even a plain x800 will outperform that 9700 by lightyears, especially considering the edge you have in processing power over me.

[Overlag]

Originally posted by StarOfAfrica2
I really doubt you are CPU limited Overlag, you are running an Athlon 64 3200, I have an Athlon XP 2600.  You could easily benefit from a new video card.  The 9700 has a 128 bit memory bus, the newer ones are 256.  Even a plain x800 will outperform that 9700 by lightyears, especially considering the edge you have in processing power over me.

yeah most of the cards these days have over 2x the performance than this 9700pro in some cases 3x...... i just got to save up and spend a few nights in, instead of partying to be able to afford it.

However i think i got holes in my pocket my money keeps disapearing.....

[AKDogg]

I got the smae system as u overlag but I have the XT800XL 256 meg card.

My settings are 1280x1024x32
AA=4x
AF=0
Detail level is 60% towards quality
Detail size is 100% quality
Range is 2.5 miles

On ground I get 28-35fps
in the air I get 76 fps (refresh rate limited)
if I turn vsnyc off I get 130+ in air, ground still the same.

Now I am CPU limited as I tried all different types of settings with no change in FPS as Skuzzy and I have determined.

[SkyWolf]

Originally posted by Overlag
can i ask how people have set there systems up to allow playable FPS?




A64 @ 2400mhz
1gig ram
9700pro @ stock
WinXP 32bit.
AH is stored on a stripe raid loads very fast

A64 Socket 939 3500 + at 2200
1 Gig CL 2.5 Dram
6800GT
Win XP
AH stored on a raid 1 setup.



1280x1024x32 (fixed to TFT res)

1024x768 x 32 fixed to CRT RES
(old Samsung Syncmaster I'm stuck with for now)

FSAAx2 and AFx2 (turning these of results in NO difference at all apart from degraded quality)

All set to Program Preference


256 texture size (again, i didnt really see a improvement in fps, just a massive drop of quality)

1024 Texture size

GV and the other effects OFF
water OFF

Water off

sliders are 1/3 from max quality while in the air.
and ground is set to disapear at about 1/4 from max performance.

All sliders set 1/4 of the way from left (towards quality)

perfectly playable in the Air. (once those trees disapear)

Perfectly playable everywhere. Even weaving between trees never drops below 36 FPS.

so what can i do?

the obvious weak point is a 4 year old part, the gfx card... however i hear most people with much higher end systems cant do it either.

I don't know. Seems like with that CPU you should be good to go. If your background processes are under control along with the spyware/ Trojan bit then it seems set up or  Video Card related? Has Skuzzy seen your DXdiag?


Woof

[Skuzzy]

How to determine if you are CPU bound or video card bound.

If your frame rate does not change when you change the video resolution from 1024x768 to 1280x1024 to 1600x1200, then you are CPU bound.  It does not matter how fast the CPU is.  If you have a ton of background processes loaded up (whether runing or not), they will consume resources and bog the CPU and the operating system down.

If your frame rate gets worse as you progress to higher resolutions, then you are video card bound.  The CPU is pushing as hard as it can, but the video card is holding it back.  Keep in mind some drop is expected as you increase resolution, but the decrease should not be very dramatic on a video card with 128MB of ram, or more.
This also assumes no anti-aliasing or anisotropic filtering being enabled.

By the nature of the beast, flight simulators are far more CPU intensive than any other type of game.  The amount of floating point math required for the accurate modeling of flight is hundreds of times higher than other types of games.

[Overlag]

ok some tests with vsync off

standard map offline mode.

A1 in the tower full vis
1280 (256 text) 113-120
1280 (512 text) 102-122
1024 (256 text) 105-110


V15 with GV vis range tower
1280 (256) 37
1024 (256) 37

V15 with GV vis range, zoomed on some trees
1280 (256) 24
1024 (256) 17


odd results

[StarOfAfrica2]

If you preload skins, just having a GV or plane come into your field of view wont cause a hit in frame rates.  Setting a plane on fire, or increasing the number of objects being viewed that were not previously loaded into memory (trees) causes a drop.

[GreenCloud]

seems you should hav ebettr


I just got doen..I think im Over clocked as far as I can go..

Its defntly got bettr..but not terrific..

For soem reason..WHICH I HATE./..I get what seems liek random CRAPPY FPS..

I was 13k..with not more then 4-5 nme around me..I had TEENS for FPS...with Short Range Vis on..

I dotn understand why it would do this..fro about 1-minutes or so..

Ilook down to make suremy House fan was on..(my side case is off..its blowing on my hardware..


I really Hate these big maps....When im in the DA..,,60-70s fps..I love that

wish I could help you more...Wish I could get more too